Application letter 2

Dear ms. Nieuwdorp,

Besides the application I sent for music director and choreographer I would also like to be a character on stage. There are a couple of characters that I find really interesting. For example Lady Capulet, Lady Montague and Prince(ss) Verona. If you need anyone for one of those roles I would really love to do that!

I've had acting lessons when I was 10 years old and I really liked them, after two years I stopped because I started dancing more. I would really like it to be a character on stage and someone behind the scenes.

Yours faithfully,

Laura Smit

Application letter 1

aura Smit

Parallelweg 11

3849 MJ

Hierden

Dear Ms. Nieuwdorp,

I am Laura Smit, 15 years old and I hereby apply for the job of music director in the Romeo & Juliet play. I have a big passion for music and dancing and would love to choose (background)music for the play and create and perform choreographies if there is any interest in dancing from the rest of the group. I have lessons in Ballet, Jazz, Modern and Hip hop and I train 4/5 hours in a week. I think music is very important in shows, movies and musicals/plays. It can create different emotions easily and a scene can be made very funny, sad or happy with a song on the background. 

In some scenes there will probably be some figurants (for example the ball scene in Act 1) and if you need people for that I would love to do that or another small role as well besides being music director. I have performed on stage a couple of times doing a play or a choreography and I really liked that. I would like to share the tasks of the music director with Mariëlle Hoogland. We have some great ideas and work well as a team.

Hope to hear from you soon about the job.

Yours faithfully,

Laura Smit

Evaluation of the project

Romeo & Juliet was a project that I really enjoyed doing this year, it was so much fun rehearsing and perform it together on the 8th of June. The fact that I got to do two things was really great. First of all I got to do the music and sound effects and that was so much fun and second I was a priest with only three lines. It would have been more awesome if I had gotten a role with some more lines but I'm not complaining because I had a great time! The last dress rehearsal took a very long time for everyone to finish and I was really afraid after that we would really fail because it didn't went so well, but the play actually went very well in the evening. That really surprised me. Even though Romy fell behind the curtains and a lot of people forgot their lines I think most people in the audience liked it.

Comment on translating Act 1 Scene 1

Marielle and me both translated Act 1 scene 1. It seemed a lot of fun to us if we would create some sort of gangster version from the ghetto. Because we didn't understand every sentence of this part we used NoFearShakespeare to take a look at the modern version, we didn't copy it directly.

During the cancelled periods Marielle and I worked a lot on this translation. I brought my laptop so we could work on it.

We kept the ‘naked weapon’ joke because it was a pervy joke and an important quote. Boys are often more sexually in making remarks, and Sampson made this remark. The “Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?” we changed into “Do you give us the finger?”. Many people do not know about biting the thumb as an insult to another person, this is why we changed it to giving the finger.

To use ‘modern’ insulting words, the play became more from nowadays.
The fragment of Romeo and Benvolio is a pretty important one, Romeo tells about his love for Rosaline. This is one of the most important events in the beginning, it comes back later during the play. To keep this part clear and everyone is able to understand it, we did not use too much ghetto words. The point Romeo tries to make is very clear.

Because of the fact that our play did not have many different events, it is not really interesting to get into every detail. The scene is pretty important because basically it's the first scene of the entire play, this scene needs to set everything and make sure everyone understands the problem in the beginning with the two households.

40-line analysis of Romeo & Juliet

Act 2 Scene 2 - pg. 10 to 53

I chose to analyse a part of the balcony scene because it’s so romantic and full of metaphors and other stylistic devices. The fragment starts with juliet talking to herself and romeo is listening but she doesn’t know that. Romeo is speaking about his love for Juliet, he says: 

‘It is my lady, O it is my love. O that she knew she were! She speaks, yet she says nothing; what of that? Her eye discourses, I will answer it. I am too bold, ‘tis not to me she speaks.’

Romeo sees Juliet appear on the balcony and he’s saying that he wished she knew how much he loved her and her eyes are so pretty and then he continues with the following: 

‘Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, Having some business, do entreat her eyes. To twinkle in their spheres till they return. What if her eyes were there, they in her head? The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,’

‘As daylight doth a lamp. Her eye in heaven. Would through the airy region stream so bright. That birds would sing and think it were not night. See how she leans her cheek upon her hand. Oh, that I were a glove upon that hand. That I might touch that cheek!’ 

If Juliet’s eyes were in the sky at night they would shine so bright that birds would start singing. Romeo’s expressing his love by saying her eyes are so pretty and bright. He’s also saying he wished that he was the glove around Juliet’s hand so he could touch her. There’s also rhyme in these lines, bright and night.

‘O, speak again, bright angel! For thou art. As glorious to this night, being o’er my head, As is a winged messenger of heaven. Unto the white, upturned, wondering eyes. Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him. When he bestrides the lazy-puffing clouds. And sails upon the bosom of the air.’

Romeo continues speaking to himself about how Juliet is as bright as an angel and how she shines.

‘O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name. Of, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love. And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.’

Juliet still doesn’t know Romeo hears her and she’s saying and asking herself why Romeo has to be Romeo. She wishes he forgets about his family and his name and change his name or else she will stop being a Capulet so he doesn’t change his name. Romeo starts talking again:

‘Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this.’

He’s wondering if he should start saying something to Juliet or just keep his mouth shut. Then Juliet starts saying:

‘This but thy name that is my enemy. Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot, nor arm, nor face, nor any other part belonging to a man. What’s in a name? That which we call a rose. By any other word would smell as sweet. So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called, retain that dear perfection which he owes. Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name, and for that name, which is no part of thee. Take all myself.’

Juliet keeps talking about how she wishes Romeo had a different family because only his name was her enemy. A Montague is not a foot, arm or face anyway, just a name. She’s saying: Romeo trade in your name and take all of me in exchange! There’s just a little rhyme in these sentences, rose and owes rhymes a little and there’s also some alliteration here: That which we call a rose, by any other word would smell as sweet.

The relationship between the two characters in this fragment is very obvious, they really love each other but it’s just impossible. In this scene both of them find out about the other how much they love each other which before they didn’t know for sure. They sure kissed but they didn’t realise the other one was so intensely in love. The tone is also very romantic of course, people imagine them in a garden with beautiful background music and romance. Shakespeare creates this tone with desperate sentences, for example when Juliet keeps saying why Romeo has to be a Montague and Shakespeare also lets Romeo say things like: she’s so bright as an angel and she’s so lovely and her eyes are pretty and that he wishes to touch her.