“If Music be the food of love, play on
Give me excess of it…”
Orsino from Twelfth Night (I,i,1-2)
Company Name: The
Admirals Men were a theatre troupe in Shakespeare’s day. Give yourselves a name. Something that says, “Hey, we know our
Shakespeare. Hire us, okay?”
Timeline: Two Classes: Writing Script One Class: Rehearsal One Class: Performances
Timeline: Two Classes: Writing Script One Class: Rehearsal One Class: Performances
Script: Ten-minute
Shakespeare: We should see a script with 50% Shakespearean text and 50% popular
music lyrics. You must choose a theme
and express it in either a series of moments in the play or you can do a quick
cross section of the major moments. You
must, however, have a unified beginning and end for the piece.
Soundtrack: How will
you incorporate music into the piece?
Will you develop a pop music soundtrack to line-up with the
performance? Remember, that we also need
to hear the actors. Will you use a
classic music backdrop? Whatever you do,
MAKE SURE THAT THE MUSIC FITS WITH YOUR THEME AND OVERALL VISION. In other words, if you choose a hip hop
soundtrack, that will certainly influence the performance and theme. It may also influence how you cut the
script. Maybe lines from the play can be
sung or performed in spoken word (It certainly was meant to be sung, in a
sense). Will you go Glee or Moulin Rouge
and sing a pop song at major intervals.
KEY: TAKE PRE-EXISTING SONGS AND
TURN THEM INTO DUETS.
CHANGE AND TWEEK LYRICS TO FIT PURPOSE.
Rehearsing and Choreography:
THIS IS WHAT I WILL ALSO BE THINKING ABOUT WHEN I GRADE YOUR FINAL
PERFORMANCE. MOVE AROUND PEOPLE! I will help you during rehearsals. For the songs (at least) have the lines and
cues memorized. All prose and
Shakespearean verse should be memorized to help the performance flow. Also, make sure all costumes and sets are
ready to go and easy to execute. Also,
make sure you have the music cued up and ready to go. Rehearsals are key.
Performances. If you
are sick or cannot make it, you need to make the necessary arrangements with
your group and Mr. Pellerin. Treat this
assignment with the same respect as an exam. If you leave your group high and
dry on performance day with no phone call or explanation, expect an F on the
assignment.
So, what do I hand in?
1. A final cut script with song lyrics.
2. A timeline explaining what was accomplished, as well as a
list of who did what and when.
3. An actual performance. No more than 10 minutes long.
NOTE: Use of
class/homework time will be a huge factor in your grade!!!
This will count as 1-2 major assessment grades
A complete example from Romeo and Juliet:
SCENE 1 – O Romeo…Don’t be like that!
LADY MONTAGUE
O, where is Romeo? Saw you him to-day?
Right glad I am he was not at this fray.
BENVOLIO
Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd sun
Peer'd forth the golden window of the east,
A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad;
Where, underneath the grove of sycamore
That westward rooteth from the city's side,
So early walking did I see your son:
Towards him I made, but he was ware of me
And stole into the covert of the wood:
I, measuring his affections by my own,
That most are busied when they're most alone,
Pursued my humour not pursuing his,
And gladly shunn'd who gladly fled from me.
MONTAGUE
He, his own affections' counsellor,
Is to himself--I will not say how true--
But to himself so secret and so close,
So far from sounding and discovery,
As is the bud bit with an envious worm,
Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air,
Or dedicate his beauty to the sun.
Could we but learn from whence his sorrows grow?
We would as willingly give cure as know.
Enter ROMEO
BENVOLIO
See, where he comes: so please you, step aside;
I'll know his grievance, or be much denied.
Exeunt MONTAGUE and LADY MONTAGUE
BENVOLIO
Good-morrow, cousin.
ROMEO
Is the day so young?
BENVOLIO
But new struck nine.
ROMEO
Ay me! Sad hours seem long.
Was that my father that went hence so fast?
BENVOLIO
It was. What sadness lengthens Romeo's hours?
ROMEO
Not having that, which, having, makes them short.
BENVOLIO
In love?
ROMEO
Out—
BENVOLIO
Of love?
ROMEO
Out of her favour, where I am in love.
BENVOLIO
With whom?
ROMEO
Rosaline and she'll not be hit
With Cupid's arrow; she hath Dian's wit.
BENVOLIO
Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste?
ROSALINE (music starts from off stage)
Oh oh, oh oh….I'm in love with Jesus, Jesus (music stops
abruptly)
ROMEO
She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste -
ROSALINE (Enters dressed in a nun’s habit in the style of
Lady Gaga)
Oh oh, oh oh….I'm in love with Jesus, Jesus
JESUS enters right behind her
Jesus, Je-sa sa Jesus, Je-sa sa Jesus, Je-sa sa Jesus, Ros
–sa-sa
JESUS and ROSALINE engage in a choreographed dance in the
style of the Lady Gaga Judas video
Jesus, Je-sa sa Jesus, Je-sa sa Jesus, Je-sa sa Jesus, Ros
–sa-sa
ROMEO (to Benvolio referring to Jesus and Rosaline who are
still dancing)
For beauty starved with her sev-er-ity
Cuts beauty off from all poster-i-ty.
She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair,
Even after three times, she betrays me
Ahhhhh Ahhhhh
Live dead to tell it now.
Live dead to tell it now.
A king with no crown.
King with no crown.
ROSALINE (Gesturing Romeo over her shoulder)
I'm just a holy fool.
ROMEO(to Rosaline)
Oh, baby you’re so cruel.
ROSALINE
But I'm still in love with Jesus, baby
I'm just a holy fool.
ROMEO
Oh, baby you’re so cruel.
JESUS
But she’s still in love with Jesus, baby.
ROSALINE
Oh oh, oh oh I'm in love with Jesus, Jesus.
ROSALINE, ROMEO, BENVOLIO, JESUS (all singing and dancing
together)
Oh oh, oh oh I'm in love with Jesus,
Jesus, Je-sa sa Jesus, Je-sa sa Jesus, Je-sa sa Jesus, Ros
–sa-sa (abruptly stops – Jesus and Rosaline exit)
BENVOLIO
Alas, that love, so gentle in his view,
Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!
ROMEO
Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still,
Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will!
Where shall we dine?
O me! What fray was here?
Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.
Here's much to do with hate, but more with love.
Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O any thing, of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire,
sick health!
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
Dost thou not laugh?
BENVOLIO
No, coz, I rather weep.
ROMEO
Good heart, at what?
(Servant enters and hands Benvolio and invitation and exits)
BENVOLIO
At thy good heart's oppression.
Coz, I just obtained an invitation to a party
At this same ancient feast of Capulet's
Sups the fair Rosaline whom thou so lovest,
With all the admired beauties of Verona:
Go thither; and, with unattainted eye,
Compare her face with some that I shall show,
And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.
ROMEO
When the devout religion of mine eye
Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fires;
And these, who often drown'd could never die,
Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars!
One fairer than my love! the all-seeing sun
Ne'er saw her match since first the world begun.
BENVOLIO
Tut, you saw her fair, none else being by,
Herself poised with herself in either eye:
But in that crystal scales let there be weigh'd
Your lady's love against some other maid….
BENVOLIO begins singing “I Just Haven’t Met You Yet” by
Michael Buble
BENVOLIO
I'm not surprised
Not everything lasts
You've broken your heart so many times
I stopped keeping track.
ROMEO
Talk myself in,
I talk myself out.
I get all worked up
Then I let myself down.
I tried so very hard not to lose it
BENVOLIO
You came up with a million excuses
ROMEO
I thought I thought of every possibility
BENVOLIO
And I know someday that it'll all turn out
She'll make you work so you can work to work it out
And I promise you kid that you'll give so much more than you
get
You just haven't met Juliet
Mmmmm ....
BENVOLIO
You might have to wait
ROMEO
I'll never give up
BENVOLIO
I guess it's half timing
ROMEO
And the other half's luck
BENVOLIO
Wherever you are
ROMEO
Whenever it's right
BENVOLIO
She'll come out of nowhere and into your life
JULIET enters
ROMEO (to JULIET)
And I know that we can be so amazing
JULIET (to ROMEO)
And baby your love is gonna change me
ROMEO
And now I can see every possibility
Hmmmmm ......
ROMEO and JULIET holding hands and singing in unison
ROMEO and JULIET
And somehow I know that it'll all turn out
And you'll make me work so we can work to work it out
ROMEO
And I promise you kid I'll give so much more than I get
JULIET
You just haven't met me yet
ROMEO
They say all's fair
JULIET
In love and war
ROMEO
But I won't need to fight it
JULIET
We'll get it by it
ROMEO and JULIET
We'll be united
ROMEO and JULIET dance during the interlude
ROMEO
And I know that we can be so amazing
JULIET
And being in your life is gonna kill me
ROMEO
And now I can see every single possibility
Hmmm .....
JULIET exits
ROMEO
And someday I know it'll all turn out
BENVOLIO enters
And I'll work to work
it out
BENVOLIO
Promise you kid
ROMEO
I'll give more than I get
Than I get, than I get, than I get!
MERCUTIO enters
BENVOLIO, ROMEO and MERCUTIO (Dancing like the Rockettes)
Oh you know it'll all turn out
And you'll make me work so we can work to work it out
And I promise you kid to give so much more than I get
Yeah I just haven't met Juliet
ROMEO at center stage
ROMEO
I just haven't met Juliet
Oh promise you kid
To give so much more than I get
MERCUTIO and BENVOLIO
I said love love love love love love love .....
ROMEO
I just haven't met you yet
MERCUTIO and BENVOLIO
I said love love love love love love love .....
ROMEO
I just haven't met you yet
BENVOLIO
So come with me, Romeo
That I will show you shining at this feast,
And she shall scant show well that now shows best.
ROMEO
I'll go along, no such sight to be shown,
But to rejoice in splendor of mine own.
Exeunt
Scene 2: We Coulda
Had it All
JULIET
Come, night; come, Romeo; come, thou day in night;
For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night
Whiter than new snow on a raven's back.
Come, gentle night, come, loving, black-brow'd night,
Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.
Nurse enters weeping
O, here comes my nurse,
And she brings news; and every tongue that speaks
But Romeo's name speaks heavenly eloquence.
Nurse
Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banished;
Romeo that kill'd him, he is banished.
JULIET
O God! did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?
NURSE
It did, it did; alas the day, it did!
JULIET
O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!
Juliet sings Adele’s "Rolling in the Deep"
There's a fire starting in my heart,
Reaching a fever pitch and it's bringing me out the dark.
(Romeo enters with a sword to attack Tybalt)
Finally I can see you crystal clear
Go ahead and sell me out and I'll lay your ship bare.
ROMEO (TO TYBALT)
See how I'll leave, with every piece of you
TYBALT (TO ROMEO)
Don't underestimate the things that I will do.
ALL
There's a fire starting in my heart,
Reaching a fever pitch
JULIET
it's bringing me out the dark.
(Tybalt and Romeo fight while Juliet looks on)
JULIET
The scars of your love, remind me of us.
They keep me thinking that we almost had it all
(Tybalt wounds Romeo)
The scars of your love, they leave me breathless
I can't help feeling
(Romeo touches the wound and in a fury stabs Tybalt)
We could have had it all
(Romeo pulls sword out of Tybalt’s chest)
Rolling in the deep
(Romeo looks at the blood on his hands)
You had my heart inside your hand
And you played it
To the beat – (music stops abruptly)
ROMEO
O I am fortune’s fool!
BENVOLIO
Romeo stand not amazed be gone
(Romeo goes to Friar Laurence who enters from the left)
ROMEO
Spakest thou of Juliet? how is it with her?
Doth she not think me an old murderer,
Now I have stain'd the childhood of our joy
With blood removed but little from her own?
Where is she? and how doth she? and what says
My conceal'd lady to our cancell'd love?
Nurse
O, she says nothing, sir, but weeps and weeps;
And now falls on her bed; and then starts up,
And Tybalt calls; and then on Romeo cries,
And then down falls again.
ROMEO
As if that name,
Shot from the deadly level of a gun,
Did murder her;
Rolling in the Deep continues
ROMEO
Baby I have no story to be told
NURSE
But I've heard one of you
JULIET (from beyond enters)
and I'm gonna make your head burn,
ROMEO (grabs a knife to kill himself)
Think of me in the depths of your despair
Make a home down there as mine sure won't be shared
FRIAR (grabs knife strikes Romeo)
The scars of your love, remind you of….
Juliet enters and sings to Romeo center stage
us. They keep me
thinking
ROMEO
that we almost had it all
JULIET
The scars of your love,
they leave me breathless
JULIET
I can't help feeling
TOGETHER
We could have had it all
(A past version of Romeo and Juliet enter recreating the
balcony scene as the present Romeo and Juliet look on)
Rolling in the deep
You had my heart inside your hand
(Romeo kissing her at the balcony)
And you played it
To the beat (Juliet exits from the balcony and Romeo runs
into the forest)
We could have had it all
ROMEO (with remorse)
Rolling in the deep
JULIET
You had my heart inside your hand
(they touch hands like the palmer’s kiss from Act I, Scene
5)
ROMEO
But I played it
With a beating
FRIAR (to Romeo)
Throw your soul through every open door
Count your blessings to find what you look for
(Romeo kisses the Friar’s hand and exits)
JULIET (TO FRIAR)
Turn my sorrow into treasured gold
Friar (hands vile to Juliet and pats her head)
You pay me back in kind
(Juliet lies down)
(Romeo takes a vile from the apothecary)
APOTHOCARY
and reap just what you sow (music stops)
ROMEO (enters tomb and sits by Juliet with dram of poison)
I set up my everlasting rest,
And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars
From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last!
Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you
The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
A dateless bargain to engrossing death!
Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide!
Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on
The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark!
Here's to my love!
JULIET (awakens)
Where is my Romeo?
What's here? a cup, closed in my true love's hand?
Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end:
O churl! drunk all, and left no friendly drop
To help me after? I will kiss thy lips;
Haply some poison yet doth hang on them,
To make die with a restorative.
(Kisses him)
Thy lips are warm.
I'll be brief. O happy dagger!
(Snatching ROMEO's dagger)
This is thy sheath;
(Everyone enters slowly from various entry points and look
on solemnly)
PRINCE
See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love.
And I for winking at your discords too
Have lost a brace of kinsmen:
all are punish'd.
MONTAGUE (extends a hand to Capulet)
We could have had it all
CAPULET (Accepts Montagues hand)
We could have had it all
(The dead ROMEO and JULIET rise and approach their parents)
We could have had it all
Rolling in the deep
You had my heart inside your hand
And you played it to the beat
We could have had it all
Rolling in the deep
You had my heart inside your hand
But you played it,
You played it,
You played it
You played it to the beat
EPILOGUE
For never was there a tale of more woe,
than that of Juliet and her Romeo.
RUBRIC
D or F performances
· Anything less than the C performances below
C performances
· A complete script for Mr. Pellerin & each group member (no trips to copy machine)
· Script contains:
o Clear theme
o Interesting story development
o Pop music and Shakespearean text integrated
· Performance of scripts, in hand, is moderately smooth. Just periodic stops for technical difficulties
· Costumes
· Performance with all members occurs on the assigned date
B performances
· Has all the above and…
· Script contains:
o Meaningfully theme – Nuanced and philosophical
o Complex plot development
o Songs are meaningful and well placed (though perhaps a bit long, and/or one “note” meanings)
o Well chosen moments from the text – a strong cross section of the play
· Performance is smooth. Though not memorized, the performers know the material inside and out. Choices about technology, blocking, costumes, and the like are thought out beforehand.
A performances
· Has all the above and…
· Script contains:
o Themes and concepts are thought provoking. Shows us multiple sides to the issues presented
o Clear theme – Nuanced and philosophical – Goes beyond stereotypes to get at the heart of the matter
o Complex plot development and seamlessly thread together as if this were an original play and not a Frankenstein monster of moments
o Songs are meaningful, well placed and preformed with feeling
o Well chosen – a Strong cross section of the play – Tight!
· Script is nuanced. Every line is thoughtfully spliced and there is a definite beginning, middle and end to the performance.
· Performance is smooth and choreography is fun and meaningful. All props and cues are hit. One or two members attempted to memorize parts. Members tried to use note cards.
· Costumes and staging are thoughtfully planned ahead of time and a world is created
· We are all speechless
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