 |
| Anthony Michael Martinez (Prince) sits down with NextGen students |
After being introduced to Anthony and Dave, the students were guided in exercises that would help them both physically and mentally prepare to take on the famous tragedy. Shortly after there was a brief discussion about what they already knew about the play, and then they were ready to jump in.
Anthony and Dave quickly assigned the students each a role in ROMEO & JULIET, with the instruction that when your character was onstage, you would act as them while Anthony read a brief ten minute plot synopsis of the play. The students got really into the extreme emotions of the play, and into their fast-paced retelling of R&J, complete with quick and dramatic scene changes and sound effects.
After their performance the students talked about what they had learned from acting the play out, and from looking at the play from the perspective of their character. This opened up a bigger discussion on acting and more specifically on acting Shakespeare. Dave said that he compares acting Shakespeare to being a part of the "storytelling olympics" and Anthony said that even as a professional Shakespeare actor there is still so much research and work to be done before taking on a new role. The students talked about their difficulty with Shakespeare's text, but seemed to agree that while it is complicated, the emotions are so strong that it helps break down the meaning of the play. In regards to performance, Carla summed it up nicely when she said “I used to think that acting was about becoming a different person, but after playing Desdemona I realized that acting isn't about becoming a different person, its knowing that we all share the same experiences.”
That, and the realization that the NextGen students are the same age as Romeo and Juliet, ends our second meeting.
No comments:
Post a Comment