We Don't Have to be a Tragedy

Juliet’s Point of View

The first three weeks of rehearsals showed great, great progress. I’m not even joking. I didn’t even know my own voice now, I considered it Juliet’s voice, as in the Juliet in the actual play. My voice rang out firm and strong, unlike I had ever expected it to.

“Oh Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name,
Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet,” I heard myself saying under my breath.

We weren’t even in rehearsal yet, I was just writing an essay for Paul Davis about the play and he’d assigned people to the class. He’d purposely assigned me Juliet and his own son Romeo, saying it would help us better understand the characters that we would be portraying.

“ ‘Tis 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. O, be some other name!
What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
Would by any other name smell as sweet…”

I groaned and realized I might never forget those lines again, now that they’re so drilled into my daily routine.

Speaking of which, I had rehearsal in fifteen minutes. And we were actually doing that scene today, so it was very few of us required there, but everyone would come anyway. They liked to see how well Romeo and I performed the roles of our namesakes, and many of them thought we did well. I won’t say all, though, because Romeo is by far the better actor and most of the cast probably likes him as an actor better than they like me as an actress.

“I guess it’s good I’m practicing,” I mumbled, thinking over more lines in my head. “The infamous Act II, Scene II.”

I shook my head and ignored my essay while I listened to my music. And what comes on, but Love Story by Taylor Swift? I laugh softly and spend a few minutes singing along, then singing along to an All American Rejects, then I sighed and stood to head for rehearsal.

Romeo’s Point of View

“But soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon…” I muttered to myself.

I looked gloomily at the essay my Dad had assigned.

“You’ll understand your roles better as the characters you’ll portray if you interpret the meanings of their words in Act II, Scene II. That’s the assignment for you two.” Dad had directed this at me and Juliet. Well, properly it would be Juliet and I, but I don’t really care.

All I knew was that these lines would be forever infused into my brain, as though someone had inserted a computer chip and programmed it to keep repeating the lines over and over and over again until it drove me undeniably insane. But the fair sun would be the one thing that didn’t torture me about all of that. The vigor in rehearsals, her cheerful voice, then her firmly said words and perfect pronunciation of the Shakespearean wording…

I let my head thump heavily to my desk in frustration. I couldn’t be thinking like that, it’s ten minutes until the rehearsal of Act II, Scene II!

Ugh.

At least I can listen to her voice, as foolish as I sound.

On a whim, I Googled the Coke and Mentos experiment and clicked on a YouTube video. I had an insane addiction to Googling random things like that. I found joy in this strange habit, too.

So I amused myself for about six minutes with three and a half videos, then I shut my computer down and prepared to head to rehearsals.

Juliet’s Point of View

I walked slowly, thinking things over.

What things?

Taylor had called again last night after rehearsal, and she made me realize something. She said, in a serious voice, “You know, I can tell that you’re really crazy for him. What if he likes you too? You did say he seemed to blush earlier.”

She made me realize that I might actually have a chance.

He did seem really embarrassed at all the attempts of flirting made by all the girls…who were very reminiscent of the waitresses we’d encountered. He didn’t seem to like any of them as more than just slightly annoying friends and cast-mates.

But he seemed to tolerate me more, and talk to me more casually than even his closest guy friend in the cast, the guy who played Benvolio. I wasn’t necessarily sure that him talking to me casually was a good thing, but I knew the fact that he talked to me at all was.

I really have got it bad. Worse than I had originally imagined.

It made me think of Love Bug, Jonas Brothers…and I don’t’ really listen to them all that much. The whole, ‘never thought that I’d catch this love bug again’. Of course, there was no ‘again’ about it, and I’m not even sure I had it right, but there you are.

On a random train of thought that included the ending of Shrek 2, I started humming Holding out for a Hero by Bonnie Tyler. I was very musically inclined when I was preoccupied with my thoughts, and usually started humming or singing without being aware of doing so. Or of my surroundings, until I glance at my watch and realize if I don’t focus and walk just a little quicker, I won’t be there before the rehearsal starts.

So I do start walking faster, and make it to the rehearsal a few minutes later than usual but still a minute or two early, and I try my hardest not to look nervous and I talk casually with the girls while we wait for the adults to arrive and begin.