We Don't Have to be a Tragedy

Juliet’s Point of View

So, here it is. Mom just walked in the door---is it really time to work on the famous Act II, Scene II already? I’m fidgeting nervously the whole time she’s talking, but she’s decided to lead into Scene II by doing Scene I, as well, so I have a few minutes to gather myself before I’m forced to perform.

Ha, I’m saying ‘forced’ like it’s a bad thing. I suppose I did voluntarily audition, but only because Romeo wouldn’t have if I hadn’t have done…why does everything have to be confusing?

“Nay, I’ll conjure too---” I heard from our Mercutio, but I didn’t pay him any mind. I was still pondering my own thoughts.

Kissing Romeo…how was I going to pull that one off? Without looking like a blundering idiot, that is. Even Taylor didn’t know…she just laughed at me. She repeatedly told me just to act natural, but how could I pull that off? Hello, doesn’t she remember the type of person I am? Brimming with confidence half the time, devoid of all confidence five seconds later…

Was it really just confidence I needed? And how does one act natural when kissing the person they secretly like, even if it IS just a school play…ugh. If I didn’t stop myself soon, I might start hyperventilating…or something to that effect. Faint? Maybe…

I finally put my mind in a different state and decided I’d watch the other performers while my dreaded turn in the spotlight arrived. I idly doodled in a notebook I always kept on hand.

Romeo’s Point of View

Even acting didn’t calm my nerves, although I knew my façade hid the nerves anyway.

Juliet, however, had no such luck. She used the time that was taken for Act II Scene I to doodle, after using the first five minutes to fidget.

I amazed myself in the fact that I kept an eye on her while simultaneously managing my cues. Rob (Mercutio) noticed my sort of half-assed attention and winked while starting the Queen Mab speech. I could tell Mom thought the wink was a great touch by the look in her eyes, and Rob wouldn’t know what hit him when he had to remember to add it in along with all his other quirks.

All too soon, in my opinion, the scene drew to a close and I realized that we were to progress smoothly into the next scene.

I paid no attention to the opening of the scene, frankly. My nerves being centered on Juliet and a kiss and whatnot, and who can blame the guy in me? Eighteen, remember. Still in my teens. Still such an immature idiot that sometimes, if she walked the right way, I couldn’t help but watch her---never mind, I’m sure you get that. I feel a flush rise in my cheeks as this thought crosses my mind.

Then the famous (infamous?) scene arrived.

I can’t describe it as anything other than a blur. Right up until the most anticipated (and dreaded) parts. And then the scene comes up, and the only things I really remember are my first lines, and the lines of Juliet that go:

“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.”

The break for my line, that I couldn’t care to remember afterwards.

“’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. Oh, be some other name!
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;”---

And that’s where all my memories are kind of demolished in my anxieties and my nervousness shows itself to those who know me (which was only my best friend Todd, who went a few counties away for a technical school) in the form of a light perspiration behind my ears.

Juliet’s Point of View

I think I did quite well not to start hyperventilating. But the last line I recall hearing was “Neither, fair saint, if either thee dislike.”

Because that’s where I lost my train of thought other than to mechanically reply to Romeo’s lines with those of my own. And it was drawing closer and closer, now…if Taylor were here, she’d know my nerves by the color of my eyes lightening a fractional amount.

Romeo’s Point of View

This is where, if my luck were any worse than what it usually is, the fire alarms would start going off and the sprinklers would soak us…but it was still safe…. Unusual, but I rolled with it.

Juliet’s Point of View

If I told you ‘three inches’ you’d probably wonder what I meant. And I’d have to tell you that it was the distance of my face from Romeo’s.

I felt my face heat up, I felt the fireworks, I felt all the totally cliché and somehow true feelings you get from a kiss from your ‘true love’. Then it was over, so quickly.

The scene passed like a blur…such a blur.

The only word I can use to describe my memories of the scene is vague, for they are two millimeters away from being totally…well, not there. Sorry if a better description was awaited, but I couldn’t describe it even to my mother. And having to tell Taylor later would be torturous, as she would want to know every little detail of the whole thing.

Then the scene was over, completely over and done with, and Mom and Cathy were rushing the actors and actresses involved, and everyone was crowding around Romeo and I and saying we had such great ‘stage presence’ and that we seemed to have ‘chemistry’ that the audience would absolutely love, and were complimented on how we never seemed to stumble on the lines, and teased about how we must have studied them for hours and so many other things I don’t really want to name in this already overly-long run-on sentence!

And before we leave, before our fellow actors and actresses dissipate and allow us to leave, Romeo and I catch each other’s eyes, and I can’t help but hold his gaze for several moments as he does mine, before Mom calls us all to order.

Romeo’s Point of View

Juliet’s Mom dismissed everyone, and we all filed out to go eat and relax.

I knew it right when my eyes had met Juliet’s after the scene, that I really was falling hard for her. And the thing is, now I think she might be feeling the same.