Alexis McCormick; Gold Stream; Benchmark Prep Journal:

Alexis McCormick 

Gold Stream 

Benchmark Prep Journal

Benchmark Prep Journal number one:

Iago:

“And what’s he then that says I play the villain?

When this advice is free I give and honest,

Probal to thinking and indeed the course

To win the Moor again? For ’tis most easy

The inclining Desdemona to subdue

In any honest suit: she’s framed as fruitful

As the free elements. And then for her

To win the Moor—were’t to renounce his baptism,

All seals and symbols of redeemed sin,

His soul is so enfetter’d to her love,

That she may make, unmake, do what she list,

Even as her appetite shall play the god

With his weak function. How am I then a villain

To counsel Cassio to this parallel course,

Directly to his good? Divinity of hell!

When devils will the blackest sins put on,

They do suggest at first with heavenly shows,

As I do now: for whiles this honest fool

Plies Desdemona to repair his fortunes

And she for him pleads strongly to the Moor,

I’ll pour this pestilence into his ear,

That she repeals him for her body’s lust;

And by how much she strives to do him good,

She shall undo her credit with the Moor.

So will I turn her virtue into pitch,

And out of her own goodness make the net

That shall enmesh them all.”

This soliloquy is found in act two, scene three, when Iago is talking to himself about Cassio trying to arrive back in Othello’s favor, and how Othello would do anything to keep Desdemona’s love. It is easy to say that Iago is talking to himself in this section, but also Iago could be talking to the devil from the line saying; “Divinity of hell! When devils will the blackest sins put on They do suggest at first with heavenly shows As I do now.” This quote is saying that the argument that is happening at this point could be something the devil himself would be in, and or talk about. Back then, whomever was playing Iago’s role at this point would understand that they have to look and act devious from the line saying “And out of her own goodness make the net That shall enmesh them all.“ Iago at this point is basically saying, how his big plan is going to work and how he is going to trap everyone. From what we learned in class today about the actors back then, and how they didn’t know what their lines were about. As well as what actions they had to do. They would figure it out from the last sentence or this big quote.

Benchmark Prep Journal number two:

I am going to be investigating Brabantio’s perspective in act one, scene one. In this scene Iago and Rodreigo are telling Brabantio that his daughter is sleeping with the moor, also known as Othello. At first in this scene Brabantio was woken up from his sleep from screaming from the two men, yelling about the moor and Brabantio being robbed. At first Brabantio was confused and about what the men were talking about because he didn’t understand what they meant of him being robbed. What they actually mean is that Othello, robbed his daughter; Desdemonda’s love. Brabantio does not believe the words coming from the man's mouth until one of them gave him a proposition which was: “Sir, I will answer anything. But, I beseech you, If’t be your pleasure and most wise consent (As partly I find it is) that your fair daughter

At this odd-even and dull watch o' th' night Transported with no worse nor better guard But with a knave of common hire, a gondolier, To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor, If this be known to you and your allowance, We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs. But if you know not this my manners tell me

We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe That, from the sense of all civility,

I thus would play and trifle with your reverence. Your daughter (if you have not given her leave) I say again, hath made a gross revolt, Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes In an extravagant and wheeling stranger Of here and everywhere. Straight satisfy yourself. If she be in her chamber or your house, Let loose on me the justice of the state For thus deluding you.” -Roderigo. Roderigo is saying that if your daughter is not in her room she is with the Moor but if she is then go ahead and kill him for his horrible lies. Brabantio is second guessing and still believes that theses words were still lies until he checks  his daughter’s room. After reading the first scene it's understood that Brabantio is shocked and is upset that his daughter would do such a thing. Brabantio is very upset and throughout the rest of the act he try’s to make up several situations on why Desdamona is doing this to him.

Benchmark Prep Journal number three:

The scene that my group and I had is where, Cassio reunites with Bianca and gives her the handkerchief that he found in his chamber. Bianca gets upset because she thinks that Cassio got the handkerchief from one of the women he was cheating with. The only reason why Bianca is leading to conclusions on the cheating line is because she was cheated on several times before. The first man she fell in love with cheated on her after two long years of on and off relationship. The man after her first love was more of an on and off type of guy but they said they were only seeing each other but she found out that he also lied to her. He would buy things for both Bianca and the said girl. With those memories that Bianca had with the last man in her life, she thought that because Cassio was giving a gift he, "found in his room", that he was then cheating. The previous men in Bianca's life made her have second thoughts about any men in her previous and future life.

Benchmark Prep Journal number four:

This journal it is more of a built list, so the actions I am going to be doing as my character as Bianca is to throw the handkerchief down and run off. The tone in my voice is going to be very upset and full of much anger. The props I am going to be using are a type of cloth for the handkerchief and dollars bills because my character is into that type of stuff. The reason why I believe my group and are presentation will stand out is because we are going to speak loud and clear and we are going to make the scene that we are performing over the top just like the real thing. My group and I decided that we need to put a lot of action into the performance while we speak and we also agreed that we would speak as if it was the real thing, like professional actors.

Benchmark Post-Performance Journal 

In scene six, the character I played was Bianca. During this time in the play, Bianca was full of anger, and she was very upset. She thought that Cassio was cheating on her because he gave her a fount handkerchief that she believed came from another women he was sleeping with. After reading my lines over and over again I soon believed the the line I felt that set the whole scene, mood, and emotions was when Bianca said, “This is some minx’s token. There; give it your hobby-horse: where-so-ever you had it.” This line made me think to react on a high level voice full of rage and anger basically almost about to cry. She then runs out very upset out of anger.  

I believe that my group did pretty well, knowing that one of our cast members has a very low voice, and the others are shy. The only thing that I thought didn’t go as planned was that we didn’t memorize the lines as much as we liked. We planned to have most of our lines down packed so we would look more professional, but it didn’t go as planned. Also, I stumbled on my words a little bit. I was just so worried about getting everything right, that I got scared and whined up messing up. 

After performing our scene, I felt as though I interpreted “Othello” by Shakespeare, a lot better and more easier. The reason for that is because of the deeper understanding of the many different characters and their stories. Throughout the short acting classes where we had to perform with just our groups. I started out really slow. In other words, I did not know what I was doing. After a few days, with the help of Mr. Aaron and Ms. Pahomov, I soon was able to feel Bianca’s emotions. I think with all the small activities that were led up to the actual performance day helped me get more into character.