I'm pretty sure you can guess what this is.

"I have rubbed this young quat almost to the sense,

And he grows angry. Now, whether he kill Cassio

Or Cassio him, or each do kill the other,

Every way makes my gain. Live Roderigo,

He calls me to a restitution large

Of gold and jewels that I bobbed from him

As gifts to Desdemona.

It must not be. If Cassio do remain

He hath a daily beauty in his life

That makes me ugly. And besides, the Moor

May unfold me to him—there stand I in much peril.

No, he must die. But so, I hear him coming." Othello, Act 5, scene 1, line 11-23

Directions:

Start by addressing audience. Facts are being stated, not thoughts to oneself. Start slowly, this whole soliloquy will speed up.

I have rubbed this young quat almost to the sense,

And he grows angry.

At this point relax, go into neutral, look off to the side, keep the front facing the audience, but do not look at them. This is a part to be conducted as if pondering a plan by speaking it aloud, since that was going on. Keep a slow, kind of questioning tone, to show the pondering nature.

Now, whether he kill Cassio

Or Cassio him, or each do kill the other,

Every way makes my gain.

Speed up. At this point Iago doesn't like what he's thinking; communicate that by speeding up slightly, getting louder, and maybe screaming the last word.

Live Roderigo,

He calls me to a restitution large

Of gold and jewels that I bobbed from him

As gifts to Desdemona.

Look up and speak towards audience. Spoken to the audience for affect, as well as that Iago is now trying to make a statement, not thinking. When thinking he's talking to himself, when making a statement he's making a statement to the audience. Lines should be read in short definitive sentences to convey the seriousness of his emotions, while following obvious punctuation clues. Like a stone rolling up hill, slow down your speech until stopping. This way this part and the previous one have a speed like a ball rolling down a hill, only to have it stop before it can get up the next one.

It must not be. If Cassio do remain

He hath a daily beauty in his life

That makes me ugly. And besides, the Moor

May unfold me to him—there stand I in much peril.

No, he must die. But so, I hear him coming.

Journal 2

I chose the super secondary characters, the rumor mill, the people who don't even get names. Obviously they are rarely told anything other than "Leave us", but there were situations like with the soldiers in Scene 2, where Othello tells the soldiers of his love of Desdemona. The characters are merely audiences for their betters.

They see in the first scene the interaction between the back up characters and Brabantio. They see most of what's going on, up until Iago and Montano. They continue to be present until the second scene, where they start leaving at only crucial moments, like when Iago talks to Montano, and they only start to see the occasions again when Othello enters. From then on, Desdemona's attendants are the only see anything, and they only see foreshadowing of problems twice, first when Desdemona talks to Cassio, second when Othello attacks Desdemona in front of the visitor.  They also see, as the soldiers, the end of the experience when Othello kills himself.

The characters generally just do what they're told, and seem to be rather subservient. It's rather disappointing.

Journal 3

Brabantio is a character that is rather simple. He has what he wants and knows what he doesn't want. He wants to keep his daughter's honor intact, and he doesn't want to be bothered by anyone. Most of what Brabantio does is to keep his daughter safe. His wife was loyal, giving him more allegiance than even her father. She never actually shows up, which is slightly suspect, and brings the question of whether Desdemona's mother is alive. If not, that could be a contributing factor to Brabantio's over protectiveness, the strain of being a single parent. Another factor that may or may not exist is that Brabantio may have taken his wife in a similar fashion to how Othello took his. If he's a playboy, that may contribute to his fear for his daughter. 

His familial background probably impacts this. As a noble, he is born to think that he is better than everyone else. In many ways Brabantio is better; he has money, he’s a politician (senator) with all that entails (he has the looks, the charisma, and the false bravado that is looked for), and he has an amazingly beautiful daughter, who probably inherited some of that from his beautiful wife, who died a peaceful yet somewhat tragic death. Which is basically what everyone wants out of life. However, that can be ended in many ways, and he’s constantly on guard for that. As he gets older, he wants to make sure nothing around him changes, because it preserves the memories of his golden days.

He seems to be rational, the only reason he does something weird is because Iago pushed his buttons. He doesn't even seem that racist, it's just that the way Iago introduced the topic automatically brought up that connotation. Overall he seems like a good guy, who gets put into a really awkward situation and feels angry.

Journal 4

I am planning on wearing a pajama shirt! In the first scene Brabantio was just woken and is grumpy, so I'm hoping to bring a sort of grumpy tiredness that I know I would have. I guess I won't move that quickly either, but the fact that my daughter's purity is on the line might motivate me to move a bit faster. I have the rationalizations planned out, but how exactly I will execute it will depend on the performance itself, as until the actions are taken, nothing is set in stone. On what my group will present to stand out, we haven't particularly discussed this. We didn't know it was a requirement, and we rarely se each other during lunch periods. However, I do have an idea of what I would say is our specialty as a team, and that I our clear speaking, and our enthusiasm for our characters. Max knows how to act the fool, I know how to be grumpy, and Jaime knows how to pretend to be honest.

Post play Reflection

I think that the line “The worser welcome, I know thee Roderigo,” is a good line. Partly because I said it, true, but also because it introduces Roderigo’s character. Before this point, he is being duped, the audience can tell that, but it more of a sympathetic feeling that is generated for the evil sidekick. After all, Iago is deluding him. However this line allows for the audience to see Roderigo as a creepy guy who hangs around Desdemona too much, which is exactly what he is. It shows that Roderigo is detested by those around him, which bring the thought that the must have done something detestable. While Iago has a couple of speeches this act, he is best seen in the other things that happens, making the defining of Roderigo the pinnacle of the scene, plot wise. When performing in the play, I realized that Brabantio hadn’t been as much of a jerk who was racist and hated Othello, as someone who was honor bound, and didn’t like the idea of anyone near his daughter that wouldn’t raise his status significantly. No one would be able to raise his status enough for it to be worth losing his daughter.

I found this out a lot while practicing for the performance, but I now find it sad that our group didn’t do everything we could. One mistake was actually walking out after the performance. By the time we realized what had happened and walked back, the next performance had already started so we couldn’t get in. Another issue is that I didn’t face out towards the audience, one of the basic rules of acting that I should have respected. The biggest issue might have been losing my paper. Since I had to “borrow” it off of Pahomov’s desk each class and then sneakily return it, I hadn’t been able to practice my lines as much as I liked, nor was I able to memorize all of my lines. Also it would have made this assignment easier, because I would have been able to choose a better quote, and I’m also not sure whether the quote I used had been correct. This is mostly my fault, but it was also because we were working with interpretations of the text so I couldn’t just quote from the book. I had to work from what I had memorized, which as previously stated, isn’t a lot.