Blog Feed

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.  

Quote with additions (all additions will be in parenthesis): 

I have rubbed this young quat almost to the sense,

And he grows angry. (Make facial expressions demonstrating how aggravated he is. Speak with a bit of annoyance or attitude. Try to make the audience know that you are irritated by this problem. Avoid long pauses to show how much you do not like this situation.)

Now, whether he kill Cassio

Or Cassio him, or each do kill the other,

Every way makes my gain. (Right now you have to assure the audience that you have things under control, and that even if you are annoyed you still have everything planned out correctly. Lower your voice a little to sound calm, composed, soothing and carefree.) 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. (Have larger pauses and a small tremble in the voice showing that you are a little bit worried because you know that it could be hard for you to reach your goal.)  

If Cassio do remain

He hath a daily beauty in his life

That makes me ugly. (Face another side of the audience, just to separate your thoughts on the two characters. You want to show a hint of jealousy so maybe you could pout or act frustrated that you do not have the same skills as he does. Raise your voice with anger when you say the word "ugly".) And besides, the Moor

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

No, he must die. (When saying these lines act alert and aware of what could go wrong. During the line"No, he must die" be very determined.)  But so, I hear him coming. 

-Iago, Act 5 Scene 1

Journal#2: 

Character: Bianca

Important scenes: Act 4 Scn 1, Act 5 Scn 1

Questions: 

Since Bianca is not aware of Iago's plan or the meaning of the handkerchief, she is very confused and does not understand why people are acting so rude towards her. It aggravates her that she is surrounded by such madness and randomness. She does not enjoy the harsh words that she is receiving from Cassio and is starting to get suspicious but also confused about the situation. Bianca gets to the point where she is sick and tired of his disrespectfulness and wants Cassio to give back the handkerchief or else she will leave. She sees personally that she must lay down the law and give Cassio the option of doing the right thing and going to dinner with her. She is not afraid to let him know that she does not mind getting rid of him. The other characters like Cassio and Iago call her a whore or strumpet at times. They use those terms to reference or call her, even right in front of her. In their minds she is useless and they do not value her opinion. She is told that she is a whore and to stop getting in the way. They do not tell her what is going, which makes her the odd one out. 

Journal#3:  

At the age of 8, Othello was separated from his mother and was forced to be a slave. All his life he had been used to hardship from the people around him, but his older sister helped him be strong and to never stop fighting. His sister, Sandra became the only person Othello could rely on, especially when his mother left. He was super protective of her and would make sure no guy looked at his sister in any dirty way. A few days after Othello's 18th birthday, Sandra was kidnapped by some guys who were from the North and he never saw her again. Without her, he was alone and he did not know what to do or how to control himself. He would never forgive the people who took the most important person in his life away from him.  Because he lost the two most important women he had in his life, he made sure to always protect any other woman he loved. After losing his sister, he decided to flee from his master and join the army. He fought with the South and made sure he could get his revenge. His determination and anger made him one of the best soldiers. As time went by, he kept on improving and becoming smarter than the other officers ahead of him. He ended up surpassing those officers and becoming a general after nine years. 

Journal#4: 

On Tuesday, Leah, Dylan and I will be performing Scene 2. There are three speaking characters in our scene: Iago (played by Leah), Cassio (played by Dylan) and Othello (played by me). Roderigo will also take part in this scene (played by Max) but has no lines; he will just be struck by Cassio. As Othello, I will have speak with a lot of diction and authority to show how noble and high up I am. When I first enter I am going to be very concerned, confused and angry when speaking to Iago because I am not okay with Cassio attacking Roderigo. Later, when I end up firing Cassio, I will speak with care when I tell him the bad news but also be very serious to show him that what he did was wrong. Some of the actions I will do will be to always turn to the person I am speaking to and use my hands to show my emotions. For example, when I first come in and am alarmed by the situation, I will be waiving my hands and pointing. Then, when I fire Cassio, I will put my hand on his shoulder as a sign of compassion. My tone of voice will be very high and angry when I rant to Iago about what happened. 

As a group, we organized everything; when people walk in, what actions to do and how to interact with each other. I think the thing that will make our presentation memorable is when Dylan speaks in a drunk tone and beats up Max. Also, we are all friends so I think people can tell the great connection we have on stage. As for a prop, I will be wearing an old WWII soldier’s helmet to show Othello's power as a general. This will add to my act and show more authority. Originally, I wanted to use a handkerchief for my prop but it was not relevant in the story yet. 

Post Performance Journal:

- “Cassio, I love thee, but never more be officer of mine.” (Scene 2, read by Othello).

I feel like this is important to the play in many different ways. First of all, it shows that Othello is taking charge and can acknowledge problems. This lets the audience know that he has authority and is not afraid to use it. This scene marks one of the first interactions between Cassio and Othello, where the Moor starts to dislike Cassio because of his actions. I also think that the line  above shows that sometimes Othello knows how to do things in certain situations and how to be classy. There were three main things that I did when I said this line in our performance. 

First, when I said: “Cassio, I love thee,” I put my hand on Dylan’s (Cassio) shoulder to show him that I do actually feel that way and care. As I continued to say: “but never more be officer of mine,” I spoke in a very serious tone to let him know that he really messed up and that I am upset. Lastly, before I left the stage I saluted Cassio out of respect and bid him farewell.                                                                                              

- I think that our performance went as we had planned and we did well. We were all able to really become the character and act from his perspective. I am proud that all that time spent rehearsing and brainstorming ideas of how to be more creative and to get  the audience’s attention worked out. Before getting up there, we all agreed on what actions to do at certain moments so that we could make our scene more realistic. I must say that I expected us to do well and be confident but not this much. I thought that Leah was very articulate and determined. Also, Dylan did a great job at acting drunk but still not going too far. The part where he is fighting with Max (Roderigo) was very entertaining and useful. Maybe, if I were to redo it, I would ask everyone to have their lines memorized (so it would be more professional) and use more props so that we could be more interactive.

- I definitely had more fun watching my classmates acting and me performing to the class than reading from the book. I thought that doing this project helped us not only to learn more about the play and understand what it looks like acted out, but it also taught us how to act and the meaning behind Shakespeare’s writing. This whole process helped me understand  how to read this type of writing and take its clues for stage directions. 

a. Negative space is the space around an object.

Explain how you found negative space in 1. your cut out?, 2. in your still life drawing?

The way I found negative space in my cut out was a little hard. I look at the opposite color and then I started to cut out what it was suppose to be a reflection of the original picture. The way I found negative in the still life drawing was kinda difficult, because I didn't know how to draw the pictures exactly.

Why does it help an artist to see in negative space?

c. I think that negative space could help an artist because they can observe the actual picture to more space and length, it helps define the object and help create interest and contrast. 

Does seeing in negative space enhance drawings, why or why not?

d. Seeing in negative space enhance drawings because it gives objects their own space to express what they are and also it kind of adds emotions into it.

    B. Explain how you found negative space in 1. your cut out? I found the negative space if my cut out by cutting out my drawing with the green paper as my frontal and cutting it out again with the black paper to represent the negative space. 2. in your still life drawing? In my still life drawing I shaded in a whole page and erases parts of black space until it looked like my drawing.

    C. Why does it help an artist to see in negative space?

When an artist is drawing simply one object they have seen in real life the leftover space does not represent nothing, it represents the area in which the art inhabits. Using negative space artists can better visualize what environment their art is in and it helps everything flow more smoothly as opposed to not using negative space.

    D. Does seeing in negative space enhance drawings, why or why no

It does enhance drawing because you are able to see what empty space their is in the actual object's area. Furthermore negative space gives your drawing a very cool appeal because it uses two colors which contrast (like white and black) giving the entire artwork more depth.