Costume Design for Roderigo

This costume design is for the character of Roderigo.
We know that Roderigo is a very rich and high class character and that is why I decided to make his costume full of rich colours in the 16th century such as purples, indigos, blues and reds. The fabric used would be velvet or satin, again representing wealth. Roderigo as a character personality wise is jealousy, unintelligent and foolish, he believes that he can win Desdemona's heart through money. Therefore I decided to give him a neat costume that is well polished and looked after. Costumes can also depict the type of environment a person belongs to, for Roderigo's case he is a dissolute Venetian that is not involved in the war as a soldier but as an ATM for Iago's scheme. The latter part of the 16th century evokes his sense of style being close to the Elizabethan era. It is suited for his age and gender as females were known to wear dresses and young males would wear less bulgy items. The process to create this costume would be to analyse the script, think of colours and fabric, sketch final outcome, obtain desired fabric and colours and manufacture.

Roderigo Monologue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Fa3UCYa38c&feature=youtu.be

London

DID YOU KNOW? London Bridge wasn’t the only way to cross the Thames. People who were in a rush, or had money, could pay to cross the river by boats called ‘water taxis’. In Shakespeare’s time there were around 3,000 of them!

Background Info:

> First permanent playhouse
> 50,000 residents to over 200,000
> Biggest & richest city in England
> By 1600, London’s theatre-goers numbered 20,000 per week
> Rich noblemen became patrons of theatre companies, giving financial and legal support.
> Royalty also supported the theatre.
> From 1603 to 1613, Shakespeare’s company played at the court of King James about 15 times per year
> The dark attracted thieves and the overcrowding brought disease
> Plague struck most summers; in 1593 about about 10,000 people were killed and all the theatres were closed
> In 1607, John Donne called it “London, plaguey London, full of danger and vice”

City Landmarks:
> St Paul’s Cathedral was the biggest of London’s 120 churches
> It had a tower almost 300 feet tall; people could climb to the top
> Inside, as well as worship, crowds gathered to socialise or do business – which attracted pick-pockets and prostitutes
> Outside, the cathedral was used as a market and it was London’s centre for bookselling
> There was also an outside pulpit, where, Baron Waldstein said weekly “open air services…last nearly 3 hours”

>The Tower of London was London’s old medieval fortress
> By 1600 it housed rooms for the royal family, a treasury, a prison, a weapons store, a zoo and the royal mint, where nearly all England’s coins were made

> London Bridge was the only bridge in London
> It joined the City of London, on the north bank of the Thames, with Southwark on the south bank, where the Globe Theatre was
> It was about 800 feet long and supported by 20 pillars, through which the river rushed
> There were houses and shops either side of the bridge
> John Stow, a historian from the time, said that “it seemeth rather a continual street than a bridge”

Shakespeare: 
> Shakespeare lived and worked in London from about 1590 to about 1613
> St Helen’s: In the mid-1590’s, Shakespeare lived in the London parish of St Helens, just north of London Bridge and close to The Theatre and The Curtain playhouses
> We know he was twice assessed for taxes there – and failed to pay both times

>  Paris Gardens: From about 1598-1602, he seems to have lived in the Paris Gardens area of Bankside south of the river near The Globe, where he worked

> Silver Street: From about 1602, Shakespeare rented lodgings in the Silver Street house of the Mountjoys, a family of French immigrants who made expensive hats

Character Study of Iago

Dear Diary,
W'rds can not yea begineth to describeth mine hateth f'r Othello. Nev'r wouldst hast expect'd this from him. I was p'rfect f'r this job, and who dost he chooseth? some bookkeep'r, nam'd Michael Cassio. Fie, this ruins ev'rything! All mine plans down the draineth. . . unless. I ruineth his life, his loveth, his careth'r, watcheth out othello thou've seen nothing yet. Eloping with mine good cater-cousin's loveth, I dont thinketh so. Promoting someone else besides me, I dont thinketh so. Oh dear othello, I dont thinketh so. Due to his spite of me, I will lay-to ev'ryone and ev'rything against him to ruineth the entirety of his bootless life. Othello, I will geteth vengeance on thou. These w'rds I speaketh art spoken in bitt'r envy. I envy the mo'r and I intendeth on making him suff'r to the absolute fullest.

Cross Cutting and Split Scene Reflection

What is cross-cutting & split scene:
Cross cutting is a drama technique where two scenes are intercut to establish continuity within the performance. Also the term is used to describe two or more scenes which are being performed on stage at the same time.

This week we were asked to create a short performance using this technique. Our group created a scene about bullying where there was a part where the bullies were bullying a kid and the principal talking to the victim's parents. We created this by having one scene performing on one side of the stage with no volume just exaggerated movements and the other was more talking and descriptive about the issue going on.

Specifically in our performance there was the part where 2 bullies were attacking the victim because she brought in her mother to speak to the principal. So once the mother was talking to the principal the cross cutting began as we showed very hurtful movements in our actions to seem intimidating. One line that was spoken by one of the bullies were "You think you're cool bringing your mom to snitch" This was where the bully was judging the victim for being a cowardly snitch.

Our group was trying to communicate the importance of bullying awareness as it is a well know issue that plays a major role in safety in most of the schools around the world.

End of Unit Reflection

Criteria B: 6/8
Criteria D: 6/8

This unit in Drama we focused on Rio de Janeiro and its street life. We looked at the division and the lives of different citizens, how people from society were treated or respected upon who they were. We had chances to improve our skills to create realistic and believable characters throughout the unit. For the final piece we were divided into groups of 4, 5 or 6 and had to create a performance based on topics we studied. We could choose to do a performance that we might have already created and build upon that to improve it or make a completely new performance using what we learnt.

Our performance was a topic we went through class for 2-3 weeks. It was about a nephew of a very strict uncle that depended on the nephew for survival (money, food, water, etc) When the nephew came across an injured train surfer on his way back, he decided to help the train surfer with the last amount of money he had. Causing the nephew to arrive home late and with no money. The uncle then became very angry and had to show his temper through anticipation and build up suspense.

My group Abdul (Carlos-Nephew), Luca (Police), Sher (Uncle), Melissa (Good/Angel Conscience) and I (Bad/Devil Conscience) created our performance based on that idea. My character was Abdul's devilish conscience who always led him to be bad. Where Melissa always ended up making him do the right thing. I established my character through sounding very arrogant and acting confident. I constantly contradicted everything Melissa wanted me to say showing our differences and the contrast between our characters. In the beginning of the play it seemed like Abdul would listened to the wrong influence until the right one overpowered and everything worked out at the end. "Who cares if he's our uncle" is someone of the dialogues that were negative to show my character. This was when Sher just made up his mind to kick us out and I was angry towards him.

My group structured or performance with Abdul coming home late and his uncle Sher being very angry with him. As Abdul is talking to Sher, Luca is in another building which was cross-cutting with him doing stage business in the background to keep busy. As Sher scolds Abdul to his room seconds later Melissa realizes he needs to leave the house before 6 and Melissa and I argue about waking him up. Later on I make noise to try and wake up Sher and here we used slow-motion to show my anger towards Sher, as I dramatically tried to hit him with a block. Melissa said "Stoooooppp!" in slow-motion to also give it a realistic effect and then we were back into normal speed. I still wanted to wake Sher up so I made Abdul drop one of the block right next to Sher which woke him and the neighbours around as well (showing how close people in favelas live). Sher then wakes up and calls Luca in the police department reporting to have a "house intruder" Abdul gets scared and tries to escape as Melissa and I contradict wether he should escape or not. Then Luca comes and attempts to shoot Abdul where Sher, Abdul and Luca freeze and Melissa and I start to speak showing Abdul's conscience.  Abdul then gets taken away by Luca as Sher bribes him in the middle of the stage. Abdul then blurts out the truth and Luca decides to believe him and takes away Sher instead. As they're walking down the stairs they freeze to show a freeze frame/tableau as Abdul & Melissa look proud and me looking confused (next to the stage). Luca then comes on stage to comfort Abdul and everything works out great at the end.

We used 3 significant techniques in the performance. Slow motion and 2 freeze frames. I think the one that worked successfully was the slow motion. As explained in the paragraph above. We could have improved the last freeze frame an Luca was arresting Sher because it was a very important twist to the performance.

Overall I believe we did very well but to improve I could have improved my character to make it more over the top, but the whole idea for the unit was to create believable characters which I think is why I couldn't achieve a higher grade such as 7 or 8.

Carlos gets Kicked out of the House

This week we had to improvise a scene where a young boy, Carlos, (living with his uncle because his parents left him) helping out an injured train surfer on the street with the very last amount of money he had. Not realising how late he would get home, once Carlos enters the house his uncle flips out on him because Carlos is the one supporting himself and the uncle with money and food. The uncle doesn't really care about Carlos and all he wants is the money, and once Carlos can't supply him with that he gets really angry and kicks Carlos out of his home.

Our group performed the journey once Carlos was kicked out and wanted to take a train as far away as possible. In the start Melissa (Carlos) approached the ticket sales person (Me) and they looked confused. Melissa asked for a ticket for the train that was going to departure. As the sales person told her how much it costed an obnoxious business person (Laith) pushed Melissa out of the way. Laith got his ticket while the I was busy and Melissa snuck into the train. I then quickly changed roles and became another business person talking on the phone. Melissa took a seat next to me because there were no other places. Me in disgust moved my possessions away from her as the train's security (Tommy) walked by demanding tickets. Since Melissa snuck onto the train she began to panic and ran to the toilet of the train waiting for Tommy to leave. The train began to move and Laith went to the bathroom where Melissa was and pushed her out. Melissa then wanted to get away and took with her her emotions/conscience to the cargo part of the train. She began to talk with her conscience about what she would do next and how she would handle things. The train slowed down and Melissa wiped the tears off her face, took in a deep breath ready for the new world.