Yo!
Another update for you lovely people
Me, myself kashmir leese was offered the position of associate artist to Bright Space based in The Custard Factory Birmingham. This offered me the opportunity to work on the production ” Verdi’s Othello” as an associate artist/choreographer of Bright Space. Working alongside Ron Howell (Choreographer) and Jen Irons (Assistant Choreographer) with the people dancing project.
I started working with Birmingham Opera Company at around the end of october this year. And so far I have learned loads going around to several different groups of dancers/none dancers, which includes my own group The Smash Bro’z, creating the ballet section of the opera and working alongside these two amazing people and I would advise people to come and watch this production as it will be a thing of beauty! lol Plus myself and The Smash Bro’z will be performing in the Opera.
The link is below that will take you to the flyer of the production and how to order tickets

http://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=e0884a94b5223f3dba20f0e84&id=901c282b7c&e=32890de90c

Peace and love
Kashmir aka Dancegeek

Lenny Henry, at the age of 51, has been named outstanding newcomer at the London Evening Standard Theatre Awards for his portrayal of Othello, currently playing at The Trafalgar Studios.

This recognition made me smile for several reasons. One, it was nice to read good news for a change. Two, it proves it’s never too late to take a side step in your career or even a complete change and do well. Three, forget the naysayers and your own doubts. Do it anyway and if it’s from the heart, it will all come right. I’m sure there were some who didn’t expect Henry to do well because it looked like another comedian/model/whatever trying to be taken seriously by ‘doing’ theatre. Others have said he’s not even that good at his day job, so expectations weren’t high. But to everyone’s surprise and his most of all, I suspect, he’s absolutely stormed it and now he’s had the official nod from the theatre world.

Well done that man.

Just learned about this cool Web site. I put in the full text of a final paper I wrote in a class I took on Shakespeare during undergrad. The paper focused on the villains Iago and Edmund in the plays Othello and King Lear, respectively. Cool Stuff.

Uta Hagen and Paul Robeson in "Othello."

I used to act in high school. Every year, I was given the same, tiny bit parts but I never seemed to understand why. I kept hearing “there are no small parts, only small actors,” from teachers attempting to cheer me up, but the roles never got better. Even as I watch movies I see that there’s a definite difference between me and, say, Daniel Day-Lewis or Kate Blanchett, but why? After seeing Stella Adler and Uta Hagen teaching their methods, I finally understand why. I was never trying. I was never feeling a role or giving my character a life that I believed in. I didn’t care about relatability or drawing on experiences, I was just regurgitating lines.

Adler and Hagen both employ similar but different methods of acting. Both rely on a level of imagination combined with drawing on personal experiences and memories, though that balance shifts. Adler is an empowering being–her voice and body are commanding and sometimes her acting seems a little over the top. But after hearing her critique and explain specific roles and scenes, you realize it’s more than just her being melodramatic. She’s drawing from something raw and real. She comments often about the soul and how it is an integral part of portraying any character. How art helps you remember what your soul is, and how without it, you cannot act to the best of your ability. This analogy is one that is truly visceral and the actors who understand it create a stage presenece that is intense, commanding, and relatable.

While Adler seems to emphasize intensity, Hagen is more about human nature and realism. She told actors to draw on what makes a character human–it doesn’t matter what time period the character is from or who they are, they have a life and a family just like everyone else, and they engage in activities in mannerisms that all people do. Being able to draw on those factors creates a way of performing that enraptures an audience. I was particularly interested in the “playing with small objects” method that she used in teaching–getting down to that very basic activity of trying to do something difficult (working with a very small object using your bare hands) not only takes you back into a very real place but also can induce emotion that you can draw upon when you feel lost.

Perhaps the message I got from today is a little sad–I realized the reasons why my acting skills never really seemed to cut it. But in another sense, I’ve become aware of what makes actors so relatable and powerful, and how these two women worked to make their (incredibly effective) methods known to the public.

-K

Sareem Brings the heat with his latest effort "Black and Read All Over"

Sharlock Poems, Sharlok Poems, Poems, Sareem Poems whatever you wanna call him (I prefer Sharlok Poems), the guy can rhyme. The former L.A Symphony member has become a solid solo artist, releasing three albums in the past (The Movement, Left and the most recent Blooming Sounds). This time around the emcee goes by the name of Sareem Poems and has teamed with Scribbling Idiots member Theory Hazit and Oddisee to handle the production on the album. What do you get when combine these in one album?

Now as most of you know guests are really big for me when picking up an album (no it’s not the only thing). Looking at the tracklisting you see there are guests from everywhere and some that we haven’t heard from in a while. LMNO (from the Visionaries) Scarub (Living Legends) Pigeon John (L.A Symphony) and many others assist Sharlok with the lyrics on this record.

From the start of the album your ears a blessed with the intro track “Enter” which sets the tone for the entire album, it’s bangin’. The introduction to the track is followed by the track “Come Get It” which features one of the producers of the album Theory Hazit. It’s a track that pretty much says we’re two of the best emcees around and you’re crew is garbage. It’s sets the tone for this album very well and should get the listener psyched to hear the rest of the album.

“Hard Labor” continues the trend of banging tracks with features by LMNO and Scarub. The production on the track can only make you move your head up and down; I personally replay this track over and over while I’m jogging because it gets me pumped. Each emcee covers a different topic but I think the overall topic of the song is life is hard work, but we must push on regardless.

Like I said earlier the big difference between Sharlok’s last album Blooming Sounds and this one is the guests on the tracks. Most Christian Hip Hop tracks have the serious vibe to it, but if you need an emcee to spice up your tracks you call Pigeon John and he’ll give you a verse and background vocals you’ll never forget and that’s exactly what “Lower the Boom” is. A song that you play at parties to get the people to the dance floor, this song is energetic and you get a guest verse Akil from Jurassic 5.

“Shake It Up” is another track where Theory destroys the beat and Sharlok kills the rhymes. One gripe I kind of had with the album is that hooks aren’t really that creative, which I suppose isn’t that big of a deal, but I wasn’t feeling most of them. I think Sharlok kind of mixes up verse topics on this one which has him hitting you with numerous messages in one song.

One of my favorite songs on this record is “Impossible” for numerous reasons, first it features Stro the 89^th Key who we haven’t seen or heard from in a while, second we get another gest appearance from Othello from Lightheaded and last the topic of the song is amazing. It’s pretty much that nothing is impossible in life even though life can get rough and we might feel like we’re going to quit. Othello’s verse I think stands out the most on this.

“I can’t. Won’t stop nah. Push it forward, gotta crawl.

If I can’t stand tall, I’m a still make it all,

the way to where I gotta be.”

Now Theory Hazit handled most of the production on this album, but Oddisee of Diamond District handled the production on two tracks. “Tell It” and another favorite of mine “She’s So So”. I think everyone can relate to this song, basically it’s the whole boy meets girl, is too nervous to talk to girl, contemplates talking to her and then finally does realizes she was feeling him too. This is one of those tracks that just flow and have a nice vibe to them.

While I have only listened to 2 of Sharlok’s albums, Black and Read All Over improves on what Blooming Sounds sort of lacked. The production is superb on all levels, Theory Hazit and Oddisee did work on this one and it shows. Every guest on this album from Propaganda to Othello, from Georgia Anne Muldrow to Ragen Fykes all of them brought the heat on their performance. And to top it off Sharlok complimented the beats to perfection, with the exception of a few tracks where Sharlok seems to get lost in the beat (in other words the beat overpowered the lyrics if that makes any sense).

Sharlok is honestly on a roll right now with this release and with him and Dust releasing an album sometime before the world explodes it should be a great year for the former L.A Symphony member. A couple words of advice to the reader first go check out Sharlok and Dust’s myspace page for a music video a four tracks that duo has done together (trust me they’re all awesome). Second if you have not picked up the album yet; wait until the deluxe edition comes out on December 1^st because you get the album that I just reviewed here, the instrumentals to the entire album and some remixes. I know I will asking for the Deluxe Edition for my birthday. So pick it up!!!!!

Good

Beats are banging

Guests!!! (LMNO, Ohmega Watts, Othello, Stro, Ragen Fykes, Theory Hazit, Propaganda, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Pigeon John and more)

Sharlok brings the rhymes to compliment the beats

Bad

The beats sometimes overpower Sharlok’s lyrics causing the lyrics to be overlooked.

Rating: 4.5/5 (Get this Album Or You’re Missing Out)

If You Can’t Buy The Album Download These Songs

1. Hard Labor feat. LMNO and Scarub

2. Unless You Do

3. She So So

4. Impossible feat. Stro and Othello

5. Shake it Up

In other words, BEST. THING. EVER.

(By-the-by, did you know that Walken was in the original cast of The Lion in Winter? I just found that out recently. I mention this because it is the next in line for Richmond Shakespeare’s staged reading series, and I am stage managing it. To totally do a little self-promotion there. More on that later. The reading, not the self-promotion. Okay, probably the self-promotion.)

All know
Most accept
Few condemn
You reject

“But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws to peck at. I am not what I am” (Shakespeare).

Birmingham Opera Company is looking for volunteer actors for their next production.
If you’re aged between 16 and 25 and you’re interested in acting then you can get involved in their next production of Othello, which is coming to Digbeth next month.
There are no audition processes, simply join in the rehearsals which are taking place now.
If you think you would be interested then contact Liz Vass on 0121 246 6634 or 07793 257537.

For more information on the Birmingham Opera Company, visit their website here.

In our Internet Education class last week, our class had a “talk” with Mrs. Connie Veneracion, or simply Tita Connie. Tita Connie has a wide experience when it comes to blogging. She started blogging since 2003, and currently blogging in her House on a Hill (which can be found on my Friends list on the right).

I remembered the term she used. It was independent blogging. If you are an independent blogger, you can write anything you want. You can write your opinions and feeling about anything you want. With the independent blogging, you get to write at your own will, and at the same time…writing things without a boss around. It’s just you, your notebook and your mind. It’s how free an independent blogger could have.

I was able to remember this because of one thing. Riana and I were assigned to make an article in our club (which is called Yggdrasil…). The subject had to be related to “jealousy”. And because of this, we can relate Shakespeare’s Othello with this article.

Well, as we all know, the most wonderful villain Shakespeare has done is in the story of Othello. Iago, the great villain can manipulate all of the characters in the play. With his mind trickery and reverse psychology, he can set up anything in order to get what he wants. Plain villain, I can say. But at the way he sets something? It is truly unbelievable. I’m sure writers of this generation are inspired with Shakespeare’s masterpieces.

Well…let’s get back to the story. It’s jealousy. Well, our club moderator suggests putting it in our blog site and giving the link to him. Well…he can check the blog entry anytime and could go for proofreading. Well, I understand that. But I just remembered Tita Connie’s concept of independent blogging. So what is bothering me?

A lot of things are bothering my mind when it comes to this one. I was able to create the article, but it didn’t pass my standards. You heard it right. To me, it was a hideous article. Currently it’s in my “drafts” folder, and I have no plans on publishing it online. So in this case, I would delete the hideous article. After all, Riana’s blog entry was WAY BETTER than mine. I can’t believe she can make that article. I can’t get any inspiration when it comes to writing about jealousy. Therefore I didn’t resume the plan on publishing it online. But that’s not all.

My site is a free blog site. I would mean it as a blog site full of independent blog posts. Blog posts that are mine, and truly written with love and inspiration. Yup, it can get as cheesy as that. But even if I reach the very cheesy level, I would still want my blog site to be an independent blog site. I won’t be posting something which was assigned by someone. Well, I could work with that. I cannot work when I don’t have any inspiration for it. I blog when something inspires me.  Since it’s all about jealousy, I can relate to that. But it’s not enough for me to write a very long article for that. I don’t know. I’ll just make up for it. I’ll just help Riana in her blog entry.

Now that I’ve said it all, I can feel that I exerted a lot of pressure expressing my thoughts on independent blogging. Thanks to Tita Connie, I’ve got the power to broaden my thoughts…especially when it comes to blogging it.

SO, the eponymous and much delayed painting on a 55cm square canvas has begun!!

The background is a deep red colour – as if a storm has just finished and dusk has arrived a little too early.  I kind of make it up as I go along – there is no brilliantly defined method; no photo to copy; no deep theory – just a slightly blurry vision in my head.

A bit like interpretive dance, I believe.  You don’t know what on earth they are doing or trying to portray – but the dancers have obviously put a lot of effort and practice into the choreography; so you grudgingly go along with it.  Personally, I’ve never been that into ballet (despite doing it as a child) – the very tight tights on the men have always put me off – I mean seriously, where do you look?  That reminds me of other embarrassing theatre productions – has anyone see the Othello production set in a US-army base on Cyprus?  They get naked and shower on STAGE!!!

But worse was to come – at least during the shower, the lighting was reduced – but afterwards Othello, Iago and some others just stood at the front of the stage in their boxers.  Now if you are in the front row, one must needs look up…

yes. terrible.

what people will do for money…

The Forc’d Marriage, Or The Jealous Bridegroom. A Tragi-Comedy by Aphra Behn.

This, Behn’s first play, is believed to have premiered on Tuesday, September 20, 1671, though it was not entered in the Term Catalogues until February 1671.  While it is an original work, scholars have found echoes of earlier works in it, including Shakepeare’s Othello (1604), Beaumont and Fletcher’s The Maid’s Tragedy (1619), and Sir William Berkeley’s The Lost Lady A Tragy Comedy (1638).

Like most plays of the Restoration period, The Forc’d Marriage contains a tedious plot with countless pairs of mismatched lovers: for example, Prince Phillander loves Erminia, but she ends up married, though only temporarily, to Alcippus; Phillander’s sister, Galatea, loves Alcippus and is, therefore, deeply angered by his marriage to Erminia; Alcander loves Aminta, but she resists his advances for almost the entire play because he is too much of a ladies’ man.

From the preface through to the epilogue, the play posits the trope of love as war, in which men and women vie for power of political proportions over one another’s hearts.  In this way, the play also fits squarely within the broader landscape of Restoration discourses in which the political was iterated in sexual terms and vice versa.

Behn identified The Forc’d Marriage as “A Tragi-Comedy,” but I found, at least in reading, that the play’s tragic components overpower the comic ones. I suspect I would feel differently if I saw it staged.  As is common with this hybrid genre, comic relief is withheld until later in the play, aside from the brief lovers’ banter of Aminta and Alcander and the few scenes with minor characters, Falatius and La Bree.  The play contains several ‘tragedies’: the central ones being paternal tyranny and unrequited love, which plague the lives of Phillander, his betrothed Erminia, and his sister Galatea.  These unfortunate circumstances lead up to an even greater tragedy, the (attempted) murder of Erminia by her husband Alcippus, who, in Othellian fashion, becomes so overwhelmed with sexual jealousy (he knows of the love between Erminia and Phillander) that “He strangles her with a Garter, which he snatches from his Leg, or smothers her with a Pillow.”  Like Othello, he also believes himself to be acting “honourably,” sparing the rest of mankind from what he perceives as Erminia’s sexual infidelity.

True comic action finally occurs in act 4 scene 8 when Erminia, whom all including the audience believe dead, appears veiled as a ghost.  (This scenario, in which a female character resurrects herself, is not an uncommon plot device in drama; it happens in Shakespeare (The Winter’s Tale, for example) and it occurs in other plays of the Restoration period.)  Erminia’s near death experience affords her the opportunity to turn actress and playwright and carry out a plot to teach Alcippus a lesson and secure herself a life with her true love Phillander.  She appears in apparition-form to the other characters in the play and discreetly reveals that she is, in fact, alive, and enlists them as actors in her ‘play’.

This was my first time reading The Forc’d Marriage, and I must admit I was not expecting Erminia to survive Phillander’s choking/suffocating, but then again if she hadn’t, the play would not be a tragi-comedy.  In fact, I found myself particularly frustrated when reading, almost hoping for Behn’s play to be more feminist than it could feasibly have been in 1671.  Her now iconic status as ‘the first woman writer to live by her pen,’ as Virginia Woolf boasts in A Room of One’s Own, does indeed speak to the historic and progressive nature of Behn’s achievements, but her plays themselves do not depict what readers today would consider overtly feminist characters, only women whose recourse to dramatic arts (dissembling, acting, directing, plotting) affords them a certain access to ‘power’.  And, in fact, this recurring metadramatic element as it relates to female characters is of particular interest to me, not only in Behn’s plays but also those of her contemporaries, such as Thomas Otway: when female characters in plays use drama to wield power, achieve desired results, etc, are we to see this as (proto)feminist or anti-feminist? Both?

I’ve studied more than sufficient for Maths P2 Tomorrow, I’m sure that I’ll do fine.

English is on my priority list now since the Paper 2 (Literature) exam takes place on Thursday.

I’ve been looking through online-reviews and analyzes and have decided to compile a list of resources that will be useful for Poetry, Gatsby and Othello.

Poetry Resources: All Poems are Listed

• Sonnet 104 – Analysis
• Ozymandias – Analysis
• An Irish airman foresees his death – Analysis | Essay
• Preludes – Analysis
• Mushrooms – Review Analysis | Analysis
• Walking Away- Analysis | Essay
• Refugee Mother and Child – Analysis | Essay
• Sunstrike – Analysis
• Decomposition – Analysis | Q&A
• You Cannot Know The Fears I Have – Analysis
• City Johannesburg  – Analysis | Essay
• Love Poem for My Country – Analysis
• To Autumn – Analysis
• I Thank You God for This Most Amazing – Analysis | Review Analysis
• If You Don’t Stay Bitter for Too Long – Analysis

Gatsby

The Great Gatsby Resources

• Wikipedia Article – Quick Read.
• Analysis by Frederick C Millet – Detailed.
• Literary Department of Homework Online – Comprehensive.

Othello

Othello Resources

• Wikipedia Article – Quick Read.
• Absolute Shakespeare.com – EXTREMELY Detailed and Comprehensive!
  
• Othello Overview and Analysis – Quite Good Too.

Although this list is compiled from a limited number of sources, I think they’ll be very helpful if you do not already have notes and study guides. The Wikipedia articles are very good for night before reading.

Good luck Matrics of 2009!

Love,
Allen

All I have to say is that, as someone who dabbles on the electric violin a bit, I would really, really like to go see this.

It’s at Virginia Tech. Anyone want to go on a field trip? Let me know.

When I was a little girl, my sister and I used to build forts in our basement. Blankets and books became our bricks and mortar. My parents kept many books on the shelves, the topics as numerous as the books.

Even in my illiterate days, these books captivated me. I could barely pick up the book with the burgundy and tapestry cover. It’s cryptic cover enchanted me. Awestruck, I waited for the day when I would be big enough to open the book and flip through the flimsy pages.

Time passed. I grew older. I recognized what the letters said. “The Riverside Shakespeare”–one of my mom’s college textbooks. I could hold the book now, but still didn’t dare open it. Shakespeare was a name to be revered.

In fifth grade, my family visited England. Two days after my eleventh birthday we left the States and flew to London. One side trip was to Stratford-Upon-Avon, where we visited Shakespeare’s house. Well, we got there a half hour prior to closing, and rushed through the place before stopping at the gift shop. There, I got my first real taste of his words. My family bought an illustrated collection of his twelve best-known works, with summaries, character descriptions and excerpts from the plays. For years, I poured over this text, learning the characters and stories of Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, and Julius Caesar.

My first taste of the Bard’s words as they rolled over my tongue was a little over a year later. We read a scene from Julius Caesar in my history class while studying Rome. My teacher assigned me to read the role of Brutus. I stayed up late the night before the scene “performance” going over my lines, testing them for the right sounds. There is magic in these words.

Shakespeare performed became a reality for me a year later, when I saw Romeo & Juliet performed. Though I now don’t care for the play much beyond Act III (Mercutio and Tybalt are my favorite characters), the production was outstanding. I loved every minute, and my introduction opened up worlds. Alas, the following week I sat through an awful production of Two Gentlemen of Verona, but it was the atrocious acting that scarred me, not the words.

It wasn’t until high school that I realized how much I worshipped the man’s words. While reading Mercutio’s Queen Mab speech from Romeo & Juliet out loud, I fell in love with the words. I continued to read his plays on my own, listening to actors play the roles.

The summer before my senior year, I participated in an acting camp based solely on Shakespeare. We performed snippets from Romeo & Juliet and Macbeth. I played Tybalt (we only had two guys in our cast). Though I didn’t have much to say, I had so much fun! I learned stage fighting and had a spectacular death.

My love for Shakespeare grows every year, with every play I read. Next up is Othello, I think.

The power of language, identity, alienation, and jealousy are among the central themes of this play. Desdemona apparently falls in love with Othello because of what he says to her about himself and, presumably, what she hears about him from others (“But words are words; I never yet did hear/ That the bruised heart was pierced through the ear”). Iago manipulates Othello and other characters with his words. The full title, “Othello, The Moor of Venice”, points to the significance of identity and alienation. Othello is identified, not only as the title character but also by two distinctive characteristics – his race and the location, the physical place, with which he identifies.

As far as alienation goes, we can hardly ignore that Othello is referred to as “the Moor” long before his name is mentioned and even before he appears on stage.

It’s also notable that the question of identity is posed. Othello’s identity is not clear cut. Most of the time, in answer to the question,  ”who are you?”, the answer is a negative. Othello is not a Venetian, by birth but he is a military general and a chief defender of the city. Although he also shares a common religion with the people of Venice, (he is a Christian), he is still isolated from other Christians culturally, as a convert and a foreigner.

Othello’s alienation in Cyprus, a location that places him physically further from Europe, in a place that is a military outpost, defined by war rather than peace and civilization. He gives way to jealousy – a trait that was, in the 16th century, associated with ‘Moors’ according to a number of sources used by Shakespeare – when he becomes physically, emotionally, and psychologically isolated from Europe and the order of European society.

On November 1:

1512 The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, was exhibited to the public for the first time

The Congress of Vienna by Jean-Baptiste Isabey,

1848 The first medical school for women, The Boston Female Medical School (which later merged with the Boston University School of Medicine), opened.

1876  New Zealand’s provincial government system was dissolved.

1887 – L. S. Lowry, British painter of industrial scenes, was born.

1896 A picture showing the bare breasts of a woman appears in National Geographic magazine for the first time.

1898 The New Zealand parliament passed the Old-Age Pensions Act.

1911 The first dropping of a bomb from an airplane in combat, during the Italo-Turkish War.

1918  Western Ukraine gained its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

1938 Seabiscuit defeated War Admiral in an upset victory during a match race deemed “the match of the century” in horse racing.

Seabiscuit statue, Santa Anita Park

1939 The first rabbit born after artificial insemination was exhibited to the world.

1981  Antigua and Barbuda gain independence from the United Kingdom.

1993  The Maastricht Treaty takes effect, formally establishing the European Union.

 The signing of the Treaty

Sourced from NZ History Online and Wikipedia.

Ira Aldridge as Othello, c. 1830, Oil on canvas by Henry Perronet Briggs. Photo from Flickr: cliff1066™

They say the line between genius and insanity is a thin one, and for Jude Akuwudike’s Othello it is nearly transparent.

Othello first presents himself to us as a strong and powerful General, adored by his men, by the Duke, and by the apparently bewitching Desdemona. In fact, the only people who don’t like him are Desdemona’s rather racist father, and of course Iago – the treacherous swine that he is.

It takes only a glib remark from this latter villain to set Othello on the path to madness, and at times Akuwudike’s performance is so over the top that you can’t wait for him to kill himself (it’s Shakespeare, everyone dies).

Akuwudike flops about the stage, trips over his lines, and hollers constantly, seemingly unable to alter the way he performs his lines. Not everything need be said with such passion, and those passages which do require an excess of emotion are that much more enjoyable when sandwiched between subtlety and calm.

A slower tempo also gives the actor time to think about what he’s going to say next.

Which isn’t to say he was terrible. At times his great booming voice filled the theatre and his anger was enough to make the audience tremble, but he acted without any sympathy for the character, the emotions were all too extreme, and we found ourselves sympathising more with that rat, Iago.

Funny, mischievous, cruel, intelligent: Iago was everything we wanted in a villain, and Andrew Clark played him brilliantly. Swinging between the refined military man and the swaggering criminal mastermind, Clark was the best thing about the show and played the character with enough charm that we forget that his motive is the rather benign “being passed over for promotion”.

I’d recommend people go and see it, but I’d wait until they’ve had a few more trial runs.

Saturday night I had the pleasure of attending Joffrey Ballet’s presentation of Othello, which is in fact not based on the Shakespeare play but adapted from the 1566 story by Giraldo Cintio. I say this because if you go into the ballet thinking you are seeing Shakespeare’s adaption you will be confused throughout the performance.

Othello is presented in three acts and is expertly accompanied by the Chicago Sinfonietta.

The first act comprises three scenes: Desdemona and Othello getting married in a cathedral in Venice; Cassio giving a tribute to the new couple in the Great Hall (and Othello giving Desdemona a magic handkerchief); and Iago venting his fury because Othello promoted Cassio and not him.

The show-stealer in the first act is Cassio played by Aaron Rogers. He is going to blow you away with his energy, precision and grace. Classical ballet is all about fighting gravity to appear weightless and airy. Rogers seemed to always be airborne, only grazing his toe shoes lightly against the stage before leaping into yet another joyful, fast-paced jump. His arms fluttered about him and he kept his back so straight that it seemed he was being suspended by string, like a puppet.

By scene three you are ready to experience the rage that Iago, played by Matthew Adamczyk, has bubbling inside of him. His synthesis of modern dance and ballet  is violent and angry, a perfect contrast to the nicey-nice dancing between Othello and Desdemona in earlier scenes. Adamczyk starts out with choppy, robotic moves that act as an aside. As the tempo picked up, it was clear Iago is at war with himself: He tossed his body to the ground; he pounded his fists; every limb was hyper-extended to the point where it looked disconnected from his body.

It was painful to watch.

When his wife Emilia, played by Valerie Robin, joins him, try not to blink. She unsuccessfully tries to console him and he responds with violent fury executed beautifully.

The second act opened with a desperate, haunting dance with the women of Cyprus waiting for their husbands to return home from war. The homecoming dance between Desdemona and Othello is pretty, but forgettable. In contrast to Iago and Cassio, Othello, played by Fabrice Calmels, is a head-and-shoulders taller, much brawnier and never seems to be able to shake the clumsiness that comes along with his size. He is apeish, always rounding his shoulders and slouching, as if the weight of Desdemona’s death was already bearing down on him, even before he killed her.

Something odd happened during Othello’s angry solo dance, however, that changed my mind about his performance. The Chicago Sinfonietta whipped out horns and blew jazzy tunes over the usual classic repertoire. All of a sudden, Othello’s clumsiness felt more like a man dancing the blues and it made sense.

Act three is by far the best. In Othello’s chamber Iago describes the details of Desdemona and Cassio’s affair to Othello. As Iago is recounting the stories you can see how Othello pictures the affair: behind the two men, upstage right, stand Cassio and Desdemona, acting out the infidelities. They look dream-like and are cast with thick, projected fog and soft lighting. Of course, as Othello thinks about his wife cheating, he becomes enraged.

In Desdemona’s bed chamber, Othello tosses out Emilia to be alone with Desdemona. Surprisingly, a very loving dance between the two follows, with only several moves alluding to Othello’s anger. When the music picked up pace and low notes floated through the auditorium, Othello threw Desdemona to the ground and chokes her with the handkercheif. Othello’s hands visibly tremble as he pulls the handkercheif tighter and tighter around her throat until at last her body shudders.

Othello offers something for everyone and keeps you on the edge of your seat. You will be so entertained, enraged, joyful and absorbed that each scene will go by quickly and leave you wanting more. And more. And more.

Dev xx

Othello?!” reprezintă o adaptare scenica a lui Andriy Zholdak după tragedia “Othello sau Maurul din Veneţia”, de William Shakespeare. Încă din primele minute din spectacol ai impresia că ai intrat în altă lume, că nu mai şti ce se întâmplă, te trezeşti brusc la realitate de fiecare data când ai tendinţa să cazi în visare: zgomotul, muzica, ureletele, agitaţia, mişcările, decorul, tot este parcă desprins de lumea noastră. Totul pare ciudat, straniu, o atmosferă ostilă, apăsătoare, simţi parcă moartea cum bântuie în aer, ba chiar o vizualizezi cum se joacă cu destinele oamenilor, realizându-şi propriul timp şi spaţiu, prin numeroasele momente de stop cadru. Multitudinea de simboluri ce umple acest spectacol face din el aş putea spune o demonstraţie de teatru-simbol, un alt gen parcă. Mulgerea vacii, laptele din abundenţă, culoarea roşie sângerie, cioara, făina, portocalele, chibritele uriaşe, uşile, oglinzile, farfuriile, ceasurile, toate duc spre infinite interpretări şi rezoluţii. Poate nu înţelegem întru totul ce a vrut Zholdak să ne spună  dar rămânem cu imagini inedite după un asemenea spectacol, dar şi cu sentimentul de dezordine sufletească pentru că e imposibil să nu te marcheze. Un lucru ce trebuie menţionat este prezenţa acestor simboluri pe afişul spectacolului în prealabil, fapt ce face mai evidentă tendinţa regizorului de a integra totul în simbolistică, în mister, într-o oarecare călătorie spre necunoscut, spre fantastic.

Spectacolul face parte din repertoriul Teatrului National Radu Stanca, acest articol vine cu intarziere, dar mai bine acum decat niciodata, din pacate nu stiu daca vom mai avea ocazia sa vedem acest spectacol. Asta e ramanem cu amintirea.

Date: 2009
Posted by: AMPPP-lifier
Cast: Patrick Han, Pearlyn Lii, Melissa Ma, Peter Yang, and Andrew Yeh
Credits: Not given
Duration: 0.59

Not much information is given on this schools project billed as being “Othello Trailer for Cordero’s Sophomore English Honors Class. Period 4″. Just before he is executed, Iago looks back on his life in flashbacks, to the accompaniment of melodramatic music. There is no dialogue, only messages on computer screens and print-outs and the four players shown at crisis point, before the video ends with the execution. As a burst of creative energy, it is not at all unimpressive.

Links:
Vimeo page

LOW DOWN

Having recently seen a wide variety of Shakespeare, I will start by saying that this piece simply does not compare to any Shakespeare adaptation I have seen before. Every box is well and truly ticked: the performance is incredible, the production sublime, the direction simple yet evocative, the staging haunting… This is a nigh-on faultless Fringe production. Impossible as it may sound, this is a flawless piece of theatre, and deserves the highest accolades for everyone involved. You must see this show: there is no other way to put it. If you don’t, you are missing out on one of the finest pieces of theatre at the Fringe.

REVIEW

The piece, roughly speaking, is the story of Shakespeare’s Othello: a Moor who marries a beautiful woman, Desdemona. The machinations of the villainous Iago inspire such jealousy and rage in the Moor that he murders his wife, and the play ends with Iago discovered and imprisioned, Othello having killed himself. This is all told, seemingly as a flashback, by Iago in his jail cell, as he embodies the various characters and retells the story.

This simple premise gives room for the sheer brilliance of this production. A huge amount of credit is due to Martin Aukland for his incredible performance. His embodiement of Iago, Othello, Cassio and various smaller parts is energetic and invigorating, leaping from toe to toe as he also manages to create believable interactions between these, as well as performing them all with exceptional verve. The skill with which Aukland creates character is extremely exciting to behold: he seems to start with a pastiche of the character’s flaws and faults, which slowly melt away as the story continues, drawing the audience into each figure’s plight. Beyond that, his portrayals of more than one character in any given scene are, somehow, frighteningly believable, and his movements between them are never forced or awkward. This is one-man performance at its best.

From a production perspective, this is also given a simple context: Iago is trying to deduce why he did it. It is famously hard to find a solid motive for Iago’s betrayal of Othello, and in this production, he is clearly trying to find his own reasoning, replaying the events to find what possessed him. This makes perfect sense in this context, as each major monologue returns us to the condemned man’s jail cell, as he seemingly tries to reason why he did what he did. This is done beautifully with elegant light and sound effects. The lighting is muted and indicative, never invasive, while the soundscape is a thing of beauty: reminding one of a psychological thriller, sharp sound effects are used to heighten tension, while effects draw us from memory to cell with ease.

This is combined with the one heavily symbolic element of the piece: the floor. The whole production is performed on a pristine white cloth, a famous indicator of Othello and Desdemona’s bed, used in so many productions as a sign of chastity and Desdemona’s true nature, beyond Iago’s lies. As Aukland prances across the stage, invoking one character after another, the cloth becomes twisted and furled, an indicator of how he has ruined Desdemona in the eyes of the Moor: a simply sublime effect.

This is an incredible experience. Beyond the perfection of all of the above stated, there is also the fact that Aukland’s portrayal of Iago and Othello is, ignoring of all of the constructs of the piece, one of the best this author had ever seen. Othello’s speech when murdering Desdemona was excpetionally well delivered, as was ever single one of Iago’s difficult monologues. The conversations between Iago and Othello were moments of wonder: not only did both characters exist on stage, but the lines were delivered almost perfectly; an amazing acheivement. This is unmissable, a totally realised piece of theatre, and a true delight for any theatre-goer.