Julian Makarechi- Othello Journals

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.