5/22/2012 - Two months until closing night.

Hello everyone!  As many of you already know, this summer I am working on another Shakespeare production.  This time around I'll be playing the character of Michael Cassio in Othello, for a theatre company in Indianapolis.

I've never done a blog before, and I thought some of my theatre students might be interested in occasionally checking in on the day-to-day process that I'll be going through over the next two months as I tackle this role.  Throughout the two months, I'll write about my prep work, my struggles, probably some fears mixed in there along with some joys too.  I'll talk about my thoughts on how to handle the first day of rehearsal, tech rehearsals, and how to wrap up a run of a show.  Heck, who knows what will come up?  In the end, it might give you a little bit of insight into how one particular professional process works so that you can be better prepared when you do your own professional productions (or you work with me on a show at HWS!) 

I then realized that I have a lot of family and friends that have no real idea about what it is that I do as an actor.  Many of you have seen me in shows or heard that I've been doing shows, but I've never really taken the time to explain to you all that goes on in the process.  So, I thought I'd invite you all to view this too. 

So I figure day one, I should give a very brief synopsis of the play and how my role works within that play since I will be referring to the play an awful lot over the next two months!

In the play Othello, the character Othello is a General in the Venetian military.  As the play begins, Othello has just done two things:

1)  Othello, who is black, has just married Desdemona, who is white, without her father's permission.

2)  Othello, has promoted Cassio to second in command instead of the older, more experienced soldier named Iago.

These are four of the largest characters in the play... Othello, Iago, Desdemona and Cassio.  These four, along with Desdemona's attendent Emilia (who is also Iago's wife) make up over 82% of all the lines spoken in the show.  Iago and Othello alone make up 56% of all the lines in the show.  Those two roles are HUGE.  They are two of the five biggest roles that Shakespeare wrote and they are in the same play!  Who are the other three?  Maybe you've heard of them... HAMLET, RICHARD III and HENRY V.  Yes, Iago and Othello are that huge and we have two great actors playing those two roles. 

Enough with the stats... back to the synopsis...

Iago is livid that he wasn't given the promotion and vows revenge.  Over the course of the play Iago slowly works to destroy the lives of many of the other characters.  Iago gets Cassio demoted.  Iago then convinces Othello that Desdemona and Cassio are having an affair.  After a variety of twists and turns, Othello kills Desdemona out of jealousy and when he finds out it was a set-up crafted by Iago, Othello kills himself.  Iago is arrested and Cassio is placed in charge.

If you'd like a slightly more detailed synopsis you might try this link...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Othello

If you'd like to actually read the play for free online try this link...

http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/playmenu.php?WorkID=othello


Thanks for joining me on this wild ride.  Feel free to start discussions, ask questions, etc.  Now, I have to start memorizing some lines!


-Hatch-


6/24/2012 - Rehearsals begin in Indianapolis

7/20/2012 - Opening Night

7/22/2012 - Closing performance