Plesser as Othello

God, I have so many things I want to blog about but am incredibly behind on. One of those things was talking about the acting in Othello. I keep writing a draft of this entry which LJ refuses to autosave (grawr) so I will get through at least a bit, post it, and finish the rest as I can.

The first person whose acting I wanted to commend is of course the title character, the excellent Jonathan Plesser as Othello. I would like to take a moment to recap Plesser's history on the stage for Hold Thy Peace. Brought in at the last moment to take the role of Albany in King Lear, he was to be commended for cramming his lines in the wings at tech week and doing a serviceable job getting thrown into the deep end. He was then cast as Lysander in Midsummer, a role that was good for him but I confess at the time did not do much to grab my notice; I remember thinking he was just okay, maybe even a little flat. But when he became Friar Lawrence in Midsummer, that's when I sat up and took notice. His performance was actually quite good, showing leaps and bounds of improvement in expression and believability. That's what really got me interested in him as as actor, and cued me into his potential to grow. It pushed me to ask him if we would audition for To Think of Nothing, which to my honor he did. Once there, he showed an amazing depth of understanding and insight into his character, and in fact got me to see one of his pieces of the show in a totally different way, which we ended up going with and vastly improved the text. His excellent subsequent performances as Caesar and Polixenes served to solidify how he was growing in skill with every show.

Which brings up now to Othello, his most challenging role to date and a very desirable part in terms of opportunities for an actor to show his emotional range. The part is particularly demanding in that the play really doesn't work if the Othello does not inspire sympathy in the audience, because then they just dismiss him as a monster and the show's tragic weight is lost. Plesser portrayed Othello as a brave, exceptionally talented man and soldier who has had to fight for every ounce of respect and esteem he's ever received. It made it understandable why he would be so succeptible to anything that suggests that he cannot count upon actually being loved for his own sake, that his position is constantly assailed by all manner of affronts to his self-worth. I loved his choice to play Othello as wracked with sorrow as opposed to suffused with rage, which made him worlds more understandable to me. He related well to the other characters, showing real tenderness toward Caitlin as Desdemona, and fantastic chemistry with Lenny in following the path Iago was leading him down. His progression from finally feeling satisfied with his place in the world into wounded suspicious fury worked well, and I especially liked how he spent the final scene sobbing more than raging. In combination with his insecurity, it made me really believe he was dying inside from the thought of destroying what he most loved, but felt that the only way to maintain his fragile self-respect was to see that justice was done. In addition to the huge emotional weight he carried, I also like the small details of his performance, such as the way he even endeavored to push his own limits by creating a different physicality unlike anything that came naturally to him, which I certainly commend. There was also the cool little idea he had about Othello missing the final kiss he tries to give Desdemona before he dies. All these things together show how deeply he got into the character, and how hard he worked to bring him to life.

I shall move on to going over the others' performances as well, but for now, I just want to say how amazing it's been to see Plesser go from neophyte still finding his stage presence to the new leading man of Hold Thy Peace. Well done, sir.

Set for Othello

I really liked the set design. It is a spin on the oft-used lego-block platform configuration of several HTP sets, with some major alterations that made it actually look very different. First of all, the platforms are not fronted, instead painted with dark wood stain to make them look more like real structures. The open air beneath them gives them a very different look, as does the stain. I also approve of not having to deal with fronting, or having to use the router to cut the fronting to size.

I have experience with wood stain, so I got to lead the crew on that particular task. It really isn’t hard, just paint it on in the direction of the grain and wipe off the excess, so once you know that it’s easy. We didn’t bother with multiple coats because it doesn’t have to be perfect for the stage, besides the fact that it had to be dry enough to rehearse on by the next day. I’ve always loved the look of stained wood (so much more elegant and expensive-looking than when painted) and it ended up quite lovely. To steampunk it up, we bought metal corner pieces that we screwed onto the front edges of all the platforms.

Also to that end were the streetlamps. These were especially cool given all the various theatrical departments contributed to them—lighting, props, and set crew. They found these great lantern tops which were placed on top of PVC piping spray painted black on the poles and bronze at the joints, with a cord running down through them that when plugged in actually made it possible to turn them off and on. They looked really lovely burning softly up there, and I am pleased to say that they will be saved in the Hold Thy Peace storage locker for possible use in another show.

The crew working on the show this time around was fabulous, both the dedicated techies and the actors doubling as set builders. Plesser in particular must be commended for his work as master carpenter, especially since he gave his all at that and then turned around and threw himself into four amazing performances as Othello. He is shaping up well in the position and is learning to be a real crew leader, so props to him. As a matter of fact, we had a remarkably competent group of people around, most of whom had developed some technical theater skill in building, working with lights, or anything else that needed to be done. It was a lucky thing, too, as some of the materials we used ended up using turned out to be harder to work with than what we were used to, such as the four-by-four legs that were so dense they required a lot more strength and finessing than the two-by-fours to attach to the platforms.

The only real criticism of it is the use of the moving bits. This is the first dynamic set we've had since Hamlet, which consisted of metal painters scaffolds that rolled around. They were reconfigured in various positions to represent different places in and around the castle of Elsinore. In Othello, there was a freestanding platform that represented the bed, among other things, a bridge in the middle that pushed in and out of the stage right platform cluster, and a low roller that came out of the front of that side. While the bed mover worked pretty well, I feel like the other two didn't do a huge amount to change the shape of the set. The front mover in particular didn't much affect anything. But I like the idea of dynamic sets, so I think we need to work this into the design with more mind as to how it will be used in the blocking and what change it will make to the look of the set.

Turned out not half-bad, now, didn’t it?

So I feel like a real stride forward has been made in HTP set design and construction. Hopefully what was learned here will be used to push the envelope even farther for the next show.

Scheduling madness

My schedule is about to be loaded up again soon. The next three nights will be full of pleasant social, and then I've got one more light week before I get slammed with all sorts of fun but demanding events.

During the day on Saturday I'm in a last-minute larp, a run of Two Hours in London for all the people who've been wanting to play but haven't yet. I have a costuming hint but no character, but I'm not terribly troubled. My costume is not going to be amazing since I don't really have many pieces in the Victorian way. When I have cash that is something I would be interested in rectifying, but for now I can throw something together. blendedchaitea* has very graciously offered to lend me her black tiered skirt, and I have a bodice or two I can wear over a blouse for something that looks vaguely appropriate.

After next week is Othello tech week which I have promised to help out with. I actually really enjoy tech weeks, despite how much work and time they require, because I love the process of everyone working together to put together a piece of theater. It's also a rare occasion which I get to build things with tools and learn more physical skills. I imagine it will be helpful to have an extra pair of hands who doesn't have to worry about being ready to go onstage as well. I'm so excited for the set for this show, which is going to look and work differently from anything HTP has ever done before. The costuming and makeup, too, I expect to be phenomenal, so I can't wait to get a look at it.

The week after that is prep for Festival, which will happen the following weekend. I'm so excited to see how the first con I've ever chaired comes out. Things are looking good, except for one or two games I am still exhorting people to fill. I have done a significant chunk of the printing for The Stand, but most of the packing will have to get done that week. We still must figure out what game will be running in what space, but that won't be too hard once we have all the data we need.

After that comes tech week (after a fashion) for Magic at Midsummer, followed by the performance. I cannot tell you how amused I am to have a calendar item that says "undress rehearsal." ;-) One thing I've been really looking forward to is getting to rehearse with the full cast. Thus far we've only each done our own pieces, more or less at the right times in the song, but I really want to see what the whole thing looks like all put together. It'll be easier to learn cues that way too.

And that is my next month or so. Yowza. It strikes me that I would like to have a party, after all this madness is over. A fancy dress-up party, with tasty canapes and people in snazzy clothes, for the purpose of celebrating my general fabulousness. I find this a worthy and amusing endeavor. More updates to follow as I figure this out.

Thanks for the Hebrew translation

I would just like to take a moment thank Jonathan Plesser for being a good friend, an obliging Hebrew translator, and a talented actor. He just very kindly recorded a piece that will be one of the finishing touches on Resonance, and I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. And I know he is just going to be the best damn Steamthello and most hard-core steam-powered master carp Hold Thy Peace could ask for.

Writing progress, writing projects

Though yesterday was not as productive as I hoped it would be-- I ended up taking a long nap, which I needed, but it ate up more time than I would have liked --still I have accomplished a lot lately. I finished brushing up my old cut of Othello, a play so long it simply does not do to perform it unedited anymore, and passed it along to Jane and Emily for them to work on over winter break. I am making lots of progress on The Stand, a game I am trying a new style of work on, that of holding off writing character sheets until I have totally hammered out the plot. Normally I just write as it occurs to me, and the sheets end up taking forever. I think this method may make the process go more smoothly once I finally get down to it. I've gotten one out of three characters done for the next Resonance meeting. I have kept up with my every-other-weekday posting schedule for my Examiner.com articles. And, in a department that has frustrated and demoralized me a lot recently, I finally got back on the horse and gave another shot. I won't say any more about it in case it doesn't turn out, but failure and not trying have the same end result, so I figure the only way to have a better outcome than that is to give it another shot. We'll see what happens, I guess.

Still, there is a lot to go. Those two other Resonance characters have to be done by the meeting this coming Sunday. I need to get to the point where I actually can start breezing through those Stand character sheets like I hope I will. And over the next month, the script for Merely Players needs to be finished. That's not a small amount of work right there. But I am pleased with the projects I'm working on; I'm proud to be part of them and though sometimes I just want to lay in a lump and whine, "I don't waaaaaaaaaant to write anything!" it is always worth pushing myself in the end. ;-)

Steamthello!

Hold Thy Peace officially has a show for spring semester! We will be performing The Tragedy of OTHELLO, the Moor of Venice, directed by the lovely aurora_knight* and meamcat*! They are going to doing it in a steampunk setting with everyone having clockwork enhancements except for the Moor, whose Otherness will be represented by his plain, boring, fallible humanity in contrast to their technologically-altered superiority. I think this will be an excellent, exciting, and visually stunning production and I'm very happy they're getting to do it.

The side project also got through! Merely Players, as marigumi* and nennivian* suggested we call it, will also be going up next semester. This metatheatrical and melodramatic little piece commenting on the nature of putting on a show with a troupe will be coordinating with Othello to exist side by side and expand HTP's repetoire a bit further. I was very pleased to see how many people were interested in it. Should give me some options on creative casting. Now I just have to finish the damn thing, don't I?

Tonight, then, shall be for writing. I have nothing else on my agenda, so I believe I will staying in, working on scripts, character sheets, and various and sundry writing projects that currently are on my plate. I shall have to make myself a nice dinner, get comfy, and settle in to work.