Character Design

Costume Design for Othello

Personal Monologue

Special Effects in the Globe Theatre

How were the special effect made?

Noise of thunder - beat drums offstage or roll a cannonball across the floor of the Heavens over the stage. Some companies or drama plays used thunder machines which was a wooden machine that was placed like see saw. 

Lightning - Lightning flashes were made by throwing a powder made from resin into a candle flame. The machinery for this was called a swevel. They fixed a firecracker to the wire and lit it when they wanted the effect.

Were the Special effect dangerous?

Special effects rarely go wrong but 29th June 1613 they did. The prestigious globe theatre burnt down during a performance of "Henry VIII" a Shakespeare play, this was considered as big news especially in that time as things like this did not happen often.Sulphur has a rotten egg smell, while saltpetre (made from dung) smells bad when mixed up and even worse when set alight. These bad smells caused the actors to struggle to breathe which also led to getting some diseases. the fog and filthy air’ the air inside the theatre may have been horrible to breathe in, if not actually dangerous. Both were used to make gunpowder.

  

 How about spells and magic?

Plays from Shakespeare's time had a lot of influence from spirits. gods, goddesses and they usually entered through a trapdoor from above 'heaven'. The actors/actresses were usually lowered in by a strong wire this process or descending act was called 'flying in'. Obviously for positive and good spirits there are bad spirits (evil spirits, devils) that came up from 'hell', under the stage through a trapdoor. Firecrackers were the normal thing when a devil appeared or witchcraft or magic was used. Dr Faustas (a popular Christopher Marlowe play) had one such production where the devil put firecrackers in their mouth to suggest they were 'breathing fire'. Companies related to theatre used smoke as a magic effect and the best part about smoke was that it could be coloured (depending on what chemicals were used). Real fire was used shrewdly as it could be dangerous to the wood and the globe theatre (fire was why the globe 'burned down'). Flames were rarely needed but if they were needed strong alcohol was mixed with different types of salts depending on what colour of flames were needed.

Here the magical effects are produced by lowering the goddess Cynthia from the trapdoor in the Heavens and raising Night up through the trapdoor in the stage. This was from a 1997 production of The Maid’s Tragedy. 

This modern performance of Macbeth at the Globe in 2010 mostly used effects that would have been available in Shakespeare’s time. Here they used smoke surrounding a huge cooking pot just poking out of the trap for the witches to work magic.

 

Now the Globe theatre Has been restored after being burnt down and it has the modern technology for special effects as the olden times ones were not safe and that everyone who watched or acted was getting affected by the smoke and gun powder that spreads out easily after used. I did not know much about the globe theatre before i did this research but now as i know i know that the globe theatre only has shakespeares plays and nothing else. They have stopped the people who act to put firecrackers in their mouths as health and safety is a major in the U.K.  The magic that was used very dangerous swell because they needed to use alcohol for some of the fire magic which was highly dangerous.

"Playwrights in Shakespeare’s time used language to describe ‘special effects’ much of the time;

but acting companies could also produce very dramatic special effects. Thunder and lightning filled the theatre for storms. There were a variety of effects to suggest magic was at work. Many special effects needed special ingredients. Buying these made a performance more expensive, so special effects were not used all the time." 

Rodrigo's Thoughts

I am a Wise man, and I am in love with my most priced possession a wise woman. It is meant to be. There can be nothing else done than going and meting her myself. I even paid Iago to give her gifts from me and praise me to her. I have to get her back from that filthy man Othello.I have to marry her. But she ran away from my heart and even from this place to marry a coward. Why does she have to like him, I have the money and possessions, all he has is a position as a general. I look way better than him. Thy shall not live any longer with my I am not at all remorseful for waking up the good senator, or organizing the search party to look for my love and that horrid moor. I must go to the kings place and get his daugters attention.

Final Piece and Unit 1 Reflection

In Drama for Unit 1, We supposed to look deep into the sights of Rio De Janeiro in many different types of aspects including the segregation of the rich and poor, train surfers, all the crime in brazil, about the kids/individuals choices that affect the society.During this unit we developed some very important skills includng marking the moment, hot seating, freeze framing, slow motion and cross cutting. For my groups final performance we developed a story about bus 174, a real life story that happened in rio de janeirio. So in this final play I had to work with a group of 5 includng me. The group consisted of Laith, Shawn, Tommy, Federico and me.

Some background information on our play:

On June 12, 2000, Nascimento boarded a  bus (174) . He wanted to rob the passengers on the bus. Shortly after Nascimento revealed what he was going to do , a passenger screamed to a police vehicle outside the bus, prompting the police to intercept the bus. Nascimento took the passengers of the bus hostage. Just as he got of the bus the police shot him from point blank range but it missed him and it hit the hostage as this happened Nascimento in the shock pulled the trigger by mistake killing the hostage(the teacher).

In this play our roles were as follows:

Federico as Nascimento

Sai as bus driver

Laith as police officer

Shawn as the first victim(the one who is threatened)

Tommy as the second victim(who dies)

        

   In this performance my role was was being the bus driver. It was my job to drive the bus around the area everything was happening and also I had to call the police in between our play to inform the police to come and get the shooter from the bus. I staged my character on the bus from the start of the play this where Federico come on to the bus to create a scene, I had to call out bus stations to give a cue to Federico on when to get on to the the bus and when to start thought tracking.I had to create my own sound effects as we could not find another way to make sounds of opening doors. I had to raise my voice in the starting as in a bus u need to be loud so that u can be heard by the people in the back.After nascimento got onto the bus I had to show a little bit irritation because he throws the money down.then after a while I had to scream out “BUS STOP 256” This announcement put our play into a freeze frame, this started the thought tracking where the passengers on the bus start to talk about what is going on their minds. Right after the freeze frame was over a small incident(Nascimento shows his gun) the passenger in the back shouts to stop the bus but that’s when Federico points the gun at the people in the bus and screaming not to stop the bus. I had to act all scared as the act was going on the back of me, then I had to call the police where I was being all scared where the shooter might see me this was when I had to show all my skills on how I can be silent and careful without being seen by the shooter. I had to then jump out of the bus just after stopping the bus as the police had to come into the the bus and that my character did not want to die in the bus. That was all my part for the play.

In our groups performance to create tension we had to start the play out with a freeze frame of the bus and the play going on in the background.the group had to show all their skills to make a good presentation as we had to set up the props are selves which was not easy as the props were not there most of the time as other groups used it for their plays.

One very successful scene in our play where nascimento had to get all physical against everyone on the bus has he had to take contro at that moment.What he did was that he took his gun and pinted it at everyone on the bus as that was the only option he had. This situation he usd different types of tones and the passengeras all frightened were screaming and doing things unexpected. This was a very effective scene as we used a drama technique by using our voices at different tones and volumes to project emotions and ideas.

          

Overall, I believe my group did very well in our final performance, and I generally enjoyed this unit of work very much. I am pleased with my mark, and to improve next time, I would give myself more lines and possibly more actions in the performance.

Duolugue Task

During our Sunday's Drama lesson our task was to create a duologue about a scenario that we were all given. The scenario was that there was a boy named Carlos who lives with his uncle in Brazil, Where he is supposed to work on the streets to get money. Our scene had to be based on one night when he returns home very late without any money (because he spent it all trying to help an injured opposed train). then i was put into a random group with Laith,Aline, and I.

As for our scene, we began by building up tension for the first 45 seconds by showing carol's uncle being angry. We began with Laith and i watching tv then we walk around the house by throwing stuff around and getting angry and shouting about the class. then after a while carlos walks in the house and everyone gets angry at carlos(aline). She with fear sneeks into the house very creepily.

In order to keep the tension going we decided to show the uncle acting sarcastically with Carlos. He then only yelled a while later Making Carlos cry and shiver, frightening the audience (by breaking the tension suddenly). WE even showed that how carlos was against his uncle and how he wanted to be nice to other people when even though he worked for another group. the picture below shows how we combined all our skills to show the freeze frame that we created of our task.

Marking the moment

Train surfing is basically a wild ride on the outside of a moving train.Travelling like this can be dangerous and even life-threatening, because people could fall off or even die from electrocution due to the power supply, making collision with a railway infrastructure (bridges, tunnels, platforms, traffic lights or other trains) on the roof of a train, or unsuccessful attempts to jump on a moving train or off it. In this term 1 unit we are focusing on Brazil and how the poor people do train surfing as a hobby as they have nothing else to do in their lives.

For our task we were put into groups to create a scene of a group of train surfers who get a new kid who joins their group, the main part of this drama play was that all the old members of the group would jump of the train and the new member has no idea what to do, so he stays back on the train and thats when the police turn up and the new member blackmails the police that they he/she will hold the wire(electrical power line) and will die because he knows that if he gets caught it won't be good. 

For our scene we had Shawn and Sai as the two surfers, Oggy/Aline as the new member, Laith was the Bus driver and Anushka and Sai as the policemen/woman. The scene started off when Sai, Shawn and Oggy/Aline talk about trip and whether the new member should do it as he/she have no idea how to train surf. Then after the train arrives the group jumps onto the train and they have fun doing it as they are skipping and dodging the electric wires. then when they arrive at the station the Sai and Shawn jump off the train as they are trained by doing it everyday, somehow Oggy gets distracted and he doesn't jump as he was not sure how to jump of the train and by the time he realises the police are already waiting to catch train surfers. Oggy is extremely scared on what to do and then he realises he can blackmail the police but by then the police already offered him a deal- if he gives her his watch she won't arrest him, however he refuses the offer as the watch is very special to him-its his mothers. So Oggy threatens the police "If you don't let me go I'll touch this wire" and then we have a freeze frame to make that very last moment of the scene.

In order to mark the moment for our short play we had to do some little adjustments to make it look nicer. So at first we had build the tension with a stated picture. To mark the the moment we all had to stare at Oggy/Aline to emphasise his dialogue that he will say at the end of the story, this will basically put the pressure and also give the focus onto Oggy/Aline. Anushka screams "Noooooooo" while being a statue with a figure of a person who is very scared. She will have to promise Oggy that she will throw the gun down f he doesn't touch the wire. And everyone else in the play will stare at Oggy to show the viewers that Oggy is the most important focus at the moment. After this we took a still picture to capture are marking the moment picture to show how we did it.