Directorial Assignment: Part1

Directorial Assignment: Othello

I will be focusing my directorial assignment on Othello the play by Shakespeare. I want my version to focus on several important parts of the play. I would want my version to mainly focus on deception that Othello falls for that destroys his life and that shows his descent as a character. I want to show how Desdemona’s father, Brabantio, plants the seed of doubt in Othello and changes his life from working out as a promising gang leader to forever killing his chances of freedom (literally) as he is sent to prison in the end for killing Desdemona. I want this focus to be the same as the original play, but where I would focus on would be how a drug, alcohol and disco induced environment influence the damning decisions each character makes.  I would focus on the pivotal scene where Iago tells Othello of the alleged affair between Desdemona and Cassio, like the original play, this moment changes the overall tone. I find act V important, but specifically where all the intrigue (started by Iago) starts to play out completely with Iago getting Roderigo to stab Cassio (Iago also stabs him), Iago tells everyone that Bianca was the one behind Cassio’s murder conspiracy, and where Othello confronts Desdemona about the affair, later killing her. I would want to also focus on the intriguing scenes between Roderigo and Iago, especially in the scenes where Iago convinces Roderigo to do things that would inevitably affect the downturn of all of the characters, but mainly Othello. These scenes would probably be the ones that I would want to be the most terrifying or menacing because of how intriguing their relationship plays out because we see how Iago is able to control Roderigo and in essence control the unraveling of the misfortune within the play.

I would want to set my version of the Othello play within the disco era of 1970’s Los Angeles, where I would be focusing on the crime life of gangs and how rivalries, drugs and alcohol derail the dynamics of each character. I wanted to set my play in the 1970’s because I thought that would be an interesting decade that aids the development of drug and crime life in American cities. I also thought it would be interesting to delve into the interracial coupling of Othello and Desdemona and use 1970’s America as a backdrop to illustrate the racial implications during this time to heighten the intensity of the play. I specifically chose Los Angeles due to the big city aspect that facilitates the gang violence, drugs, and party scene that I really want to emphasize within this play.

The important character dynamics that would determine my casting decisions would be dependent on how each character carries their individuality and how this individual personality melds in influencing the other characters. My main focus would be how well the actor playing Iago interacts with all the other characters. I feel that Iago is that character that has to be likeable to the other characters in the play, but must completely be hated by the audience. I would want Iago to have chemistry with everyone, even if the audience knows he hates that character that the character seems oblivious to the hate. I would also like for the actor playing Othello to be someone that seems like a sane figure that can take charge and take a hold of a room as he walks on stage, but I want his dynamic with Iago to be different at that pivotal moment where we can see that click from self assured character to a broken figure that is easily manipulated, a complete 360 of a character change. I want most of the female actors to have a powerful presence within the play where their moments on stage with the other actors leave a sense of an angelic consciousness, where they can turn that dangerous detrimental decision into a better one, but in the end lose out to the overwhelming stubbornness of pride and revenge. I would not want to change the main historical way that Othello has been casted in the past, where Othello would be African American and Desdemona would be white. I would want to diversify the rest of the cast, not having Othello being the only one that was not white.

I would want my stage to be fully equipped with the most elaborate set design. I would want each background to have a 70’s flare that clearly represented the environment that the characters were in. I would only have three main locations that the characters would frequent, a disco club, a disco club back room, and a bedroom. The main sound effects would be the background music that reflects the mood of the scenes coming up and that would be relevant to the 70’s music scene. I would want all the costumes to be decade appropriate with the 70’s style, with a disco centered wardrobe, and for the wardrobe to be age appropriate according to the corresponding characters age.

I would like to focus on the female interactions and how the women within the play participate with the play itself. Focusing on how they react and act to the decisions being made around them. I find it interesting that the play starts off with Roderigo being mad about the relationship between Othello and Desdemona, as Roderigo wanted to marry her, but that Desdemona married the person she chose rather than someone her father chose. I also think it is fascinating that the one person who reveals all of the disparaging crimes of Iago’s contriving plan was his wife, Emilia. Emilia throughout the play seems to be controlled by Iago and seems to be a tool that Iago uses, but in the end this women realizes everything her husband Iago did, and tells the truth changing crimes into justice. One thing that I find extremely interesting about this play is that it starts of with attempting to push toward violence, but it never fully escalates to that not until we hit that turning point for Othello does the play begin to push toward more violent acts. What I want to display with this theme is that violence is prevalent throughout the whole play, but that it does not completely mingle with the inner workings of their clique until the turning point, where everyone turns on everyone.