American Shakespeare Center

Well it's been another great week here at ASC, we started off with photo-shoots at the beginning of the week, and we have been and will be working on various scenes from Othello the rest of the week. I've been busy observing different aspects and taking line-notes (and occasionally some blocking notes) during rehearsal. It is rather fascinating to see people's choices change from the ren run that we had last Tuesday. The director has started to play with the scenes and find cues that Shakespeare gives the actors to tell the story.

The photo-shoot on Monday was an interesting experience as well. We all hung out in the theatre to observe how the photo-shoot worked. Because there wasn't terrible much for a production assistant to do during that time, other than make sure people were there on time (they were). I had the chance to learn about the way they run their photoshoots. They tried to look for photos that showed the essence of the characters as well as the abilities of the troupe. The troupe did an amazing job creating various characters. I got to see everything from Scrooge in Christmas Carol (Part of their Christmas Season) to Othello and Desdemona, to Falstaff (Merry Wives of Windsor), to the Clowns of Henry IV Part 1. It was rather interesting watching the actors transition between characters during photo-shoot. The other part of the photo shoot that I found interesting were the costumes. Obviously they do not have the chance to use their costumes for the tour because they are in the process of being made, bought, or pulled from their stock collection, but they found items that represented the show.

Also this week I mentioned earlier that we are working on playing with different scenes in Othello. I have absolutely loved watching the actors truly discover their characters and step into their roles. The most interesting for me have been the Clown and Cassio mainly because they are roles that are either cut (the clown) or misinterpreted (Cassio) and that is something we have talked about throughout the process. We got to work with both of those characters a lot today. The first scene we started off with is Cassio's fall from grace ("reputation, reputation, reputation!") the director and the actor began talking about how Cassio's rank is because he is such an honorable guy (for the most part) his reference to reputation is not a reference to status but a reference to his honor as a high ranking military officer. The Clown has been fascinating to watch because the girl who plays the clown gets to play with the audience. Often the clown character is cut because people don't see the value of the clown, but I love it, it is a fun character to interject and comment on the play. It gives the audience an ally.

So in other words I'm learning a ton everyday. Next week we will begin working on Merry Wives of Windsor and then Henry IV Part I and I cannot wait for both of those plays because they will teach me so much.

- Lauren Dentler