Rehearsing Shakespeare…

Jess Jones plays Desdemona in Othello

by actor, Jess Jones

Everyone has his or her different ways of doing it but it generally goes something like this

 

1.     Table work

2.     Staging

3.     …and GO

In the Othello adventure we’ve all embarked on at Cape Fear Regional Theatre with our captain Tom Quaintance at the helm, we began our journey on calm seas with a week of table work.  For table work the actor comes in (ideally) with the script scored, the words looked up, and a lot of thought poured into both the piece and the character they will soon inhabit.  After this work has been accomplished the director and the cast can sit together and pick apart the language – find the hidden treasures that Shakespeare has put in his script for the actors to use and prepare to use them.  During this time we hit a few waves as we figured out where to re-cut the script, but came out on smooth seas.  This process of discovery within the language will continue throughout the whole time we are working on Othello.

The staging piece of the puzzle adds in the physical aspect to the production.  You take the work from breaking down the script and add to it what you are physically doing, therein becoming your character.  Now you cannot only hear Iago but you can also see him and how he is working physically as well as vocally to accomplish his malicious goal.  We made harbor in a few places were we did not end up staying, but that’s all part of the fun.  The best processes allow for this exploration and acceptance of ‘OK, we tried it, and that didn’t work..’  And Tom always made sure we landed on the correct shore.  (Or one of them, as there are of course, many, many ways to stage this play.)  A particularly fun part in this particular process is the fight scenes.  There are quite a few fights in Othello and the last scene is essentially a giant fight involving most of the cast.  This in particular must be carefully planned so no one gets landed in the hospital.

And now here we are.  From here everything just flows.  The actors have all the pieces in their hands and are left to discover and play with the director remaining at the Helm steering us away from any glaciers and on to beautiful horizons.  This is my favorite part of a process as you get to actually see and experience what you are being given by your fellow actors and respond to it.  I cannot wait to jump back into rehearsal and back into the discovery process with this lovely cast and our ‘great captain.’