After reading “An interview with Kent Thompson” I must admit I was surprised at the amount of planning that went into “moments” in the play. Specifically, Kent mentions creating senses of intense romance between Othello and Desdemona as well as racially stigmatizing society. I guess because I don’t have that much experience with theatre, when I read a play I just look at the lines on the page I sort of assume that if anyone who can act rattles them off that the end result is drama. Sorry if that makes sound naïve, but I have very little idea how anyone would go about creating an emotion (besides through the elements of production of course.)
Another thing that I found interesting that Kent Thompson revealed in his interview was his decision to stage Othello on the smaller stage. Another one of my misconceived notions of theartre I guess is that a director would want to automatically stage the show at the largest venue so he could sell more tickets, make more money, and perhaps buy those sweet renasaince costumes he’s always wanted. Nevertheless, I gotta admit I respect the man’s choice, who wouldn’t prefer to see a show in a more intimate setting?... I guess that this makes theatre misconception number three, but I would have never anticipated that making the customer happy actually makes business sense… Clearly years of working retail have left me jaded.
I also found his selection for stage size interesting at first. But then (just as you did) I took a step back and saw there are multiple reasons for staging plays on a smaller stage. This also made me think about the type of stage Othello should be done on. I decided on a thrust stage since there are so many one on one confrontations that would be great on the thrust.
ReplyDelete