How do one or more of the performers in Othello use their skills to create sympathy within the audience?

How do one or more of the performers in Othello use their skills to create sympathy within the audience? On the 5th of November 2014 I went to go see the production Othello a slight adaptation of William Shakespeare by Frantic Assembly at the Doncaster Theatre. In Othello one actor who used their skills to create sympathy within the audience was Iago.Iago is an interesting character on that he both repells and attracts the audience despite his obvious villliany. His jealousy enables the audience to sympathise with him, in act one scene 1 we see that despite his loyalty he does not receive a promotion and feels hurt by this. In this soliloquy many dramatic skills are used to commincate his distress to the audience. Iago is talking in a delicate tone, his conviction is perfect and he talks at a slow pace, this connotes innocence to the audience causing us to believe he is sensitive and truly loyal causing us to trust in his emotions. His conviction is so scincere and definite that the audience are persuaded to empathise with the words he is saying, and connect with his sense of betrayal. By talking slowly and leaving pauses between significant words and lines, it wrongly convinces the audience that the chatacter is initially calm and not impulsive, and thinks about what he is doing and saying, showing he is a clever, good man that Othello is not appreciating, yet however we

  • Word count: 972
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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As a designer, how would you use set, lighting, and sound effects to enhance the dramatic effectiveness of the section of the play that starts with Tiresias being led on and ends with Creons hasty exit to release Antigone?

Antigone Design Question As a designer, how would you use set, lighting, and sound effects to enhance the dramatic effectiveness of the section of the play that starts with Tiresias being led on and ends with Creon’s hasty exit to release Antigone? Antigone is a tragedy written by Sophocles in 441BC. The protagonist is a power hungry tyrant called Creon, who dictates the city of Thebes. I would set the play in ancient Greece to keep the relevance of the ancient Gods , as they were significant at the time but are seen as myths today, so would detract from the severity of the situation. In terms of my set as Creon likes to be seen as the only figure of authority and sees himself more powerful than the God’s themselves. “If golden eagles should carry him up by joints and shreds to Zeus…not even that blasphemy would be enough to deflect me from my purpose.” would have it set in a main hall in Creon’s palace. I would symbolise Creon’s hubris shown several times through the play “Am I expected to listen and take lessons at my age from a mere boy.” I would show this arrogance and self-pride through the opulence and grandeur of the room, using lots of coloured elements of gold to show wealth, and Greek podium to show the importance of the building and the stone would show historical Greek architecture. I would use red silky drapes over a podium for Creon, which

  • Word count: 914
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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drama coursework

Drama Coursework The two pieces I have chosen to compare are; 'Twelfth Night', written by Shakespeare and another piece 'Complications', devised by my group about confusion. I recognise that 'Twelfth Night' being such an old play has been presented and performed in various ways and I am focusing on just one film and play therefore some of the information may be irrelevant to some particular portrayals of the play. The pieces show similar story lines however being set in to very different eras they also show some vast differences. Our modern version of the piece was set in the 21st century; and 'Twelfth Night' was set in the 16th century (Shakespearean times). This already implies that both plays will show very different views and perceptions to the characters, their personalities and approaches, also they may show different reactions to situations. Both pieces are about two siblings and confusion of them and who they are. In 'Twelfth Night' both characters knew of their existence however at that time did not recognise each other and did not know who they were, however in our piece both characters although knowing each other did not know of their relationship with one another (being twins). 'Twelfth Night' forced the 'sister', Viola to dress up as a man in order to get a job to seek her brother however, in the modern version, sexism is not an issue now as they are both

  • Word count: 1172
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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Does Clark present arguments for and against 'assisted suicide' without prejudicing the audience in 'Whose Life Is It Anyway'?

Harriet French Coursework Does Clark present arguments for and against `assisted suicide' without prejudicing the audience in `Whose Life Is It Anyway'? The central character in `Whose Life Is It Anyway?' is Ken Harrison who is a patient in the hospital, in which the play is set. The play sees Ken, who has been involved in a horrific car accident, recovering from various injuries, some of which will never heal. The accident leaves Ken paralysed from the neck downwards permanently, which results in him having to stay in hospital for the rest of his life. Throughout the play Ken fights for the right to die, as he sees the situation he is in as one that is not worth living. After many struggles and set-backs, Ken is allowed to die, but against the doctors' will. The play was written in the 1970's when euthanasia, a form of assisted suicide, was not a subject commonly discussed. An audience watching the play in the 1970s would be far more shocked at some of the events that take place than a present-day audience. In the 1970s most people did not fully understand euthanasia and the effects of it and it was certainly not talked about openly. An audience thirty years ago would be quite shocked and possibly offended by the language used by Ken and some of the hospital staff. Also Ken's behaviour in general would be quite different from the sort of behaviour

  • Word count: 5026
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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The Devising Process

Structured Record - Section 1: 'How did your role emerge and how was it communicated?' Upon casting for our piece, I made the decision that I should play a character set in the Tudor period as apposed to a modern day character. This decision was made as I felt it would be a challenge. I also made the conscious decision that I would focus on the research behind a character, aiming to create sensitivity and realism to the role. I was cast as 'Isobelle' - a 14 year old Elizabethan child, living with her widowed Father who abused her and in receipt of this, sleeps and begs on the streets. The group felt that 'Isobelle' should be played with innocence, desperateness, sentiment and grit, and therefore I, as the youngest looking actor, with ability to present sorrow and fear, would play 'Isobelle'. As a play with many characters, it was necessary for the group to multi-role. Although this resulted in an inability to dedicate solely to one character, multi-role allowed us to take on and develop several different characters. Other characters I was cast as were 'script reader' in the Elizabethan Theatre, a maid to 'Queen Elizabeth' and a young child in the modern classroom. The role as 'script reader' emerged as the group felt another character should accompany 'Burbage's' rehearsal as he disrupts 'Shakespeare'. The character; in her 30's, a budding writer, stubborn and

  • Word count: 8237
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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Stimuli and its results.

Drama Coursework Group: David C, Bradley W, Natalie T, Joanne R, Hannah E, Claire H, Carrie G, Louise V Task one We were given the following stimuli: A book, Ohh Ahh Showab Kahn. When we had finished reading the book, we were quite happy, as there are lots of possibilities when basing a play around racism. The book itself, is about the only Asian football player in the premiership, who had to face a lot of racism, and had a lot of problems, but managed to pull through. We thought about it and decided to do a play not too closely tied to the book. We had come up with a few ideas, and we wrote them down, and voted. The idea we ended up doing was around the idea of the television programme Wife Swap, and so we went with that idea. We concentrated on the subject of not judging people by their appearance, or by the way they speak. We thought that we should try and have two completely different families mixing. Task Two In role writing My name is Professor Dimebag Bopp III, I am a well known psychiatrist over here in the states. In march of last year I was asked to do a show over in England, in which they swapped over the wives of two completely different families in order to see how they would react to each other. Of course, I agreed to it and I flew over the pond the next week. I was called in my hotel room by the director of the show, I can't remember his name, and he

  • Word count: 1469
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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Response to Live Performance

Section B Question: Response to Live Performance "The Play What I Wrote" Character Review: Toby Sedgwick (stage character Arthur) Albeit the production consisted of a scarce number of actors, Toby Sedgwick's dynamic performance compensated, due to the way in which he effectively portrayed an astonishing broad spectrum of characters. These characters varied greatly in presence, from absent-minded Arthur who dreamed of playing the harmonic no matter what the circumstances may have been, to the idiosyncratic stage manger. Despite the significance of each character; whether it being merely an addition to the main characters; Jo and Ben, or the focus of the scene, Toby always possessed a remarkable presence, which was able to divert on eyes onto him. This factor was what distinguished Toby from the other actors in the productions, as every movement and every sound he made was directly related to his character, showing that he had put considerable thought into each individual character and in which way would their characterisations be at the utmost effect to the audience. To elaborate on this, there were a range of moments in the play in which Toby's characterisations made great impact on the responses of the audience. For example, during Toby's part as the bizarre stage manager, rather than his words alone, it was his body movements that made Arthur a memorable character.

  • Word count: 1065
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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Analyse how the opening sequence of 'Halloween' captures the attention of the audience.

Lukas Bates Analyse how the opening sequence of 'Halloween' captures the attention of the audience. You should consider such aspects as: • The codes and conventions. • How the suspense and tension are created by these codes. • Outside influences on this film as an example of the horror genre. ' 'Halloween' was made in 1978 and is a good example of the 'Slasher' movies from that time and this is an interesting piece of cinema as it can be related to the German expressionism of the late 1920's which used jerky camera shots and high contrast lighting to enthrall the viewer .In this essay I will discuss how the opening to Halloween captures the audiences attention and how codes and conventions create suspense and tension for the audience. The opening to the film begins when the credits start to fade onto the screen in a blood red font this symbolizes blood, death and evil to the audience which straight away brings tension to the film and creates a sense of interest for the audience. Whilst this is happening the Halloween theme music is playing in the background, this music is very high pitched and uses string instruments to create horror and suspense for the viewers. Once the credits have been shown there is a 'vls' (very long shot) of the house this is used to set the scene, this is a subjective point of view from the killer .This can be related

  • Word count: 748
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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Analyse the ways that the director builds suspense and scares the audience in the film 'Jaws'.

Analyse the ways that the director builds suspense and scares the audience in the film 'Jaws'. 'Jaws' was set in a summer town called Amity Island in the late 70's-early 80's. The film was about a great white shark that was attacking and killing innocent humans as well as the occasional dog, which must be stopped. The reason why 'Jaws' was set on and around 4th July, was because it is Independence Day, one of America's national holidays. The 4th July is when people go to the beach to celebrate the national holiday. With attacks taking place on July 4th, it creates more suspense and fear because the audience knows that the day was supposed to be a happy occasion however there is a dark cloud shadowing over in the form of a killer great white. The director uses music in different ways to connect the shark to the title music. The director does this, to scare the audience and build suspense. The music at the beginning of the film creates an atmosphere of chaos, uneasiness and franticness. As well as this, the music helps the audience sense that something foreboding is out there. When the tempo and the volume changes suddenly, the audience knows that the creature is getting closer and that it is dangerous and that it is a big threat to anything alive. Before July 4th, when the music is playing on the beach, just before the second attack, the director has chosen to create a false

  • Word count: 2773
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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Indicate how the influences and ideas of other playwrights and/or directors, designers and performers have been used

Indicate how the influences and ideas of other playwrights and/or directors, designers and performers have been used We have experienced a broad range of performance styles, however only certain styles influenced our final piece. "Invisible Friends" by Alan Ayukbourn was used in our final piece as it is a script which contains an effective storyline for our theme 'escapism'. The content was very fitting to our piece as it showed a family all using different ways to escape. For example, listening to music, chatting away on the telephone and watching television are all forms of escapism. When the character Lucy, a young girl, returns home with some exciting news no one is willing to listen to her therefore she decides to create an invisible friend. Although the play is simple and basic it was very effective as it differed to the rest of our piece which consisted of more complex scenes and less straight-forward concepts so that the audience had a wider variety of scenes to watch. We decided to use certain lines from different parts of the play to create our own scene which would be related to our theme - escapism. Antonin Artaud was a French playwright, poet, actor and director who influenced our piece. Artaud had a pessimistic view of the world, but he believed that theatre could effect change. He believed in removing the audience from everyday life and used symbolic objects

  • Word count: 1131
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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