Othello: Off Stage

While audiences pay, of course, to watch what happens on stage at a play, I enjoy what happens off stage during the building and performance of a show. The only thing I don't enjoy is off-stage love drama when members of a cast start up romances or when cast members end romances during a show's run. But, short-term intimacies are inevitable within a cast and I accept such will happen.

Here, in these pictures, is what I'm interested in. It begins with the technical dimensions of the play. Whereas the actors provide the heart and soul of a play, tech. provides the spine. Without this spine, the actors' work would collapse.

The big props get built in the prop shop:

Like this bed.

The pillows on the bed where Othello murders Desdemona are red, at least in rehearsal, and suggest the violence gushing out of Othello's jealous soul, even though his murder of her is bloodless:



If we could perform this play in black and white, then the red pillows would be black and match the color of the murdering Othello's skin color as well as suggest the color of mourning:




Where does the tech crew place the bed on stage? Spike tape tells them where:


The action is illuminated by dusty, ordinary looking lights:

Gels are often placed over the lights to create numerous effects by casting a variety of colors onto the action and the props:



The lights are run from the light board:


Large props come from the prop shop and small ones from the prop box:



Like this bell whose ringing tells the audience that alarm and chaos have taken over (note, too, that actors and techies also enjoy marking walls with comments):

It's hard to have chaos and fighting without swords:

This lantern brings the smallest light to a very dark and deadly scene:

Off stage, some actors spend off time reading sheet music:

Some study the play's script:



Others prefer lighter fare:


Some are sustained by water:


Others by Pepsi:


Pizza is popular:


Many enjoy junk food:



And last Sunday, some of us wanted to keep an eye on the Patriots/Colts game; no matter that the reception in the concrete bunker of our downstairs theater foyer was not so good:



What else do the actors of Othello do while off stage?

Chip decided to be emo, and asked me to snap a photo of him:


Ramsey was reading until the sight of Chip swinging Shena around arrested his attention:


Tyler studiously keeps a journal:

Karyssa covers her eyes and looks inward:


Scott reads a magazine:


And I left the green room for a while and experimented taking self-portrait pictures: