Friday, July 24, 2020

Julius Caesar

Director: Jack Read

Assistant Director: Amy Ippolito

Dramaturg: Savannah Nine

Stage Manager: Shaggy Bryant

Production Manager: Mary Rose Valentine

What We Did Today

Today was our first day of filming, where we shot our conspirators’ Zoom meeting to plan the death of Caesar. With bedsheet togas and green screen backgrounds, it looks pretty cool. But one cannot be present for one’s own assassination planning meeting (y’know, probably), so non-conspirator actors got some time to memorize, develop their characters, and chat about the text!

Quick And Quotable

• From the Play: “Let’s all cry “Peace, freedom, and liberty!”
• From the Cast: “Rose, uh, what am i happy about? …I don’t have a rose.” -Isaac
• From the Director: “I love you, that’s a rose I have.”

Production Insights

Oh, the magic of tech! Technology is keeping us apart, but it is also bringing us together. Usually, I would mean that in the context of bonding over shared suffering, but today I mean green screen. In the conspirators’ scene, it looked much more like all our actors were in the same place. While I’d still rather be in-person, green screen backgrounds provide a versatility in setting the stage that would be impossible for a theatre that’s not up to date or lacks a Broadway-level budget. Painting a picture in the audience’s heads is brought to a whole new level when the wall behind you can be any picture you like! I’m excited to see what other ideas the campers bring up about how we can use green screen to our advantage.