Julius Caesar By: William Shakespeare

Julius Caesar- Liam Neeson

Marcus Antonius- Matthew McConaughey

Marcus Brutus- Matt Damon

Octavius Caesar- Brad Pitt

Calphurnia Caesar- Kate Hudson

Cassius- Leonardo DiCaprio

Casca- Orlando Bloom

Soothsayer- Daniel Radcliffe

Cast

Production will played at Houston's Stages Repertory Theatre

Spine of the play

The spine of Julius Caesar is "sacrifice". Brutus is gives the ultimate sacrifice in the play when he agrees to go along with the conspirators. He knows the reasoning behind why Caesar needing to be eliminated is because Caesar is unfit to be a leader. But with this knows that once assassinated the blame will be then pointed at himself. So in essence he gives the ultimate sacrifice for the greater good of the people.

Style of the playHeightened realism- the production will be played out with the style of heightened realism. The audience will be aware of the setting in Ancient Rome, what the lifestyle was like, clothing and speech/accent will follow. The set background will mimic roman architecture and be used multiple scenes. The production will be played off of a thrust stage to give the audience the full affect of realism.

Directorial Concept

Production will be placed in an ancient roman era. The concept of sacrifice will revolve around Brutus early on. Letting him have his own monologue to talk his thoughts aloud for the audience to know what he was thinking. This aspect or concept of the play will allow the audience differentiate what Brutus's motives actually were. Ultimately the play will take a spin off the original script and revolve more around the actions and life of Brutus.

Julius Caesar takes place in 44 B.C in Rome.

-This was a time when Rome was a huge powerhouse in the world, was on a path to take be ruler over all civilization. -While Rome was taking over the world little by little, the people of Rome were divided. Some didn’t feel represented well by their leader (Julius Caesar), and wanted a democratic government. -Others, wanted to be the ruler themselves. -Greed and the want for total power took its tool on some of Julius Caesar’s closest confidants, which leads to murder in this play.

Design

Julius Caesar, as ruler and King of the Romans, while be draped in clothing that reflects his high stature.

-Breathable-Allows for movement during scenes such as the assasination (Act III Scene 1)-Reflects the clothing of the rulers at that time-Crown at the top of the head shows clearly that Julius Caesar is the ruler. -Uses more material than others, and more color to show that he has more wealth to afford dyes as well as the cloth necessary.-Bright Red color shows power -Shoe’s will be roman style sandals; easy to walk in, and close to the same style as was worn at the time of the play

Julius Caesar

-Breathable-Easy to move around for scenes like Assassination (Act III Scene 1)-Shows less status that Caesar, but still shows some sort of royalty with a little bit of color and less material than Caesar’s. -Same sandals as Caesar-No extra accessories is necessary for this because Brutus is of high social status, and is not a soldier.

Due to the director's vision for this play, the costume for Brutus will just be a little bit different since most of the focus is centered around Brutus himself and his journey. Brutus will be signified by more red than other characters, but still not as much as Caesar.

Brutus

-Not as breathable but still allows for movement on stage-reflects higher level within the troops with all the gold and silver, and red within the uniform-This costume is reserved solely for Cassius since he is the only soldier present in Act III Scene 1, Caesar’s assassination. -Costume includes: Helmet, Sword, Scabbard , Armor, Clothing underneath as shown in picture, Arm and Shin guarding, and boots, unlike all other footwear of other characters.

Cassius

-Breathable-Very different than other costumes, due to the character’s lack of social status-All brown’s and tans-Includes a hood to keep the face of the Soothsayer in the dark, and allowing for an ominous affect -No sandals, just bare feet-tears and dirt at the ends of all pieces of cloth on costume-also includes a long staff

Soothsayer

-Breathable-All other nobleman present will wear costumes similar to Brutus but with less red material involved. -Sandals the same as Caesar’s-No other accessories needed

All Other Noblemen-CASCA, DECIUS BRUTUS, METELLUS CIMBER, TREBONIUS, CINNA, ANTONY, LEPIDUS, POPILIUS, PUBLIUS, and others

Rest of Crowd (Present During Assassination)

All other members will wear:-White tunics-Rope around waist (resembling belt)-Sandals similar to noblemen, but not exactly the same due to their lack of social status.

Still extremely breathable and allows for amply movement.

Daggers used by all noblemen, except Cassius.

Cassius will use his sword provided in the costume.

Make-Up & HairIn order to keep the sense of ancient Rome, makeup will only be used to enhance features of the actors so that their their facial expressions may be visible to the audience.

Fake blood will also be used during Caesar's assassination, and will become visible when enough pressure is put by the stage daggers.

Hair will be kept short, manageable, and will be combed to the side or combed back as Liam Neeson (plays Julius Caesar).

Julius Caesar (Lighting)Play by: William Shakespeare

PowerPoint Section By: Jean-Claude Lee Gazzaneo-Duarte

Visibility (J.C.)

• Visibility is not only important, but necessary. With out illumination the theatrical play will not be something we consider watching, because we literally, would not be able to visibly enjoy the characters actions and perhaps some dramatical emphasis that could be crated by well planned theatrical lighting. There are several scenes in Julius Caesar where lighting would make the immersive difference, between truly engaging the audience or some what playing out the desired effect. For example, through the play the days cycle, while light does go more with day than with night, with the correct use of shading, and perhaps color filters the perceive day light, could be turned in to a cool colored night. Simple, yet effective and immersive.

Lighting enhancements of shapes and forms

• While lighting might seem simple, we live in a three dimensional world. Posting some issues that need to be planned around. If we where to just have light above the stage and one coming from the audience, objects as well as the actor might seem a little dull. So it is the light designers job to adjust the more (or less) light where needed, in other words the stage requires dynamic lighting. Not in the sense that it moves (but not excluding it either), but rather stationary lights with strategic placing and direction enhancing the performers and their surroundings. In Julius Caesar the scene where Julius come back as a ghost would be a great scenes to use strategic lighting. Perhaps to make Julius appear to be a ghost, and other type of lighting to make the surrounding characters appear as if they where not to be. In the picture to the right light is used to make the stage look like there is a whole inside what ever room they are trying to portray, and the sun light is seeping through.

Lightings focus and visual positioning

• Light is used to display a more intensified focus of some character, create the allusion of a character not being there, and even to surprise when the character is exposed with the focused light. In the scene where Julius Caesar dies (picture to the right) Julius is focused to intensify the dramatic effect of his death and the morning of the surrounding characters. This part of the lighting designer do post some problems, like for example (separate from the picture): If the character is to go out of range of the current beaming light, there is to be more than one beam of light to have an uninterrupted glide across the stage.

Creating mood and style with lighting

• Lighting is an essential portion of mood, and is a spatula used to create theatrical style. Lighting mood examples include: Making the night cold and scary, or perhaps the scene bright and colorful literally filled with multi colored lighting, to give the audience an additional non-auditory clue as to what the mood is at that set time. There are a vast amount of lighting styles, some that aim to create a scene that feels like a TV game show with focus lights moving a lot until the character or object is ready to be revealed, or like in the many scenes where the ghost of Julius comes back and a necessary lighting styles is needed to make the ‘ghost’ character appear more ghost like contrasted with the surrounding characters.

How lighting help establish time and place.

• Much like the day/night cycles of our beloved earth, in a play there may be day and night scenes. Which could be used to the plays advantage, to show the progress of time. Lighting shades and positioning are used to do such things. Lighting could help establish a place like for example a castle. In side vs. out side of the castle, clearly in real life the lighting would change to the laws and properties of physics. But unfortunately as of right now, we have not figured out how to create such dynamic scenes with timely efficiency or with out the use of giant and awkward props.

Rhythm of visual movement and lighting

• Much like music, lighting could be used to rhythm and movement based on its articulation through out the play. It is the lighting designers job to understand the play and how the director might want to have the lights influence, in the peeked and or lack there of audiences interest. While in any play lightings rhythm is more used to specify scene changes, it is difficult for the light designer to make creative choices that match what the director envisioned. In Julius Caesar it might be easier to think of rhythm and visual movement as to where there is darkness instead of where the light is. This is probably the most difficult portion, in my opinion, of being a light designer.

Lightings reinforcements of the central visual image

• In the scene to the right the centered character is the one in focus, but he, as well as well as every one on stage is equally lit. Quite possibly to show that visually the character facing the audience is the most significant here, but the ones listening are not to far behind in importance. Lighting here is consistent, as it should and shall be through out the play based on what the theatrical image is wanted to be interpreted.

How lighting establishes visual information

• Very similar to the last slide, while you are able to see every one, here light is used to focus or emphasize that the character in the white suite is the one of importance. While the other characters are spectating the actions taking place between he and the character to his left. Here the visual information shows social importance amongst them.