Passion and Dedication

If you wish to achieve greatness, you must have the passion for it, that's what I always say. In particular most of us have a passion of acting and theater so we hope that we have succeeded in doing the play. After few gruesome days of practice and research, with fun days of laughter and rehearsals. I know I'm going to miss these days, but this is but an end to a new beginning, the next chapter in life awaits us.

So I thought I'd provide a little gallery of the play, to be more specific a gallery of bloopers on how much fun we had

I always was the type of person that dwelt in the past, and what better way to reflect other than pictures

The Play in An Unpolished Version

I won't say much in this post. I'll just be putting up some raw unedited videos just to give you a basic prospective on how we do the play, and how much fun we have on doing it. The videos won't take long, only about one minute or a few seconds:

So the teacher is helping us on our acting skills by giving us feedback and telling us what to do, though the director occasionally comes in and helps in. Listening to orders wasn't hard for me, and I can say the same for the others.

Just in case this video fails, I'm not going to leave you empty handed. I thought I'd provide an alternate ending to the play, making it a bit more fun and of course this includes my moral integrity and personal opinion.

If I could change the story, I would probably add more female roles to add tension. And it would be fun to extend it or connect it with “Anthony and Cleopatra”. Anyway, I wouldn’t change the story that much, as a fellow writer myself Shakespeare’s works truly are a masterpiece, but unlike common forms of heroism that we normally read into this is tragic heroism. So if I could change the ending, I would probably prevent Brutus from dying, so then the triumvirate will make peace with him because he simply did what he think was right. And that he was tricked into killing Caesar for inane purposes. If I could add a last scene, it’s where all of them attended Caesar’s grave and said their final goodbyes, it may sound a bit poetic but, it is a work of Shakespeare, with my own flair to it.

Julius Caesar manages to portray heroism, because unlike most of the other characters Caesar does not desire wealth or power, basically speaking he is not power-hungry or overly ambitious. He is also seen as a hero because the pleibians (the people) seem to love him and adore him, what makes it even more touching is when Antonius read his will. Caesar;s possession belonged to every roman citizen, 75 drachmas and an orchard and public gardens, even after he passed on, he still wanted the things he had to take care of his people, that is also a good trait of heroism, selflessness. So reflecting on all of that, Caesar managed to display humility, selflessness and compassion, but he has his fair share of flaws. He is somewhat arrogant and brash in making decisions. But all in all, he can be a good hero and a good role model. Plus I respect his quote “vene vidi vici” in English “I came, I saw, I conquered”, If we can interpret it correctly the quote can also mean we can conquer our mistakes our problems in the long run.

If I had a chance to Portray one of the characters I would choose my real role as Servillius Casca. Not only does he have a pivotal role in the beginning of the play, his nature is somewhat unpredictable which is like an extension of myself. He also respects deal and deals with honor in my opinion, even if the deeds that was done were dark indeed. Basically his personality and character suits me, so if I had to choose, I would most likely choose Casca.

Julius Caesar List of Characters

Originally this post was supposed to contain videos and such but, due to some unexpected technical errors, I was unable to post the videos. But what's done is done and life must go on, so I thought I would give a list of characters for the play, just to make it clearer:

Gaius Julius Caesar:

Julius Caesar was the famous Roman tactician and brought victory to many of Rome’s conquests. He is the last of the first Triumvirate, after he finished off the last sons of his rival Pompey. After returning from a long campaign, his friend Brutus worries that his inability to separate his personal life and political may lead him to be a dictator over the Roman republic .Caesar is viewed to be compassionate, honorable and just by the people, when in reality he has flair of arrogance and self pride. Yet he is not power hungry or overly ambitious, unlike the other members of the senate. Caesar does carried traits of heroism, as he does not expect too much in people and does not has the lust for wealth and power.

Marcus Junius Brutus:

Brutus was considered as Caesar’s friend in the senate. He strongly beliefs in the Roman republic ruled by the vote of the senate. He will do anything in his power to prevent dictatorship from happening. His sense of honor is exploited by the antagonist conspirators of the play, which in the end makes him assassinate Caesar. Because he was at a stand-still between his loyalty to his friend Caesar and his moral allegiance to the Roman republic, he becomes the tragic hero of the play. He displays traits of heroism because he fought for something he truly believed in, and that is what makes a good hero.

Gaius Cassius Longinus:

Cassius was a military general and a long-time acquaintance of Caesar. He is overbearingly jealous of Caesar, as he has become “godlike” to their eyes. He secretly plots Caesar’s death in the conspiracy and convinces Brutus to join him, by forging letters of the approval of Caesar;s death by the Roman people. He is known for his malicious cunning and shrewdness, a true politician making sure nothing stands in his way. His flaw, is that he lacks moral integrity, which in turn caused his downfall later on.

Mark Anthony:

Anthony was a trusted supporter and loyal friend to Caesar. He was a military commander and Caesar’s administrator, which gave him a pivotal background. After Caesar was assassinated, Anthony convinces the conspirators not to kill him by pledging himself to Brutus. When he was speaking over Caesar’s body to the Roman people’s his window of opportunity to expose the traitors arose. In a masterful speech with emotion, he managed to sway the crowd against Brutus, along with Caesar’s own will in his hand. He is also one of the Second Triumvirates. Later on he formed an alliance with Octavius and Lepidus and amassed an army against Brutus and Cassius’ forces. In a way, his loyalty to Caesar resembled a heroic trait, but his ambition was too high to be a real hero.

Publius Servillius Casca:

A public figure opposed to Caesar’s rise to power. Casca relates to Cassius and Brutus how Antony offered the crown to Caesar three times and how each time Caesar declined it. He believes, however, that Caesar is the consummate actor, lulling the populace into believing that he has no personal ambition. He plays a pivotal role in first acts of the lay however.

Calphurnia:

Caesar’s wife. Calpurnia invests great authority in omens and portents. She warns Caesar against going to the Senate on the Ides of March, since she has had terrible nightmares and heard reports of many bad omens. Nevertheless, Caesar’s ambition ultimately causes him to disregard her advice. She is overall a good wife and loyal to Caesar

Octavius:

Caesar’s adopted son and appointed successor. Octavius, who had been traveling abroad, returns after Caesar’s death; he then joins with Antony and sets off to fight Cassius and Brutus. Antony tries to control Octavius’s movements, but Octavius follows his adopted father’s example and emerges as the authoritative figure, paving the way for his eventual seizure of the reins of Roman government.

Portia:

Brutus’s wife; the daughter of a noble Roman who took sides against Caesar. Portia, accustomed to being Brutus’s confidante, is upset to find him so reluctant to speak his mind when she finds him troubled. Brutus later hears that Portia has killed herself out of grief that Antony and Octavius have become so powerful.

Flavius:

A tribune (an official elected by the people to protect their rights). Flavius condemns the plebeians for their fickleness in cheering Caesar, when once they cheered for Caesar’s enemy Pompey. Flavius is punished along with Murellus for removing the decorations from Caesar’s statues during Caesar’s triumphal parade.

Cicero:

A Roman senator renowned for his oratorical skill. Cicero speaks at Caesar’s triumphal parade. He later dies at the order of Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus.

Lepidus:

The third member of Antony and Octavius’s coalition. Though Antony has a low opinion of Lepidus, Octavius trusts his loyalty.

Murellus:

Like Flavius, a tribune who condemns the plebeians for their fickleness in cheering Caesar, when once they cheered for Caesar’s enemy Pompey. Murellus and Flavius are punished for removing the decorations from Caesar’s statues during Caesar’s triumphal parade.

Decius:

A member of the conspiracy, Decius convinces Caesar that Calpurnia misinterpreted her dire nightmares and that, in fact, no danger awaits him at the Senate. Decius leads Caesar right into the hands of the conspirators.

The Story Behind the Play

s I have said before Julius Caesar is quite a tragic play. So I decided, why not tell the whole story. So basically Julius Caesar inspires jealousy in his presence againts the other senators. They conspire in a plot to kill him and succeeded, and so they made a run for it. Then the followers of Caesar went after them and in the end the conspirators died. And Brutus becomes the tragic hero of the play. So that is a basic overview of the whole story, a very basic one.

Now onto more pictures, these few pictures are more polished versions taken from our latest rehearsals. I'm quite proud with my class, we managed to get through this together, and overcame many challenges and in the end we got closer together. So here are the last few pictures of the play.

Getting Into Character

Julius Caesar is a tale of betrayal, tragedy and thrill. Thats what makes the play so unique and interesting, especially for us Grade 9D-9C students. Some of us were particularly interested in the play itself, one of them was me. So I encouraged the others to get into character. Quite interesting to imagine that you were in ancient roman era.

This is us rehearsing one of our scenes again. This time in particular we got into character, well most of us anyway. Although it may not look as much without costumes. But that didn't stop us, like always we managed to overcome our obstacles.

Here are some pictures:

Scripts and Rehearsals

Like all other plays, the play that we're doing will need scripts and good practice. Our first few assignments were to simplify the original text from Shakespeare's works, basically we had to translate old english to modern english. I had almost no problem in translating the script, or should I say modernizing it, I even managed to help my fellow classmates in doing theirs. And I joined drama class late since I was in music class before but that didn't stop me, I adjusted almost instantly. What can I say, when reading lots of Tolkien an

d Shakespeare works, you really get a knack for speaking their language. So Shakespeare's style of english is quite metaphorical as it is poetic and it often has double meanings, but that of course is the beauty of his work. I suppose you should get accustomed to Shakespearean to learn the direction of the play. And the class did very well, we were even ahead of other classes and we immediately began rehearsing.

As you can see on the first picture, our very small class (yes the class only contains around 11 people) is discussing what to do next. We never really had a problem listening to each other, and seem to have no problem working together. We have our moments of laughter but afterwards we can get serious and actually work. Usually we discuss about what to do, or just emphasizing on the play.

So this is one of the pictures

of me and my classmate(s) rehearsing one of our scenes. Not very hard for us, me and my friend here have worked together on many occasions so we had no difficulty in portraying our roles.

Introduction

Hello, welcome to my blog, I'm Josh and I will be showing you the process of the play that me and my class are conducting: Julius Caesar by Shakespeare. Personally, I'm a big fan of Shakespeare, so it isn;t much of a challenge for me to show you one of his arts. As we progress to the modern age, not many people can speak old english/shakespearean, so it became necessary to trasnlate the script to modern text, therefore more shorter and simpler lines. I for one am quite fluent in Shakespearean, for I have read some of Shekespeare's workls, and I have a basic understanding of his style of language.

Since I have a basic understanding of Shakespearean, I didn't encounter many problems in interpreting the lines. Most of my co-workers often relied on my help to translate most of the script, and the play has gone off to a smooth start. Since Shakespeare uses some form of metaphorical and analogical style in his works, it's not easy interpreting what the lines really mean, some may have a deep meaning and other may have no meaning at all. Aside from his syle of language, there is also a moral for this story, even though it looks like a tragic and bloody play. The moral is that you should stay with your own ideals, and do what you think is best through the use of human intuition, I think thats what Shakespeare wanted to display, the weakness of human intuition and how easy it can be manipulated. All in all it is quite....poetic

And off we go, into the Making of Julius Caesar....