UH THEATRE 1301 -Lorraine Lobo, Jean Claude Gizzeano, Joe Husband

1. Julius Caesar
By: William Shakespeare

2. 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
Production will played at
Houston's Stages Repertory
Theatre

3. 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.

4. Style of the play
Heightened 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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

8. -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.

9. -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.

10. -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

11. CASCA, DECIUS BRUTUS, METELLUS CIMBER, TREBONIUS, CINNA, ANTONY, LEPIDUS,
POPILIUS, PUBLIUS, and others
-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

12. 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.

13. Daggers used by all noblemen,
except Cassius.
Cassius will use his sword provided
in the costume.

14. In 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).

15. LIGHTING
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.

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. 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.

21. 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.

22. 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.