Shakespeare's Othello
EQ: How can we use performance to discern meaning in a challenging text?
Click the button below to access the overview, requirements, & rubric for the Othello Performance Project!
“The Temptation Scene” in Relay
In order to discern how this handkerchief plays out you will:
- Organize yourselves in groups of 5 acting companies! (15 actors total needed)
- Read through your parts, to discern the scene.
- Take any notes you need to embody the feelings of the character and his or her action
- You will then mime the scene (acting without words) in replay performance
- If all Othello’s, and/or all Emilia’s have a similar piece of clothing (hat, scarf, color shirt, etc.) that would be helpful for the audience to visualize the scene and have the ocular proof that Othello apparently needs to accuse Desdemona of cheating. So let’s decide by the end of the day what you will wear to perform this tomorrow!!W
Wardrobe:
Emilia: Yellow
Iago: Green
Othello: Blue
Desdemona: Purple
Casio: Red
Bianca: Pink
Company 1:
3.4.23-115 (65 = mom magic)
- (“Where should I lose that handkerchief” through Othello’s exit”)
- Othello asks Desdemona for the handkerchief and rebukes her when she cannot produce it.
- 3 actors: Desdemona, Emilia, Othello
Company 2:
3.3.321-43
- (How now, y dear” through “I nothing but to please his fantasy”)
- Othello has begun to doubt Desdemona, and his behavior toward her has changed. Desdemona drops her handkerchief without realizing it, and Emilia picks it up, saying she will have the “work [of the handkerchief] ta’en out and give it to Iago.
- How and why does Desdemona let it fall?
- How does Emilia react when she picks it up?
- Where does Emilia hold the handkerchief when she sees Iago?
- 3 actors: Desdemona, Emilia, Othello,
Company 3:
3.3.344-82
- (“How now? What do you here alone?” through “which thou owedst yesterday”)
- Iago get the handkerchief from Emilia, after she exits, says he will plant it in Cassio’s lodging.
- What motivates Emila to give the handkerchief to Iago?
- How does she give it to him? How does he take it?
- 2 actors: Iago, 24, Emilia, 15
Company 4:
3.4.116-189
- (“Is not this man jealous?” through the exit of Desdemona and Emilia)
- Cassio again asks Desdemona for help, and she explains that Othello does not seem himself
- Encourage students to cut the longer speeches of Cassio and Desdemona and to be able to provide reasons for the cuts.
- 5 actors: Othello, Desdemona, Emilia, Casio, Iago
Company 5:
3.4.190-231
- (“Save you, friend Cassio!” to the end of the scene”).
- After Desdemona’s exit. Cassio says he has found a strange handkerchief in his lodging. When his lover, Bianca, appears, he asks her to copy the embroidery.