DRAMA – SHAKESPEARE MONOLOGUE- OTHELLO
Her father loved me, oft invited me;
Still questioned me the story of my life
From year to year — the battles, sieges, fortunes
That I have passed.
I ran it through, even from my boyish days
To th’ very moment that he bade me tell it.
Wherein I spoke of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents by flood and field;
Of hairbreadth escapes i’ the’ imminent deadly breach;
Of being taken by the insolent foe
And sold to slavery; of my redemption thence
And portance in my travels’ history;
SYNOPSIS OF THE STORY- OTHELLO
This is a love story about a black man names Othello from North Africa and is the military general. He gets married to a white venetian woman named DESDEMONA. She was pretty young as compared to Othello.
So at the beginning of the story they both fall in love and wanted to get married. After Desdemona’s father gets to know about their relationship and goes to find them with his men carrying swords and torches.
They found Othello and arrested him for using witchcraft for making Desdemona fall in love with her because it was hard to believe that a white woman falls in love with a black man. After sometime Desdemona came and explained everything to her father. Othello was released and both of them got married happily. Lago is one of his officers that hate Othello as it was rumored that Othello had relations with Lago’s wife. Lago wanted to take revenge by breaking his relationship with Desdemona and planned to make Othello suspect on her wife. He planned to make Othello doubt on Micheal Cassio the second-in-command. He goes with the plan and plays a lot of dirty tricks on Othello to make him suspect his wife for cheating on him with Micheal Cassio. Finally, Othello gets convinced to kill Desdemona his wife and the second-in-commando, Micheal cassio.
He got convinced by thinking that why would a white women fall in love with an older black man. Lago committed to help Othello in this crime. Othello kills his wife by covering her face with a pillow and smothering it on her face. After Desdemona dies. Amelia comes and tells Othello that micheal cassio has been murdered. Amelia tells Othello about the dirty deeds of Lago. After Amelia told Othello the trust she got stabbed by Lago. At the end of the story Othello stabs himself because of the guiltiness and dies.
Characters with description-
Othello –
A black man who is a military general in venetian and a virtuous warrior. Husband of Desdemona. Othello does not relay on people that are close to them. He gets jealous very easily and starts suspecting.
Desdemona-
she is Othello’s wife. A young venetian woman who falls in love with Othello. She is very kind and helpful as she helped cassio at his bad time. She is a loyal towards Othello as she never cheated on him nor suspected him.
Cassio-
The second-in-command. He is smooth talking and a loyal man as he never broke the trust of any of the characters. He had honorable in intention towards Desdemona as she was trying to help him at his bad time.
Lago-
he wanted to take revenge from Othello. He is the villain in the story as Othello and his wife die because of him. He played many dirty deeds with Othello so make is suspect his wife. His actions were without any justification. He had an ability to manipulate people easily.
Five examples of Othello adaptations-
SOURCES-
http://www.monologuearchive.com/s/shakespeare_006.html#wF5vcwD8PwS6I1VW.99
Props- Props that are being used in set design are staffs, sword,Facial hair, earing chair, stairs, and a golden sun with a face
Set design-
The set is placed in our theater room. Sources like the props chairs and staircases have been used with to make the set design for the scene.
Othello is a general and a scene of the general in which the monologue will be said will be King’s throne. To make the
king’s throne I took of my peers to set the throne. In the middle, the yellow seat will be the place for the King to sit. In front of the king will be Othello speaking his monologue in front of the king. Two stair cases have been placed on both the sides of the chair to make to give a bigger look of the throne Two guards will stand on right and left of the king to give a proper look and image of king’s throne. Behind the chair, a golden sun that has a face on it is placed which gives a royal and majestic look to king’s throne as well as the guards will be holding staffs which also gives a better look of a king’s throne.
Character sketch with interpretation – Look-alike characters to interpret the Facial look of Othello. The look-alike characters are given below.
My Interpretation of facial looks for Othello
The story mentioned that Othello was old and had a dark skin color. I drew the facial looks of Othello according to my interpretation.
Costume -
Sleeveless jacket Dark colored trousers with boots
Lighting-
The red circles state the placing of lights and the yellow color states the direction of light on the set. Two to four lights facing the entrance of the throne as shown on the design given below. Two to four lights facing the throne as labeled on the design given below. After the entrance of king and Othello is ended the entrance light switches off and lights on the throne are switched on and throughout the monologue, the lights on the throne are switched on and the directions of the light stay constant.
Reflection-
This unit has been a very challenging and rewarding experience. This unit has enabled me to improve on my ATL skill. I have improved my thinking skill in designing the costume, set and lighting which was appreciated by my mentor. I learned a lot of skills to design and perform my monologue. First step was to make a presentation on Elizabeth theater to have and visual image of the Shakespeare monologue performance. The second step was to choose any Shakespeare monologue in which I chose Othello’s monologue from “Othello” (act 1 scene 3). The third step was to write the synopsis of the story which helped in designing the set according to the situation in the story. I have enhanced my designing skills through this unit which required different kinds of designing skills. The fifth step was to write the description of the characters which helped me to know the background of my character and express myself according to the character. Step six was to find adaptation of the character which enabled me to make a character sketch as well as gestures and expressions of character. The seventh step was to design the character from my own interpretation which gave me an understanding of how I should be expressing myself while speaking the monolog. For example- anger, love or respectfully. The eighth step was back to designing where we had to design the lighting according to the et design. To explain the design, I made a sketch of the design explaining the entry and the place where the character will be speaking the monolog. The next step was to choose the costume which was a challenge for me because choosing how to look like the character in my performance was a key element and to express myself like the character it was important to look like that character. Choosing what to wear to look like the character and arranging the needs accordingly was a challenge but as a result I was successful finding the needs and look alike Othello in my performance. The last step was the performance. For that I had to first learn the monolog which was the greatest challenge I faced in this unit. Learning and speaking a monologue in Shakespearian language was a challenge. While performing I did not stop in forget or stammered my monologue while performing. I was successful in learning and speaking my monologue with expressions but while performing I made a mistake of not using the full setup of my design and stood at one stationary place facing the king and speaking my monologue. I could have improved by utilizing the space given to me from one place to another and expressing myself better with gestures.
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