Acting Companies for Student Performance

ACTING COMPANIESHere is a description of the final scenes in Othello. Look them over. Take note of the number of actors required. Join with your classmates and organize an acting company to present one of the scenes. Negotiate with me about who gets to do what scene. You can split long parts or combine short ones, but every student in your group should have a speaking part.

Acting Company 1: 5.1 Under cover of darkness, Iago kills Roderigo but only wounds Cassio, There are many possibilities for nonspeaking roles, like litter bearers. LINES: Iago, 82; Roderigo, 11; Cassio, 17; Gratiano, 10; Lodovico, 9; Bianca, 7; Emilia, 5; Othello, 10

Acting Company 2: 5.2.1­203 (through Emilia’s ”Murder, murder!”) Othello murders Desdemona; Emilia enters and discovers this. LINES: Othello, 120; Desdemona, 43; Emilia, 40 Special warning for Acting Company 2: Professional actors are trained in stage­fight techniques so they can make a staged death or fight look dangerous and real when it is in fact a safe and carefully rehearsed exercise. The students playing Othello and Desdemona will have to figure out a very safe way to do the death. Desdemona can turn her face to the wall and Othello can hold a pillow gently against the back of her head. Then if Othello pretends to be pushing the pillow and Desdemona pretends to struggle, the death will seem real and be effective.

Acting Company 3: 5.2.204-435 Montano, Gratiano, and Iago arrive. Emilia tells the truth about the handkerchief and Iago kills her. Othello, realizing his terrible error, kills himself. LINES: Montano, 7; Emilia, 48; Gratiano, 16; Iago, 12; Othello, 91; Lodovico, 43; Cassio, 14

lnstructions for Preparing Your Scene

You will be given three class days to complete this work and memorize your lines. Be productive. Be creative. But above all, be communicative. The rest of the class will rely on your production to know what happens in your scene.

1. Appoint a director or two and cast the scene. When you perform, each person in the company should have a chance to be on stage with at least one line.

2. Use the "Acting Process" handout to prepare the scene. Read through the scene aloud, at least once, preferably twice. Decide collectively on the cuts, and make the cuts right away.

3. Your scene should not take longer than ten minutes to perform. Read the scene aloud after you’ve decided on the cuts, timing yourselves, and making necessary adjustments.

4. Allow extra time--performing a scene takes more time than just reading it.

5. Talk about characters-what they want in this scene, how they talk and move. This is to be a more prepared and polished performance than the ones you have been doing all along. Give special attention to movement, and memorize your lines.

6. Plan costumes and props. All students should wear black pants and black shirts. Props should be very simple.

7. Appoint a prompter and establish clear signals about how the prompting will be handled. If actors are not memorizing their lines, write the lines and cues on large note cards to glance at during performance.

8. Give your acting company a name.

9. If you like, plan extra touches like music, sets, programs.

10. Throughout this process, record your decisions in a director’s promptbook, due the day the scene is presented. See Handout: ”Director’s Promptbook.”