THE ARTS OF THE RENAISSANCE

Teacher: Tricia O’Neill Veneziani, Northern High School (msdirector[at]hotmail.com)
Arts Discipline: Theatre/English
Grade Level: High School
Team: A

Topic:

100 lines from Act 3 Scene 3 of Shakespeare’s Othello
(touching upon: improvisation, literary analysis, art interpretation)

Big Idea: Choices

Why is this unit worth teaching?

Ask any theatre teacher what subject is the mother of all subjects and the response will be “Why Theatre, of course.” Teaching theatre means teaching English; the actor must know what the words mean and the literary devices at play. Teaching theatre means teaching art: What is theatre without costumes and scenery? Theatre is history, science, and architecture: Plays are written during specific time periods, depicting certain time periods, with the scientific knowledge of the time period, and on the current stage structure of the time period. While it may be difficult to incorporate every Renaissance discipline in the study of Shakespeare, this unit may remind us that if we teach Shakespeare, we are not just English teachers or just theatre teachers, we are truly multidisciplinary “arts” educators. This particular unit will focus on English language skills (unlocking the meaning of Shakespeare’s word choice), acting skills (choosing the way to deliver the lines and the movements that will best convey meaning), and interpreting art (as a means of developing character).

MSDE Alignments

English:

Goal 1: The student will demonstrate the ability to respond to a text by employing personal responses and critical literary analysis.

Expectation 3: The student will explain and give evidence to support perceptions about print and non-print works.

Goal 4: The student will demonstrate the ability to evaluate the content, organization, and language of texts.

Expectation 1: The student will describe the effect that a given text, heard or read, has on the listener or reader.

Theatre:

Outcome I: The student will demonstrate the ability to recognize the development of a variety of dramatic forms over time and the aesthetic qualities they reflect.

Expectation A: The student will analyze and describe verbally ways that theatre satisfies the need for aesthetic expression through the portrayal of human experience.

Outcome II: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the history, traditions, and conventions of theatre; dramatic texts and other literature of the literature; and ways that diverse theories and forms of theatre satisfy cultural needs, past and present.

Expectation A: The student will select and analyze various forms of theatre that reflect the various roles of theatre in contemporary life.

Outcome III: The student will demonstrate the ability to explore the creative process through theatrical activities and to apply theatrical knowledge, principles, and practices to collaborative theatre presentations.

Expectation A: The student will rehearse and perform a variety of theatrical activities.

Essential Understandings:

• Artists do not randomly create their art.
• Painters choose how to paint their subjects and what to include in their paintings.
• Shakespeare chose his words carefully.
• Shakespeare might have chosen his words, but editors chose how they appeared in print.
• Directors choose how to interpret plays.
• Actors choose how to play characters.
• What we as readers/audience members perceive is the result of others’ choices and how we choose to interpret them ourselves.

Five-Day Unit on 100 lines from Othello Act 3 scene 3

First Day
Improvisational Choices

Warm up:

How can improvisation lead to understanding a character or situation?
(Answers will vary, but essentially you want the students to see that improvisation can let us see how a certain character would react in a certain situation and what words would be spoken.)

Objectives:

Students will be able to act out or view an improvisation and state what choices were made to convey either the character or the situation.

Activity:

Improvisation of a scene involving jealousy

Procedure:

• Ask for 4 volunteers for an improvisation. You may vary the situation, but here is an example involving 3 girls and 1 boy.
• To a girl and the boy, give the following typed on a piece of paper. They may read it together, but cannot tell anyone else what is on the paper.

  The girl is working with the boy on a class project in a study hall in school. You are both JUST friends, but you do enjoy working together. In fact, you both already have a boyfriend and girlfriend and just want to get this project done. Go to one side of the classroom and begin your actions. You do not need to say anything above a whisper. It might be better if the audience did NOT hear what you were saying, but merely saw your friendly, collaborative actions.

• Hand each one of the remaining girls a piece of paper. They may NOT share it with anyone else, including each other.

  Girl 1: You hate Girl 2, but you pretend to be her good friend. You see Girl 2’s boyfriend studying with another girl and you know they are just working on a project. You want to make Girl 2 jealous without losing her “friendship.”

  Girl 2: You are a very popular likable girl. You have a very cute boyfriend who really likes you. Your best friend in the whole world has something to tell you.

• Another variation involves 2 boys instead of the two girls. Boy 1 is on the same baseball team as Boy 2, but never gets to pitch because Boy 2 is so good. Boy 1 pretends to be a best buddy of Boy 2 but tries to make Boy 2 jealous.
• Have the class watch the improvisation, then discuss.

Discussion Questions:

1. What was the audience’s perception of the Boy/Girl? What did we think was their relationship and what did we think they were doing?
2. Why did we think that? (What choices did they make in acting?)
3. What was the relationship of Girl 1 and Girl 2? How did we know this?
4. Why did Girl 1 say what she did to Girl 2?
5. What was Girl 2’s reaction to Girl 1? To the Boy?
6. What makes a person jealous?
7. Can jealousy ever be a good thing? How?
8. How does one get over or control jealousy?

Distribute the 100 lines from Othello, Act 3 scene 3.

(Note: Normally when acting a scene from Shakespeare, the students would read the entire play. However, this excerpt can be used as a brief model (springboard) for studying other Shakespearean plays. Some students might want to know more of the plot of Othello, so here is a thumbnail sketch.

Othello is a black, middle-aged general who recently married a young, white girl, Desdemona. They are very much in love and very happy. Iago hates Othello and wishes to hurt him by making him think that Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio, another soldier. Desdemona likes Cassio as a friend and in the scene prior to this one has tried to get Othello to promote Cassio. BUT, she is NOT having an affair with anyone.)

Homework:

In your acting portfolio, describe a time when you were jealous and what you did. If you cannot recall a time when you were jealous, describe a situation either in real life or in fiction where another person was jealous. Describe what he/she did and what was the result of the jealousy.

Read the marked lines from this scene. Highlight or circle all the end punctuation (period, colons, semi-colons, etc.)

Day 2
Language and Word choice

Warm Up:

How do our word choice, tone and gestures affect our audience?

(As a fun activity to this one, before the students start to answer, the teacher could come in a moment after the bell has rung and say something like: “You will never believe what I just heard (insert Principal’s name) say. Oh my God. . .” See how many students react.
Then continue with, “ Well, I really shouldn’t tell you. It might not have been what I thought it was.” Pause for reaction. “But my goodness, it was unbelievable.” Then end with, “How many of you would like to know what I just heard? Why?”)

Discuss how we can affect others by what words we choose and how we say them.

Objectives:

• Students will listen to and read aloud parts of Othello.
• Students will be able to “translate” parts of Shakespeare into modern English.
• Students will be able to note differences between two editions of Othello.
• Students will note variations in meter that may add to meaning.

Activity:

Round the room reading of Shakespeare by sentences.

Procedure:

• Have one student read the first sentence. Then the next student reads the next full thought (and so on). Remind them to pause at commas and stop at their circled punctuation. Go through the entire text this way.
• Give one student a dictionary and one a Shakespeare glossary or lexicon.*
• Now read the text again. This time having each student tell the class what he/she thinks the sentence means in modern English. If the student has no idea then other students can help. Ask the reference students (the dramaturges) for help on hard words.
• Have the students get into pairs, one person to read Othello and one person to read Iago. If a few students want a soliloquy for Othello, that’s okay too.
• Assign the students one of the following sets of lines, or have them volunteer (and more than one pair will have to do a set of lines)
  • Lines 167 to 195 “O, beware, my lord, of jealousy” to “Away at once with love or jealousy!”
  • Lines 196 to 216 “ I am glad of this, for now I shall have reason” to “I am bound to thee forever”
  • Lines 217 to 231 “I see this hath a little dashed your spirits” to “And yet how nature, erring from itself—“
  • Lines 232 to 261 “Ay, there’s the point: as to be bold with you,” to “I once more take my leave.”
  • And then for Othello’s soliloquy: 262 to the STOP sign
• Distribute the First Folio copy of the same 100 lines
• Working in their pairs (or alone) students should note the differences between the First Folio and the Arden editions
• Ask if these differences matter. (Hint: have the students emphasize words that are capitalized in one but not the other and see if the meaning changes.)
• Students should note changes in iambic pentameter and offer a reason for those changes.

Homework:

In your portfolios, copy your lines (either from the First Folio or from the Arden edition). Do so sentence by sentence, leaving spaces between the sentences to come back and add in the modern translation. You need only do your part.

* Suggestions for a glossary and/or lexicon and editions of Shakespeare:

The Norton Facsimile of the First Folio of Shakespeare. Charlton Hinman, ed. W. W.
Norton, 1968.

The Oxford English Dictionary

Onions, C. T. A Shakespeare Gossary. 3rd edtion. Edited and enlarged by Robert D.
Eagleston. Oxford University Press, 1986.

The Riverside Shakespeare. Evans G. Blackmore, et al., eds. Houghton Mifflin, 1974.

Schmidt, Alexander. Shakespeare Lexicon and Quotation Dictionary. 2 volumes.
Dover Press, 1971.

Spevak, Marvin. The Harvard Concordance to Shakespeare. Harvard University Press,
1973. (Keyed to the Riverside Shakespeare)

Day 3
Art and Subtext: The artist’s choice

Warm up:

Do not talk! Face your partner. Think of a sentence like “I just made an A in English, and I feel great.” Try to figure out what each one of you is thinking.

Objective:

• Students will be able to surmise what a character is thinking from a given text.
• Students will be able to note the difference in the portrayal of humanity from the Medieval Period to the Renaissance.
• Students will be able to note the dress of the Renaissance and what “costume” showed about the person
• Students will note what choices the artist made when painting such as colors, objects, etc.
• Students will be able to define and write subtext.

Activity:

View Renaissance art portraits and have the students pretend they are the subject and answer “What am I thinking? I’ll tell you.”

For this activity you should use your art teacher as a resource. Every art teacher has some portrait art from the Renaissance, such as “The Mona Lisa” by Leonardo da Vinci.

You can also find art samples on the internet. Try www.art.com.

Procedure:

• Ask the art teacher to show a Medieval painting such as “The Annunciation” by Masolino da Panicale. Ask the students whether or not they think the figures look real. Can they tell what they are thinking? The art teacher could then explain a bit about the concept of portraying people in Medieval times. He/she might even go into the beginnings of perspective.
• Next show the students some Renaissance portraits. I used “Portrait of a Lady” by Rogier van der Weyden and “Ginevra de’ Benci” by Leonardo da Vinci. Ask the students to tell you what these women are thinking.
• I also used “Le Tricheur a L’As de Carreau” by Georges de la tour. This was the front cover of the book Uppity Women of Shakespearean Times by Vicki Leon. This painting speaks volumes of what these characters are thinking.
• Ask the art teacher to explain how people were portrayed more humanly during the Renaissance than they were during the Medieval. You can add that Shakespeare was more realistic in his portrayal of characters than writers before him.
• Define subtext. (What a character is thinking as he/she is speaking the text.)
• Ask students to think about what their Othellos and Iagos might be thinking as they say the lines.
• If time permits, have students get up and move around saying their lines to each other, and thinking as the character might be.

Homework:

In your portfolio write the subtext for each sentence your character speaks. Also, begin to look for a picture (from any source: books, internet, magazines, newspapers) that captures what your character is thinking for at least part of your lines.

Days 4 and 5
Choosing movement
Final Project: Scene and Portfolio

Warm up:

What does “suit the word to the action, the action to the word” mean?

Objective:

Students will be able to rehearse parts from Othello noting the difference a gesture or movement can make in a scene.

Activity:

• Students will rehearse scenes several times. Each time they will emphasize different words and choose slightly different movements.
• Students will present their scenes to the class and, if possible, be videotaped.
• The class will discuss how the same lines can be presented differently.

Homework:

Prepare to turn in your portfolios with:

1. Your jealousy episode described.
2. Your copied text, translation and subtext.
3. Your script with any blocking notes.
4. Your picture of what your character is thinking.

Assessment:

Students will be assessed on the performance of the scene and the written work in their portfolios.

Possible Follow-up Activity
Choices Directors/Actors Make in Film

Warm up:

Think of a book you read that was turned into a movie you saw. How similar were the two?

Objective:

Students will be able to view the same scene from different film versions of Othello and note similarities and differences, and offer a reason for both.

Activity:

Show the Act 3 Scene 3 clip from two or more films of Othello.

From the Brookside Media Catalog
P.O. Box 612
Trumbull, CT 06611-0612
1-800-934-4336
www.brooksidemedia.com

You can order: Othello from PBS Masterpiece Theatre with Eamonn Walker, and Keeley Hawes. VHS 111022AX for $19.95 (also available in DVD)

Othello with Lawrence Fishburne and Kenneth Branagh
VHS 161019AX for $19.98 (Also available in DVD)

“O” the modern film based on Othello
VHS 391010AX for $59.98 (But this is in most video stores for rental)

Also the Films for the Humanities & Sciences has a very interesting version from The Market Theatre, Johannesburg (South Africa) of Othello
1-800-257-5126 for ordering information