10th Grade English: Third Trimester

Othello: Final Project

Character Work: Each of you will choose one character from Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello. You will engage in a series of activities in order to more fully analyze and understand the personality and psychology of your character.

Part One: Monologue (25 points)

You will choose one dramatic monologue spoken by your character. The monologue should be a minimum of 12 lines long. You will deliver the monologue to the class striving for strong physical acting, appropriate tone, clarity of speech, and pacing. You will have one “dress rehearsals” prior to your final performance.

You will be graded on:

1. Physicality

2. Clarity

3. Accuracy

4. Emotion

Part Two: Costume Design (25 points)

What does your character wear? Shakespeare is famous for giving very few clues about stage direction and costume direction. The creative choices are in the hands of the director. You should complete research to determine a. typical period dress from 17th century Europe and b. costume designs that have been created for your character. You should also create a color swatch with colors that you think are ideal in the creation of your character’s costume. These color choices should be very intentional, and you should have an “artist’s statement” explaining why you use certain colors. Lastly, you should do at least one color rendering of the costume. Keep in mind, you may choose to set your production of Othello in any time period, so your costume design should: a. reflect fashion from the time period you are choosing, and b. remain consistent with the portrayal of the character in Shakespeare’s original work.

Your costume sketch will be graded on:

1. Creativity

2. Quality of Research

3. Neatness of your presentation.

Part Three: Character Analysis Essay (50 points)

In a well-organized 2-page essay, provide an in-depth analysis of your character in Othello. You should consider: motivations, psychological conflict, relationships with others, and morality. You should be very careful to avoid plot summary. Any retelling of the basic plot should be used only so far as it helps to support your original analysis of your character.

Your essay will be graded on:

1. Organization

2. Depth of Analysis

3. Conventions

4. Originality

5. Clarity of Writing