To all the Othello's out there...

Hello Everyone,

I am a 15 year old Sydney girl who is playing the title role in Othello, but I have fair skin and blonde hair...It is for a regional schools Shakespeare competition and is on in about 3 weeks. We won the competition at school and have progressed to this next level...

My problem is that when we did the original performance, we wore rehearsal blacks. Now that the competition is of a higher standard, we need proper costumes.

The other girls, playing Desdemona and Emilia are fine, but I can't think of anything that I could wear for the performance to make me look like Othello.

If any other girl has played Othello, or if anyone has any ideas for me, I would be so very grateful...

Thanks
Love Alison

I've not played Othello, but I've done enough cross-gender Shakespeare parts to appreciate your dilemma (in fact, if you're a female playing any part at all, surely all Shakespeare is cross gender...?).

My immediate reaction was, it's not a rock eisteddfod - why are the costumes important? If it's Shakespeare, surely you're being graded on the performance, above all? Provided they're fairly neat rehearsal blacks, I personally wouldn't see a problem.

If you do need costume, I think you first need to justify why you're making your Othello female (beyond the 'I go to a girl's school' excuse, of course). Is it your way of illustrating Othello as an outsider, using gender instead of race? Are you doing a lesbian reading of the Othello-Desdemona relationship? I personally wouldn't go down the 'I want to convince the audience I'm a man' path - in my opinion, it's a bit naff unless you're androgynous looking, and it'd be a waste of a great opportunity to demonstrate an 'original' re-working of the tale (I use the quotes as I'm sure it's been done before, but it's still not done often - white males can be hesitant about doing it, much less white females). I think it would probably be fairly important, once you've got your reasons, and provided you do go down the Othello is definitely a female path, to clearly indicate using a dress/skirt/other distinctly feminine piece of clothing that you are definitely playing the part as a female, to leave no doubt in the viewers minds.

I quite enjoy playing cross-gender parts in Shakespeare (despite my whinging at never getting to play the girly doormats) because it's the perfect opportunity to bring the gutsy 21st century female comfortably into Shakespeare. You don't really get to bring her in if you're playing a female character, because the parts are all in-escapably deferential to men (the ballsiest, Beatrice and Kate, probably most of all, as they ultimately realise 'our strength as weak, our weakness past compare' when it comes to the crunch for both of them).

For this reason, I am looking forward enormously to the all-female Richard III I will be seeing at the Globe Theatre in London next month...

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Alison wrote:
>

>
> My problem is that when we did the original performance, we
> wore rehearsal blacks. Now that the competition is of a
> higher standard, we need proper costumes.



If the others are finding a new look, perhaps 'rehearsal black' is symbolic enough for Othello?


crg

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Well, i'd never thought of playing Othello as a woman, that is quite a radical idea. In any case, my school would definately appreciate this point of view, as they greatly encourage free thinking in women, and support feminist type viewpoints.

I will talk about this with the other members of the group, but i like the idea and it means that i no longer have to adopt the persona of a man, and dress like one, because i'm not a man! Thanks very much, i'm very grateful for your help.

Sincerely,
Alison