Dear user,
No matter how masterfully they are modernized by editors, old plays can always be intimidating to read and understand. Written around four hundred years ago, Shakespeare’s plays are no exception. It is not surprising if you find yourself getting bored or confused when reading a Shakespearean play. There are simply too many characters, subplots, and new words, not to mention the long monologues and numerous allusions.
This problem extends to schools and academic contexts, where Shakespeare’s plays are supposed to be read and discussed under the supervision of those already familiar with the texts. As noted by Michael Tolaydo, an editor and contributor to the Folger Shakespeare Library’s teaching guide series, Shakespeare Set Free, students often find Shakespearean language and context so remote that they struggle to understand, let alone foster a deep, critical engagement with the texts. Feedback from Tolaydo’s students, such as “Shakespeare is hard to understand,” “the plays are too long,” and “you need to be English to do it,” reflects the prevalent difficulties faced by contemporary learners (O’Brien, 27).
However, students are not alone in their struggles with Shakespeare’s works; the plays can also be challenging for teachers. As mentioned by the early modern scholar and professor, Gina Bloom, the difficult language and distant historical settings of Shakespearean plays affect the way teachers approach them today. Bloom contends that, “because Shakespeare’s language and historical context are alienating to many students and teachers, educators often resort to traditional and depoliticized interpretations of the plays.” Even worse, teachers might over-politicize the plays, further emphasizing the so-called “universality” of Shakespeare, which is often wrongly translated as the sameness of the message of the plays regardless of who reads them.
Thus, as time passes, we are losing our connection with a man who is perhaps the most powerful master of words that ever lived on the face of the earth.
The present project, Othello, a Game, was inspired by a triangular dialogue derived from my experience as a teacher, scholar, and student of English. The game aims to make engaging with a specific edition of Othello (the Folger Shakespeare Edition, published by Simon & Shuster in 2017) more accessible and enjoyable for anyone interested in reading the play. To achieve this, it employs an empirical method involving the creation of simple sketches of short yet detailed portions of the play’s plot.
Players read a short part of the plot, draw a sketch of it on a whiteboard, and then narrate that part of the story to the other players using their drawings. Based on my experience using this teaching method in several tutorial sessions at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, it encourages critical thinking about the plot settings, aids in remembering the events of the play, and fosters creativity in favor of group learning. All these elements make learning Shakespeare easier and more fun.
Task Types
While playing the game, players will complete several tasks sorted in two different categories:
Find the Meaning of the Word: These tasks ask the players to consult the edition’s annotations, a dictionary, or any other resource to find the meaning of a word that Shakespeare used in Othello and teach that word to the other players. The words are used in lines of the play, so the players will need to read the line aloud and clarify the meaning of the specified word for everyone. This type of tasks helps players become familiar with early modern jargon and the importance of a glossary in a literary edition.
Identify Characters and Scenes: These tasks ask the players to find the number of characters in the scene that they are narrating and tell their names to the others. They might also ask the players to determine how many scenes the act has. These tasks aim to make players familiar with the structure of a Shakespearean play and help them better follow the plot.
Read Aloud/Perform: These tasks ask the players to read aloud the dialogue or monologue related to the story card they just read. Shakespearean plays were written for performance, and many assert that the best way to learn them is through performing them. These tasks aim to motivate group reading and performing parts of the play’s text to increase players’ understanding and exposure to theatrical experience.
Identify Literary Devices: These tasks ask the players to find the meaning of literary devices found in Othello. These tasks encourage players to look up the meanings of literary devices they might encounter in any literary work, learn them, and teach them to the other players.
Random Tasks: These tasks pose different questions about the historical context of the play as well as Shakespeare’s life, aiming to teach players about the importance of the editorial prefaces provided in the beginning sections of every literary edition.
Golden Tasks
The Golden Tasks focus mainly on the allusions that Shakespeare used in writing Othello. Players are asked to research different allusions, learn about them, and teach what they have learned to the others.
Goals
As you might have already deduced, Othello, a Game has three main goals:
- Make using an edition of Othello more accessible and fun for everyone.
- Encourage the use of creativity and adaptation when dealing with old texts.
- In the context of English classrooms, reduce the role of the teacher by facilitating group learning among students.
Inspired by the design of an old board game called The Game of the Goose, the five-staged, spiral game board of Othello, a Game mirrors the five acts of a typical Shakespearean play. While Othello, a Game focuses on making it easier to read Othello, the structure and design of the game board are such that it can be adapted to help players read almost any other Shakespearean play.
To make the game as affordable and accessible as possible, I have uploaded all the necessary templates on a weblog, where anyone can download and print their own versions of the game for free. In order to make the game even more accessible, my next step is to design and develop a digitized version of the game with open access for the public users. My hope is to open a door for anyone interested in reading Shakespeare, regardless of their age or familiarity with his works. I welcome any suggestions, criticisms, or ideas to further develop the project and make it perfect for both public and academic use.
Sincerely,
Navid Jalali
References:
Ascari, Maurizio. “The dangers of distant reading: Reassessing Moretti’s approach to literary genres.” Genre, vol. 47, no. 1, 1 Apr. 2014, pp. 1–19, https://doi.org/10.1215/00166928-2392348.
Bloom, Gina, and Lauren Bates. “Play to learn: Shakespeare games as decolonial praxis in south african schools.” Shakespeare in Southern Africa, vol. 34, no. 1, 3 Jan. 2022, pp. 7–22, https://doi.org/10.4314/sisa.v34i1.2.
Bloom, Gina, Buswell, Evan. What’s Past Is Prologue – Experimenting with Shakespeare: Games and Play in the Laboratory, shakesperiment.tome.press/chapter/whats-past-is-prologue/. Accessed 31 May 2024.
Bloom, Gina. “Games.” Early Modern Theatricality, 6 June 2017, pp. 189–211, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199641352.013.10.
–. “Videogame Shakespeare: enskilling audiences through theater-making games.” Shakespeare Studies 43, 2015, pp. 114-9.
–. Gaming the Stage: Playable Media and the Rise of English Commercial Theater. University of Michigan Press, 2018.
Moretti, Franco. “Conjectures on world literature.” New left review 2.1, 2000, pp. 54-68.
Murray, H. J. R. A History of Board-Games Other than Chess. Hacker Art Books, 1978.
O’Brien, Peggy, et al. Shakespeare Set Free: Teaching A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth. Washington Square Press, 2006.
O’Brien, Peggy. Teaching A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo & Juliet, and Macbeth: Shakespeare Set Free. Teaching Shakespeare Institute, Folger Shakespeare Library, 2006.
Parlett, David. The Oxford History of Board Games. Oxford University Press, 1999.
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