We're in English class, right now*, and if anyone were to walk in, they would be seeing us not necessarily doing anything. Or they would think that at least. There isn't any real teacher-student interaction, the teacher isn't talking to the students from the front of the room, but individually, and there's no discussion. What we're doing is looking for important lines-- you know what, just let me start from the beginning. We were assigned a group, and that group has to choose a theme shown within Othello. After we pick a theme, every member of the party is assigned scenes from the play. From those scenes, we have to track down the lines that have to do with our theme, and organize them so that you understand the play, and plot while getting the theme across; all at the same time. When the script of the play in complete, we have to choose a creative way to perform the play--in seven minutes.

Now that you're all caught up, I can tell you about the group I am in. My group, well, my group is done two of the fifteen scenes in Othello. We're getting there though. It takes a lot of discipline to sit down, and read an entire scene of Shakespeare, and look for your theme in lines said by the characters. It's hard, and it takes a long time. Mostly depending on which scene you have to do. That's probably the biggest issue that faces us. The fact that we have to spend over an hour to dissect scenes. The group has people who are smart enough to do it, it's just that the interest level is low, which increases the distraction rate. Either way, we have two completed scenes, which is better than none. 

Earlier I just finished II.iii. It was a semi-long scene, but it wasn't too difficult. It took about two class periods, which amounts to a little bit more or less than two hours. Reading through the scene I had to cut out some lines. Whenever something repetitive came up, I wrote down the first two lines of it, and deleted the rest of the lines. For example, when Iago and Cassio are talking about Desdemona. Iago says she's pretty, and Cassio agrees with him. Iago then says more about her. When Iago started to say more about her, I started to cut lines. Also, when there were soliloquies, some unneeded lines were cut. I eventually got used to cutting lines, and learned how to make cuts in-between lines flow better. Reading through the important scenes again really gets me to understand how they act a lot easier. I can read some of the lines and understand them. For me, it looks like act III scene iii is up next...

*I’m actually not in English class right now. I was just saying that so it would seem like I was telling a story.