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The Importance Of Gender Bending In Othello By William Shakespeare

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The Importance Of Gender Bending In Othello By William Shakespeare
For the past two nights, and for the first time in my life, I've had audition anxiety dreams.

"That's because you've been reading that book," says Bob, referring to Audition by Michael Shurtleff.

"Yeah, that and the fact that I'm, once again, on the never-ending quest to find that elusive perfect monologue."

In preparation for any upcoming auditions in, hopefully, the near future, I have been scouring the pages of a Theresa Rebeck play anthology. I've settled on a monologue where the character is an out of work actress who is moonlighting as a phone sex fantasy girl in order to make some extra money. It has some very "funny potential," assuming I can hit just the right notes. For my contrasting monologue, I was thinking of doing one of Iago's from Othello. Jealousy and competition are certainly not gender specific, and I enjoy changing it up a bit when it comes to Shakespeare. If the unexpected gender bending doesn't work to impress the auditors, I hope it at least gets their attention. …show more content…
My performances wind up feeling forced and contrived. Shakespearean women are either extremely young or regal, neither of which describes me. That, and most of the good female monologues are way overdone. Therefore, I've taken to choosing monologues spoken by either the fairies or the "fools." But, Iago! Oooh. One of the best villains ever. Doing something so unexpected might finally work in my
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