A Fellow Named Othello

I recently tried out for a part in Othello. I haven't heard from the director yet whether or not I have gotten it. I have been sleeping in his front yard for a week now, yet he avoids the question whenever I yell it at him. In researching the play, I read it for the first time. Yes, folks, I had never read Othello before, have you? It is a fine play. This Shakespeare fellow really knew what he was doing. It wasn't as funny as some of his other comedies, but hey, who am I to criticize a pillar of Western Literature?

I must say one thing though.  This Othello, the Moor, was one gullible rube. All it took was a couple of clever lies and a little falsified circumstantial evidence from Iago, and Othello goes from honored general and lovestruck newlywed to maniacally jealous wife murderer and tragic suicide victim (I told you it isn't very funny). I would have to classify this guy as a credulous dunce. Had he never had anyone try to con him before? If somebody had tried, they would have found a lucrative source of continuous revenue in separating Othello from his money. Can you imagine what he would have done if some Nigerian prince had sent him an email asking for his bank account number? He would lose everything. What if a local candidate's TV ad warned him that voting for the other guy would be the death knell for senior citizens? Big-hearted lug that he was, he would have voted for this charlatan and thereby contributed to his society's demise. 

Sometimes I think Shakespeare just made stuff up as he went along, perhaps trying to meet a deadline.  I wonder if some of the peeps in his entourage ever pointed out the flaws in his plays' characters or plots.  Or maybe, like readers today, they had some difficulty understanding his complicated Elizabethan writing style (this was long before Cliff's Notes, as I understand.)

UPDATE.
The preceding blog was written in the summer of 2011 and never posted due to a thumb cramp.  I never did get the part in the play.  All I got from the director was a restraining order.  But not having to do Othello freed me up for other projects.  In fact, I've done five plays and two film projects since being passed over for the part.  I am now somewhat of a celebrity here in northeast Ohio to the point where several of my co-workers now recognize me with very little prompting.  How funny life is.

I am one of these guys in one of the plays I did recently.