Sometimes, A Good Teacher is All You Need

The stage lights come down and focus on Tim Setty as he prepares to give Iago’s famous soliloquy from Othello, the part he had been dreading the most. The spotlights burn through him as a nervous sweat starts forming on his brow. His knees buckle and, in a flash, all of his next few lines leave his head. He scrambles and pauses trying to remember and blurt out anything.

“And what’s he then…that says I play…the villain?

When this advice…is free I give…and honest,

Probal to thing… sorry to thinking…and indeed the course

To win…”

“Cut!” a strong voice echoed from the audience seats. “Tim! What was that?” the director said as they stood up from their seat with a mousy assistant scurrying behind them, their body shrouded in darkness. “I have heard you do the lines; we spent all that time practicing after school in the band room. What’s going on?” The director and his assistant started walking to the stage. Tim looked down at his feet, nervous about what people were going to say. Tim moved out of the spotlight to get the heat off of him and have his eyes adjust. Mr. Frankle, the school Choral Director and the director for our school play this year, walked up to Tim and bent over to get at his eye level.

However, before he could say anything they both turned to hear laughter. The kind of obnoxious laughter that didn’t evoke laughter in others, but instead was meant to tear down the victim’s confidence. The kind of laughter Tim had heard most of his short high school life, being forced to listen to it day after day for this play. Josh Roma was sitting backstage pointing at Tim and laughing at their performance. Mr. Frankle snapped his fingers and pointed to Josh, his universal way of saying “shut up, right now.” The laughter settled down to a dull chuckle. “Alright, now, what is going on Tim?” Mr. Frankle said in a calm tone. Tim bashfully tried to explain himself, “Well I had been practicing like I told you, and I was working on my stage directions, and making sure that my inflections were on the right words, and I was…” Tim began to drone on about the different things going on in his head, but Mr. Frankle only heard excuse after excuse. He held up his hand to stop Tim from continuing and then put his hand on the young boys shoulder. Josh took this opportunity to take another shot at making fun of Tim, “Oh look, the little baby needs the teacher to cheer him up.” Another bout of obnoxious laughter echoed backstage, this time a few of the stage crew chuckled silently.

Again Mr. Frankle snapped his fingers and pointed at each one who laughed before Josh got up from his perch on top of a large foam rock and walked out on stage, “He can’t do it Mr. Frankle. You should just get the understudy to play his part.” Mr. Frankle seemed insulted, before his mousy assistant Monica Hall chimed in, flipping through her large binder of script notes. Her curly hair was frizzled and unkempt, as her eyes were sunken. Her stress level was reaching critical mass.  “Absolutely not! We only have an understudy for Othello’s part and our first performance is tomorrow night. There is no way we can expect them to learn ALL of Iago’s lines and movements by tomorrow! Don’t’ be absurd!” Mr. Frankle held her back as her voice began to get higher and louder, “Thank you, Monica. I will take it from here.” He turned back to Josh and simply said, “No, Josh.” Dismissing the notion outright. He put his hand back on Tim’s shoulder and said, “Take a minute and we will try again. Alright people, we will move on to the next scene involving Roderigo and Cassio.”

The stage crew went to work setting up the scene and Josh let out a big smile as he got into character. He was playing Roderigo, Iago’s unwitting patsy. It was a part that Josh felt was demeaning and beneath him, since he had a lot of scenes with Tim. More than a few of which were scenes Tim was telling his character what to do. Throughout all of the rehearsals Josh had always had a snide remark, or a backhanded compliment directed towards Tim and his acting skills. Spiced with a tinge of jealousy at not getting the part himself. It even got to the point that Mr. Frankle offered to help Tim out with his lines after school but before practice, saying “Iago has the most lines in the play, it is perfectly fine to need some help.”

Josh as Roderigo was great, didn’t miss a line and controlled the stage like a maestro. Tim spent his break silently mouthing each word of his soliloquy to himself, while practicing his motions. After another scene played out Mr. Frankle called Tim back to the stage for Iago’s soliloquy. Tim walked out, confident, knowledgeable, and ready to deliver this monologue. But as he left the safety of the curtains of backstage, Josh held out his foot, tripping Tim and sending him tumbling onto the stage. The rest of the crew laughed, along with Josh who took pleasure in seeing Tim be made fun of. Nevertheless, Tim went out on stage and started performing the lines, but as soon as the spotlight focused on him, he started reverting back to the same problems from before.

“And… what’s he then…that says… *gulp* I play…the villain?

When… this advice…is free I give…and honest,…”

Mr. Frankle yelled from the side stage, “Cut!” much to the amusement of Josh and some of the stage crew. This time Mr. Frankle didn’t come up to Tim. He simply said, “Tim could you stay a little later after rehearsals today?” Tim nodded and walked off stage, trying to hide his embarrassment.

The rehearsals continued until around 7pm. The rest of the scenes ended up fine, even the other scenes with Tim in them. He delivered his lines perfectly when he shared the stage with others. People slowly began to go home, until it was just Tim and Mr. Frankle left in the auditorium. Tim was nervous, having spent the rest of the time when he wasn’t on stage hating Josh and wondering what Mr. Frankle would say to him. “Would it be bad? Would he ask him to step down as Iago? After all his hard work? All the days of staying after school? No, he couldn’t do that! I won’t let him! But what can I do? He is the director and it’s not like my skills warrant enough to challenge his decisions….” All of these thoughts filled Tim’s head wondering what would happen after rehearsals.

Mr. Frankle sat at the front of the stage and motioned Tim to sit next to him. Tim lifted himself up and sat next to him. Mr. Frankle sat quiet for a moment and Tim took it upon himself to break the silence, “Mr. Frankle, I’m sorry…” He held up his hand, cutting Tim off. “Tim, have you read the story of Othello?” Tim seemed confused, “Yeah, I have read the play front and back.” “Yes, yes, but have you actually taken the time to feel what Shakespeare is trying to convey in this soliloquy with Iago? Tim thought for a moment recollecting his lines, “It’s about how Iago is going to pit Othello and Desdemona against each other, right?” “Yes, indeed it is, Tim. But why have this moment with Iago, alone, talking to himself.”

Tim thought for a moment and simply shrugged his shoulders. Mr. Frankle laughed, “Yes, it is quite a strange question. Would you like to hear my thoughts?” Tim nodded as Mr. Frankle continued, “Shakespeare leaves is purposefully vague as to Iago’s motivations of hatred, in one scene he hates Othello for taking a promotion away from him, and in another he accuses him of sleeping with his wife. But, if he is so resolute in his evilness, why the monologue? Of course, it is a plot point for us as the audience to know his plans going forward, but why would the character have that talk with themselves? I think that every human has the potential to do great good in the world, as well as great evil. I believe that Iago needed this moment, to speak to himself, without the web of lies around him. To try and convince himself to continue doing these evil acts. And, I think we all have these moments with ourselves from time to time, good and evil.”

Tim looked up at him confused, as if the words were going right over his head. “My point is that being evil and doing evil things is a choice. A choice made every day, possibly every moment. Much like Josh and his constant attempts to make fun of you. He sees the actions for their result and not for their harm. It was his choice to do this. They might be seen as evil to you, and to me and to everyone else who has a brain and a heart but justified to him. Much like how Iago questions how he could be evil even if he is giving such good advice to those that seek it. His logic has bent his perspective to make it seem like what he is doing is justified, despite how heinous it is.”

Tim interjected, still confused, “But Mr. Frankle, what does this have to do with me performing the soliloquy?” Mr. Frankle laughed again and said, “Maybe you are more worried about giving Josh ammo to make fun of you than you are about being in character. Maybe Josh has made his choice of how he will act, but you haven’t. You are unsure of yourself, I think just as Iago uses this moment to justify his evil actions, you can also use this moment to justify yourself, and maybe understand the character a little more.” Tim thought for a moment as Mr. Frankle gathered his things. “I will leave you with this Tim. Othello is a story about the fragility of love and the destructive nature of unfounded suspicions. Those suspicions can easily dictate people’s actions. Are you going to prove their suspicions about you right, condemning you to being their punching bag for the rest of high school. Or are you going to rise above and speak with yourself about how you are justified in being here? Because you justified in being here. I have seen it. More so you deserved to be here.” Mr. Frankle began walking out of the auditorium and left with a simple, “See you tomorrow for dress rehearsal!” Tim sat at the foot of the stage pondering over Mr. Frankle’s words.

The next day Tim shows up to the rehearsal brimming with confidence. Josh attempted to cut Tim’s ego down to size with a joke about having to waste more time listening to him fail at his monologue, and how their opening night would be a disaster. Tim said nothing but stared at Josh in a sort of quizzical way, reflecting on the jumble of words Mr. Frankle gave him last night. He moved on and when Mr. Frankle called Tim up to perform Iago’s soliloquy he walked out on stage and looked straight at Josh. Soon, his confidence started building even under the pressure. Just before the lights went down Tim looked directly at Josh and held out his middle finger, flipping him off. Small chuckles and giggles perked up from backstage, as Josh’s face grew red with anger. He began to walk on stage, but just as he was about to step out, the spotlights focused on Tim. Tim held out his middle finger a few seconds more after the spotlights were on him. Shining like a sculpture in bronze, in a pose of absolute triumph for the cast and crew to see. Tim then proceeded to perform the soliloquy perfectly, stunning and enthralling the rest of the cast with his words. Josh could do nothing but sulk as Tim finished the entire monologue, without a stutter or pause. Mr. Frankle clapped vigorously as Tim ended and yelled out, “Excellent job, Tim. Now, who is ready for a show!” The rest of the cast and crew cheered in unison, as Tim and Mr. Frankle shared a smile.