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Othello

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Excerpt: "The Great White Bard"
The Great White Bard by Farah Karim-Cooper
Shakespeare & Beyond

Excerpt: "The Great White Bard"

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Shakespeare & Beyond

Farah Karim-Cooper explores the way that race is represented by Desdemona in Shakespeare’s Othello, in this excerpt from her new book, The Great White Bard.

The evolution of American Moor: The Untitled Othello Project
Untitled Othello Project
Shakespeare & Beyond

The evolution of American Moor: The Untitled Othello Project

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Keith Hamilton Cobb
Keith Hamilton Cobb reflects on his play American Moor and how the questions he received in response to it led to the development of the Untitled Othello Project, a deeply scrutinizing exploration of Shakespeare's text.
BECOMING OTHELLO! A gender-flipped journey onstage and in the archive
Shakespeare & Beyond

BECOMING OTHELLO! A gender-flipped journey onstage and in the archive

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Debra Ann Byrd
Debra Ann Byrd writes about encountering an early female Othello in the Folger collection and developing her memoir and solo show, Becoming Othello.
Excerpt ⁠— Keith Hamilton Cobb’s ‘American Moor’: An introduction by Kim Hall
Shakespeare & Beyond

Excerpt ⁠— Keith Hamilton Cobb’s ‘American Moor’: An introduction by Kim Hall

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Shakespeare & Beyond

At the heart of Keith Hamilton Cobb’s one-man play American Moor are explorations of blackness, racial dynamics in American theater, “ownership” of Shakespeare, and the subtext of Othello. He has performed the play across the United States, including an off-Broadway…

Shakespeare and opera: Jealousy and tragedy in Verdi's Otello
Desdemona and Otello
Shakespeare & Beyond

Shakespeare and opera: Jealousy and tragedy in Verdi's Otello

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Author
Francesca Zambello

Leah Crocetto (Desdemona) and Russell Thomas (Otello) in WNO’s Otello. Photo by Scott Suchman. I find it fascinating that Verdi’s last two operas were both inspired by Shakespeare: Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893), yet they are very different in story,…

Desdemona and Emilia: The testament of female friendship in Othello
Desdemona and Emilia
Shakespeare & Beyond

Desdemona and Emilia: The testament of female friendship in Othello

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Elise Walter
Desdemona and Emilia's friendship inspires resistance and the courage to speak the truth, resulting in Iago’s exposure and Desdemona’s exoneration.
Shakespeare, improvisation, and the art of rhetoric
Ellen Terry as Viola
Shakespeare & Beyond

Shakespeare, improvisation, and the art of rhetoric

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Shakespeare & Beyond
Shakespeare characters like Viola and Iago are masters of improvisation, says Folger Director MIchael Witmore in this excerpt from the 2017 Shakespeare's Birthday Lecture.
What's my line? Exploring promptbooks for Othello
Shakespeare & Beyond

What's my line? Exploring promptbooks for Othello

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Ben Lauer
Promptbooks let us peer into the minds of some of history's greatest theater-makers and see how they imagined Shakespeare's plays.
Comparing Timon of Athens with Iago
Shakespeare & Beyond

Comparing Timon of Athens with Iago

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Author
Esther French
Timon of Athens vs. Iago! Actors Ian Merrill Peakes and Louis Butelli discuss these Shakespeare characters, their degree of self-awareness, and their villain status.
Q&A: Tracy Chevalier on New Boy, her retelling of Shakespeare's Othello
Tracy Chevalier New Boy
Shakespeare & Beyond

Q&A: Tracy Chevalier on New Boy, her retelling of Shakespeare's Othello

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Shakespeare & Beyond
Read this Q&A with Tracy Chevalier about her new novel New Boy, which retells the story of Shakespeare's Othello and is the latest book in the Hogarth Shakespeare series.
Ira Aldridge takes the stage
Shakespeare & Beyond

Ira Aldridge takes the stage

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Author
Sarah Hovde

Ira Aldridge as Aaron in Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus. Since their revival by David Garrick in the early eighteenth century, Shakespeare and his plays have always generated a certain aura of celebrity, sometimes referred to as “Bardolatry.” Following in the footsteps…

Kim Hall: Bringing African American experiences to Shakespeare
Shakespeare & Beyond

Kim Hall: Bringing African American experiences to Shakespeare

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Shakespeare & Beyond
Paul Robeson was the first modern African American to perform Shakespeare—to perform Othello, and he talks in his letters and in his essays about bringing his experiences as a student in a white arena, his experiences with racism, to the performance. So for him as an actor, he brought his experience as an African American in a racist society to this performance of Othello, a black man in a racist society. Other actors who saw him said it was like seeing Othello for the first time.
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