Othello
Re-thinking "Honest Iago"
Austin Tichenor grapples with the larger question of whether Iago deserves the sympathetic re-evaluation found in Iago: The Green Eyed Monster.
Excerpt: "The Great White Bard"
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.
Farah Karim-Cooper on The Great White Bard
Can we love Shakespeare and be antiracist? Farah Karim-Cooper’s new book explores the language of race and difference in plays such as Antony and Cleopatra, Titus Andronicus, and The Tempest.
Adrian Lester on Playing Rosalind, Henry V, Othello, and Hamlet
Actor Adrian Lester walks us through big moments in his illustrious career, including Cheek by Jowl’s all-male “As You Like It” and Peter Brook’s “Hamlet.”
Printing plays in Mexico
Dumbarton Oaks fellow Abner Aldarondo explores a book in the Folger Collection that gathers together six plays printed in Mexico City in the 1830s.
Debra Ann Byrd on Becoming Othello
Theater-maker and past Folger Fellow Debra Ann Byrd tells us about her solo show.
The evolution of American Moor: The Untitled Othello Project
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.
Shakespeare's Language and Race, with Patricia Akhimie and Carol Mejia LaPerle
Dr. Patricia Akhimie and Dr. Carol Mejia LaPerle explore the ways that Shakespeare’s language—think descriptors like “fair,” “sooty,” and “alabaster”—constructs and enshrines systems of race and racism.
Extra-Illustrating Othello
a guest post by Patricia Akhimie On my last visit to the Folger Shakespeare Library in Fall 2019 (a time that seems all too distant now) to conduct research for a new edition of Othello, I set myself the goal…
Race and Blackness in Elizabethan England, with Ambereen Dadabhoy
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 168 When did the concept of race develop? How far should we look back to find the attitudes that bolster white supremacy? We ask Dr. Ambereen Dadabhoy, an assistant professor of literature at Harvey Mudd College, and…
ENCORES: “‘Othello was My Grandfather’: Shakespeare in the African Diaspora” Lecture by Kim F. Hall (2016)
Folger Public Programs is pleased to present ENCORES, a weekly online series highlighting past performances and recalling the rich history of programming on the historic Folger stage. See an excerpt of Kim F. Hall’s lecture “‘Othello was My Grandfather’: Shakespeare…
BECOMING OTHELLO! A gender-flipped journey onstage and in the archive
Debra Ann Byrd writes about encountering an early female Othello in the Folger collection and developing her memoir and solo show, Becoming Othello.