Othello
Q&A: Tracy Chevalier on New Boy, her retelling of Shakespeare's Othello
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
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
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…
Q Brothers - Othello: The Remix
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 64 Since 2002, Gregory and Jeffery Ameen Qaiyum, better known as GQ and JAQ – the Q Brothers – have been using hip-hop to adapt and update the plays of William Shakespeare. At the time we recorded…
Keith Hamilton Cobb on American Moor
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 54 Othello is the story of a tragic murder and suicide involving a dark-skinned general and his aristocratic, white-skinned bride. Who should direct it? Who’s “allowed” to? What if, say, a white director and the actor he’s…
Othello and Blackface
On the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast, Ian Smith and Ayanna Thompson talk about Elizabethan modes of blackface—which included covering a performer’s body with dyed cloth to simulate blackness—and how Smith’s insight changes how we understand Othello.
Cervantes, the Moors of Spain, and the Moor of Venice
Othello, the Moor of Venice. Desdemona loved to hear him tell the story of his adventures / Louis Rhead. Folger Shakespeare Library.Of all Shakespeare’s plays, Othello is the one that is most frequently compared to Spanish literature in the age…
A contract for Othello
Paul Robeson as Othello Folger Finds delivers delightful and insightful moments with the Folger collection. Sarah Hovde, a cataloger at the Folger Shakespeare Library, unearths the contract between the producer, the director, and the star of the longest-running Shakespeare play…
Louis Butelli: "Come, Cassius' Sword"
By your leave, gods:—this is a Roman’s part Come, Cassius’ sword -Julius Caesar, V.ii.100 One of the great challenges of playing Cassius in Folger Theatre’s production of Julius Caesar is (spoiler alert!) committing suicide on-stage eight times a week. Louis…
Teaching Shakespeare: Mini-Research Projects
Karen Peakes (Emilia) and Janie Brookshire (Desdemona) in Othello, directed by Robert Richmond, Folger Theatre, 2011. Photo by Carol Pratt. By Deborah Gascon I set a goal this school year to include several, less time-consuming (but equally as meaningful), mini-research projects…
Louis Butelli: Folger Audio Recordings
Louis Butelli as Feste in Twelfth Night. Photo by Scott Suchman. Hello once again from your friend Louis Butelli, most recently Feste in Folger Theatre’s Twelfth Night. We closed our show on June 9 after a great run: thanks to…
Louis Butelli: Henry VIII in Alabama
Hello, readers of the Folger Theatre Production Diary! My name is Louis Butelli. I was a contributor here during Folger’s recent production of Othello, in which I played Roderigo. Last week, I was asked if I would put together a…