Daniel Craig, David Oyelowo to Co-Star in OTHELLO Off-Broadway Next Fall

BWW has learned today that the New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) (Artistic Director James C. Nicola and Managing Director Jeremy Blocker) has announced that NYTW Usual Suspect and Tony Award winner Sam Gold will return to NYTW to direct Daniel Craig (Betrayal, Spectre) as 'Iago' and David Oyelowo (Royal Shakespeare Company's The Histories, Selma) in the title role in William Shakespeare's OTHELLO. The production is scheduled for Fall 2016 with additional casting and details to be announced at a later date.

Gold made his New York debut as a director at NYTW with Betty Shamieh's The Black Eyed in 2007. OTHELLO will mark the NYTW debuts of Craig and Oyelowo.

In a telephone interview in today's New York Times, Gold shared "I've been wanting to do Shakespeare for a long time - it's what started me as a director - and I've almost done Shakespeare a number of times in the past few years, but it hasn't worked out. Finally, the right thing came together."

On his selection of OTHELLO, the director explained, "Honestly, I wanted to start with a really simple, straight-shot Shakespeare, and 'Othello' is a single-plot show, very focused and clear. 'Othello,' for me, is the Shakespeare that when I watch, I feel the most involved - I care the most about the people, and have the simplest connection on a gut level, so I wanted to start there. But I'll do more of them."

Commented NYTW Artistic Director James C. Nicola, "This production is an opportunity for New York Theatre Workshop to do what it aspires to do - to foster the growth and accomplishment of the artists we believe in. When Sam Gold, a longstanding member of our NYTW Usual Suspects community, came to us with the beginning sketches of this production, with these two sublime actors, it seemed the perfect next step for us to take together. I'm eager to see what these original, creative artists come up with in response to Shakespeare's enduring tragedy."

NYTW's Usual Suspects is a community of over 500 affiliated theatre artists comprised of actors, playwrights, dramaturgs, designers and directors. Individuals are invited to become Usual Suspects by NYTW's artistic leadership. Usual Suspects are empowered to make their own pathway within the Workshop's community. NYTW strives to support and encourage these artists by providing opportunities for the creation of new work, allowing for the members to commune with and learn from each other, and creating space for them to grow both personally and artistically.

Currently at New York Theatre Workshop is the world premiere of FONDLY, COLLETTE RICHLAND, a new play by NYTW's Obie and Lortel award-winning company-in-residence Elevator Repair Service, written by Sibyl Kempson and directed by ERS Artistic Director and Usual Suspect John Collins. The 2015/2016 season will also include the world premiere of LAZARUS, by David Bowie and Enda Walsh (ONCE, Tony Award) inspired by the novel The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis, and directed by Ivo van Hove (Hedda Gabler, More Stately Mansions, Obie Awards); the New York premiere of RED SPEEDO, written by Lucas Hnath (The Christians) and directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz (Hollow Roots); and the world premiere of a new folk opera, HADESTOWN, by singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell. HADESTOWN was developed with and is directed by Rachel Chavkin (Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812).

SAM GOLD (Director) is an acclaimed theatre director, whose Broadway production of Fun Home, a new musical by Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori, is currently running at the Circle in the Square Theatre and won five Tony Awards in 2015 including Best Musical, and a Tony Award for Sam himself for Best Direction of a Musical. Concurrently, Sam's critically-lauded production of Annie Baker's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, The Flick, is running at the Barrow Street Theater. Other recent credits include Annie Baker's John (Signature Theatre); The Mystery of Love and Sex (LCT); The Real Thing (Broadway - Roundabout); The Realistic Joneses (Yale Rep, Broadway); Picnic (Broadway - Roundabout);Seminar (Broadway and Ahmanson); The Village Bike (MCC); The Flick (Playwrights Horizons, Lortel Nomination);Uncle Vanya (Soho Rep, Drama Desk Nomination); The Realistic Joneses (Yale Rep., CT Critics Circle Award); The Big Meal (Playwrights Horizons; Lortel Award); Look Back in Anger (Roundabout; Lortel Nomination); Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker (Playwrights Horizons; Drama Desk nomination; OBIE Award); The Aliens by Annie Baker (Rattlestick; OBIE Award); We Live Here by Zoe Kazan (MTC); A Doll's House (Williamstown); August: Osage County (Old Globe; SD Critics Circle Award); Kin by Bathsheba Doran (Playwrights Horizons); The Coward by Nick Jones (LCT3); Tigers be Still by Kim Rosenstock (Roundabout); Dusk Rings a Bell (Atlantic); and Jollyship the Whiz-Bang (Ars Nova & Under the Radar Festival). Sam is Resident Director at Roundabout Theater Company, a NYTW Usual Suspect, a Drama League Directing Fellow, a recipient of the Princess Grace Award, The Garson Kanin/Marian Seldes Theater Hall of Fame Fellowship, and a graduate of the Juilliard Directing Program.

DANIEL CRAIG (Iago) will next be seen in the eagerly anticipated Spectre which is set for release later this month. We last saw him return as James Bond for the third time, in the critically acclaimed box office smash Skyfall and hehas also starred as Bond in Quantum of Solace and Casino Royale. In 2011 Craig starred in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, directed by David Fincher, he played the lead character Mikael Blomkvist opposite Rooney Mara. Craig's earlier film credits include Love and Rage, Obsession, The Power of One, Road to Perdition, Layer Cake, Infamousand Stephen Spielberg's Oscar®-nominated film Munich. Craig is also an accomplished stage actor and in 2013 starred in the critically acclaimed Broadway show Betrayal in which he starred opposite Rafe Spall and Rachel Weisz. Directed by Mike Nichols, the play ran for 14 weeks but grossed $17.5million in that time. In 2009 Daniel starred in a twelve week Broadway run of A Steady Rain. Craig played opposite Hugh Jackman in this contemporary American play. Craig's other theatre credits include leading roles in Hurlyburly with the Peter Hall Company at the Old Vic, Angels in America at The National Theatre and A Number at the Royal Court alongside Michael Gambon.

DAVID OYELOWO (Othello) is a classically trained stage actor who graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), and received the "Scholarship for Excellence" from Nicholas Hytner in 1998. Most recent film credits include Captive and Five Nights in Maine. David starred as Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, for which he received Golden Globe and Film Independent Spirit Award nominations and won the NAACP Image Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Dr. King. He also recently starred in HBO's Nightingale, (Emmy nomination). Upcoming films include Queen of Katwe, A United Kingdom, and Nina. Additional film credits include Interstellar, A Most Violent Year, Default, The Butler, Lincoln, The Middle of Nowhere (NAACP Image Awards and Independent Spirit Awards nominations), Jack Reacher, The Paperboy, Complicit, Red Tails, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Help, 96 Minutes, The Last King of Scotland, Who Do You Love, A Sound of Thunder, Derailed, and Shoot the Messenger. Stage work includes The Suppliants (Gate Theatre, Ian Charleson award commendation). the title role in the RSC's Henry VI, (Ian Charleson Award, Evening Standard award nomination), Richard Bean's The God Botherers, and the title role in Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound. Television credits include the BAFTA award winning series "Spooks/MI:5" (Royal Television Society Award for Best Actor), "Small Island" (BAFTA Nomination), "Born Equal" and "A Raisin in the Sun" (alongside Sanaa Lathan and Sean Combs); Kenneth Branagh's "As You Like It" (HBO), "Five Days" (HBO, Satellite Award for Best Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television); "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency."

Photo Credit: Michael Germana/Globe Photos/ZUMAPRESS.com

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos