Thompson, Eisenberg, Rylance Lead The Cast Of OTHELLO

Theatre for a New Audience and director, Arin Arbus, is set to present Othello. The show will feature John Douglas Thompson as Othello, Ned Eisenberg as Iago, and Juliet Rylance as Desdemona. Previews begin February 14 at 7 pm. The show opens February 22.

John Douglas Thompson has played the Moor previously, notably, in the summer of 2008 at Shakespeare and Company. Ben Brantley, reviewing Mr. Thompson's Othello for The New York Times, said "From the moment he sets foot on the stage this truly commanding Venetian general is a figure of monumental poise but also of instinctive, exotic poetry."

Mr. Thompson has also appeared in Theatre for a New Audience's Oroonoko for which he received an Audelco nomination and Antony and Cleopatra. On Broadway, he appeared in Cyrano de Bergerac with Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garner and Julius Caesar with Denzel Washington. Off-Broadway appearances include King Lear at the Classical Theatre of Harlem for which he received an Audelco nomination and Hedda Gabler at New York Theatre Workshop.

Ned Eisenberg last appeared at Theatre for a New Audience as Fagin in Oliver Twist, about which Frank Rizzo of Variety said, "Mr. Eisenberg's unsentimental [performance] is the revelation here... The complex, insidious character is played for all its creepy, desperate and unraveling power...chilling."

Also for Theatre for a New Audience, Mr. Eisenberg played the title role in Shakespeare's King John, Saturninus in Titus Andronicus and Truffaldino in The Green Bird, the last two of which were directed by Julie Taymor. He was last on Broadway in Lincoln Center Theater's Awake and Sing and on film in two Clint Eastwood movies, Million Dollar Baby and Flags of Our Fathers.

Juliet Rylance is making her New York stage debut. She played the lead in Middle Temple Hall's Romeo and Juliet and at London's Shakespeare's Globe she played Perdita in The Winter's Tale and Cressida in Troilus and Cressida. She also was Medea in Bash: Latterday Plays by Neil LaBute at Trafalgar Studios in London's West End. For that role, The Telegraph wrote "following in the footsteps of her father, Mark Rylance, who ran Shakespeare's Globe for a decade, she is a superb actress, with a winning spontaneity, an ability to convey strong emotion in an unforcEd Manner and a warmth that radiates through the hall."

Kate Forbes for Theatre for a New Audience has played Portia in The Merchant of Venice opposite F. Murray Abraham both in NYC and at the RSC and as Helena in All's Well That Ends Well. Describing that performance, John Heilpern in the New York Observer wrote "Ms. Forbes gives one of the finest Shakespeare performances you could wish to see....She's a wonderful actress in every way....pulling off a miracle of acting."

Lucas Hall last appeared in Theatre for a New Audience's All's Well That Ends Well and the title role in Hamlet at San Diego's Old Globe. "To their great credit and our reward," Charles Isherwood wrote of Mr. Hall and Ms. Forbes in All's Well That Ends Well, "this uncomfortably matched pair...find a way to make Helena's determined stalking of her uninterested mate seem psychologically credible, and his eventual capture seem fitting and even touching."

Rounding out the company are Denis Butkus, who played on Broadway in The Coast of Utopia and The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial; Robert Langdon Lloyd, who was on Broadway in Amadeus and is a founding member of Peter Brook's C.I.C.T. in Paris and a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company; Elizabeth Meadows Rouse, who performed in Theatre for a New Audience's Comedy of Errors; Christian Rummel, who appeared in Theatre for a New Audience's Antony & Cleopatra; Alexander Sovronsky, on Broadway in Cyrano; and Graham Winton, who appeared in Theatre for a New Audience's Don Juan, Julius Caesar and Pericles. Credits:

Peter Ksander (sets); Miranda Hoffman (costumes); Marcus Doshi (lights); Sarah Pickett (music) and Matt O'Hare (sound) like Ms. Arbus are early career artists. Robert Neff Williams is the Voice and Text Consultant and B.H. Barry the fight choreographer.

Theatre for a New Audience has produced some of the most promising directors early in their careers including Karin Coonrod, Bartlett Sher, Darko Tresnjak and Julie Taymor. Arin Arbus won the prestigious 2008 Princess Grace Award.

Ms. Arbus was a Playwrights Horizons Directing Resident, a Williamstown Workshop Directing Corps Member, a Drama League Directing Fellow and a current member of Soho Rep.'s Writer/Director Lab. She has also assisted Tony Award-winning directors Gerald Gutierrez and Doug Hughes at Theatre for a New Audience.

Theatre for a New Audience
154 Christopher Street, #3D
New York, NY 10014

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