Keith Hamilton Cobb Stars in AMERICAN MOOR in 4-Week Boston Engagement
By: A.A. Cristi Jun. 13, 2017
An 85-minute solo play written and performed by Keith Hamilton Cobb, American Moor examines the experience and perspective of black men in America through the metaphor of William Shakespeare's character, Othello.
A black actor auditioning for the role of Othello, finds himself torn between wanting the role of a lifetime and having to engage an age-old process that invariably ends up with a large black man on stage responding to white decision makers who presume to understand, and ultimately dictate, how a charismatic, intelligent, black man should behave in society. Powerful, dynamic, humorous, at times confrontational, at times ironic, yet truthful throughout, American Moor becomes a deeply moving exploration about race in America, of how we see only what we want to see of one another and how the pall of privileged perspectives is ultimately so injurious to us all. It asks, Who gets to make art in America? Whose perspectives matter? Why must only certain roles be relegated to actors of color? What will it take for us to wholly embrace one another?
The widely diverse audiences that have already experienced this play, continue to express how the piece relates to and reflects their own experiences in America whether black, white, male, female or other. It seems to transcend all racial, age, and gender barriers. It is about the human experience.
Mr. Cobb is most widely recognized for the landmark roles he created for television, among those Noah Keefer for ABC's All My Children, (Daytime Emmy Award nomination); the galactic mercenary Tyr Anasazi for Gene Rodenberry's Andromeda; Damon Porter for CBS's The Young and the Restless; and Quincy Abrams for the series Noah's Arc on the Logo network. He has also guest starred on multiple television series, including The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Boston Common, Suddenly Susan, One on One, The Twilight Zone, and CSI Miami.
Mr. Cobb has appeared at The Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Shakespeare Theatre of Washington DC, The Denver Theatre Center, The Huntington Theatre Company, The Orlando Shakespeare Festival, The Geva Theatre Center and on many other regional stages. His classical roles have included Laertes in Hamlet, Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, Tulles Aufidius in Coriolanus, Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and he has performed in contemporary works, such as David Mamet's Race, August Wilson's Jitney, and Lynn Nottage's Ruined.
Mr. Cobb is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in acting. He has been a teacher and a director at Westchester Community College and at Youth Theatre Interactions, Inc. in Yonkers, NY, and has worked with juvenile offenders incarcerated within the New Jersey Correctional System. He has also been a teaching artist in the New York City school system.
American Moor is directed by Drama Desk nominee Kim Weild; her most recent project, the world premiere of Charles L. Mee's Soot and Spit, now playing off-Broadway, is a NY Times Critic's Pick and has been hailed as "beautifully designed and dreamiliy evocative"
The design team includes Stephanie Lynn Yackovetsky (sound design) and Tony Mulanix (lighting design). The engagement is a co-production of Boston's O.W.I. (Bureau of Theatre) and New York's Phoenix Theatre Ensemble.
American Moor was conceived and written in the fall of 2012 and had its first reading in March of 2013. It was first publicly performed under the direction of Paul Kwame Johnson as an offering of the Humanities Institute of Westchester Community College in November of 2013, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Among the several subsequent productions nationally, the Phoenix Theatre Ensemble production in Manhattan, April/May 2015 won the Outstanding Solo Performance honors at the 2015 AUDELCO Awards, and the Anacostia Playhouse production in Anacostia, Washington DC, July/August 2015 resulted in the script being inducted into the Permanent Collection of the Folger Shakespeare Library.
American Moor plays July 19 through August 12 at The Plaza Theatre - Boston Center for the Arts. Performances are Wednesday and Thursday evenings at 7:30 pm, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00 pm, with matinees on Sundays at 2:00 pm.
A post-show discussion will follow the performance on the Thursday evenings and Sunday matinees from July 23 through August 10.
Tickets begin at $35.00, with discounts available for students and seniors, and for the preview performance on July 19. They can be purchased at www.bostontheatrescene.com, at the Boston Center for the Arts box office (539 Tremont St., Boston, MA), or by phone at 617-933-6600.
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