The Untitled Othello Project Begins Residency at Sacred Heart University

The Untitled Othello Project, an ensemble of artists engaged in an in-depth, touring interrogation of the play, begins a two-week theatre residency at Sacred Heart University to explore the intriguing question of the viability of producing the play today. This project places the University at the forefront of a national conversation on how the performing arts help people respond to structural racism, domestic violence and a host of other issues.

The residency, which will run from Nov. 29 through Dec. 10, expands on the work of playwright Keith Hamilton Cobb, whose well-received play American Moor interrogates the role of the Black artist in the white theatre hierarchy and fights against dehumanizing stereotypes of race and gender.

Cobb has convened a group of nine professional actors who, instead of spending a few weeks rushing to produce Othello, will do intensive "table work," studying the characters, scenes, motivations and themes. SHU students-and those viewing from other institution-will see hands-on theatre creation in the rehearsal of Othello as a lab deploying all the skills cultivated in SHU's foundational core-critical thinking, collaborative interpretation, historical and social consciousness and engaging with fundamental human questions.

Student actors will also assume some of the roles.

"Exploration like this is in line with the mission of the University," said Emily Bryan, a lecturer in the department of languages and literatures, who, along with Rachel Bauer of the department of media and performing arts and Charles Gillespie of the Catholic studies department, partnered with Cobb to bring the residency to SHU.

The University is the first at which this new conversation is happening. The project is in discussions with multiple other academic institutions hoping to create unique partnerships and residencies with each.

The Untitled Othello Project will encourage difficult reflection and conversation about racial identity and structural racism, Bryan said. While scholars have long studied the racist tropes and stereotypes in Othello's dialogue and themes, Untitled Othello will consider the concept of race in premodern literature and ways to view it in modern times.

"We are at a different place than Shakespeare was," Bryan said.

Cobb said the residency offers the luxury of deep investigation of the play, a circa 1604 tragedy about a Moor driven to murder by a jealous rival. "We're not just recycling its toxicity," he said. "We are not attempting to mount a production of Othello; rather, we are doing the deep and extensive exploratory work to ascertain whether there is a production of this dangerous play worth the consideration of ever mounting again. Untitled Othello is a diverse group of creators in process, not production, and the table is expanded to anyone who wants to sit there."

American Moor, which centers on a Black man auditioning for a production of Othello, ran at the off-Broadway Cherry Lane Theatre in New York City in Fall 2019. Cobb said he's excited to offer students and faculty a window into what theatre makers do, how they approach a work and consider ways to make it relevant to a modern audience.

The Washington, DC.-based Folger Shakespeare Library provided a grant to the program and will keep the recorded archive of the SHU residency for posterity. The residency will leverage SHU's world-class media resources in the School of Communication, Media & the Arts to record and live-stream this intensive study, in part to classes at the University of Maryland, Bryan said.

The Untitled Othello Project is a creative collaboration between Cobb and Blessed Unrest Theatre. They are supported in part by their foundational partner Midnight Oil Collective midnightoilco.com, a creator-led arts investment, development and production group seeking to empower creators.

Ultimately, Bryan believes the project will continue to expand SHU's innovative theatre arts program in the development of new works and academic theatre.

To learn more visit, UntitledOthello.com.

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