American Moor at Emerson/Paramount Center - Robert J. Orchard Stage

As an experienced, African-American actor auditions for Othello he is met with prejudice, racism and privilege while negotiating with a young, white director who presumes to understand Shakespeare’s Moorish prince far better than the performer standing before him. By combining an audition from Hell and a cutting, laugh-out-loud internal monologue, American Moor challenges the capacity of theatre to make all people fully visible and embraced. Written and performed by Keith Hamilton Cobb, American Moor's electric storytelling explores the inequities of life as a black actor and life as a black man. The character imagines telling the director, “If you could just see me, I could save you from another cookie cutter Othello."

Keith Hamilton Cobb’s 85-minute, tour-de-force solo performance returns to Boston after its award-winning run.