Connecticut Rep Presents OTHELLO, 10/7

Connecticut Repertory Theatre (CRT) will present William Shakespeare's Othello, October 7 - 17 in the Nafe Katter Theatre on the Storrs campus. For tickets and information, call 860-486-4226 or visit www.crt.uconn.edu.

Iago has a plan.  Passed over for promotion by his commander, Othello, this sinister soldier weaves an increasingly tense web of revenge meticulously, maliciously, brilliantly.  At once a love story and a psychological thriller, Othello exposes how one man's envy can wreak havoc in an entire community. A magnificent meditation on trust, jealousy, love and passion, Othello remains strikingly resonate 400 years after it was written, which is why it is one of Shakespeare's most produced plays today.
Race, class, and gender are at the forefront of Othello.  Othello, a black man marries Desdemona, a white woman, and is chosen by the nation to lead it in time of peril.  He appoints Cassio, a distinguished scholar to be his Lieutenant.  This decision infuriates Iago, a soldier in Othello's army, who believes he deserved the promotion.  It is Iago who, overcome by humiliation and jealousy for his lack of promotion, manipulates all those around him with the hope of Othello's demise and his own triumph.  Iago immediately sets a plan into motion that will destroy Othello's happy new life.  Iago wins Othello's trust, he tricks Cassio into abolishing his own reputation, and quickly becomes Othello's lieutenant.  Desdemona, innocent through all of this, tries to reconcile the friendship between her husband and Cassio.  Her actions help Iago's case and when Emilia, Iago's wife, gives Iago Desdemona's handkerchief, Othello's first gift to her.  Now Iago has all the proof he needs to turn Othello's doubt into pure jealousy and rage. 
Director Dale Rose said, "The rehearsal process is absolutely thrilling as we are working with two pairs of Othellos and Iagos who will perform on alternate evenings, each pair brings unique insight and understanding to events and revelations that makes this play one of the great tragedies of all time."  Artistic Director Vincent J. Cardinal said Othello is "a gripping story in its time, it speaks vitally to America today as it grapples with race, political power, hatred, sexism, jealousy, war on a foreign soil and human frailty in the halls of power." 
THE CREATIVE TEAM
 
Dale Rose (Associate Artistic Director, Director) directed the previous CRT productions of The Exonerated, Pericles, Arabian Nights, Restoration Comedy and As You Like It and All In The Timing for the summer 2010 Nutmeg Series.  Professor Rose is the Director of Performance Studies for the departmental MFA and BFA Pre-Professional Actor Training Programs; he comes to UConn from Tampa, Florida where he served as Director of the School of Theatre and Dance at the University of South Florida. Previously, he was the Director of Performance Training at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Under his leadership the program received recognition by U.S. News and World Report as one of the top 20 Graduate Theatre Programs in the country. In the 1980's Mr. Rose was the Master Acting Teacher at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He has taught professionally in New York City at the Warren Robertson Theatre Workshop, The George Morrison Studio space and The Actors Center. Mr. Rose was Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Festival of Dallas where, among others, he directed Earle Hyman in King Lear and Morgan Freeman in Othello. He was Artistic Director of the Plaza Theatre where he worked with John Goodman, Mariel Hemingway and Zakes Mokae. Again in Dallas, he was a co-founder of Stage #1. He began his professional directing career as founder and Artistic Director of the Alice People Theatre in Tampa. Known for its cutting edge productions, the company was the first to produce the works of playwright David Mamet outside of Chicago. As an American Cultural Specialist for the U.S. Information Agency and later for the State Department, he taught in Jerusalem, on the West Bank, in Barcelona and Athens.
 
The Creative team includes: Jennifer Corcoran, Scenic Designer; Mark Novick, Lighting Designer; Natalie Abreu, Costume Designer; Erin McKeon, Sound Designer; Greg Webster, Fight Choreographer; and Dassia Posner, Dramaturg.
 
THE CAST
 
The cast will feature equity actor Bill Kux as Brabantio.
 
Bill Kux (Brabantio) Bill Kux has appeared on Broadway in Ain't Broadway Grand. He toured the country in Death of a Salesman with HAl Holbrook.  Off Broadway he has appeared in Endpapers, Summer of '42, The Philanthropist and Loose Ends. Hartford audiences have seen him in: Noises Off, A Christmas Carol, Summer and Smoke, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Learned Ladies of Park Avenue at Hartford Stage and in Murderers and Talking Heads at TheatreWorks. He has appeared for 5 seasons at the Monomoy Playhouse on the Cape.  Regional work includes Psychic Life of Savages at Yale Rep, Art at Cincinnati Playhouse, Love, Valor, Compassion at Philadelphia Theater Company and Travels With My Aunt at Seattle Repertory Theater. Film and TV credits include- Die Hard With a Vengeance, Gossip Girl and Law and Order. He is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.
 
The roles of Othello and Iago are double cast, alternating performances, and the pairings will feature graduate actors Brooks Brantly as Othello with Kevin Coubal as Iago; and Philip AJ Smithey as Othello with Phil Korth as Iago. 
 
Brooks Brantly (Othello) is a 3rd year MFA Actor and Graduate of Morehouse College. He was last seen at the Guthrie Theater in the devised studio production, Macondo.  Past credits include: The Comedy of Errors (Antipholus of Ephesus). Galileo (Cardinal Bellarmin), The Exonerated (Robert Hayes), Pericles (Antiochus); the Graduate Acting Project, The Winter's Tale (Leontes); Blues for an Alabama Sky (Sam), Julius Caesar (Brutus), Sexual Perversity in Chicago (Bernie) and the graduate performance workshop production of Reasons to be Pretty (Kent).
 
Philip AJ Smithey (Othello) is a 3rd year MFA Actor. He received a BA in theater studies from Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA. Past credits include: CRT - Ensemble in The Who's Tommy, Antipholus of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors, Sagredo in Galileo, David in The Exonerated, Hud in Hair, Simonides in Pericles, Shepherd in the Graduate Acting Project, The Winter's Tale, Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Motel Kamzoil in Fiddler on the Roof, Mr. West in Two Trains Running and Milo Tindle in Sleuth.

Kevin Coubal (Iago) is a 3rd year MFA.  His previous CRT credits include: The Comdey of Errors (Dromio of Ephesus), The Exonerated (Gary Gauger), Pericles (Cerimon), Galileo (Inquisitor/Guitar), Hair (Tribe/Trumpet), The Who's Tommy (Kevin's lad/Guitar).  For Bated Breath Theatre Company: The Parkville Project (Officer Riley, Mr Nenortas).  For Willamette Repertory Theatre: Wild Oats (Harry Thunder).  For Friches Theatre Urbain (Paris, Fr.): En Attandant La Loco (Ensemble).  He is a graduate of the University of Oregon, where his favorite credits include: Measure for Measure (Angleo), Endgame (Clov) and The Big Knife (Smiley Coy).
 
Phil Korth (Iago) is a 3rd year MFA Actor.  Past credits include:  Beyond Glory by Stephen Lang, a self-produced, one-man performance; Mark/Milton in CRT's Nutmeg Summer Series production of All in the Timing; Argulio in The Parkville Project, produced by the Bated Breath Theatre Company at The Playhouse on Park in Hartford; Angelo in Comedy of Errors; Fulganzio the Monk in Brecht's Galileo; Kerry Max Cook in The Exonerated; Greg in the Graduate Performance Workshop production of Reasons to Be Pretty; Lysimachus in Pericles; and Antigonus/Clown in the Graduate Acting project, The Winter's Tale.  He holds a BA in Theatre Performance and Creative Writing from Western Michigan University.
 
 
The ensemble cast also includes MFA actors Gretchen Goode, Christina Greer, Ryan Guess, Robert Thompson, Jr., and Brian Patrick Williams; BFA actors Kelsea Baker, Drew Camputaro, Tom Dubinkski, Tom Foran, Michelle Goodman, Shane Harris, Mike Improta, Ryan Jordan, Seth Koproski, Andrea Pane, and Alexandra Perlwitz.