The Drilling Company's OTHELLO Comes to Bryant Park

Bryant Park assumes the guise of wartime Venice as New York's famed theater company, The Drilling Company (TDC) of Shakespeare in the Parking Lot, present their rendition of Shakespeare's immortal drama Othello at Bryant Park's Picnic Performance series. All shows are open to the public and take place outdoors on the Bryant Park stage, rain or shine. Blankets are available for rent free of charge and picnicking on the green is encouraged.

TDC's Othello, set in the crucible of a modern military action, examines the interplay of well-intentioned peacekeeping and progressive thinking butting painfully against the regressive backdrop of tribal instincts and backbiting social climbing. This take on the story of the Moorish prince and his doomed wife stars Emmanuel Elpenord as Othello, (previously in TDC productions of Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It), David Marantz as Iago (The Merry Wives of Windsor, Merchant of Venice), Liz Livingston as Desdemona (A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet) and a cast that includes Karla Hendrick, Jack Sochet, Brad Frost, David Sitler, Remy Souchon, Jacob Lesh, Hayley Simmonds and Kyle Maxwell.

The Drilling Company's Artistic Director Hamilton Clancy will direct. "Questions of race have historically been at the center of Othello," Clancy says, "but we wanted this production to focus on inclusion, acceptance, and resignation. The play takes place in a world where others jump to conclusions based on innuendo, and passion replaces any reasonable course of justice as characters are driven to take vigilante justice. Good people falter under the weight of 'Fake News,' which in this case is all delivered by one character. At its heart, the play is a 400-year-old study in converting love into fear. The viciousness and abrupt heel-turns of 2019's political landscape are manifest throughout Othello; our production seeks to bring them up to the surface."

This event is part of Bryant Park Picnic Performances presented by Bank of America, a series of world-class music, theater, and dance performances in Midtown Manhattan. All Picnic Performances are free to the public and designed to be enjoyed casually - no tickets required. At each show, the park lends out 250 free picnic blankets for audience members to relax on while enjoying the show on the Lawn.