Federal Grant Will Fund Alaska ‘Othello’
How would the Shakespearean tragedy "Othello" be different if it unfolded in the Aleutian Islands?
Alaska will soon find out.
Edgeware Productions and Cyrano’s Theatre Company have won a $25,000 grant to develop and stage a version of "Othello" that will explore the tensions between Russian settlers and Alaska Natives circa 1850.
Director David Edgecombe said the play will premiere in February at Cyrano’s Off Center Playhouse.
"I love ‘Othello’ — it’s one of the most tightly plotted plays that Shakespeare wrote," Edgecombe said. "It just roars forward, so it should be an exciting opportunity for everyone involved and for audiences."
The Alaska "Othello" is one of 35 theatrical endeavors nationwide to receive a $25,000 award through the National Endowment for the Arts’ Shakespeare in American Communities initiative. Edgeware Productions got a grant through the same program to produce "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" in 2005.
Just so you don’t have to dust off your college literature books, here’s a plot recap: Othello is a decorated Venetian general, married to a senator’s daughter. As with most of Shakespeare’s great tragedies, the plot is one of love, ambition, jealousy and, ultimately, murder. Since Othello is a Moor, one of the play’s central themes is racial prejudice.
Edgecombe said issues of cultural misunderstanding and racial conflict easily translate into a historical Alaska setting.
"We’re setting it just before the Russians sold the land to the United States because they thought they had taken all the furs worth taking," he said. "Racist attitudes and polarity developed as part of that exploitation. … So we’re going to have an Alaska Native man playing Othello, with the idea that the Russians have to deal with the ramifications of their chief general being Alaska Native."
Auditions will likely be held in December.
The NEA grant specifies that the production must reach underserved audiences, so after its Anchorage premiere and several school performances, the production will travel to a few Alaska towns. Communities interested in hosting the play should contact Edgeware Productions through its Web site, edgewareproductions.com.
Fairbanks chorale performs final show
Fairbanks has lost a musical institution. After 15 years, the Alaska Chamber Chorale is being dissolved because its director, Marvilla Davis, is retiring. The chorale’s final concert was scheduled for this weekend.
Davis taught music for 41 years in public schools in Montana and Alaska, and wound up at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She developed the auditioned chorale with a specialty in a cappella.
Highlights of the Alaska Chamber Chorale’s existence included invites to perform at the American Choral Directors Association national and regional conventions. More information on the chorale can be found at acdaonline.org/northwestern.
——
Daily News reporter Sarah Henning can be reached at shenning@adn.com or 257-4323.
—–
Copyright (c) 2007, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.