Transforming the Green-Eyed Monster

Recently, I wrote about the Walterdale Playhouse’s decision to cancel Othello after receiving criticism, and possibly threats, because their director cast a white woman in the title role. Since then, I’ve seen a different production on a different continent, and it has reinforced my convictions that (a) non-traditional casting should not be off-limits, even when…

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Transforming Whitewashing

Othello is one of my favourite plays. I’ve taught it repeatedly and directed it twice – once in 1996, in a highly condensed three-person Fringe production, and once in 2003, with the cast expanded to six. I love its language, which soars to epic similes and plunges into grotesque raunch, sometimes in the same line;…

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