New Place Players proudly present OTHELLO

“A fun, communal atmosphere, in an intimate setup as actors performed at arm’s length.” - CultureTrav about The Tempest ​ (2018)

“The New Place Players emphasize the sense of actor and audience sharing the same space, with only the subtlest of fourth-wall-breaking antics.” – The Guardian about Midsummer Night’s Dream (2015)

“It’s charmingly communal, it’s festive, and it has real historical precedent.” - Forbes about The Tempest (2018)

OTHELLO

A searing & intimate look at a powerful and timeless story

Written by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Directed by CRAIG BACON

LIMITED OFF-BROADWAY ENGAGEMENT

FEBRUARY 1 – 25, 2022 AT CASA CLARA

OPENING NIGHT IS SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11 AT 7:30 P.M.

TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW AT NEWPLACEPLAYERS.ORG

After the long pandemic hiatus, NEW PLACE PLAYERS returns to New York City with a production of OTHELLO, directed by Craig Bacon, combining their signature original live chamber music, and acting which celebrates language, action, and deeply human storytelling. OTHELLO will play a limited engagement at Casa Clara (218 East 25th Street, New York, NY 10010). Performances begin Wednesday, February 1, 2023 and continue through Saturday, February 25. Opening Night is Saturday, February 11 (7:30 p.m.). ​ Tickets are $99, $79, $29 and are available at NewPlacePlayers.org. ​ 

OTHELLO will be performed for an intimate audience of fifty people in the round, immersed in a former foundry with a rich collection of statuary, featuring both skylights and balconies. As one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies, this production of OTHELLO will be a searing and intimate look at shame, manipulation, and the devastation it provokes. 

It will bring New Place Player’s signature dynamic interplay of music, Lecoq movement, swordplay, and language to a new level — with musicians and actors collaborating with one another to inspire an extraordinarily fresh take on Shakespeare’s powerful and timeless story.

At the recent documentary film shoot at Casa Clara, the former foundry, Iago (Conor Hall) turned towards Othello (Eliott Johnson) and spoke the iconic line, “Beware my lord of jealousy”. According to the director, Bacon, “In my line of vision just beyond Conor’s doublet was Flavio Gaete, music director torturing a viola string into an anguished quiet moan. That intimate witnessing of actor and musician lies at the heart of our production and the aesthetic of New Place Players. Eclectic chairs line a beautiful room; the fourth wall is gone and we are in a shared magical space.”

The production stars Elisa Alemparte (Danton’s Dead, Film: Adam and the Water) as Bianca, Alanah Allen (Spite, Single Asian Female) as Desdemona, Matthew Appleby (Adam and the Water), Matthew Dudley (Director of Voice and Speech at Terry Knickerbocker Studio) as Brabantio, Conor Andrew Hall as Iago, Helen Herbert (National Tour: A Christmas Carol) as Emilia, Matthew Iannone as Cassio, Eliott Johnson (Lombardi) as Othello, Rose Kanj (understudy), Topher Kielbasa as Lodovico, Nathan Krasner as Roderigo, Aaron McDaniel (Aquila Theater Co.) as Montano, and Ryan Joseph Swartz as the Duke of Venice.

The musicians include Anna Bikales (harpist), Flavio Gaete (music director, violist, composer & sound designer), and Daniel Keene (lutenist).

Produced by Chelsea Bryn Lockie and assistant directed by Makenna Masenheimer, the production features scenic design by Shawn Lewis, costume design by Jennifer Paar, lighting design by Ethan Steimal, and associate production design by Erick Alonso. General Management by Leah Michalos/Michalos Theatrical Management, publicity by Katie Rosin/Kampfire PR and marketing by Victoria Cairl/Table 7.

OTHELLO plays the following regular schedule through Saturday, February 25: 

Tickets are $99, $79, $29 and are now available online at www.NewPlacePlayers.org. Tickets may also be purchased in person at the venue a half hour prior to the performance.

Running Time: 2 hrs

CRAIG BACON (Director) Craig Bacon was trained and designated as a voice teacher by Master Teacher Kristin Linklater and also studied voice with Noah Pikes and Richard Armstrong, both founding members of the Roy Hart Theater Company. He also studied clown and buffoon with Philippe Gaulier and Lecoq movement technique with Norman Taylor. Craig is an Artistic Associate of the Mercury Theatre in Colchester UK, where he staged Macbeth, The Tempest, The Crucible, and served as the voice and text director for four seasons. Craig currently teaches voice and text at the Actors' Studio MFA program at Pace University. He has held faculty appointments at SUNY Purchase, Columbia University, Fordham University, NYU (Atlantic Theater Company), National Theater Institute (US and UK), The Actors Centre (London), The Linklater Center, and Shakespeare & Co. (Lenox, MA).

In addition to his extensive vocal coaching in the UK, he has served as vocal coach for several productions in New York, including Anthem (Baryshnikov Center) and The English Channel by Robert Brustein at (Abingdon Theater). At SUNY Purchase, he directed The Winter’s Tale, By the Bog of Cats, and co-directed LAByrinth Theater Company’s One-Acts with Richard Crawford. Craig has also worked internationally as an actor, both in Europe and the US. Productions include The Tempest (Mercury Theatre, UK; New Place Players), Henry IV, pt. 1, Much Ado About Nothing, Merry Wives of Windsor (Shakespeare & Co.); Cymbeline, The Rover, Twelfth Night (Lincoln Center Inst.; New Place Players); One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, A Christmas Carol (American Drama Group, Europe); Kenneth Lonergan’s Borderlines, Off-Shore Wind w/William Hickey, Sunday’s Child w/Celeste Holm (HB Playwrights).

Craig trained extensively with Uta Hagen, Herbert Berghof, and Tina Packer. Craig has had a lifelong love affair with good food and wine. In Paris in the late 70’s he served as a valet at the Residence of the American Ambassador, serving gourmet dinners to the likes of François Mitterrand and Baron Philippe Rothschild. He also made sure that Miss Lillian Carter had her glass of bourbon in her room each night (she was on her way to work for the Peace Corps in Africa). She preferred it without ice.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (Playwright) was a renowned English poet, playwright, and actor born in 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon. His birthday is most commonly celebrated on 23 April (see When was Shakespeare born), which is also believed to be the date on which he died in 1616. Shakespeare was a prolific writer during the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages of British theatre (sometimes referred to as the English Renaissance or the Early Modern Period). Shakespeare’s plays are perhaps his most enduring legacy, but they are not the only things he wrote. Shakespeare’s poetry has also remained popular to this day. - Shakespeare.org

NEW PLACE PLAYERS embodies the power of Shakespeare’s plays, performing in intimate, found spaces, integrated with original live chamber music. The company employs both experienced musicians and actors and recent MFA graduates, empowering a new generation of theater artists. https://www.newplaceplayers.org/