'FIRST LOOKS' @ Shakespeare's Birthplace Trust
BECOMING OTHELLO: A Black Girl's Journey
Written By DEBRA ANN BYRD
Direted By TINA PACKER
Astonshing. Brilliant. Heartbreaking. Funny.
Show Synopsis
BECOMING OTHELLO: A Black Girl’s Journey, written and performed by Debra Ann Byrd, is a 90 minute, 5-Act, living memoir which explores a young woman’s acting journey on the road to becoming Othello, her trials and triumphs with race and the classics, some memorable experiences on her gender flipped journey and her fun-loving and tumultuous youth; complete with moving multimedia images, lyrical language from Black women playwrights, William Shakespeare, Langston Hughes, Martin Luther King, Jr., Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman and the King James Bible, along with soulful songs and the music that shaped her life in her beloved Harlem.
The Cast
DEBRA ANN BYRD
Creative Team
sound design by DAVID D. WRIGHT
story coaching by TANYA TAYLOR RUBINSTEIN
script development at Shakespeare & Co by TINA PACKER
Production Team
associate producer JACKIE JEFFRIES
production technician YASMINE LAWLER
documentary film cinematographer TROI HALL
Producing Partners
VOZA RIVERS, PAUL EDMONDSON, PAUL PRESCOTT, KATE BROKAW, MARY WAY
Project Partners
New Heritage Theatre Group, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, University of Warwick, Misfit Inc., Southwest Shakespeare Company, AZ Humanities
MORE TO EXPLORE
9 October 2019 | 5:00pm
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
The Shakespeare Centre
Stratford-upon-Avon
Warwickshire, UK
Tel: 01789 201806
TICKETS: Both performances are presented Free and Open to the Public. Limited Seating. RSVP Strongly Suggested.
REVIEWS
9th October 2019 | Sara Westh reviews Becoming Othello: A Black Girl’s Journey. Stratford-upon-Avon
It is difficult to summarise a performance as personal and resonant as that given by Debra Ann Byrd. At this, the first performance of her one-woman show Becoming Othello: a Black Girl’s Journey, Debra Ann brought us into whirling histories of subjugation, abuse, loss, but, also, into twinkles of blinding light, love, creativity, and victory ... >> Read More
BECOMING OTHELLO at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
The Shakespeare Centre
Black Tudors in Shakespeare's Time
A Dream Realized. Visits 2017. 2019.
""Wow, that was great!" - - John Way
DAB at The Birthplace. c.2017
Acknowledging the Sponsors
Birthplace Archives on Display
Back to Stratford-upon-Avon 2019
Researching Othello Brithplace Archives
THANK YOU! GENEROUS SUPPORT PROVIDED BY:
The BECOMING OTHELLO project is supported by Harlem Shakespeare Festival, New Heritage Theatre Group, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, University of Warwick, Misfit Inc. and Southwest Shakespeare Company with additional funding from Voza Rivers and generous indivdual donors. The Documentary Film is produced in part with funding from AZ Humanities and New Heritage Films.
