Othello

Notes from the Director

This production of Othello mixes the modern and traditional, trusting Shakespeare's original text to speak to us today, while allowing a modern setting to deepen our understanding that the problems of Shakespeare's times are with us every day in our own modern world. The events in Othello crystallize around war: the physical war with the Turks that sparks the travel in the play, the "friendly fire" of Iago's treachery, and the battles that Othello fights in his own mind. We in America are, too, at war, with enemies known and unknown, with our sense of security, with ourselves as we
walk through a world we can no longer pretend is "black and white."

Politically speaking, the events in Othello are shockingly relevant to our times. In the text, Othello himself is a Christianized convert from Islam, who is sent to fight his own race and does so with authority. Shortly after the "war on terrorism" began in America, a fellow theatre artist, a white woman, was sitting on a bus near a young black man and a middle aged Sikh man. When the Sikh exited the bus, the young black man turned to the white woman to say, "Aren't you glad he's gone? I thought he was going to blow us up." Is that the world we live in now? Where black and white can communicate only over their mutual hatred of a new "other?' Prejudice runs rampant in America today as it always has, even if the targets of that prejudice are, at this moment, a slightly different shade of brown. People still fear those
they perceive as different and, like Brabantio in the play, still don't want their daughters to marry people they otherwise think they trust. And those "others" still find themselves in the uneasy position of fighting their own people in order to find acceptance in the white Christian world.

This mindset of warfare pervades our culture in other telling ways as well. In a world where fear of random attack is bred into us, the need for the soldier and protector has been burned into our consciousness. Othello is part of that world. Like many others in the play, Othello is a professional soldier, used to the rules of war. As Constantine says in Chuck Mee's Big Love:

when push comes to shove
and people need defending
then no one wants a good guy any more
then they want a man who can fuck someone up
who can go to his target like a bullet.

then when it's over
suddenly
when this impulse isn't called for any longer
a man is expected to put it away
carry on with life
as though he didn't have such impulses.

Is it any wonder that, having been trained to fight, having advanced as a result of his virtuosity in war, being loved for his bravery in the face of danger, Othello is so easily provoked to that same violence at the drop of a handkerchief? What choice does this man have, valued only for his fighting skills and his unquestioning loyalty to his adopted tribe? How secure can he feel in his place in this company? How easy it is for this man to stumble and fall!As particular as this situation is to this type of outsider figure, though, the scope of emotions in the play is universal. Betrayal, jealousy, feigned honesty, self-doubt, lust, greed, need, and passion represent all too familiar frailties, always at war with our nobler senses: love, trust, and honor, which are the most important themes of this play.

Each relationship in the play is delicious. Othello and Desdemona have the potential for lifelong partnership. Desdemona, herself, as a woman who has the bravery to go against her father and society to choose her own love, is the match to Othello, a brave warrior. Both, too, are trusting innocents in the ways of humankind, and it is this innocence that brings them down. They are destroyed not because Othello does not trust his wife, but because he does trust Iago.

Throughout the text, Iago is called an honest man. Each character trusts him, and each in a different way. His ostensible honesty actually causes others (Othello, Emilia, Brabantio, Roderigo.) to change their views of the
people around them. When Iago speaks, they disregard all they see with their own eyes and begin to view the world through Iago's foully distorted lens.

Iago's justifications for his actions and lack of remorse are intriguing and seductive to the audience as well. We follow his machinations and often find great fun in being on the inside of his plans, not realizing we are just another fool he is manipulating. Too late, we realize that we, like Emilia, have abetted his crimes by allowing him to be our guide. We can only sit horrified in our seats, hoping beyond hope that Othello will change his mind or that the plot will be discovered in time. Alas, as in real life, many of the greatest war crimes are caused by inaction on the part of the common citizen, and it is the job of every one of us to fight injustice where we see it and nurture love and trust wherever we can.

-Carla Spindt and Erin Merritt

Bios

• Natalie Adona (Bianca/Senator/Montanto/Gentleman)
  • is thrilled to be working with Woman's Will and (in addition to that) to work with Carla Spindt again. Natalie has most recently been seen in the Napa Valley Shakespeare Festival as Ariel (Tempest). Other Shakespeare credits include French Messenger (King Lear), Dromio of Syracuse (Comedy of Errors), and Viola (Twelfth Night).
• Maria Grazia Affinito (Maria)
  • has been in various shows through out the Bay Area, including Viva Zapata! with Western Stage and A Midsummer Night's Dream with Solano Repertory Company. Her favorite roles include Nancy in Gaslight (California Conservatory) and Cinderella with AmeRican CitiZeNs' TheatRE. She is currently filming several independent features.
• Lauren Carley (Music Director/Dr. Nakamura)
  • Born in Tehran and raised in England, Lizzie is a company member and an alumna of three Woman's Will productions: The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Coriolanus, and Pericles. She has also recently appeared in The Memory of Water and The Colour of Justice with Oakland's TheatreFIRST. Lizzie has performed with The San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Bus Barn Theatre, Marin Theatre Company and the Magic Theatre, among others.
• J. Tiffany Holland (Othello)
  • a Woman's Will company member, was last seen with the company as the virile Morocco in The Merchant of Venice. Originally from North Carolina, Tiffany has worked with such Bay Area theatres as TheatreWorks, Theatre Rhinoceros, The Chameleon Theatre Company and Young Performer's Theatre. Favorite roles played include Maya in Waking the Dead, Wilma in Unfinished Women..., Bosco in The Revenge of the Woman Dressed Largely in Black and Mephostophiles in Dr. Faustus.
• Sharon Huff (Brabantio/Gentleman/Gratiano)
  • This is Sharon's first show for Woman's Will, but not her first experience with all female Shakespeare-she directed an all-girl production of Henry V for Theatre Forté many years ago. More recently, she has acted for Chameleon Theatre in Female Transport and The Turn of the Screw, and for Chaucer and Co. in Lusty Liaisons and The Merchant's Tale.
• Sarah Leventer (Duke/Gentleman/Herald/Lodovico)
  • a recent transplant from Jackson, Wyoming, trained at the Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre. She has toured locally and nationally with Traveling Lantern Theatre Co. Most recently she performed in Dynamic Theatre's one act festival, Crazy Quilt, No Exit at Theatre Rhinoceros, and Objects in Predicaments with Lunatique Fantastique.
• Danielle Levin (Emilia/Senator/Attendant/Gentleman)
  • is very excited to be appearing with Woman's Will for the first time. Most recently she was seen in Aurora Theatre Company's production of Thérèse Raquin. Other Bay Area roles include Amy in Company and Alice in Closer with Actors Theatre of Sonoma County and Viola in Twelfth Night and Emily in Our Town with Napa Valley Shakespeare Festival. Danielle has also performed with Word for Word in their school and library tour.
• Carrie Paff (Roderigo)
  • was last seen in The Shee Theatre Company's production of Ladies and Gentlemen at the EXIT Theatre. Last fall, she performed in Word for Word's school and library tour celebrating John Steinbeck's centennial. She is most proud of her work with the Creative Arts Team, an educational theatre company addressing social issues with children in New York City's public schools. She holds a Master's Degree in Educational Theatre from New York University.
• Carla Pantoja (Cassio)
  • is happy to be in her fifth show with Woman's Will and excited to work with Carla Spindt again. Carla played the role of Jack in last fall's production of The Importance of Being Earnest. Other Bay Area theatre companies she has worked with include PlayGround, TheatreWorks, BRAVA!, Bus Barn Stage Company and Teatro Visión, to name a few. Carla is a member of Woman's Will, and her fight choreography was recently seen in The Rover and last summer's Pericles.
• Carla Spindt (Director)
  • is currently the Conservatory Director of the Actor Training Program at Solano College Theatre. She directs and teaches theatre throughout Napa, Sonoma, Solano and Yolo Counties and at Cal Shakes in Orinda. As an actress she performed at ACT, the Magic, Aurora, Eureka, Willows, Marin Theatre Company, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and San Francisco's Shakespeare in the Park.

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