BECOMING OTHELLO is a personal, poignant and powerful story of perseverance, tragedy, triumph—and ultimately unconditional love. A victory story of making it against all odds. Through rhyme, meter, moving multimedia images, lyrical language, and soulful songs, this choreopoem chronicles the life of classical actress, Debra Ann Byrd; her trials and triumphs with race and the classics; and her gender-flipped journey on the road to becoming Shakespeare’s noble flawed general Othello.
This event happened
on November 19, 2020.
Harlem Shakespeare Festival’s Artistic Director, Debra Ann Byrd performed and discussed BECOMING OTHELLO: A BLACK GIRL’S JOURNEY, her living memoir about a young woman’s trials and triumphs with race and the classics, and her gender flipped journey on the road to becoming Shakespeare's noble, flawed general. Directed by Tina Packer and developed at Shakespeare’s Birthplace Trust and Folger Library.
Unfortunately, the event only occured live, and we cannot share the video. However, we encourage you to find out more about the playwright/performer Debra Ann Byrd and find out about upcoming performances HERE.
MEET THE COMPANY
Playwright ... Debra Ann Byrd
Director … Tina Packer
Sound Design … David D. Wright
Video & Projection Design … Nidal Q. Harvey
Virtual Performance Director … Vanessa Morosco
Director of Production & Sound Engineer … Norman A. Small, Jr.
Marketing & Engagement … WICG | Donna Walker-Kuhne
DEBRA ANN BYRD is the Founder of Take Wing And Soar Productions where she currently serves as Chief Executive and Producing Artistic Director. Ms. Byrd has guided the company's growth from its birth in 1999 into a viable support organization serving women, youth, classical artists of color and theater arts groups throughout New York. As an actor, producer, arts manager, and business leader she has received more than 20 awards and citations, was recently selected for inclusion in the 2012 Editions of Who’s Who In The World and Who’s Who of American Women; and is the recipient of the 2009 LPTW Lucille Lortel Award and the 2006 Josephine Abady Award for Excellence in “Producing works that foster diversity”. This award winning theater arts professional received a BFA Degree in Acting from Marymount Manhattan College. Debra Ann graduated from the 2001 NYSF Shakespeare Lab at The Public Theater, the 2005 Arts Leadership Institute, at Teacher’s College/Columbia University, and completed producer training with The Broadway League at the 2007 Commercial Theatre Institute.
