About the Show

This drama takes audiences into the audition room as an African-American actor responds to the demands of a white director presuming to better understand Shakespeare’s iconic black character, Othello.

From the show:

Keith Hamilton Cobb’s AMERICAN MOOR is the award-winning, tour-de-force new play that takes audiences behind-the-scenes and into the audition room as an African-American actor responds to the demands of a white director presuming to better understand Shakespeare’s iconic black character, Othello.

A passionate and poetic exploration, AMERICAN MOOR is an essential look at the experience and perspective of black men in America while challenging the capacity of theatre to make all people fully visible and embraced.

Critic Reviews (14)

"In ‘American Moor,’ an Insider’s Guide to ‘Othello’: A new play argues that no one knows more about Shakespeare’s great tragedy than a man “born black in America.”
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4/5 Stars "Cobb is as compelling a dramatist as he is a thespian; the play is disquieting, perceptive and often bitingly funny. Having spent more than 30 years trying to appease others, Cobb demands that the members of his audience, especially the white ones, see him and meet him where he stands."
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3/4 Stars "Keith Hamilton Cobb delivers a compelling turn in this deeply felt meditation on Shakespeare and racism."
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"Seeing Othello Through a Black Actor's Eyes in American Moor: Keith Hamilton Cobb's play about theater and race in America has its New York premiere at the Cherry Lane Theatre."
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"Keith Hamilton Cobb's Breathtaking Exploration Of American Theatre's Intrinsic Racism, 'AMERICAN MOOR': A black actor, a white director, and a character named Othello"
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"Cobb's text and performance, especially as guided by the director, Kim Weild, expands the argument in a way that implicates us all…as this remarkably rich and rewarding evening hurtles toward its wrenching conclusion, Cobb makes us see the absurdity -- and the resultant sheer waste -- of our failure, after so many years, to hear what must be heard."
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3/5 Stars "Keith Hamilton Cobb Turns an Othello Audition Red Hot: The playwright/actor questions how effective any understanding between the races can be"
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“Cobb is titanic in this piece bringing his resonant voice and impressive physical presence to bear on the most famous classic role for a Black actor in the canon as well as his thoughts about race and the theater.”
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Cast and creative team