American Moor Starring Keith Hamilton Cobb Returns For Four-Week Engagement @ Anacostia Playhouse
Written and Performed by Keith Hamilton Cobb
Directed by Kim Weild
What is the role of a lifetime? What is the role of a life?
Playwright/performer, Keith Hamilton Cobb directed by Drama Desk nominee, Kim Weild , uses his love of language and 30 years of experience in the American theatre to explore Shakespeare, race, and America, not necessarily in that order. His 85-minute award-winning play, American Moor, that considers the dilemma of a seasoned African-American thespian auditioning for a role fraught with racial animus, Othello, is an unapologetic peer into a hindering industry irony that stands as metaphor for our most pressing societal condition: a white culture dictating rules of conduct to a non-white one from an often inadvertent place of privilege. Cobb, with a facility for poetry entertains, and with the pathos of a veteran tragedian engages while asking questions that demand answers, and answering questions that too seldom get asked.
American Moor had its first staged reading in March of 2013 under the direction of Brent Buell. It had its first public performance under the direction of Paul Kwame Johnson at Westchester Community College in November of 2013 as a presentation of the WCC Humanities Institute with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Between 2014 and the present it has had multiple presentations contributing to its development. Among the most notable of these were an 11-performance showcase produced by Phoenix Theatre Ensemble at The Wild Project, Manhattan in April of 2015, directed by Paul Kwame Johnson; a production here at The Anacostia Playhouse in July of 2015, directed by Craig Wallace; and a joint production of O.W.I. (Bureau of Theatre) and Phoenix Theatre Ensemble at Boston Center for the Arts in July of 2017, directed by Kim Weild. The 2015 Phoenix Theatre Ensemble showcase garnered an AUDELCO Award for Outstanding Solo Performance. The Anacostia Playhouse production brought the play to the attention of The Folger Shakespeare Library, the script now a part of the library’s permanent collection. The O.W.I./Phoenix production in Boston earned two IRNE (Independent Reviewers of New England) Awards for Best Visiting Production Small Theatre, and Best Visiting Performer Small Theatre, and an Elliot Norton Award (Boston Theater Critics Association) for Outstanding Solo Performance. Most recently American Moor was presented on the stage of The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London, England.
If you missed it in 2015, do not miss it this time.
Ticket Prices:
EOR/Senior/ Student: $30
Regular: $40
Cobb is most widely recognized for the landmark roles he created for television, among those Noah Keefer for ABC’s All My Children (Daytime Emmy Award nomination); the galactic mercenary Tyr Anasazi for Gene Rodenberry’s Andromeda; Damon Porter for CBS’s The Young and the Restless; and Quincy Abrams for the series Noah’s Arc on the Logo network. He has also guest starred on multiple television series, including The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Boston Common, Suddenly Susan, One on One, The Twilight Zone, and CSI Miami. Cobb was last seen in Washington as Capulet in Shakespeare Theatre Company’s 2016 production of Romeo and Juliet. He has appeared regionally with Actors Theatre of Louisville, Denver Theatre Center, Huntington Theatre Company, Orlando Shakespeare Festival, Geva Theatre Center, and more. His classical roles include Laertes in Hamlet, Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, Tulles Aufidius inCoriolanus, Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Julius Caesar in Julius Caesar, and he has performed in contemporary works such as David Mamet’s Race, August Wilson’s Jitney, and Lynn Nottage’s Ruined.
Most recently Kim Weild directed the Off-Broadway revival of First Love at the Cherry Lane Theatre. Her world premiere production of Charles L. Mee’s Soot and Spit, was a New York Times Critic’s Pick hailed as “beautifully designed and dreamily evocative,” and was awarded the NY Innovative Theatre Foundation’s award for Outstanding Performance Art Production.
American Moor returns to the States, having played at Shakespeare’s Globe in London this past summer. The play had its first staged reading in March 2013, and its first public performance at Westchester Community College in November that same year as a presentation of the WCC Humanities Institute, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Since then, it has had multiple presentations contributing to its development. Among the most notable were an 11-performance showcase produced by Phoenix Theatre Ensemble at The Wild Project, Manhattan in April 2015, directed by Paul Kwame Johnson; a production at the Anacostia Playhouse in July 2015, directed by Craig Wallace; and a joint production of O.W.I. (Bureau of Theatre) and Phoenix Theatre Ensemble at Boston Center for the Arts in July 2017, directed by Kim Weild. American Moor garnered an AUDELCO Award for Outstanding Solo Performance (Phoenix); two IRNE (Independent Reviewers of New England) Awards for Best Visiting Production Small Theatre and Best Visiting Performer Small Theatre (Boston); and an Elliot Norton Award (Boston Theater Critics Association) for Outstanding Solo Performance.
PRODUCTION INFORMATION
American Moor
By Keith Hamilton Cobb
Directed by Kim Weild
January 9 – February 3, 2019
Anacostia Playhouse
2020 Shannon Place SE, Washington DC
Show Schedule:
- Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8 p.m.
- Sundays at 3 p.m.
- Post-performance discussions to be announced at a later date.
General Admission Tickets: $40
Pay What You Wish preview performances: January 9 – 10 at 8 p.m. Discounts available for students, seniors, and East of the River residents.
The Anacostia Playhouse, a non-profit 501(c)3 organization, opened its doors in 2013 as a home for the arts in the area of Washington, DC, known as East of the River. The goal of the Playhouse is to bring arts presentations, performances, exhibits, and instruction to a neighborhood that is traditionally underserved in all respects, especially the arts. Central to this goal is that costs be reasonable for artists and arts groups, for students and patrons and that what is seen on stage reflects the community we serve. With a hundred-seat black box theater, The Playhouse attracts visitors from across the metropolitan area to see a broad spectrum of theatrical presentations including many Helen Hayes award winning and nominated productions, one person shows, cabarets, concerts and more. The Playhouse also includes a strong youth performance group now entering its fourth season, and displays the work of local visual artists in the lobby.