{"id":121652,"date":"2025-05-21T11:26:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T15:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/?post_type=featured-work&p=121652"},"modified":"2025-06-18T07:46:37","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T11:46:37","slug":"desdemona-a-play-about-a-handkerchief","status":"publish","type":"featured-work","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/featured-work\/desdemona-a-play-about-a-handkerchief\/","title":{"rendered":"Desdemona, a play about a handkerchief"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Desdemona, a play about a handkerchief<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

April 16 – 19, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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DESDEMONA, a play about a handkerchief<\/em><\/em>, written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel, was directed by Grant Sorenson (CFA\u201925) and ran from April 16 – 19, 2025 in Boston University’s Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre. As the wrongly accused and suffering wife of Shakespeare\u2019s Othello<\/em>, Desdemona has long been viewed as the \u201cvictim of circumstance.\u201d But as Vogel demonstrates in her comic deconstruction of Shakespeare\u2019s play, Desdemona was far from the quivering na\u00eff we\u2019ve all come to know.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

On stage after Desdemona<\/em> in Booth from April 25 – 27, was Emilia<\/em> by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm and directed by Taylor Stark (CFA\u201925). A riotous, witty reclaiming of the life of an exceptional woman. Four hundred years ago, Emilia Bassano wanted her voice to be heard. It wasn\u2019t. Could she have been the \u2018Dark Lady\u2019 of Shakespeare\u2019s sonnets? What of her own poetry? Why was her story erased from history? In Malcolm\u2019s electrifying play, Emilia and her sisters reach out across the centuries with passion, fury, laughter and song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are thinking of these two pieces less in repertory and more in conversation with each other since they run back-to-back rather than alternating performances,\u201d says Sorenson, the director of Desdemona<\/em>. \u201cThe two plays were selected to be produced together because of the shared themes and content between them, but they are also completely unique shows in their voices and storytelling. Ultimately, both plays speak very loudly and individually in their own right, which has been really exciting to put up next to each other and see where they overlap and where they diverge from each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It has been a really fulfilling process working alongside Taylor and her team for\u00a0Emilia<\/em>\u00a0while I have been developing\u00a0Desdemona<\/em>\u00a0with my team; we have had to engage with the plays on their own terms but also as a package and that has made both of us really consider the\u00a0how\u00a0<\/em>and the\u00a0why<\/em>\u00a0of doing these plays. Why are we telling these stories now, and how do we tell them in the most resonant way? Both plays are about fighting to speak freely and fearlessly in times of oppression. Now more than ever it is crucial that the theatre we produce and consume can act as a call to action.<\/div>