English Touring Theatre announces its partnership with Digital Theatre on a film of Othello for Digital Theatre Plus, the company’s education platform plus a nationwide programme of engagement work, The Othello Project running alongside the UK tour of Othello. Othello, a co-production with Oxford Playhouse and Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory, has been seen by over 40,000 audience members across 14 cities during its 2017 and 2018 tours.
ETT in partnership with Digital Theatre will present a filmed version of Othello which will be published on Digital Theatre Plus – the award-winning education arm of Digital Theatre. The production, directed by ETT’s Artistic Director Richard Twyman, was filmed live at Warwick Arts Centre during its critically-acclaimed UK tour this autumn and will be published on Digital Theatre Plus for an audience of over 3 million students on Wednesday 23 January 2019.
During the UK tour ETT presented The Othello Project – a series of talks, workshops and artistic responses, curated with host venues and local artists – giving a platform to some of the most exciting Muslim artists and writers working in the UK today, shining a light on the contemporary themes of the play itself. The Othello Project is supported by Amal – a programme of the Saïd Foundation.
ETT today announces the full programme of work which includes The Othello Project Podcast, returning for a second series to discuss Othello’s place in contemporary Britain. The Podcast which is Executive Produced by Abdul-Rehman Malik and Produced by Thomas Glasser features conversations led by Aina Khan and Remona Aly with guests including Majid Majid the Lord Mayor of Sheffield, a response piece by Papatango Prize Winner, Iman Qureshi that has been developed with audiences across the tour and a response by spoken word artist, Tanya Muneera Williams. The first episode of The Othello Project Podcast is will be available to download from Monday 3 December 2019.
English Touring Theatre said today, “We’re delighted to announce a new partnership with Digital Theatre on the digital capture of our production of Othello. Othello is one of Shakespeare’s most contemporary and immediate plays and is widely studied in the UK and internationally. We’re thrilled that this initiative will give students and institutions around the world access to this production, after the completion of its UK tour, as well as additional resources we have built around the production. We are also pleased to announce the Othello Project, generously supported by Amal, which has allowed us to give a national platform to some of the most exciting Muslim artists, writers and thinkers in the UK. The Othello Project has ensured that Shakespeare’s Othello isn’t the end of a conversation but the beginning of one, opening up a meaningful dialogue around the production and giving audiences multiple routes into Shakespeare’s most urgent of plays. Creative collaborations and participatory activities are essential for ETT in breaking down barriers to accessing the arts, engaging multiple voices and experiences in national conversations.”
Alongside the 2018 UK tour, The Othello Project also saw Tanya Muneera Williams run a series of workshops with schools, community groups, refugees and local artists Oxford, Doncaster, Oldham, Newcastle and Warwick – these workshops have been documented in a short film by Michal Dzierza. In addition, ETT worked with Voices to screen their film ‘Flight’, based on a 2016 Facebook post by Jiva Akbor and part of their Young Muslim Voices project, at venues across the UK for audiences seeing the production of Othello – adding to the conversation around the themes of the play. The Othello Project also commissioned visual artist Mohammed Ali to create an artistic response to the production which is now available online.
To view the films and for more information about The Othello Project click here.
