Desdemona a play about a handkerchief

February 6 – 23, 2014

by Paula Vogel

Springs Ensemble Theatre opens its 5th season with DESDEMONA: A PLAY ABOUT A HANDKERCHIEF, opening February 6th and running through February 23rd. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel, author of HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE and THE MINNEOLA TWINS, DESDEMONA is the backside view of Shakespeare’s OTHELLO. Special guest director Alysabeth Clements Mosley, who directed Star Bar Players’ 2012 production of OTHELLO, brings back Leah Jenkins to reprise the role of Desdemona, this time with a sexy twist. Add Kala Roquemore as Bianca and Sarah S. Shaver (SET Company Member) as Emilia to the mix, and you’ll never look at the Bard’s classic the same way again.

Sex, lies, and fine linen. Strange, isn’t it, how the most innocuous objects can precipitate such momentous events.

As the wrongly accused wife of Shakespeare’s tragic Moor, Othello, Desdemona has long been viewed as the “victim of circumstance.” But as Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel demonstrates in her comic deconstruction of Shakespeare’s play—aligning tongue-in-cheek humor while raising serious questions as to the role of women through the ages—Desdemona is far from the quivering naïf we’ve all come to know. Having slept with Othello’s entire encampment, Desdemona revels in her bawdy tales of conquest. Her reluctantly loyal servant Emilia pesters Desdemona about a military promotion for her husband, however, her motives might be more self-serving than we think. Meanwhile, the appearance of Bianca, a street-wise yet painfully naive prostitute, might just upset the entire operation and send things spinning out of control. Add on the disappearance of a handkerchief and all bets are off. Is there such thing as “friendship amongst women?”

Cast List:

Desdemona: Leah Jenkins

Emilia: Sarah S. Shaver

Bianca: Kala Roquemore

Production Team:

Director: Alysabeth Clements Mosley

Co-Producers: Sarah S. Shaver and Emory Collinson

Stage Manager: Mark E. Cannon

Set Design: June Scott Barfield

Technical Director: Matt Radcliffe

Costume Design: Christine Vitale

Costume Assistant: Jillmarie Peterson