The Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival (NDSF) has announced the casting for its upcoming production of The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice. The flagship production of the 2018 season, Othello will feature stage & screen veteran Esau Pritchett in the title role, with celebrated stage actor Robert Ramirez returning to the NDSF stage as Iago, and featuring Delaney Feener as Desdemona, Maggie Kettering as Emilia, and Paul Hurley as Roderigo.
About the Cast
Esau Pritchett (Othello)’s stage work has taken him to Broadway and all over the country, with roles ranging from Orfeo in A Free Man of Color at Lincoln Center, Prospero in The Tempest for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and Duke Frederick & Duke Senior in As You Like It for the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival to Oberon & Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Hartford Stage, Mark Antony in Julius Caesar for Orlando Shakespeare Theater, and King Hedley in King Hedley II for the Matrix Theatre in Hollywood. Esau has also appeared on multiple television series including The Blacklist and Chicago P.D. (NBC), Iron Fist and Orange is the New Black (Netflix), and The Night Of (HBO).
Robert Ramirez (Iago) played Leontao in last year’s NDSF production of Much Ado About Nothing, and has performed with numerous regional theatres including the New York, Utah, Great River, Illinois, and Alabama Shakespeare Festivals. He has served as Voice and Text Coach on a number of productions for American Players Theatre, The Illinois Shakespeare Festival, and most recently, at the critically acclaimed Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He has directed productions for Austin Shakespeare and the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre. Robert has been an award-winning voice artist and narrator of audio books for the past 21 years and is a long-time member of the Recorded Books Repertory Company in New York City.
Delaney Feener (Desdemona) is a young actress who grew up in California and is now finishing her BFA acting degree at DePaul University. She is a winner of the prestigious Princess Grace award, as well as the Sarah Siddons Society Scholarship for her artistic work. Delaney returns to the NDSF this summer, having portrayed Olivia in Twelfth Night for the 2017 NDSF season, while earning her Equity Membership Candidacy. Her recent credits include Richard in Richard III, Desdemona in Desdemona, Piggy in Lord of the Flies, Yelena in Uncle Vanya, and W in Lungs, and Cinderella in Into the Woods.
Maggie Kettering (Emilia) joins the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival for the first time, having previously performed a wide range of Shakespearean roles for companies including the Great Lakes Theater Festival, the Shakespeare Theatre Company, the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, the Oak Park Theatre Festival, and the Michigan Shakespeare Festival. Maggie was recently seen in Holmes and Watson at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Miss Holmes and Population 485 at the Peninsula Players Theatre, and Elemeno Pea at the Citadel Theatre.
Paul Hurley (Roderigo) is a veteran Shakespearean actor also joining the NDSF for the first time, having performed in Henry V, The Merchant of Venice, and Love’s Labours Lost for the American Players Theatre. He has also performed for Shakespeare Festival St. Louis (Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew), and the Great Lakes Theater Festival (Proteus in The Two Gentlemen of Verona), as well as for Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Renaissance Theatreworks, and the Utah Shakespeare Festival.
About the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival
The Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival, Notre Dame’s professional theatre in residence, is one component of Shakespeare at Notre Dame, a program that also includes the McMeel Family Chair in Shakespeare Studies and Actors From The London Stage, a world-renowned Shakespeare touring company. The mission of Shakespeare at Notre Dame is to establish the University nationally and internationally as a center for the study of Shakespeare in performance.
