Northeast Stage presents summer series: Othello

Northeast Stage returns this summer with “Othello,” Shakespeare’s complicated tale of suspicion, love, desire and betrayal. Performances will take place throughout July at locations across Suffolk County, including Greenport, Southold, Riverhead, Westhampton Beach and Patchogue. All performances begin at 7 p.m. 

“We’re reaching so many different communities and creating a rather large accessibility, which is important to Northeast Stage. That’s part of their mission to make Shakespeare available to people. And I do think that’s unique,” said A.D. Newcomer, director of this year’s production and an alumna of Shakespeare and Company.

First proposed in 2019, it took many fits and starts to finally bring “Othello” to the stage. Amy Ippolito had always intended to play Desdemona, and despite life changes that included moving from Long Island to Virginia, she found a way to make it happen. 

“There was one day where I heard ‘Othello’ was getting picked back up, and then I texted A.D. and I said, ‘Over my dead body will anybody else play Desdemona,’” said Ms. Ippolito.

This production is being rehearsed in the tradition the original actors would have experienced, with something now called a “cue script.” Essentially, each actor would receive the last three lines of the actor before it was their turn to speak and then their lines, saving time and effort.

“It was more actor-led, because there was no one sitting outside of the playing space being like, ‘Oh, yes, and you enter here and you enter here.’ The actors had a little bit more agency. Shakespeare layered that stuff in for the actors, hidden stage directions,” said Ms. Newcomer. “For my line, ‘Upon my knees, what does your speech import?’ The directions are in there. The actor without the rehearsal time knows to do that dramatic action, and he brilliantly structured it that way.”

Ms. Ippolito and Ms. Newcomer have years of academic and practical experience with Shakespeare. Ms. Ippolito was introduced to Shakespeare’s plays nearly from birth. “I have very vivid memories of my dad, going through Shakespeare as a bedtime story, which is a really random thing to do to a 5-year-old,” she said. “Shakespeare has always been kind of looming in the background. I got really into soliloquies, which are a speech where the only person on stage is the actor, and the audience is the scene partner, and that became my focus of study.”

Ms. Newcomer was also steeped in a theatrical tradition, with her mom bringing her up to be a dancer and a flutist. Shakespeare was a strong literary presence in their home. “There were books all around and there was always the complete works [of Shakespeare]. But I just never really got exposed much to it till high school. I just was like, “Ooh, Shakespeare.” Like, it was mystical to me,” said Ms. Newcomer.

She did explore Shakespeare eventually, but an insensitive response from a teacher while reading “Romeo and Juliet” made her feel she wasn’t up to the task. Her confidence shaken, she let it go. “I literally walked out the door and said, ‘I’m not capable of understanding this, so how can it be fun for me?’ And I moved on,” said Ms. Newcomer.

Many years later, while working and living in Greenport, a chance encounter with a friend led her to reconsider.  She took a play out of the library and read it in a single sitting. “It was ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ and I walked out of the coffee shop completely changed,” Ms. Newcomer said.

She has since studied Shakespeare extensively and gone on to teach, act and direct. She also runs Camp Shakespeare in Amagansett.

The cast of “Othello” includes Justin D. Harris as Othello, Colin Palmer as Iago and Ms. Ippolito as Desdemona, with Andrew O’Brien, Christian Lepore, Esmeralda Cabrera, John Bradley, Lee Meyer, Nicholas Auletti, Peter Peterson, Stuart Whalen and Wendy Peterson.

This production is made possible, in part, by public funding provided by Suffolk County and by Mattituck Environmental Services, the Daniel Rosenblatt Foundation, Friends of Mitchell Park, Helen and John Simonson, Friends of Westhampton Free Library, Douglas Elliman Real Estate, Patchogue Arts Council, Megan Bowles Yoga and others.