Playable Whiteness; or, My Week As Iago

Abstract: The Untitled Othello Project is a series of residencies, involving a relatively consistent acting ensemble rigorously unpacking Shakespeare’s script to see if there may actually be a play in there worth doing. It is an open-ended and excruciatingly patient rehearsal process that aims to respect the basic humanity of its players and its characters, instead of rushing towards new staging ideas to put into productions that merely reinscribe old racist tropes. Untitling proposes that we have to examine the contents of our own hearts before we can imagine the workings of the characters’ hearts. The author joined for a week to play Iago, and this article offers embodied reflection from within that distinctive rehearsal process. It considers both how Untitling pushes against how we usually make theater, and how a white actor might usefully contribute to a manifestly anti-racist process while charged to analyze and inhabit the most racist character in the play.