Actor Keith Hamilton Cobb’s Play, American Moor Becomes Part of the Folger Shakespeare Library’s Permanent Collection in Washington, DC March 28
Cobb to Perform Award-Winning Solo Play at the University of Maryland March 29
The Anacostia Playhouse theater is celebrating last summer’s successful production of Keith Hamilton Cobb’s award-winning solo play, American Moor, and The Folger Shakespeare Library’s receipt of the production script into its permanent collection at an invited reception on Monday, March 28. The stage manager’s prompt book, and other items from The Playhouse production will be placed in the library’s archives for any scholar or researcher to access over the ages. American Moor is an 85-minute solo play written and performed by Cobb that examines the experience and perspective of Black men in America through the metaphor of William Shakespeare’s character Othello.
Photo courtesy Colin Hovde
Cobb will give a one-night-only performance at the Kogod Theatre in the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD at 5:00 PM on Tuesday, March 29. This is a free event, but seating is limited. For tickets and information visit: The Clarice Center website or call 301.405.2787.
“The Folger Shakespeare Library is the preeminent institution of Shakespearean scholarship in the world,” said Cobb. “I am proud of the hard work of everyone involved in bringing this production to life, and honored that the work is being recognized, but I am equally thrilled that the producing organization, The Anacostia Playhouse, will also be formally endorsed by this prestigious institution. It is also my great pleasure that those who were not able to experience this new work incubating over the past summer at The Anacostia Playhouse, will have another opportunity to see it at The University of Maryland on Tuesday, March 29, before we move on to the next phase of its performance life.” Sights are set on ultimately returning the production to New York under the direction of Drama Desk nominated director, Kim Weild.
Cobb describes American Moor as more than just a play about race in America. It focuses on the creative process, who gets to make art, who gets to play Shakespeare, and the qualitative decline of the American theater. Cobb adds that the play is also about actors and acting, and the nature of unadulterated love.
Conceived and written in the fall of 2012, American Moor was first publicly performed as an offering of the Humanities Institute at Westchester Community College in 2013, with funding from The National Endowment for the Humanities. Subsequent productions have been The Luna Stage Company in West Orange, NJ, and Phoenix Theatre Ensemble in Manhattan, NY. Most recently, Cobb’s play was the keynote performance, opening and closing the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in Denver, CO.
The Phoenix Theatre Ensemble production of American Moor earned Cobb the Outstanding Solo Performance award at the 2015 AUDELCO Awards, which honors excellence in Black theater.