An Interview with Edward Stern

Producing Artistic Director Edward Stern, now entering his 16th season at the Playhouse, sat down before rehearsals to talk about his direction of Othello.

Why “Shakespeare in the Shelterhouse?”

I have said for more than a decade that one great ambition of mine was to do a Shakespeare play in the Shelterhouse. Why? … Panic. Terror. I’ve never directed Shakespeare in a small venue. I don’t quite know the vocabulary of doing that. It is good … but part of it is the terror of doing something new. I’m so used to doing Shakespeare in a more grand style.
However, Othello is a fairly intimate, domestic tragedy. It doesn’t have the socio-political perspective of King Lear or Hamlet. It’s not a lesser tragedy, but it simply focuses on human beings in turmoil. That justifies doing the play in such a small space. While we can cut back a bit on the production elements, what is at the heart of this play is not going to be cut. That is what will make it so powerful in the Shelterhouse.

How is Othello different from the other Shakespeare plays you’ve directed in the last few seasons?

With King Lear, for instance, you have the subplot of [The Earl of] Gloucester, of Edmund and Edgar and of Lear’s three daughters. There is the tragedy of Lear, but there are also the tragedies of Gloucester, the state and the state’s corruption brought on by the other situations.

With Othello, you can’t make any larger references beyond Iago, Desdemona and Othello. You can’t go beyond the themes of love, faith or jealousy … of putting a seed of doubt into someone’s mind and the ramifications of that. If you need a telescope to look at a story like King Lear, you need a microscope to look at Othello.

What is the look of Othello?

The costumes for this production will be contemporary, although the action is not rooted in today — or in any specific period. Twelfth Night was Napoleonic – the reason being that it was an era in which the men looked every bit as good as the women. The set represented the idea of an island, of water and its healing and drowning properties. Much Ado About Nothing took place at the end of World War I, with a set designed to support that era. The concepts in Twelfth Night and Much Ado were exciting to create, but you can’t do that in the Shelterhouse.

I’ll be working with Joe Tilford, who designed both Twelfth Night and Much Ado. The scenes set in Venice, which all take place at night, will have a sense of that city and have great depth. The scenes in Cypress will be bright and more shallow, but you will be able to sense the darkness at work in the background. We are going to use the small stage in the Shelterhouse to create a claustrophobic space, using it to our advantage rather than apologizing for it.

What else are you trying to achieve with this production of Othello?

I’ve seen productions of this play in which you almost can smell the tragedy of Othello and Desdemona at the beginning. It should really be more like Romeo and Juliet — a love and marriage so complete that nothing could destroy it. Othello should possess a certain sense of joy, a man so at ease with himself that nothing can shake him. The brilliance of Iago is to take the force and confidence of Othello and find a way of worming a hole into him. What you have is a man who was once so content with himself — and the life he had made — suddenly realizing he is not accepted and will always be an outsider.

What are some things that most excite you as you look forward to the rest of the season?

I just attended the Stratford Festival to see The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead, and it was wonderful. And to be doing so many shows that I’ve seen in New York — Altar Boyz, Doubt, The Musical of Musicals (The Musical) — I’m thrilled to bring shows like that to Cincinnati. We even have the same creative team for some of those shows, as with Altar Boyz. I’m also excited to have Wendy Goldberg direct Doubt and to have the addition of a woman’s sensibility for that show. I was told she was offered three different productions of Doubt to direct, and she chose us. Because, she said, Cincinnati is “the place to be.”