Center for the Art of Performance is proud to present the Los Angeles premiere of “Desdemona,” a provocative and intimate re-imagining of Shakespeare’s “Othello,” written by Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison and Malian singer-songwriter Rokia Traoré and directed by American theater/opera director Peter Sellars, with performances by Traoré and acclaimed stage and film actress Tina Benko.
Tickets ($69-$89) for the four-performance engagement of “Desdemona,” Thursday October 8-Sunday October 11 are available at cap.ucla.edu, Ticketmaster or the UCLA Central Ticket office at 310.825.2101. Tickets to an opening-night post-performance benefit dinner are also available. All performances will be held at UCLA’s Freud Playhouse. The benefit dinner will be held outside the Broad Arts Center on campus.
For this, her first play, Morrison collaborated with Traoré, for the creation of a unique music-filled theater work that gives Shakespeare’s ill-fated heroine new voice. Desdemona tells her story from beyond the grave as she encounters other souls and their stories, with her childhood maid Barbary, played by Traoré, as guide.
“It is one of the most elusive things I have ever put on the stage,” Sellars says. “In this age of big spectacle, what we are doing here is quietly examining how valuable and rich is a single human being, and how many worlds reside within each of us.”
Broadway, film and television actress Tina Benko stars as Desdemona, with an ensemble of African musicians backing Traoré in songs sung mostly in the composer’s native Bambara—singers Fatim Kouyaté and Marie Dembelé, with Mamah Diabaté performing on the ngoni and Toumani Kouyaté on the kora.
“Desdemona” originally premiered May 15, 2011 at the Akzent Theater in Vienna, Austria. The Center’s Los Angeles premiere presentation represents the only American performance dates this season.
As women’s voices fill the night air on stage, CAP UCLA will honor three women in its first Model Mavericks ceremony, an opening-night benefit dinner immediately following the Thursday October 8 performance of “Desdemona.”
CAP UCLA honors Susan Bay Nimoy for her arts advocacy. The film director has been a longtime supporter of the arts at UCLA and across Los Angeles.
Olga Garay-English is honored for her leadership in the local arts community. Garay-English served as head of the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs from 2007 until 2013 and continues to apply her expertise to sustaining a thriving arts community in the city.
CAP UCLA is pleased to honor Traoré for her accomplishments as a composer and librettist for “Desdemona” and for her powerful creative voice, which is increasingly coming to the attention of music lovers around the world thanks to her through her robust recording and touring career.
Performance artist Ana Prvacki will create a special non-alcoholic potion designed especially for each of the Model Mavericks, which will be served to benefit attendees.
Individual tickets and tables are available and proceeds from the benefit will support ongoing programs and initiatives at the Center. cap.ucla.edu/modelmavericks
