Open Casting Call For Othello

Playing age: Early 20s (school-leaver graduate, 18-21). White. 

She must read as young; she has just left school/graduated, which speaks to the dynamic with her father. Key traits: 

• Playful and unapologetic, she claims her joy
• Subversive
• Funny bones
• Deeply felt: emotionally intelligent – but, when left alone, there’s a felt sense of her loneliness
• “First Lady” sensibility, but she is somewhat too natural for its formality – she’s free, modern, unselfconscious, and unaware of her attractiveness (and thus does not leverage her attraction, youth or sexuality – there’s no manipulation or power plays here). It’s an unexpected turn of events, which, although she performs its duties (because she is committed to Othello), she doesn’t quite buy into it, and thus wears it all lightly… 
• Choice and agency – she elopes, she pleads Cassio’s case confidently; she’s not passive
• She’s seen as: naïve and bewitched (Brabantio), too trusting (Emilia), and transforms from angelic to a “strumpet” and “whore” (Othello); but sees herself as a devoted wife to Othello and a fair judge of character (Cassio)

There must be credible chemistry with both Othello and Cassio – it is the pairing of Cassio and Desdemona who actually present as the “perfect” (and preferred) couple. 

Her relationship with Othello must feel:

• Funny, charismatic and genuinely playful and teasing – there is a lightness to their interactions 
• Like a genuine, consensual and equal love match – we believe deeply in their love story – however, there is an underlying current of Desdemona (perhaps, inadvertently) fetishizing /exoticizing Othello

Playing age: Late 30s to Early/Mid 40s. White. 

Emilia will have a more central staging treatment in this production. Her characterisation here is not that of the (traditional, Shakespearean) stereotypes/ archetypes (i.e., not a shrew, not a clown, not a Nurse or handmaiden…).  
 
Childlessness is the central tension in her marriage to Iago, and this raises questions around the ambiguity of their relationship (e.g., Is it a strategic, heterosexual, cover? Is their marriage sexually inactive? Are they facing infertility?). 

• “National treasure” casting: the audience need to love her 
• She’s “real” – she sees through it, she calls it out, she exposes, and she challenges
• She’s in service as a ‘Wren’ (Women’s Royal Naval Service, the women’s branch of the UK’s Royal Navy) 
• Older than Iago (inferring the likelihood of a complicated child-bearing history) 
• Closer in age to Othello (therefore feels like a more natural pairing with Othello, which disturbs Iago) 
• Suppressed sensuality that speaks to a sexual tension that can be played, and interpreted, in multiple ways

Playing age: Late 20s / Early 30s. White.

• Young, promoted, charismatic: not just a ‘nice, young officer’ 
• Tough, a fighter, soldier/army mindset 
• Driven by reputation 
• Must plausibly attract Desdemona (there exists the potential that Desdemona might want to, and could, have an affair with him) and Othello feels this threat 
• Must feel like a genuine rival 
• Must justify Iago’s resentment 

Open to suggestions of actors in their mid 20s, mid 40s, or late 60s/early 70s. White.

• A civilian in a military world – he might thus play a political and/or business (commercial) role that speaks to both his involvement in the Army, and his reasons for following them to Cyprus
• Can play status, wealth – he’s entitled and uses money to buy access, but lacks humanity, emotional intelligence and charisma

Roderigo must have real weight – he’s strengthened in this world by wealth and status, and he’s potentially the real racist in the play (as opposed to Iago). 

He becomes a real “problem” for Iago, who believes he has complete control over Roderigo, but it becomes clear that Roderigo will not yield. Thus, the murder of Roderigo is messy; it comes dangerously close to failing and poses an actual challenge for Iago.

Playing age: Early 20s. Actor of Global Majority 

Grounded and resistant; a silent witness with real presence — sees the truth of the system others misread; power lies in her stillness. 

• The only character local to Cyprus, and who they meet there (and therefore, of a different ethnicity to Othello and the other characters)
• Mirror opposite of Desdemona, and so functions as a sharp counterpoint to the other women in the play
• Can play vulnerability and defiance

Playing age: Late 50s – 60s. White.

Gruff and abrasive (often misconstrued), but fundamentally brittle — a man whose authority masks emotional fragility and love. 

• Desdemona’s father and a wealthy senator
• Powerful, wealthy, and concerned with optics and reputation 
• Embodies the patriarchal and racial paradigms of the play
• Will double with other roles