{"id":19800,"date":"2023-07-11T19:04:51","date_gmt":"2023-07-11T19:04:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=19800"},"modified":"2023-07-11T19:04:51","modified_gmt":"2023-07-11T19:04:51","slug":"the-liberty-theatre-company-presents-desdemona-a-play-about-a-handkerchief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2023\/07\/11\/the-liberty-theatre-company-presents-desdemona-a-play-about-a-handkerchief\/","title":{"rendered":"THE LIBERTY THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS: DESDEMONA, A PLAY ABOUT A HANDKERCHIEF"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Liberty Theatre Company presents Desdemona, A Play About a Handkerchief<\/em>. This rowdy, hysterical, feminist update on Othello<\/em> is written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel, and serves as the perfect addition to summer fun in Hailey. \u201cSummer is a great time to be in the Valley,\u201d says Desdemona actress Aly Wepplo, \u201cand this play is just plain fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the wrongly accused and suffering wife of Shakespeare’s tragic Moor, Othello, Desdemona has long been viewed as the \u201cvictim of circumstance.\u201d But as Paula Vogel demonstrates in her comic deconstruction of Shakespeare’\u2019 play \u2013 aligning tongue-in-cheek humor while raising serious questions as to the role of women through the ages \u2013 Desdemona was far from the quivering naif we’ve all come to know.<\/p>\n

Author Paula Vogel, a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright whose plays include Indecent<\/em> (Tony Award for Best Play), and How I Learned to Drive<\/em>, is known for bucking the status quo with each new play, and Desdemona\u2019s<\/em> drastic shift in perspective from Shakespeare\u2019s original work takes audiences in a fresh, comedic, and powerful new direction.<\/p>\n

At the helm of the production is Los Angeles-based stage and film director Veronica Moonhill (founder of the award-winning SkinHorse Theater Company in New Orleans and recent assistant to the director for the blockbuster motion picture Where The Crawdads Sing)<\/em>, alongside an all-female cast of local favorites \u2013 Audra Honaker, Tess Makena, and Aly Wepplo.<\/p>\n

Speaking about what makes this piece so enticing, Moonhill says, \u201cDesdemona<\/em> gives voice to the female characters of Othello<\/em> whose voices are taken from them by the men. The play of Othello<\/em> focuses on the jealousy created in men by other men, but never takes into account the personhood of Desdemona or Emilia or Bianca. This play gives them the stage to be messy, sexy, silly, petty people, and looks at how these women fight against the fate that the play of Othello<\/em> sets up for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vogel\u2019s desire to further develop Shakespeare\u2019s world has given the three actresses of Desdemona license to explore vastly new interpretations of each character, most notably for actress Aly Wepplo, who plays the titular Desdemona herself. \u201cDesdemona is a bit of a brat,\u201d offers Wepplo about the traditionally demure figure. \u201cAnd she\u2019s lovable, too. It\u2019s delicious to play someone so complicated. Is she a villain or a hero? She\u2019s both, and she\u2019s neither. It\u2019s all more interesting than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Desdemona, A Play About a Handkerchief<\/em> plays July 7 \u2013 22. Evening shows begin at 7 p.m., and matinees begin at 2 p.m. All performances take place upstairs at The Mint in Hailey. Tickets to Desdemona can either be purchased individually or as part of the Pay-What-You-Feel Local\u2019s Pass (available through July 10 only), all available at LibertyTheatreCompany.org, or by calling (208) 582-8388.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Liberty Theatre Company presents Desdemona, A Play About a Handkerchief. This rowdy, hysterical, feminist update on Othello is written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel, and serves as the perfect addition to summer fun in Hailey. \u201cSummer is a great time to be in the Valley,\u201d says Desdemona actress Aly Wepplo, \u201cand this play […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,84,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19800","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-event","9":"category-in-brief","10":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19800"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19802,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19800\/revisions\/19802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}