“Othello”
Through Nov. 3. 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 6:30 p.m. Sundays. $15-$36. The New American Shakespeare Tavern, 499 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta. 404-874-5299. www.shakespearetavern.com.
If many white actors would cite Shakespeare’s melancholy Dane, Hamlet, as the ultimate dream role, does the tragic Moor of Venice in his “Othello” represent the same for black actors?
“Not every actor, black or white, necessarily aspires to play the great Shakespearean parts,” replies Victor Love, who’s undertaking the famous role in a new production at Atlanta’s Shakespeare Tavern (Oct. 5-Nov. 3). “For any classically trained black actor, though, the short answer is ‘Yes.’ ”
Deceived by the evil Iago into doubting the fidelity of his young wife, Desdemona, Othello is driven into a jealous rage that ends badly for all concerned.
“A lot of people just view him as a black man in a white world, and that’s true, but his personal conflict is more profound and goes much deeper than that,” the actor says.
“His journey is a very long and complicated one,” he explains. “At one point in his life he was a slave, the lowest of the low, who is looked down upon and shunned. Coming from that place of no love and no self-esteem, of being an outsider, he builds an upstanding reputation based on his skills as a general and creates a whole new life founded on the respect he feels from his adopted community. Having that slip away from him, ultimately, that’s his undoing.”
Aside from the specific dramatic demands of the character, as with any Shakespearean role, the language alone can be daunting. “It’s so beautiful and expressive. It needs to be spoken clearly so that it can be understood, but it also needs to sound accessible to a modern audience,” Love says.
"A lot of times, actors will rely only on the words, as if just saying the words were enough. What really makes it exciting and challenging is filling the words with life, giving them the feeling and emotion they require, and how far within himself an actor must go to find that kind of passion or pain, whether it's just using one's own imagination, or whether it's drawing from one's own personal experience."
The Tavern’s “Othello” also features Andrew Houchins as Iago and Jennifer Alice Acker as Desdemona. Directing the show is Laura Cole, who previously appeared on stage with Love in last season’s Tavern staging of “Julius Caesar.”
“Victor has the age and experience, the gravitas, to bring a lot of precision to the role, in addition to possessing the key qualities of athleticism and physicality that it calls for,” Cole says. “He’s a really generous and responsive actor, very much present and in the moment, and it’s almost ridiculous how quickly and subtly he can shift from playing the charm of the character to bringing out the deeper aspects of it.”
Since relocating to Atlanta four years ago (his mother retired here), Love’s other recent theater credits include Horizon’s “Every Tongue Confess” and Georgia Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.” He made his directorial debut with a production of “A Raisin in the Sun” at the Gainesville Theatre Alliance. Last year, he started his own acting studio, Evolv Atlanta, where he teaches scene study for stage and screen.
In fact, a large part of Love’s career has been spent on the screen. He studied acting at Los Angeles City College and spent several years working on the regional theater scene. But his big break came with an auspicious film debut as the flawed, ill-fated Bigger Thomas in “Native Son” (1986), based on the acclaimed Richard Wright novel. The illustrious cast also featured Elizabeth McGovern, Matt Dillon, Carroll Baker, Geraldine Page – and another relative newcomer, Oprah Winfrey (fresh off “The Color Purple”), who played his mother.
Love has nothing but fond memories of his co-stars.
"All of them were incredibly kind to me and wonderful to work with," he recalls. His "most profound acting lessons" came from his scenes with Page, one of the original "Method actors" (who died shortly after making the film). And even though "she wasn't exactly Oprah yet, the phenomenon we've all come to know," Love describes Winfrey as being "lovely and warm-hearted."
Overall, however, the experience left Love feeling a bit cold and disenchanted. Many other admittedly lesser movie and TV roles followed, but he was just as content to originate a role in the original Broadway version of “A Few Good Men” or to perform “The Playboy of the West Indies” at Lincoln Center.
As Love puts it, “I’d always wanted to be a serious actor, not a popular celebrity. ‘Native Son’ changed my whole world, but that kind of sudden exposure doesn’t equal happiness for everybody. I didn’t know anything about being a movie star and I wasn’t really interested in that, but I probably made a lot of bad career moves because of it.”
Taking a few years to regroup and eventually settling here in Atlanta “felt like the right move,” he says. “I needed to refresh myself and rekindle my love for the work. I wasn’t sure I could ever be this happy acting again, but the truth is I’ve never been happier.”
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