{"id":42297,"date":"2015-08-18T18:52:00","date_gmt":"2015-08-18T18:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=42297"},"modified":"2015-08-18T18:52:00","modified_gmt":"2015-08-18T18:52:00","slug":"red-velvet-spins-a-fascinating-true-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=42297","title":{"rendered":"“Red Velvet” spins a fascinating true story"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Red Velvet” spins a fascinating true story<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Berkshire Eagle<\/a>
\nPittsfield, Massachusetts
\n2015-08-13<\/p>\n

Jeffrey Borak<\/a><\/strong>, Entertainment Editor and Theater Critic<\/p>\n

LENOX<\/a> \u2014 Actor Ira Aldridge<\/a> isn’t in the American Theater Hall of Fame<\/a>; his name is barely a whisper in the annals of American theater. That shouldn’t be, say director Daniela Varon<\/a> and actor John Douglas Thompson<\/a>, who is playing Aldridge in “Red Velvet<\/a>,” a new play by Lolita Chakrabarti<\/a> that had its world premiere in October 2012<\/a> at the Tricycle Theatre<\/a> in London<\/a> and its American premiere in March 2014 at St. Ann’s Warehouse<\/a> in Brooklyn, N.Y.<\/a><\/p>\n

Born a few years after the start of the French Revolution<\/a>, Aldridge died a few years after the end of our Civil War<\/a> \u2014 a megastar in Europe, but virtually unknown here.<\/p>\n

“I was 17 when I first heard about Aldridge,” Varon said during a joint interview with Thompson in the lobby of Shakespeare & Company’s Tina Packer Playhouse<\/a>, where the production officially opens at 7:30 tonight after a week of previews. It is scheduled to run in rotating repertory through Sept. 13.<\/p>\n

“He gave up everything to go to England<\/a> to become an actor,” Varon said.<\/p>\n

Aldridge fashioned a career performing throughout through Europe and the UK<\/a>. While he was known primarily as a tragedian, he also had a reputation as a good comedic actor.<\/p>\n

He outraged London critics but awed audiences when, one night in 1833, he replaced the ailing Edmund Kean<\/a> as Othello<\/a>, at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden<\/a>.<\/p>\n

…Born in New York<\/a> in 1807, Aldridge emigrated to Liverpool, England<\/a> in 1824, where he met and married Margaret Gill, a Yorkshire<\/a> woman.<\/p>\n

“He was 26 when he married her, She was 18,” Thompson said. “He already had had a lifetime of experience. He was not a young 26.” Despite a solid marriage, he was a notorious womanizer and fathered several children, in and out of wedlock.<\/p>\n

Between 1825 and 1833, he played theaters throughout the United Kingdom. He made his first tour of Europe in 1852, playing not only Othello but also Lear<\/a>, Richard III<\/a>, Shylock<\/a>, Macbeth<\/a>. He died in Lodz<\/a> in 1867, where he was given a state funeral…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Red Velvet” spins a fascinating true story The Berkshire Eagle Pittsfield, Massachusetts 2015-08-13 Jeffrey Borak, Entertainment Editor and Theater Critic LENOX \u2014 Actor Ira Aldridge isn’t in the American Theater Hall of Fame; his name is barely a whisper in the annals of American theater. That shouldn’t be, say director Daniela Varon and actor John […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,1245,8,10,20],"tags":[17934,81,20738,20737,20739,20740,17933],"class_list":["post-42297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-arts","category-biography","category-media-archive","category-uk","category-usa","tag-berkshire-eagle","tag-england","tag-ira-aldridge","tag-jeffrey-borak","tag-john-douglas-thompson","tag-red-velvet","tag-the-berkshire-eagle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42297"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42298,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42297\/revisions\/42298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}