“Red Velvet”
By Lolita Chakrabarti

Directed by Shirley Basfield Dunlap

Presented by Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Saturday, September 10, 2016

2pm

The Walters Art Museum

600 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21201

Admission: Free

Contact: [email protected] or 410-244-8570

Join Chesapeake Shakespeare Company at The Walters Art Museum for a free staged reading of the award-winning play, “Red Velvet,” which recounts the life of Ira Aldridge. Aldridge was an African-American actor of the early 1800s, remembered today for breaking British theatre’s color line and excelling in Shakespearean roles, including Othello. “Red Velvet,” by Lolita Chakrabarti, debuted in London in 2012 with her husband, the actor Adrian Lester, in the lead role. Chesapeake Shakespeare’s staged reading featuring local actors will be directed by Shirley Basfield Dunlap, whose extensive professional credits include productions of Fences; Having Our Say: The Delaney Sisters’ First 100 Years; A Raisin in the Sun; and From the Mississippi Delta. Ms. Dunlap is Associate Professor and Coordinator of Theatre Arts at Morgan State University. Immediately after the reading, we will follow Jo Briggs, Associate Curator of 18th- and 19th-Century Art, into the galleries to see the museum’s rare portrait of Ira Aldridge. Our “Red Velvet” collaboration is part of “The World of Othello” series opening the 15th Anniversary Season at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company this September.

To RSVP to this event, visit our webpage and follow the link "RSVP for Red Velvet!"

*Portrait of Ira Aldridge, Courtesy of The Walters Art Museum