Staged Reading of Tom Middleton and The Ur-thello will be performed on Saturday, April 5 at Eubie Blake Cultural Center.

BPF’s Season 44 performance schedule continues with a staged reading of Tom Middleton and The Ur-thello by playwright James Lewis Huss.  John Wilson will direct the production and  Janine Marie Boulad will act as stage manager.

Tom Middleton and The Ur-thello asks the audience to imagine a world where black men are beaten and killed by white men in power simply for being black. Now put down today’s paper and imagine it’s the English Renaissance. This is Urthello’s world. But not Urthello’s play.

This is Tom Middleton’s play, a tragedy in five acts about a white writer who has no idea what it’s like to be black. But he tries. Before Shakespeare wrote all those racist tropes in Othello, Middleton did it better. Tom Middleton and The Ur-thello—black comedy at its best.

The cast includes:

Louis Blanke, Musician – Wordsmith

Tom Middleton, Playwright – John Dignam

Philip Beaumont, Director – Jonathon Shorr

Brett/Elizabeth Cary, Actor – Will Beckstrom

Mary Sidney, Patron – Natalie Pilcher

Lucy Blanke, Partner – Shelby Sullivan

Pat Butch, Bartender – Jane Nitsch

First Constable – John Dignam

Second Constable – Janine Marie Boulad