Anchorage Daily News

An Aleut man and a Russian woman kneel side by side, their shoulders covered by embroidered marriage blankets. A painted backdrop of lush Aleutian Islands scenery endorses their union.

Nearby, a Russian soldier insults the Aleut. "Island native" he spits. Then he warns the woman's father: "You'll have your daughter stolen, wrapped in an Indian blanket and sealed in an ice house."

Ah, Shakespeare.

The Bard might not have recognized this setting -- Kodiak Island, 1849 -- since it's a couple hundred years and half a globe away from ye olde England. But he would've known these "Othello" lines by heart. Or most of them, anyway.

In a new version of "Othello," the bitter tale of jealousy, ambition and racism centers on an Aleut man as he rises within the Imperial Russian Navy and starts life with his new Russian bride, Desdemona. But since this is one of Shakespeare's tragedies, Othello's promising life is destroyed by scheming and bloodshed.

For Athabascan actor Allan Hayton, who plays Othello, this project acknowledges how hard Native Alaskans have had to struggle against stereotypes and exploitation. He said the production also is further reminder that Native Alaskans belong in the theater community, both onstage and in the seats.

"If this interests more Native people in coming, I think that'd be great," he said. "I think this is something the Native community can be proud of."

"Othello," adapted and performed by two Anchorage companies -- Edgeware Productions and Cyrano's Theatre Company -- will premiere Friday at Cyrano's Off Center Playhouse. Thanks to a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts' Shakespeare in American Communities initiative, the play will go on tour to a handful of Alaska communities including Valdez, Talkeetna and Kodiak.

"I really love that it pertains to Alaska and really strikes home how current Shakespeare's themes are," said Tamara Rothman Miller, who plays Desdemona. "To be able to explore race issues and class issues in a way Alaskan audiences can relate to, that's pretty powerful."

ROOM FOR INTERPRETATION

Like all Shakespeare's plays, "Othello" has been subjected to a seemingly infinite number of reinventions. For example, at Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., Patrick Stewart played a white Othello in an otherwise all-black cast. The play also has been the blueprint for dozens of films, including 2001's "O," in which the story is set in an American high school against a backdrop of basketball and drugs.

"Othello" isn't the first Shakespeare play given an Alaska Native perspective. Perseverance Theatre in Juneau generated the well-received adaptation of a Tlingit "Macbeth."

"Shakespeare's plays aren't all written for his time period. They're set in ancient Rome, in Greece, in mythical lands that never existed," said David Edgecombe, "Othello's" adaptor and director. "He was not writing about the English Renaissance, even though that's when and where they were first staged, so his plays have a lot of latitude for interpretation."

Edgecombe and Hayton were working together on a 2002 run of "Hamlet" at Cyrano's when they started tossing around the idea of an Aleut Othello, with the premise that Kodiak, like the original setting of Venice, was a trade hub where diverse cultures met and often clashed.

'THE BASE INDIAN'

As the Edgeware Productions crew got into research mode, they discovered parallels that convinced them "Othello" would slip into Alaska history without feeling forced.

Hayton said that lines such as "being taken by the insolent foe and sold to slavery" rang true to the Aleut experience with the Russians. He said there's also evidence of Aleuts fighting side by side with Russians in trade skirmishes up and down the Pacific Coast, and that some were promoted to officers in the Imperial Russian Navy.

So Othello was transformed from a Moorish general in the Venetian army to an Aleut admiral in the Russian navy.

"Of course, the conflict between whites and blacks isn't the only racism on this planet," said Paul Schweigert, who plays the story's villain, Iago. "Here in Alaska, ever since white people first came here, there was discrimination in both directions."

The play needed to work on tour and in educational settings, so Edgecombe trimmed the script from three hours to just over two. He said he was surprised at how few lines he had to adjust for the new scenario. Shakespeare's text already had references that were almost eerily fitting, such as: "Of one whose hand like the base Indian, threw away a pearl richer than all his tribe."

The larger obstacle turned out to be rooting up details about pre-Russian Aleut culture. For instance, to create an Aleut wedding dance, they turned to Aleut choreographer Ethan Petticrew. But records of dances from that time are few. "So what you'll see onstage is as close as can be guessed," Edgecombe said.

But in the end, the emotional journeys within "Othello" reasonably can exist in any time and place. The villain so envious of his superior that he resorts to sabotage. The husband so jealous and insecure that any rumor of infidelity puts him over the edge. The woman so in love she's willing to stick by an abusive husband.

"This piece touches people in a unique way," said actress Rothman Miller. "It's not just seeing gratuitous violence but seeing ourselves onstage and going 'Wow, we certainly are complex creatures.' "

Find Sarah Henning online at adn.com/contact/shenning or call 257-4323.

OTHELLO will be performed at 7 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday from Friday until Feb. 24 at Cyrano's Off Center Playhouse, 413 D St. Tickets cost $17.50, $15 for students, seniors and military, and can be purchased at 263-2787 or centertix.net.

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