RED VELVET by Lolita Chakrabarti, directed by Jackie Davis

Burbage Theatre Co concludes their 11th Season with the Rhode Island premiere of Lolita Chakrabarti's "RED VELVET" directed by Trinity Repertory Company member Jackie Davis, starring Ja'Quan Malik Jones as Ira Aldridge, the first Black American actor to play Othello on a London Stage.

Synopsis: It's like being at a crossroads - a point of absolute, unequivocal change. It makes the blood rush.

Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, 1833. Edmund Kean, the greatest actor of his generation, has collapsed on stage whilst playing
Othello. A young black American actor has been asked to take over the role. But as the public riot in the streets over the abolition of
slavery, how will the cast, critics and audience react to the revolution taking place in the theatre?

Lolita Chakrabarti's play creates imagined experiences based on the little-known, but true, story of Ira Aldridge, an
African-American actor who, in the nineteenth century, built an incredible reputation on the stages of London and Europe.