Friday, March 29, 2024

Inside Broadway with Postell Pringle Off-Broadway’s ‘Othello: The Remix’

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*The adaptation of Shakespeare’s Off-Broadway production of Othello: The Remix co-stars the multi-talented Postell Pringle in the role of Othello, along with a stellar cast including GQ (Iago/Brabantio), LQ (Roderigo/Loco Vita/Bianca) and Jackson Doran (Cassio/Emilia) of the Q Brothers Collective.

Written, composed and directed by GQ and JQ with music spun by DJ Supernova, Othello: The Remix is presented in association with producer and entertainment legend John Leguizamo. The 80 minute musical is an innovative and brilliantly written production. Othello: The Remix remains a tragic tale of love, jealousy, and revenge; rewritten from the classic dialogue to witty hip hop rhymes with a modern day backdrop of the music industry.

A playwright, composer, recording artist and music producer, Pringle’s range of talent is boundless. In this edition of Inside Broadway, Gwendolyn Quinn talks with Postell Pringle about his hot new show, his forthcoming album, his rising star as an in-demand voiceover artist, his upcoming theater productions, and the Q Brothers Collective.

Inside Broadway: Tell our audience, what is Othello: The Remix and why should people see it?

Postell Pringle: Othello The Remix is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s story of Othello. Of course Shakespeare, with all of his stories, all of his productions, he often adapted from the Greeks and other sources. In the tradition of what artists have done for time immemorial, we are adapting that story and turning it into something relevant for us. Of course for us, being guys of the hip hop generation, we turned it into a hip hop musical.

It’s the story of Othello, told much in the same parameters as Shakespeare’s story. But it’s been completely updated and completely adapted into a musical with our vernacular, rapping over beats. Our musical numbers include singing, by four guys who play all of the roles and there is a DJ who controls all the music.

IB: Before Othello: The Remix, how did you meet The Q Brothers? What’s the connection?

PP:  It’s a long story, but the connection goes way back.  GQ and I went to college together. We met as seniors visiting Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. We became fast friends for several reasons.  We bonded over our love of hip hop and our love of the arts, which we were just learning about at the time. Soon after, I met his little brother JQ, and we bonded over hip hop and would talk about it for hours and hours.

For years, GQ and I collaborated back then. The process of all of us, including Jackson Doran, coming together happened when JQ and GQ were working on a musical, Funk It Up About Nothin’ which was an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. Through different channels we got Jackson, and we did a production of that show with a couple of other actors. We took it to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe where it started to solidify us as an ensemble and as a group.

When you find a bunch of like-minded people who are in for the same cause, that is something I think is rare and when you find it, you don’t want to let it go. We’ve been going at it through various forms of art, particularly the hip hop Shakespeare thing for the last eight years.

IB: What is the most challenging aspect of your role in “Othello The Remix?”

PP: The most challenging aspect is probably getting raw and honest with the depths of this character’s feelings and the roller coaster ride which he has portraying love and betrayal and hate and confusion, that huge range of emotions in an 80 minute span of time. I think that’s probably the most challenging thing.

Some nights I feel ripe and ready for it but sometimes I’ve got to dig deeper to make that happen. There’s that emotional hangover that you’ve expelled, and after it builds up from months of work, then you finally get to release it. Then you have to come back in the theater and sit down and do another show.

IB: Have you done traditional Shakespeare previously and if so, which works?

PP:  I did a production of Merchant of Venice many moons ago. I did a production of Macbeth which remains to be my favorite Shakespeare play of all time. I did an Off-Broadway production of Romeo and Juliet. I played in a traveling production of Othello. I’ve done a fair amount of Shakespeare. I studied it too.

IB: What theater projects are you creating and writing? I know that you’re a writer, composer, and director?

PP: I have a collaboration with The Q Brothers Collective. We have a production of I Heart Juliet that’s going to get its first professional production regionally this summer. We are excited about that production. We will not be performing in it, only writing and composing the music. It’s going to be produced for The Illinois Shakespeare Festival, and hopefully, that’ll be a jump-off to bring it to New York. The other thing that I’m super excited about is a collaboration that I’m doing with my partner Jackson Doran; that’s based on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. We’ve been commissioned by Theater Latté Da in Minneapolis and right now that production is known as the Illyria Project. It’s named after the seaside town where the original play takes place. The project is in its infancy, but we’ve already done a lot of work on it, and they’re excited about it.

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IB: Who is your favorite playwright(s) and why?

PP: Tom Stoppard is one of my favorites, along with August Wilson, John Guare, Suzan-Lori Parks, Lynn Nottage, and Wendy Wasserstein.

IB: What is your favorite theater production of all time?

PP: Passing Strange and I have an affection for the experimental, finding new ways of telling stories. I had never really seen a story told in that way. The music was exhilarating and similar to the style we use in our shows, with all the actors playing different roles. It was a great piece, and it has stayed with me for a very long time. It’s something that pops up in my mind. Also, The Invention of Love by Tom Stoppard was another great production. I still think about that almost every day.

IB: What is your favorite medium?

PP: I was trained as a theater actor. As long as I’m walking and I have a mouth that works and ears that can hear and a body that can collaborate with other people, I hope that I still have the opportunity to do theater. Chiefly the thing I’m interested in is storytelling, and there’s a lot of exciting stuff that’s going on in television. If it’s awesome storytelling, then I want to participate in it.

IB: What are some of the voiceover projects that you’ve worked on?

PP: The Rockstar video games and the Grand Theft Auto 4. I play one of the main characters known as Playboy X. When people find out that I did that, they’re more impressed with that than anything else that I’ve ever done. I didn’t just do the voiceover; I also did the body image. I had to put on the suit with the little sensors on it. We acted out all the scenes. Whenever you see the character on your television screen, when you’re playing with your joy stick, that’s a rendering of me. It’s fun. I’ve done a couple of other versions of that game, Grand Theft Auto and Grand Theft Auto Lost and Damned. I’ve also done some other voiceover work for Citibank and other products and brands.

IB: What is The Retar Crew? What kind of music is it and what is your role in the group?

PP: I am one of the songwriters and performers. The group is made up of The Q Brothers Collective, and we put together a band after that first production of Funk It Up About Nothin.’ We gelled so much that we wanted to keep doing stuff and JQ and I had been making hip hop together for a long time. The band organically came together, and the music is self-deprecating, melodic, and multisyllabic. It’s very illuminating at times about the human condition, and that vehicle gives us, a bunch of hip hop guys, an opportunity to get more adult with our art. The Retar Crew is not considered family friendly, which is what The Q Brothers are, but this enables us to go hardcore and put out that kind of music.

IB: Who’s your favorite rapper(s)?

PP:  I have several favorite rappers including OutKast, Big Boi, André 3000, Dre, and without question The Notorious B.I.G. He’s still the king. As rappers, we all compare ourselves to Rakim, Slick Rick, and for sure Kool G Rap, and The Guru, may he rest in peace. He taught me a lot about how to put a message in the music. Another artist that I love and we are all still trying to catch up to him was J Dilla.

IB: What is your ideal project?

PP: The ideal project for me would be something in television. A television show that utilizes hip hop, the culture of hip hop in some way, but speaks to and tells positive stories of the community I’m from. Similar to what we do with Othello The Remix, also telling stories in a complex and deep way. I’m a black man in America, something that speaks to black people in America.

IB: Who is your mentor?

PP: I have a couple of people that I’ve had the opportunity to work with that I’ve learned an immense amount from and it still inspires my work. George C. Wolfe, the great American theater maker and director and William Pope.L, a great performance and theater artist. I’ve also had the opportunity to work with and dance for Bill T. Jones.

IB: What’s the best advice you’ve received and by whom?

PP: I can’t remember who gave me this advice, but sometimes you have to lead, and you have to keep going in the direction that you’re going if it feels right and let other people catch up to you. I feel like that has been relevant in my artistic career more than ever. Keep moving forward and don’t look back. For the people who were questioning whether or not it was the right decision, I think they’ll learn soon enough. They’ll catch up to you.

IB: What’s next for you?

PP: I’m releasing another solo record. With the Retar Crew, we’ve toured extensively, and we have, I believe five albums available for free online. During that time, I was also putting out a lot of solo material, mixtapes and albums. I plan on releasing it early next year. It’s called Hot Sauce From Hell. I’m proud of the work so far.

Take a look and listen to previously recorded works by Postell Pringle:

“Rep U,” from the album, The Good Thief

“Last Chance,” from Pringle’s mixtape, What You Love Is Why You Leave

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Gwendolyn Quinn

      Gwendolyn Quinn is an award-winning media consultant with a career spanning over 25 years. She is the founder of the African American Public Relations Collective (AAPRC) and the publisher of Global Communicator. Her weekly columns, “Inside Broadway,” “The Living Legends Series,” and “My Person of the Week” are published with EURWEB.com. She is also a contributor to the Huffington Post and other media outlets. Quinn is also a contributor to Souls Revealed and Handle Your Entertainment Business.  She is the curator of The Living Legends Foundation’s “The State of Black Music and Beyond” essay series. Contact her at [email protected].

 

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