Seeds of Time Festival.  In collaboration with Play On Shakespeare, this groundbreaking three-week festival presents six teams of artists exploring and reenvisioning world classics with interactive public events, inviting audiences to witness the evolution of classic narratives and engage in conversations about their relevance today. Special attention will be given to teaching the insights and skills of dramaturgy.

OTHELLO.EXE
A speculative remix of Shakespeare’s Othello by Julius Rea  

When a major theatre company replaces a Black actor with a humanoid robot to avoid “burdening” anyone with the trauma of portraying Othello, the robot’s programmer is tasked with rewriting its understanding of Black identity. But as she dives deeper into the code—and the play—they both spiral into a surreal interrogation of race, technology, performance, and power. Othello.exe is a sharp, speculative remix of Shakespeare’s tragedy, where artificial intelligence meets real-world bias, and long-standing questions about representation, audience, and authenticity come to the surface. This project marks the playwright’s first Shakespeare adaptation, emerging from an urgent curiosity about how the stage continues to grapple with what was once called DEI—through the double lens of Race and AI.  

About the Artist:  

Julius Rea (he/they) is a Bay Area-based playwright, journalist, producer, grant writer and conflict resolution facilitator. With a degree in Philosophy from SFSU, Rea co-founded journalism theatre company The Forum Collective in 2018 and cooperatively-owned arts magazine Substrate Arts in 2022. He is also a previous Theatre Bay Area Arts Leadership Residency artist, which allowed him to work with Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. Dedicated to holistic healing and equity, they create new projects on underrepresented narratives based on deeply-rooted research, interviews, and dramaturgy. Rea received a 2023-24 Creative Corps Initiative grantee to further develop The Day the Sky Turned Orange.