{"id":64694,"date":"2013-04-09T16:31:15","date_gmt":"2013-04-09T20:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=64694"},"modified":"2023-01-25T16:00:40","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T21:00:40","slug":"bin-pringle98","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2013\/04\/09\/bin-pringle98\/","title":{"rendered":"Pringle ’98, star of hip-hop ‘Othello,’ tells Time Out Chicago how Bates theater helped his rap artistry"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Postell<\/a>

Postell Pringle ’98 (left, as Othello) and GQ (Iago) face off as Iago\u2019s plot unfolds in Chicago Shakespeare Theater\u2019s production of “Othello: The Remix.” Photograph by Michael Brosilow.<\/p><\/div>\n

Rapper, writer, actor and director Postell Pringle ’98 is winning rave reviews for his star turn this spring in the title role of Othello: The Remix<\/em> at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.<\/p>\n

In March, Time Out Chicago<\/em> named Pringle its Performer of the Week. In a Time Out<\/em> Q-and-A , he discussed how working in theater at Bates sharpened his delivery as a rapper:<\/p>\n

“My approach to the actual attack of the line and getting punchlines and the arc of the storytelling within the song was all different. I realized that it had to do with the fact that I had just been working on acting, working on playing characters. … I wouldn\u2019t be as good of a rapper if I hadn\u2019t spent all that time working on just acting and just theater.”<\/p>\n

Othello: The Remix<\/em> was adapted from Shakespeare’s tragedy by the Q Brothers — aka GQ and JQ, who with Pringle and a fourth member are also members of the rap group the Retar Crew. The entire Crew performs in The Remix<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Q’s modus operandi, previously exercised on such works as The Bomb-itty of Errors<\/em>, is to render Shakespeare’s entire text as rhyming couplets suitable for rap delivery. The Remix<\/em> re-imagines the title character as “a hip-hop mogul whose life falls apart when he makes Iago the opener\u2019s opener on a new tour,” writes Time Out<\/em> blogger Oliver Sava.<\/p>\n

“To cut to the chase: Othello: The Remix<\/em> \u2014 the 90-minute, lightning-fast, hip-hop version of Shakespeare\u2019s tragic tale of jealousy and self-doubt — is absolutely brilliant, and immense fun,” wrote Chicago Sun-Times<\/em> theater critic Hedy Weiss.<\/p>\n

With Bates classmate Erin Gottwald, a dancer and choreographer, Pringle returns to campus this spring to lead the longstanding Short Term unit Tour Teach Perform<\/a>, in which students create a dance piece and teach it to pupils in local schools.<\/p>\n