King Lear with Joseph Marcell will visit St Lucia in August with the actor (known world-wide as Jeffrey in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air) returning to the island of his birth. The BBA Shakespeare panel exhibition, To Tell My Story, will accompany the Globe production.

On July 17 Adrian Lester was awarded an honorary D.Litt at Warwick Arts Centre. BBAS academic lead, Tony Howard, delivered the oration.

In 2010, Adrian Lester and Lolita Chakrabarti worked on Romeo and Juliet with two very different Coventry schools....

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/research/currentprojects/multiculturalshakespeare/resources/lester/

Joseph Marcell is playing King Lear in the 2013 Shakespeare's Globe touring production, directed by Bill Buckhurst and with Rawiri Paratene as Gloster.

King Lear was seen at the Globe from May 13-18 before touring the UK, Europe, Turkey and the West Indies.

Joseph Marcell's distinguished film, tv and stage career includes the RSC's epic cycle The Romans (1972), Puck and Aaron at Stratford, Othello at the Lyric Hammersmith, Brutus at Leicester Haymarket, many roles at the Globe including Cominius (Coriolanus) and Leonato (Much Ado), and Angelo in the USA, directed by Patrick Stewart. In 1987 he directed and played the lead in Othello at the Arts Theatre. Other roles include Peer Gynt (National Theatre) and Ira Aldridge in Black Star (Bolton Octagon). Films include Cry Freedom; t.v. includes Freedom Road and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

Joseph was born in St. Lucia.

Since 1985 he has been a member of the Shakespeare's Globe Artistic Directorate and Council.

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I needed to find Black heroes. I needed to find people who had made [Othello] a role for a Black man rather than for a White man blacked up. I had the great good fortune to share a dressing room with Dame Peggy Ashcroft. She told me: 'You need to find out about Robeson.'..."

In November 2009 Joseph Marcell took part in the Robeson Project at Warwick Arts Centre, discussing Paul Robeson, Othello, and his own work in Shakespeare:

Download Joseph Marcell at warwick in converstaion with Lola Young: 'Speak of Me As I Am': Inside Othello:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/capital/teaching_and_learning/projects/robeson/waiting/?podcastItem=speakofmeasiam.mp4