During one break in rehearsals, he chatted about makeup with the director, John Cox. Light-skinned singers still customarily darken their skin when playing the Moor.
"It's a really sensitive subject," said Storey. "How dark should you go? There was a lot of debate in Shakespeare's time when someone in the play refers to Othello as 'black,' which was a derogatory term." The makeup design for this production won't be finalized until a few days before opening night, but Storey said it will probably be closer to "Mediterranean swarthy" than sub-Saharan African.
OC's suggestion: go Beyoncé's black -- not Solange because she's way too [irony] dark skinned [/irony].
[edit: sarcasm doesn't translate on txt]