Well-known Philadelphia actor Steve Wright is playing the title character in Curio’s Othello. (Photo by Kyle Cassidy)

Yes, the Curio Theatre Company is staging William Shakespeare’s Othello. But this is billed as an “intimate and in-your-face” version of the tale of one of the most famous Moors of them all.

“This version of Othello will be raw,” according to correspondences from Curio leading up to Friday, Feb. 20’s opening night. Dan Hodge, the co-founding director of The Philadelphia Artists’ Collective, will direct. Well-known Philadelphia actor Steve Wright will play the title character.

“Doing Othello in a smaller space is a gift, because it allows us to strip away the sense of grandeur that can distance us from the play and we can engage with the characters as people,” Hodge said. “This is Shakespeare’s most domestic tragedy, and it is a true pleasure to invest in the subtle human elements that make it resonate with us today.”

And those humans are pretty delicious, including the enchanting Desdemona (Isa St. Clair) and the dastardly Iago (Brian McCann). Othello is about power and love and suspicion – the grist of any good drama. The cast also includes Steve Carpenter, Rachel Gluck, Colleen Hughes, Paul Kuhn, Eric Scotolati and Bob Weick.

The show runs Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from Feb. 20 through March 14 on Curio’s Corner Stage. There are previews on Feb. 12, 13, 14 and 19. Ticket information is available here.

– Mike Lyons

Community members are invited to the monthly meeting of the Spruce Hill Community Association (SHCA) on Tuesday, Feb. 10 to meet Henry C. Lea Principal Jennifer Duffy, who will talk about the happenings at Lea.

Duffy is in her first year as principal of Lea and one of about 50 first-time principals hired across the School District of Philadelphia this year. Duffy has placed a priority on raising academic standards and strengthen the school’s relationship with the University of Pennsylvania, where she is a doctoral student in Educational Leadership.

The SHCA meeting gets underway at 7:30 p.m. at the association’s headquarters (257 S. 45th St.)

In other Spruce Hill news, the zoning committee meeting to consider the well-publicized plans to build a residential/retail complex at 43rd and Baltimore (across the street from Clark Park) will be held Feb. 19 beginning at 7:30 p.m. at The University of the Science’s Rosenberger Hall (the small building on the west side of 43rd Street, just north of Woodland Avenue). This is the meeting originally scheduled for Jan. 26 that was cancelled due to weather.

The meeting actually begins at 6:30 p.m. when committee will consider a liquor license request from Fresh Grocer at 40th and Market and a residential project at 4100-02 Ludlow St. This is also open to the public. The 4224 Baltimore Ave. project discussion will begin promptly at 7:30 p.m. The development team for the site is preparing materials for presentation to the City Planning Commission’s Design Review Committee and will share those plans to date.

Here’s a chance to better understand an African immigrant’s experience in West Philly. Asali Solomon will talk about her coming-of-age (in West Philadelphia) novel Disgruntled at the book launch event this Tuesday (Feb. 3) at the Penn Book Center (130 S. 34th St.).

Called a “masterful writer” in a recent review of Disgruntled by the Los Angeles Times (great review), Solomon invites readers into the journey of protagonist Kenya Curtis as she navigates childhood in West Philadelphia. We meet Kenya as a fourth grader at Henry C. Lea School where she tries to fit in but is confronted with her and her family’s Afrocentric identity and we follow her through adolescence and onto a private school in the suburbs as she continues to try to figure out her place in the larger scheme of things.

Disgruntled is partly autobiographical. Solomon, an English professor at Haverford College, was born and raised in West Philadelphia. She is also the author of the short story collection Get Down.

The event starts at 6:30 p.m. with a reception, followed by Solomon’s talk starting at 7:00 p.m.

University City High School site purchased by Drexel (Click to enlarge).

Demolition of the former University City High School building is scheduled to begin in late February, but it is still unclear what Drexel University, which purchased the site from the school district last year, and their partner, Wexford, plan to do with the site.

Drexel had originally indicated that it hoped to build, among other things, a new public school on the site, which would help ease the sting felt by local residents from losing the high school and Charles Drew Elementary, which sat on the same 14-acre site. Demolition of Drew started earlier this month, and the Walnut Center has already been demolished.

“We are continuing our efforts to engage the community on the vision and plans to transform this site,” said Drexel spokesperson Niki Gianakaris.

She said the university plans to create a “mixed-use environment where the community and private sector will come together in a work, live and play environment.”

Charles Drew Elementary demolition underway (Photo by Marina Krikorian).

Demolition is expected to be complete later this year, she said, adding that plans for the site had not been finalized.

As part of its bid to buy the property from the School District of Philadelphia last February, Drexel presented a plan during a public meeting that included an enlarged Powel Elementary School and a middle school on the site.

The plan also included residential housing and retail space.

The plan met with some skepticism among residents of the Mantua neighborhood, where many University City High School students lived. Several Powelton Village neighborhood residents who attended that meeting last February voiced approval of the possible expansion of Powel Elementary.

– Mike Lyons

Police are asking for the community’s help to find two people who went missing in West Philly this week.

Ashjakia Washington (from the Philly Police Blog). Click to enlarge.

Ashjakia Washington, 25, of the 5500 block of Chancellor Street was last seen at 5 p.m. on Jan. 22 on the 5300 block of Rising Sun Avenue.

According to police, Ashjakia is 4 feet 11 inches tall and weighs 80 pounds, with a very thin build, brown eyes, a medium brown complexion and short auburn/brown braids. She was last seen wearing light blue jeans with pink strings on sides, a black head scarf, and puffy turquoise hooded jacket.

Otero Guillermo (from the Philly Police Blog). Click to enlarge.

Otero Guillermo, 69, is missing from his residence on the 4800 block of Pine Street. Otero is 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 203 pounds, with brown eyes, and gray hair. He was last seen wearing a red coat with black shoulders, blue pants, and brown sandals. He is also missing a part of his finger on his right hand.

Police say Otero suffers from chronic mental illness, paranoid Schizophrenia, and diabetes.

– Mike Lyons

Nafis O’Neil (photo from Twitter).

Funeral services for Nafis O’Neal, the 14-year-old who died after being stabbed by a schoolmate on Jan. 16, are scheduled for Saturday. Nafis has been remembered this week by family, friends and neighbors as a respectful young man who was eager to help other people.

A freshman at West Philadelphia High School, Nafis was raised by his grandmother on the 3800 block of Haverford Avenue. Friends and family gathered on Monday evening for a vigil on the block near 46th and Market where he died when a 16-year-old student stabbed him once in the chest in what appears to be the continuation of a fight that started earlier in the day at the West Philly High cafeteria.

Police say they found a knife and bloody clothing at the suspect’s home on the 3800 block of Haverford Avenue. The 16-year-old was arrested within hours of the stabbing and was charged with homicide and related charges earlier this week. We are not releasing his name because of his age. It is unclear whether he will be tried as an adult.

Morgan Zalot of the Philadelphia Daily News wrote a nice tribute to Nafis here, including words from his aunt.

Nafis was riding his bike when he was killed. He spent a lot of time at Neighborhood Bike Works, the West Philly-based non-profit that helps kids develop leadership skills and responsibility through repairing and riding bikes. The organization tweeted photos of Nafis yesterday:

Nafis will be missed by all of us here at NBW who were fortunate enough to have worked with him.

— NeighbrhoodBikeWorks (@NeighBikeWorks) January 21, 2015

Nafis was a leader among his peers & impressed us with his repertoire of self-taught mechanics, positive humor, and drive to help others.

— NeighbrhoodBikeWorks (@NeighBikeWorks) January 21, 2015

The viewing for Nafis will be held at St. Jude Baptist Church at 632 N. 38th Street on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Arrangements are being made through Mitchum-Wilson Funeral Home.

– Mike Lyons