To Notice or Not To Notice

Shakespeare, Black Actors, and Performance Reviews

Authors

Ayanna Thompson Arizona State University

Abstract

Cluster: Directions

This essay examines the 2006-2007 Royal Shakespeare Company's performances of The Winter's Tale and Pericles. Part of the RSC's Complete Works Festival, these shows employed an extremely diverse cast in repertory performances of the two plays. Through interviews with several of the actors employed and analyses of the published theater reviews, I highlight the challenges theater reviewers face when writing about non-traditionally cast productions. In the end, I advocate for a more progressive and responsible theater-reviewing style that takes into account the complexities of race in performance.

Author Biography

Ayanna Thompson, Arizona State University

Ayanna Thompson is Associate Professor of English and an affiliate faculty member in Women and Gender Studies and Film and Media Studies at Arizona State University. She is the author of Performing Race and Torture on the Early Modern Stage (Routledge 2008) and the editor of Colorblind Shakespeare: New Perspectives on Race and Performance (Routledge 2006) and Weyward Macbeth: Intersections of Race and Performance (forthcoming from Palgrave). Her new book project on Shakespeare and race is forthcoming from Oxford.