1st Edition
Shakespeare, Race and Performance The Diverse Bard
What does it mean to study Shakespeare within a multicultural society? And who has the power to transform Shakespeare?
The Diverse Bard explores how Shakespeare has been adapted by artists born on the margins of the Empire, and how actors of Asian and African-Caribbean origin are being cast by white mainstream directors. It examines how notions of 'race' define the contemporary British experience, including the demands of traditional theatre, and it looks at both the playtexts themselves and contemporary productions.
Editor Delia Jarrett-Macauley assembles a stunning collection of classic texts and new scholarship by leading critics and practitioners, to provide the first comprehensive critical and practical analysis of this field.
Introduction Delia Jarrett-Macauley
Part One: Shaping the Debate
1. The Bard Abroad in Africa Eldred Duromi Jones
2. Classical Binglish.
Binglish-A Jungli Approach to Multiculturalism Jatinder Verma
3. Diversity -- Challenge and Gain Naseem Khan
4. Ayanna Thompson in conversation with Dawn Monique Williams
Part Two: The Diverse Bard on Stage
5. ‘Why then the world’s mine oyster/Which I with sword will open’
Africa, diaspora, Shakespeare: Cross-cultural encounters on the global stage Michael Pearce
6. Will we ever have a Black Desdemona? Inclusive Casting at the RSC Lynette Goddard
7. Much Ado about Knotting: Arranged Marriages in British-Asian Shakespeare Productions Varsha Panjwani
8. David Thacker and Bill Alexander: mainstream directors and the development of multicultural Shakespeare Jami Rogers
9. Conversations with Black Actors Michael Macmillan
Part Three: The Creative Professionals
10. 1960s Birmingham to 2012 Stratford-upon-Avon Iqbal Khan
11. Dancing Since Strapped to their Mothers’ Backs: Movement Directing on the RSC’s African Julius Caesar Diane Alison-Mitchell
12. Tropical Shakespeare Pat Cumper
Part Four: Changing Spaces, Changing Minds
13. ‘Souks, Saris and Shakespeare’ Sita Thomas
14. Brave New Bard: Shakespeare and Intersectional Feminism in the British Classroom Terri Power
Index
Biography
Delia Jarrett-Macauley is the author of The Life of Una Marson 190-65, and of the Orwell Prize-winning novel Moses, Citizen and Me.
