Folger Shakespeare Library: To commemorate Black History Month in February, we’re sharing some of our Shakespeare Unlimited podcast interviews and blog post Q&As with acclaimed Black theater artists—actors, directors, playwrights—and scholars about performing Shakespeare, then and now, and adapting and transforming Shakespeare plays for our time.
1 comment:
Reading about the impact of Black theater artists on Shakespeare was both eye-opening and inspiring. It’s easy to think of Shakespeare as something distant and traditional, but seeing how Black actors, directors, and playwrights have adapted and reimagined his work really highlights how timeless and flexible his stories are. ames Ijames’ Fat Ham, for example, completely flips Hamlet into a modern, Southern, Black experience—and it won a Pulitzer! That just proves how Shakespeare’s themes still resonate today but can be told in fresh, culturally relevant ways. I also loved hearing about actors like John Douglas Thompson and Adrian Lester, who’ve brought deep personal perspectives to their Shakespeare roles. Playing a character like Othello carries a lot of historical and racial weight, and their insights show how much thought and nuance goes into these performances. The same goes for Keith Hamilton Cobb’s American Moor, which takes a critical look at who gets to tell Othello’s story and how that affects its meaning. On the historical side, I was fascinated by Earle Hyman’s legacy. I had no idea he was the first African American actor to play all four major Shakespearean roles! And the fact that Duke Ellington wrote Such Sweet Thunder, a jazz suite inspired by Shakespeare, just shows how deeply his work has influenced Black artists in so many different ways.
Post a Comment