Last week, I had the pleasure of attending visiting Phi Beta Kappa scholar Ayanna Thompson’s lecture “Shakespeare, Race, and Performance Studies: What We Still Don’t Know”. She began her time by referencing Paul Mooney’s concept of race as the “shitting elephant in the room”, in other words, a distinct presence so brazenly left unaddressed. Mooney said “I don’t know how anyone, black or white in America, can stand up in front of an audience with a microphone and never mention it”, and Thompson furthered this ideology by suggesting that it is not simply the performers who should understand the implications of race in their work but the directors and creators working in the production process and for the theatre.
For race need not define the production of the work, but it will always impact the manner in which Shakespeare is employed. There is nothing new about nontraditional casting, with a long and rich history of African Americans (such as the inimitable Ira Aldridge) performing Shakespeare for political, personal, and social reasons. As Thompson suggested, if you try to do a piece in the way it was originally done, it becomes a museum relic. Thus, the whole point of developing casting choices (beyond the importance of greater access for people of color) is to make artistic work representative of the world outside of the theatre.
This should be done with the context of African American history/performance of Shakespeare in mind. For though African Americans have been engaging with Shakespeare for decades upon decades, they did so in spite of segregation practices, in their own theaters and performance spaces they were forced to find and create. Understanding the history of segregated artistic space lends itself to the future diversification of productions, both in casting practices and the overarching message of the performance. For instance, the message of Peter Sellars’ 2009 production of Othello was of the enduring nature of racism even as people of color reach higher places of power. In the case of this production and many others, it took on its own identity, its own cause that was unique from other productions of the same play before it.
No research has been conducted on audience reception of nontraditional casting, so the analyzation of audience survey rhetoric will prove quite valuable for the future of race studies. To quote W.J.T. Mitchell, “Race is not merely a content to be mediated, an object to be represented visually or verbally, or a thing to be depicted in a likeness or image, race is itself a medium and an iconic form-not simply something to be seen, but itself a framework for seeing through or seeing as”. How can American theaters begin or continue to develop their willingness to address race? Perhaps most importantly, how can they learn to incorporate this into the work they produce?
This is a really interesting post!!!! It is incredibly important for the cast of every theater production to discuss the politics and social context of the time the show was written, as well as the time the show is performed. It is obvious that race is greatly discussed in shows like Hamilton, which was created for and by people of color to finally get a voice/place in a narrative they were very much a part of but are often left out of. I would argue, however, that it is even more important to discuss race in the creation of productions where race, 'doesn't seem relevant.' There are huge implications that go along with casting and representation, and those ought to be discussed, so that we can better work toward equity and justice in the arts and beyond. When I was in a production of Cabaret, my director made it a point to discuss religion, gender, sexuality and race with the cast from the get-go and throughout the show, to set up an honest and open environment, ultimately strengthening the performance. We have a great responsibility as artists and performers to not only present a wide range of representation, but also to discuss, understand and learn from one another.
ReplyDeleteI had the privilege of having Dr.Thompson have a discussion with us in my Slavery and Capitalism class the next and we were able to go into depth a little more by looking at this idea of "blind" casting, which we can see throughout the play is not really blind. The main mistake that many of these production companies make in having this type of raceless casting is that they forget that the audience will always take note of the race of the actors. Instead of trying to hid this fact production companies should face this problem in the play head on instead of trying to beat around the bush with it. Adding an extra few lines in the play that addresses these issues would do the whole play a world of good and take away the awkward aspect of having a person of color playing a role that was historically meant for white people.
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