Colorblind Shakespeare »

The systematic practice of non-traditional or "colorblind" casting began with Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival in the 1950s. Although colorblind casting has been practiced for half a century now, it still inspires vehement controversy and debate.
This collection of fourteen original essays explores both the production history of colorblind casting in cultural terms and the theoretical implications of this practice for reading Shakespeare in a contemporary context.

Foreword--Ania Loomba
1. Practicing a Theory/Theorizing a Practice: An Introduction to Shakespearean Colorblind Casting--Ayanna Thompson
Section One: The Semiotics of (Not) Viewing Race
2. Ocular Revisions: Re-Casting Othello in Text and Performance--Angela Pao
3. Colorblind Casting in Single-Sex Shakespeare--Sujata Iyengar
4. Faux Show: Falling into History in Kenneth Branagh's Love's Labour's Lost--Courtney Lehmann
5. When Race Matters: Reading Race in Richard III and Macbeth--Lisa Anderson
6. Ira Aldridge, Shakespeare, and Color-Conscious Performances in Nineteenth-Century Europe--Krystyna Kujawinska Courtney
Section Two: Practicing Colorblindness: The Players Speak
7. My Own Private Shakespeare; Or, Am I Deluding Myself?--Antonio Ocampo-Guzman
8. In the Blood: William Shakespeare, August Wilson, and a Black Director--Ayanna Thompson interviews Timothy Douglas
Section Three: Future Possibilities/Future Directions9. Civic ShakesPR: Middlebrow Multiculturalism, White Television, and the Color Bind--
Richard Burt
10. Gestures of Performance: Re-thinking Race in Contemporary Shakespeare--Margo Hendricks
11. The Cleopatra Complex: White Actresses on the Inter-Racial "Classic" Stage--Celia Daileader
12. The Chicago Shakespeare Theatre's Rose Rage: Whiteness, Terror, and the Fleshwork of Theatre in a Post-Colorblind Age--Francesca Royster
Afterword: The Blind Side in Colorblind Casting--Peter Erickson
Notes on Contributors
Index