Weyward Macbeth Intersections of Race and Performance

Weyward Macbeth, a volume of entirely new essays, provides innovative, interdisciplinary approaches to the various ways Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'  has been adapted and appropriated within the context of American racial  constructions. Comprehensive in its scope, this collection addresses the  enduringly fraught history of 'Macbeth' in the United States, from its  appearance as the first Shakespearean play documented in the American  colonies to a proposed Hollywood film version with a black diasporic  cast. Over two dozen contributions explore 'Macbeth's' haunting presence  in American drama, poetry, film, music, history, politics, acting, and  directing — all through the intersections of race and performance. 

The accomplished contributors add significant understanding to the staging and teaching of Macbeth and reflect on the rich history of African Americans struggling to find a voice on the American stage.

PART I: BEGINNINGS What is a 'Weyward' Macbeth?;Ayanna Thompson Weird Brothers: What Thomas Middleton's The Witch Can Tell Us about Race, Sex, and Gender in Macbeth; Celia R. Daileader PART II: EARLY AMERICAN INTERSECTIONS 'Blood will have blood': Violence, Slavery, and Macbeth in the Antebellum American Imagination; Heather S. Nathans The Exorcism of Macbeth: Frederick Douglass's Appropriation of Shakespeare; John C. Briggs Ira Aldridge as Macbeth; Bernth Lindfors Minstrel Show Macbeth; Joyce Green MacDonald Reading Macbeth in Texts by and about African Americans, 1903 1944: Race and the Problematics of Allusive Identification; Nick Moschovakis PART III: FEDERAL THEATRE PROJECT(S) Before Welles: A 1935 Boston Production; Lisa N. Simmons Black Cast Conjures White Genius: Unraveling the Mystique of Orson Welles's 'Voodoo' Macbeth; Marguerite Rippy After Welles: Re-do Voodoo Macbeths; Scott L. Newstok The Vo-Du Macbeth!: Travels and Travails of a Choreo-Drama Inspired by the FTP Production; Lenwood Sloan PART IV: FURTHER STAGES A Black Actor's Guide to the Scottish Play, Or, Why Macbeth Matters; Harry J. Lennix Asian American Theatre Re-imagined: Shogun Macbeth in New York; Alexander C. Y. Huang The Tlingit Play: Macbeth and Native Americanism; Anita Maynard-Losh A Post-Apocalyptic Macbeth: Teatro LA TEA's Macbeth 2029; José A. Esquea Multi-cultural, Multi-lingual Macbeth; William C. Carroll PART V: MUSIC Reflections on Verdi, Macbeth, and Non-Traditional Casting in Opera; Wallace McClain Cheatham Ellington's Dark Lady; Douglas Lanier Hip-Hop Macbeths, 'Digitized Blackness,' and the Millennial Minstrel: Illegal Culture Sharing in the Virtual Classroom; Todd Landon Barnes PART VI: SCREEN Riddling Whiteness, Riddling Certainty: Roman Polanski's Macbeth; Francesca Royster Semper Die: Marines Incarnadine in Nina Menkes's The Bloody Child: An Interior of Violence; Courtney Lehmann Shades of Shakespeare: Colorblind Casting and Interracial Couples in Macbeth in Manhattan, Grey's Anatomy, and Prison Macbeth; Amy Scott-Douglass PART VII: SHAKESPEAREAN (A)VERSIONS Three Weyward Sisters: African-American Female Poets Conjure with Macbeth; Charita Gainey-O'Toole and Elizabeth Alexander 'Black up again': Combating Macbeth in Contemporary African-American Plays; Philip C. Kolin Black Characters in Search of an Author: Black Plays on Black Performers of Shakespeare; Peter Erickson Epilogue: ObaMacbeth: National Transition as National Traumission; Richard Burt Appendix: Selected Productions of Macbeth Featuring Non-Traditional Casting; Brent Butgereit and Scott L. Newstok

Scott Newstok is the author of How to Think like Shakespeare and Quoting Death in Early Modern England; editor of Paradise Lost: A Primer; and co-editor of Weyward Macbeth, a collection of essays exploring the intersection of race and performance.

 

Ayanna Thompson is director of the Arizona Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies (ACMRS) at Arizona State University. She is the author of Shakespeare in the Theatre: Peter Sellars (2018), Teaching Shakespeare with Purpose: A Student-Centred Approach (2016), Passing Strange: Shakespeare, Race, and Contemporary America (2011), and Performing Race and Torture on the Early Modern Stage (2008). She wrote the new introduction for the revised Arden Othello (2016), and is the editor of Colorblind Shakespeare: New Perspectives on Race and Performance (2006).

AYANNA THOMPSON Arizona State University, USA HEATHER NATHANS University of Maryland, USA BERNTH LINDFORS University of Texas Austin, USA JOHN BRIGGS University of California, Riverside, USA JOYCE GREEN MACDONALD University of Kentucky, USA LISA SIMMONS Independent Filmmaker MARGUERITE RIPPY Marymount University, USA SCOTT NEWSTOK Rhodes College, USA LENWOOD SLOAN Director of Cultural and Heritage Tourism Program Pennsylvania, USA WALLACE CHEATHAM Composer and Musicologist DOUGLAS LANIER University of New Hampshire, USA TODD LANDON BARNES University of California, Irvine, USA PETER ERICKSON Williams College, USA PHILIP KOLIN University of Southern Mississippi, USA CELIA DAILEADER Florida State University, USA AMY SCOTT-DOUGLASS Denison University, USA FRANCESCA ROYSTER DePaul University, USA COURTNEY LEHMANN University of the Pacific, USA HARRY J. LENNIX Actor RICHARD BURT University of Florida, USA NICK MOSCHOVAKIS Reed College, USA ALEXANDER C. Y. HUANG Penn State University, USA ANITA MAYNARD-LOSH Director JOSÉ A. ESQUEA Director WILLIAM C. CARROLL Boston University CHARITA GAINEY-O'TOOLE doctoral student, Harvard, USA ELIZABETH ALEXANDER Yale, USA BRENT BUTGEREIT Rhodes College, USA