Overview

The first in-depth look at Peter Sellars, the avant-garde director whose Shakespeare productions have polarized communities and critics. Through extensive interviews and archival work, leading Shakespearean Ayanna Thompson takes readers on a journey through experimental theatre and the tensions that arise between innovation and accessibility. An iconoclastic figure who inspires strong reactions both personally and professionally, Peter Sellars continues to amaze and confound. This book takes readers inside his world for the first time.

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9781350140066

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Reviews

Hers is a gladdening book, owing to the informed admiration that Thompson clearly feels for her subject. As she explains in an engrossing chapter on his color-conscious approach to theatrical production, she came to know Sellars when he invited her to give a talk...She delves into Sellars's methods with gusto, paying particular attention to his productions of The Merchant of Venice (1994), Othello (2009), Desdemona (2011), and A Midsummer Night's Dream (2014). The result is less a chronicle of a career than an occasion to dwell in the off-kilter position[s] that Sellars takes as points of collective reflection, interaction and transformation. * Studies in English Literature 1500 - 1900 *

Whether readers look at one chapter or take in all, they will discover a carefully wrought text that is engaging, thought-provoking, and generative. This book is useful not merely for Shakespeare critics or literary scholars; it will also inspire theatre-makers seeking new ways to address contemporary issues through Shakespeare. * Theatre Journal * Hers is a gladdening book, owing to the informed admiration that Thompson clearly feels for her subject. As she explains in an engrossing chapter on his color-conscious approach to theatrical production, she came to know Sellars when he invited her to give a talk…She delves into Sellars’s methods with gusto, paying particular attention to his productions of The Merchant of Venice (1994), Othello (2009), Desdemona (2011), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2014). The result is less a chronicle of a career than an occasion to dwell in the “off-kilter position[s]” that Sellars takes as points of collective “reflection, interaction and transformation. * Studies in English Literature 1500 - 1900 *

Author Information

Ayanna Thompson is Professor of English at George Washington University. She is the co-author with Laura Turchi of Teaching Shakespeare with Purpose: A Student-Centred Approach (2016), and the author of 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 Arden3 Othello, and is the editor of Weyward Macbeth: Intersections of Race and Performance (2010) and Colorblind Shakespeare: New Perspectives on Race and Performance (2006). Professor Thompson is the President Elect of the Shakespeare Association of America.

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