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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 December 2019
This essay explores the world of a new production of The Taming of the Shrew, still in the earliest stages of development, that will employ non-traditional casting and re-envision Katharina (“as brown in hue / as hazelnuts”), “fair” Bianca, and their father Baptista as members of a mixed-race family. The production is conceptualized, cast, and rehearsed under the guidance of José Esquea, producer/director of the Soñadores Productions Shakespeare series (formerly of Teatro LATEA), a classical theater group that features Latinx, African American and Asian American actors, and mixed-ability casting (the combination of professional and amateur actors from the community).
1 Esquea, José, “A Post-apocalyptic Macbeth: Teatro LATEA's Macbeth 2029,” in Thompson, Ayanna and Newstok, Scott, eds., Weyward Macbeth: Intersections of Race and Performance (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 133–35, 133CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
2 José Esquea, personal interview by Patricia Akhimie, 6 Feb. 2017.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
5 Multi-facial (dir. Vin Diesel), One Race Productions, 1995.
6 Esquea, personal interview.
7 Esquea, “A Post-apocalyptic Macbeth,” 133.
8 Esquea, personal interview.
9 Esquea, “A Post-apocalyptic Macbeth,” 135, original emphasis.
10 Ibid., 134.
11 Esquea, personal interview.
12 Ibid.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid.
15 Shakespeare, William, The Taming of the Shrew, ed. Hodgdon, Barbara (London: Arden Shakespeare, 2010), 2.1.255–57Google Scholar.
16 Esquea, personal interview.
17 Ibid.
18 Ibid.
19 Barbara Hodgdon, “Casting,” in Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, 399.
20 Esquea, personal interview.
21 Ibid.
22 Esquea, “A Post-apocalyptic Macbeth,” 133, original emphasis.
