The African American Shakespeare Company

From a Midsummer Night's Dream to Reality

Since the summer of 1993, actress Sherri Young had envisioned productions of classical plays infused with the life experiences of people of color. She wanted to create a theater company that would challenge long-existing casting prejudices, expand the realm of dramatic storytelling, and provide new opportunities for African-American theater professionals.

As Young saw it, earning acceptance within presentations of European classical theater is important to actors--regardless of color--who take their craft seriously. For one thing, the Bard rules. According to the journalists who compiled the book 1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ranking the Men and Women Who Shaped the Millennium, Shakespeare is the fifth-most-important person in this millennium. The Guinness Book of World Records lists him as the most filmed author ever, with more than 300 direct and 40 loosely based film adaptations of his plays. His impact on the world's art and culture is as far-reaching and as indelible as India ink spilled on cotton.

Within all of Shakespeare's works are parts of substance for which most actors would kill. Furthermore, throughout the world, classical theater is considered the barometer by which an actor's artistry and craftsmanship are measured. Regardless of the credits that an actor has accumulated--whether onscreen or onstage--industry executives inevitably ask, Have you done Shakespeare?

After auditioning and being passed over for Shakespearean roles many times over, Young decided that she was no longer willing to sit still or, worse, to beg for crumbs from the large theater companies. In the fall of 1993, she gathered a few close friends around a table to discuss an idea that had been haunting her like Banquo's ghost.

One of the friends Young summoned was Bonnee Stingily, a fellow trouper. When Young and Stingily were approaching the end of their studies at the American Conservatory Theater, in San Francisco, they started to consider the roles they might never be allowed to play, the challenges they might never be allowed to conquer.

"As graduate students, we were receiving training in classical material," Stingily says. "Sherri and I both really enjoyed it. And we started to ask each other, When will we ever get to do this material again?"

The prospects looked bleak. The two actresses had gained much from studying and performing classical material and believed that they had much to offer, but Stingily felt that a joke often repeated in the African- American theater community seemed to describe their fates: "The only way we will get to do Shakespeare is as one of the three witches in Macbeth." The quip grows out of a tragic truth: Directors and casting agents routinely turn away actors and actresses of color when they are selecting players for Shakespeare's major roles.

Like old King Lear, Young and Stingily were railing against closed doors. Seven months after the closing of George C. Wolfe's The Colored Museum, a production in which both had starring roles, casting directors would not hire them. The idle time allowed them to begin daydreaming about how they could right this wrong. They mused that they needed their own company--a company imbued with color.

"It was just two actresses talking about impossibilities," Stingily recalls, "talking about a dream." But sitting at that table with her friends in the fall of 1993, Young declared that the doors of the African- American Shakespeare Company were now open. The time had arrived to make their dream a reality.

Young had always expected someone else to initiate such a company: It was a good idea, and the need was apparent. Yet Young's company would turn out to be the only African-American theater company dedicated to the European classics. Young felt no fear: "I didn't know enough about starting a theater company to be afraid. Anything had to be better than loving acting and not doing it month after month."

Young pulled out her checkbook and bought whatever she could afford for the fledgling company. Then she put pen to paper and started drafting proposals and funding requests. In 1996, the company staged its first play, Sophocles' Oedipus the King. From then on, there was no looking back.

The African American Shakespeare Company is now 5 years old, a significant milestone for a theater company. To date, the company has staged nine productions. One more--Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet--is scheduled for this summer. The group's first full season, 1998 to 1999, came about as a result of its board of directors' commitment to raising funds and amassing support.

The perennial questions remain: Why the European classics? Why not just start a company with fresh ideas and new scripts that emanate from the African-American experience?

Stingily responds from the perspective of an actress and student of the arts: "Shakespeare and other European classics were a huge part of our training. Believe me, I was resistant to studying European classical theater. 'How is this relevant?' I asked. But when I started to do the research and work through the texts on stage, I understood why those plays are called classics."

Young adds: "The stories are relevant and applicable to our everyday lives. They have stood the test of time."

Besides, there is room for all kinds of companies under theater's big tent, and for African Americans, barriers are meant to be broken. The universality of good plays allows both actors and audiences to transcend the particulars of portrayal. Consider one of Young's favorite Shakespearean plays, The Tragedy of King Lear. Its story centers on the tempestuous relationship between a father and his three daughters. The work's dominant themes are betrayal and loyalty, evil and grace. Who cannot relate to such ideas? And who can resist the urge to reinterpret them?

"King Lear is one of my favorites," says Young. "I remember when I first saw it, and I watched the reaction of the daughters when the king fell down: They didn't move. I couldn't help but think that we would have responded differently. I wanted to put some heart, some soul into those stories." As for those who say that you cannot tamper with an author's text, the truth is that once you read a work, it becomes yours--something for your imagination to play with as it is inspired.

The African American Shakespeare Company should be applauded when it casts a Latino Romeo and an Afro-Cuban Juliet, because by undoing the external expectancies, it reveals what is at the play's heart: emotions unfettered by racial or cultural designs. The African- American Shakespeare Company's collaboration with the Latin American Theater Artists will bring Romeo and Juliet to the San Francisco Bay area during the summer of 1999. That joint venture will bring together diverse communities--on the stage, behind the scenes and in the audience. Theatergoers will eventually meet and talk in the lobby.

This ethnically diverse theater production will give the African- American Shakespeare Company's members a chance to extend the margins of the text. However, their intent is never to render a play unrecognizable.

For instance, the company's production of The Importance of Being Earnest, which was presented in May 1999, remained true to Oscar Wilde's original text, varying only the setting and related elements. London was replaced by Harlem. References to the uptown hoi polloi included Madame C.J. Walker. The music was Duke Ellington's. The play, as the company creatively rendered it, examined the African-American community during the Harlem Renaissance and the social motivations of the black bourgeoisie and those aspiring to be of that class. In a comedy of manners, the characters purged themselves of uncomfortable airs.

"I enjoyed discovering Wilde's play with my actors and the rest of the company," says Danny Duncan, the play's director and a two-time winner of the Bay Area Critics Circle Award. "Incorporating the African- American aesthetic into the play was fun."

The members of the African American Shakespeare Company are not only dedicated artists but also devoted teachers. At the rate they are going, there will not be a single student in the Bay area who has not been exposed to the art and technical dimensions of the theater.

For as long as Young can remember, there was little to no support for arts outreach to young people in the Bay area. Once again, Young opened her own checkbook, and she supplemented her contribution with a bit of the African American Shakespeare Company's modest revenues. Now each summer, students of the Oakland Unified School District look forward to the K12 Shakespeare Summer Youth Troupe, as well as to blue skies and ice cream.

The students love this summer program. Their imaginations are engaged. They see what is possible--that lives can be transformed by something that someone created. The students are also shown that their hard work and creativity can be rewarded with various vocations in the theater. The response from teachers and parents has been enthusiastic.

All year around, the African American Shakespeare Company's after-school program introduces youngsters aged 9 to 13 to the wonders of drama. Touring both elementary and middle schools, the company performs excerpts from classical plays and follows them up with a question-and-answer session.

The actors are prepared for the students' inevitable question: What is the relevance of all this? Their response is simple: If you cannot appreciate Shakespeare or other classic dramatic works for their artistry, approach them practically. "When I go into the elementary schools, I touch the little children," Stingily says. "I see the awe in their eyes--they've seen magic. You should see the pictures a class of kindergartners drew after watching one of our performances. They got it!

"People are surprised that children so young get it, but they do. We should give them more credit. No matter how archaic the speech, the children interpret it on another level, because the actor communicates with an audience on multiple levels."

Many students appreciate the company's take on Julius Caesar. The setting is the United States in the 1960s. The Nation of Islam and the Black Panthers are jockeying for leadership of the African-American community. The play progresses; shots sound from the prop gun. Brutus has orchestrated the death of Julius Caesar, and the community is enraged, hysterical. Members of Caesar's faction run around, without direction and with clenched fists raised above their heads, shouting, "We will be satisfied!"

The students can relate to this. And when you have their attention, you can ask: How does Shakespeare's play end? Did that conclusion reflect the events of the 1960s? Perhaps they will be curious enough to investigate further by conducting basic oral history by simply going home and asking the question: Daddy, who were the Black Panthers?

In addition to its local production schedule and its educational outreach, the African- American Shakespeare Company is making long-range plans to tour the United States, Europe, Asia, and, of course, Africa. The touring company, upon returning to the United States, wants to abandon its current practice of theater hopping, settling instead into its own home. That way, the community will always know where to find it.

The company has also put out multiple casting calls for African-American directors. According to Young, after a few more productions, the company "will have used every African-American director in the Bay area. We'd love to work with others." The company has also issued a standing invitation to renowned African-American actors and actresses to use its stage as a platform for their talents.

Still, fund-raising--always the greatest challenge--remains the company's short-range focus. Young recalls that other local theater companies were eager to help from the beginning: "They donated space, costumes, sets, and other materials. Most people liked the idea of what we were trying to do right away, and they liked the idea of taking us under their wings. We were a new idea that they could nurture."

The company remains underfunded, in spite of its remarkable work and its potential for the future. Young is undaunted, however, and she is determined to keep the lights on. Recently, both Wells Fargo and AT&T awarded grants to the theater company to continue its work.

Such support is an indication that the African American Shakespeare Company's original, classic programming will be around for years to come. If that proves to be the case, the Bard himself could not have written a script with a happier ending.

D.T. Lee is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C. She frequently writes about the arts and culture. Her last article for American Visions, "Food by Design," appeared in the February/March 1999 issue.

COPYRIGHT 1999 American Visions Media, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group