Why Shakespeare and
Why "Shakespeare and the Black Experience"

Why the 1998 topic for Clemson Shakespeare Festival VII, "Shakespeare and the Black Experience?" Have we fabricated an interest here? Many of Shakespeare's plays express an interest in disturbing topics of his own age that resonate in our time like anti-semitism and anti-feminism. He lived in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries right at the time when the new world was being colonized and slaves from Africa were exported to Europe and the Americas for the first time to develop new resources for the European economy. He watched as the highly favorable opinion of Africans in antiquity was eroded by the construction of the ideas and ideologies of race and racism which were us ed to justify the exploitation and enslavement of human beings.

Shakespeare wrote five plays where black characters play minor or, more often, principal roles, whereas he wrote only one play dealing with anti-Semitism, The Merchant of Venice. He gives us the villain-hero Aaron the Moor in Titus Andronicus, the Prince of Morocco in The Merchant of Venice, Othello in the play with the subtitle, The Moor of Venice, Cleopatra, the African Queen, in Antony and Cleopatra, and Caliban the slave whose mother, the witch Sycorax, is from Algiers in The Tempest. Shakespeare's presentation of black people was complicated and never monolithic. In the group of characters listed above, some are villains, but others are princes and queens. Another, like Othello, is at once a celebrated general who becomes a murderer. Shakespeare's view of Africans has an historical sweep to it as well: Aaron and Cleopatra are ancient Africans, Morocco and Othello are Shakesp eare's contemporaries, and Caliban provides us with a view of the horrific future awaiting African Europeans and Americans with the rise of the institution of slavery at just about the moment when the first African was being sold into slavery in America.

Over twenty thousand patrons took part in one or more of the events of Clemson Shakespeare Festival VII when its timely topic of "Shakespeare and the Black Experience" was explored during Black History Month (February 18-March 8, 1998).

CLEMSON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL VII
The seventh annual Clemson Shakespeare Festival was held February 18 through March 8, 1998, and featured performances of six plays in full production by The Booking Group, The Acting Company, the Shenandoah Shakespeare Express and the Clemson Little Theatre: West Side Story, Romeo and Juliet, Richard III, Measure for Measure, The Taming of the Shrew, and Macbeth. An added attraction was Shakespeare: Da Good Stuff, a play composed of scenes from Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, and Macbeth performed by the ARMES (Arts Reaching Middle and Elementary Schools) Production Troupe of Greenville County. Sponsored in collaboration with our sister Festival of African American Literature and the Arts, our theme in 1998, "Shakespeare and the Black Experience," was explored during Black History Month with a film series which included two versions of Othello and with a lecture series and panel discussion which featured four internationally distinguished Shakespeare scholars. In addition to the live performances, the lecture and discussion series and the series of plays in film adaptations, Clemson Shakespeare Festival VII included public workshops with teams of actors, scholars, and directors, "inf ormances" and question and answer sessions with the visiting scholars before each of the Shakespeare performances, visual exhibits and computer demonstrations on "Shakespeare in Multimedia Formats" and "The Globe Theatre in Virtual Reality."

South Carolina Shakespeare Collaborative
The Clemson Shakespeare Festival was one highlight of the third year of activities for teachers and students participating in the South Carolina Shakespeare Collaborative (SCSC) established in 1995 by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. In addition to the festival, the SCSC sponsors workshops, conferences, institutes, seminars and Shakespeare telecourses for teachers across the state.

The Dramatic Companies
The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation sponsored The Booking Group performance of West Side Story, the modern adaptation of Shakespeare's timeless Romeo and Juliet. This brilliant collaboration by four theatrica l legends--director/choreographer Jerome Robbins, librettist Arthur Laurents, composer Leonard Bernstein, and lyricist Stephen Sondheim--was brought to life by a cast of the most energetic young singer-dancers ever assembled. [PHOTO AVAILABLE] Founded in 1972 by producing director Margo Harley and the late John Houseman,The Acting Company has played before almost two million people and has helped establish the careers of hundreds of America's finest actors, including Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, Frances Conroy, Harriet Harris, Jeffrey Wright, and David Ogden Stiers. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet took on new relevance and power in a production featuring this gifted thirteen-member ensemble.

The Shenandoah Shakespeare Express (SSE) brought its dynamic entertainment and educational package to Clemson for the seventh year in a row. The "Tenth Anniversary Over the Hump Tour" featured Richard III, Measure for Measure, and The Tamin g of the Shrew. Through performances and workshops, the SSE demonstrated again its fresh approach to the Bard that emphasizes the power of Shakespeare's language over high-tech theatrical effects. The SSE has received critical acclaim for integrating the most vital principles of Renaissance staging-universal lighting, thrust staging, extensive doubling, minimal sets-into uncommonly understandable productions that The Washington Post hailed as "shamelessly entertaining" and The Boston Globe described as "pure Shakespeare, richly alive."

The Clemson Little Theatre (CLT) joined the Clemson Shakespeare Festival lineup with its production of Macbeth on its home stage at the Pendleton Playhouse in Pendleton, SC. The oldest Little Theatre organization in South Carolina, the CLT invited Clemson Shakespeare Festival patrons into its Playhouse for the final production of the 1998 festival, the "Scottish play," directed by Bruce Rollin. The Greenville County School District ARMES Production Troupe brought us Shakespeare as seen through the eyes of streetwise kids with Shakespeare: Da Good Stuff, a production which opened in a comic vein with excerpts from The Taming of the Shrew, shifted to classic romantic tragedy with scenes from Romeo and Juliet, and delved into murder and intrigue with excerpts from Macbeth. Directed by Kathryn Ballou, the performers were students from throughout Greenville County who had graduated from the ARMES (Arts Reaching Middle and Elementary Schools) Drama Program. This production was open to the public free of charge.