Theatre and Race

Theatre and Race centers on the interrelationship of the words on either side of the ampersand. It offers an accessible overview of how race is performed and how western theatrical practice has wrestled with the topic, question, and “problem” of racial difference over centuries.

This study introduces critical and theoretical concepts to account for how the simple act of being attentive to the seeming “otherness” of another person within the expressive arts, as well as in everyday life, invites an engagement with the social history and lived experience of race.

In addition, it spotlights the long history of race and racial concerns within the theatre: the xenophobic fascination of ancient Greeks and Romans, the anxiety caused by cultural and religious difference during the Elizabethan period, the intense and widespread appeal of blackface minstrelsy alongside the performances of other “faces” in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the controversies related to colorblind casting practices toward the end of the last century, and recent campaigns for and against antiracist and post-race theatre.

This updated and revised edition includes new material by Harvey Young addressing Theatre and Race in 2024 and beyond.