Problematic Messages in Shakespeare

CALEEN SINNETTE JENNINGS: Shakespeare has been used as a force of oppression, as a divider—class, race, whatever. And we can't ignore the fact that Shakespeare's plays are often problematic in terms of the messages about class and race, and certainly color. I mean, to be a black American woman saying Juliet's lines, "Thou knowest the mask of night," and crows, and references to blackness being evil and ugly and bad. Any person of color is going to have to wrestle with what that means and how they feel about that. And his work is so deliciously slippery you can interpret it to mean just that, that black is ugly, or you can deconstruct and open up that meaning and comment on it and so forth and so on. So I think I get excited with the choices that are available.

I'm always saying to young African Americans, think of this as currency, think of Shakespeare as currency. When you audition, when somebody says to you, do you have a classical piece, if you want to be in this business, you've got to be able to say, yes, I have several. Why would you knock yourself out of the box purely because you're intimidated by it or it makes you angry or whatever. Take it, own it. It doesn't mean that you have to make friends with it, but it is currency. It's a way to get your foot in the door, and like it or not, people will think of you differently.