Ayanna Thompson is Professor of English at George Washington University. She is the co-author with Laura Turchi of Teaching Shakespeare with Purpose: A Student-Centred Approach (2016), and the author of Passing Strange: Shakespeare, Race, and Contemporary America (2011) and Performing Race and Torture on the Early Modern Stage (2008). She wrote the new introduction for the revised Arden3 Othello, and is the editor of Weyward Macbeth: Intersections of Race and Performance (2010) and Colorblind Shakespeare: New Perspectives on Race and Performance (2006). Professor Thompson is the President Elect of the Shakespeare Association of America.

Whether readers look at one chapter or take in all, they will discover a carefully wrought text that is engaging, thought-provoking, and generative. This book is useful not merely for Shakespeare critics or literary scholars; it will also inspire theatre-makers seeking new ways to address contemporary issues through Shakespeare.

• 1. Introduction2. Sellars in Context 3. Approach, Process, Technique 4. The Color of Classics: Casting5. Innovation and Accessibility6. Conclusion 7. Chronology of Peter Sellars’s Shakespeare productions 8. Works Cited9. Index