Re-defining the Shakespearean Actor: Casting and Diversity at Shakespeare’s Globe under Emma Rice and Michelle Terry

Abstract

This paper evaluates casting practices at Shakespeare’s Globe under the artistic directorships of Emma Rice (2016-17) and Michelle Terry (2018-) in the context of diversity. It explores the casting and subsequent optics of two productions: Rice’s Twelfth Night in 2017, and Terry’s Hamlet the following year. I argue that traditional ideas of the “Shakespearean actor” have shifted in an age where companies move towards greater inclusivity, allowing for more diverse casting of people of colour, people with disabilities, and cross-gender casting. Through the processes of embodiment, these casting choices add paratextual readings onto productions, which can provide improved agency for traditionally-marginalised communities, but can also replicate problematic readings. In essence, this article argues that diverse casting practices alone are not enough to provide opportunity and agency for underrepresented identities in theatrical productions. If such diverse casting practices are happening – which they should – then care must be taken not to perpetuate out-dated and harmful stereotypes of Black, disabled, and/or queer people. Inclusive casting fails in its aims if it reduces already marginalised people to the margins yet further, therefore representation onstage is not enough: the stories that these bodies tell must be empowering before the bodies themselves can be empowered.