Weyward Macbeth

The accomplished contributors add significant understanding to the staging and teaching of Macbeth and reflect on the rich history of African Americans struggling to find a voice on the American stage.

Weyward Macbeth , a volume of entirely new essays, provides innovative, interdisciplinary approaches to the various ways Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' has been adapted and appropriated within the context of American racial constructions. Comprehensive in its scope, this collection addresses the enduringly fraught history of 'Macbeth' in the United States, from its appearance as the first Shakespearean play documented in the American colonies to a proposed Hollywood film version with a black diasporic cast. Over two dozen contributions explore 'Macbeth's' haunting presence in American drama, poetry, film, music, history, politics, acting, and directing all through the intersections of race and performance.

This collection explore raced and non-traditional Macbeth on its own terms and through an extraordinary diversity of perspectives. (Rebecca Dark, Early Modern Studies Journal, Vol. 5, October 26, 2018)

Weyward Macbeth offers a fascinating account of the use and misuse of Shakespeare's tragedy by a culture trying to confront its own guilt and ghosts. (Maria Browning, chapter16.org, October 27, 2017) Weyward Macbeth is an exceptionally rich and suggestive collection of essays, the kind of book that you know you'll return to time and again to mull over the nuggets that its wide and wise contributors have unearthed. (Willy Maley, Journal of the Northern Renaissance, February 26, 2013) The book presents work that is interdisciplinary and will appeal to a variety of scholars. Weyward Macbeth is a far-reaching anthology, well worth a read for scholars of Shakespeare, cinema, literature, and music. As a theatre text, it is particularly useful. Weyward Macbeth emphasizes how strongly theatre reflects and informs America's political history; the book enhances both American theatre and Shakespeareanscholarship. (Victoria P. Lantz, Theatre Survey, Vol. 53 (2), September, 2012)

The book is certainly a worthwhile contribution: even essays that read as isolated reflections disengaged from the dialogue promoted by the book prove to be highly interesting; when connections are made, they are often unexpected and illuminating. the collection also amply demonstrates that we can learn much about both history and the play when we attend to the many wayward ways in which race and the play have intersected in history. (Yu Jin Ko, Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 63 (2), 2012)

This is a substantial collection, consisting of twenty-six articles and an Appendix. Together, they are essential to anyone seeking to understand the importance of Macbeth to the history of race relations in America, especially blackwhite relations. This collection provides ample evidence of this truth, and underscores how important it is for us to recognize Shakespeare's ambivalent legacy at work in America's race relations today. (Jennifer Clement, Parergon, Vol. 29 (2), 2012)

The collection as a whole offers a conglomeration of various topics that open up a new approach to Macbeth. The diversity of perspectives here is rich and provocative and will no doubt encourage further studies of Macbeth and race. Of equal interest to Shakespeareans, Americanists, cultural historians, teachers, and theater professionals, the collection as a whole is notable for its thorough and strikingly original readings of a largely overlooked topic. (Sonya Freeman Loftis, Borrowers and Lenders, Vol. 7 (2), October, 2012)

Rarely is a collection of essays so focused and yet so broad, so comprehensive, and yet so intellectually open-ended. Any one of the essays on its own would be a respectable contribution to the study of race and Shakespeare, but it is in their collective resonance with and across each other, their symphonic ambition, that the volume's significance lays. (Shane Vogel, African American Review, Vol. 44 (1-2), 2011)

Weyward Macbeth is a collection of essays providing a fascinating, interdisciplinary record . The collection as a whole makes for rich and varied reading. The book is thus particularly relevant to Shakespeare studies, performance and pedagogy in southern Africa. It provides us with a fascinating archive to work with and against. It contains much of interest for literary and performance scholars, for actors and directors, for English teachers, for students and for readers interested inthe signs of race. (Denise Newfield, Shakespeare in Southern Africa, Vol. 23, 2011)

Weyward Macbeth admirably covers the long and complex history of the play within American racial discourse by using an interdisciplinary approach to elucidate much that has been neglected or unconnected. Weyward Macbeth goes beyond filling that void by establishing the standard for further research into any aspect of Macbeth's intimate relationship with racial discourse in America. (M. Tyler Sasser, South Atlantic Review, Vol. 76 (3), 2011)

The collection brings forth new and sometimes forgotten stories about how directors, rhetoricians, and performers use Macbeth both to interrogate and confirm racial disparity in the United States. the range of media and time periods covered is quite commendable, as is the inclusion of both scholars' and practitioners' perspectives. Because the essays are shorter, this collection could supplement course material or provide an excellent primer for scholars interested in how race has informed American appropriations of Macbeth. (Allison Kellar Lenhardt, The Upstart Crow, Vol. 30, 2011)

The book will be useful to a variety of readers, including scholars of Shakespeare and of American performance and theatre history. Essays pertaining to the contemporary practice of multilingual or intercultural Shakespearean performance will also be of interest to practitioners. Weyward Macbeth provides ample resources for future scholarship. Weyward Macbeth productively charts intersections between the play's own representations of race and the racial discourses that have informed its performance history, and alerts us to the 'weyward' within the play's contemporary productions. (Nicole Boyar, Theatre Journal, Vol. 63 (4), December, 2011)

This extraordinary collection of essays is essential for every student and teacher of Shakespeare. It is exceptional reading with astonishing new information for anyone wishing to keep remarkably abreast of what is happening in American culture. (Glenda E. Gill, This Rough Magic, thisroughmagic.org, Vol. 1 (1), January, 2010)

"Timely . . . as with the best works of historical scholarship, Newstok and Thompson's collection merges detailed historiography with immediate relevancy, making this a valuable book indeed." - Dan Venning, Theatre History Studies

"There is something for everyone in this worthy volume." - Kevin Wetmore, Jr., CHOICE

"Remarkable." - Jonathan Gil Harris, Studies in English Literature

"Weyward Macbeth is an excellent companion piece for theatre educators looking to enrich classroom instruction or to further students' understanding of fully realized productions. Newstok and Thompson's diverse collection of provocative and enlightening articles serves as a valued addition to Shakespearean scholarship and as a complement to the study of Macbeth." - John Robert Moss, Theatre Topics

"A welcome addition to the scholarship on theatrical history and practice . . . most of the contributors do show the considerable charge that thinking differently, or highlighting and remembering race, can bring to the play . . . most of the authors at some point refer parenthetically to one or more of their fellow contributors, offering a sense of cogency, a wider arc of discussion, than many such collections manage." - EricMallin, College Literature

"In this remarkable and ground breaking book, the editors have put toget…