Episode 56: 17th century Blackface Makeup with Andrea Stevens

For William Shakespeare’s London, multiple races were commonplace on the streets near The Globe theater where plays like Othello and Merchant of Venice boldy portrayed blackness and multiple ethnicities in performance, but what was the 16th century perspective on race when they saw various ethnicities on stage? Othello was first portrayed by Richard Burbage, who was a white man, so did Shakespeare use blackface makeup? Was that costume technique offensive to his audience the way it would be in a modern theater?

Here to help us explore the role of race on stage, and the cultural understanding of ethnicities for people like William Shakespeare is our guest, Andrea Stevens.

Andrea Stevens is Associate Professor of English, Theatre, and Medieval Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign specializing in the drama of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. She is the author of Invention of the Skin, which explores costumes, makeup, and representations of race on stage in Shakespeare’s lifetime, and  the role of blackface makeup in performance on stage for 16th century theater.