Unabridged: Shakespeare in The Stacks with Ayanna Thompson

We're back with another installment of The Stacks Pack exclusive show, The Stacks: Unabridged. Today we are finally talking all things Shakespeare with scholar, author, and dramaturg, Ayanna Thompson. Ayanna's work focuses on Shakespeare, race, and performance, and she is the author of many books including Blackface and Passing Strange: Shakespeare, Race, and Contemporary America. She shares with us why some plays are her favorite to teach but not to see, which adaptations are particularly good, and the Shakespeare plays she thinks we should be teaching. We also talk about Traci's favorites after her 37 month read through of all of Shakespeare's plays.

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Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes. You can also find what we talked about on Amazon.

• Blackface by Ayanna Thompson

• Passing Strange by Ayanna Thompson

• William Shakespeare

• Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

• Sean Bean

• Game of Thrones (HBO)

• Romeo and Juliet (Royal Shakespeare Company, 1986)

• Hugh Quarshie

• Columbia University (New York, NY)

• Edward Said

• Toni Morrison

• August Wilson

• Rita Dove

• Maya Angelou

• Othello by William Shakespeare

• The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare

• The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare

• New York University (New York, NY)

• Louis Scheeder

• King John by William Shakespeare

• Cymbeline by William Shakespeare

• Cats (Trevor Nunn, 1981)

• Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare

• Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare

• The Tempest by William Shakespeare

• Ira Aldridge

• Paul Robeson

• Macbeth (Sam Gold, 2022)

• Daniel Craig

• Ruth Negga

• Asia Kate Dillion

• The Tragedy of Macbeth (Joel Coen, 2021)

• Denzel Washington

• Frances McDormand

• The Music Man (Jerry Zaks, 2022)

• Hugh Jackman

• T. S . Elliot

• The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare

• Shakespeare in the Park

• Saheem Ali

• Jocelyn Bioh

• Richard II by William Shakespeare

• Free Shakespeare on the Radio: Richard II (WNYC and The Public Theatre)

• Andre Holland

• Richard II (Classic Stage Company)

• Classic Stage Company

• Joe Mantello

• "Let's face it: Shakespeare had help" (Mark Lawson, The Guardian)

• "Was Shakespeare a woman?" (Elizabeth Winkler, The Atlantic)

• Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare

• Henry VI Part 3 by William Shakespeare

• Henry V by William Shakespeare

• Henry IV Part 1 by William Shakespeare

• Henry VIII by William Shakespeare

• Richard III by William Shakespeare

• Desdemona by Toni Morrison

• New Boy by Tracy Chevalier

• "Ep. 10 New Boy by Tracy Chevalier -- The Stacks Book Club (Vella Lovell)" (The Stacks)

• Arden Shakespeare

• Pelican Shakespeare

• Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare

• Othello by William Shakespeare (Ayanna Thompson's Arden Edition)

• Folger Shakespeare

• Free Folger Shakespeare

• Play on Shakespeare

• Lue Douthit

• Migdalia Cruz

• Mfoniso Udofia

• Caridad Svich

• Love's Labour's Lost by William Shakespeare

• The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare

• Pericles by William Shakespeare

• Romeo + Juliet (Baz Luhrmann, 1996)

• Leonardo DiCaprio

• Harold Perrineau

• Claire Danes

• 10 Things I Hate About You (Gil Junger, 1999)

• Scotland, PA (Billy Morrissette, 2001)

• Maura Tierney

• West Side Story (Jerome Robbins and Rober Wise, 1961)

• West Side Story (Steven Spielberg, 2021)

• Steven Spielberg

• Stephen Sondheim

• @poetryisnotaluxury Sondheim Tribute

• (O) Othello (Tim Blake Nelson, 2001)

• Julia Stiles

• She's the Man (Andy Fickman, 2006)

• Amanda Bynes

• Twelfth Night by William Shakespare

• All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare

• Tim Carroll

• King Lear by William Shakespeare

• Coriolanus by William Shakespeare

• Tom Hiddleston

• Donmar Warehouse (London, England)

• Julius Caesar

• "How Outrage Built Over a Shakespearean Depiction of Trump" (Michael Paulson and Sopan Deb, The New York Times)

• Shakespeare in a Divided America by James Shapiro

• The Trees by Percival Everett

• Danzy Senna

• Caucassia by Danzy Senna

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