Shakespeare in the Theatre: Peter Sellars

The first in-depth look at Peter Sellars, the avant-garde director whose Shakespeare productions have polarized communities and critics. Through extensive interviews and archival work, leading Shakespearean Ayanna Thompson takes readers on a journey through experimental theatre and the tensions that arise between innovation and accessibility. An iconoclastic figure who inspires strong reactions both personally and professionally, Peter Sellars continues to amaze and confound. This book takes readers inside his world for the first time.

Author Biography

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.