ABSTRACT
In October 2002 I was invited to join a group of Shakespearean scholars and actors in a workshop organized by Lynette Hunter and Peter Lichtenfels held at the Globe Theatre, London. The workshop, “Fifth Wall,” was conceived to foster conversations between theatre practitioners and literary scholars on a variety of issues often viewed as dividing the two groups, especially in the area of Shakespearean playtexts. The session I was involved in, “Gesture and Language,” was lively, filled with contradictions, and, in the end, it fostered greater understanding of the complexities of Shakespeare’s dramatic language and its performance. As someone intrigued by the performance of racial identities in general and in productions (theatrical and film) based upon Shakespeare’s playtexts, I found great appeal in the idea of adding gesture to my theoretical exploration of race and Shakespeare. As is the case with nearly all intellectual conversations, there is a turning point when an elusive connection between ideas suddenly materializes, becoming solid, focused, and intelligible. This point occurred in the session when Alan Cox 1 spoke about improvisation as part of the rehearsal process, “what [he] called ‘making rituals’ that went on ‘all the time’” (Arden, Hendricks, and Hunter, 63). It was not so much the notion of rituals but the making of them and the importance of gesture to that making that animated the conversation; it was the realization that, in the process of creating theatrical or performance cultures, writers, actors, directors, designers, and stage crews all participate in the making of rituals that become not only associated with Shakespearean playtexts but also become a necessary component of their performance. 2 The relationship between ritual and gesture, as Cox’s observations throughout the workshop indicated, is a synergistic one, and this synergy is very much a manifestation of the actor’s body.
