W.E.B. Du Bois would be proud of an ongoing effort to “translate” all 38 plays by William Shakespeare into an English intelligible to contemporary patrons of the stage.
“I sit with Shakespeare,” Du Bois wrote, “and he winces not.”
This is not your grandfather’s “Macbeth,” but it is “Macbeth” as adapted in a modern verse translation by Migdalia Cruz and powerfully produced by the African-American Shakespeare Company.
July 13–28, 2019 | African-American Shakespeare Company | Production | San Francisco, CA, USA
Director and dramaturg Lue Morgan Douthit didn’t grow up loving the Bard. Her grandparents took her to Shakespeare summer festivals from the time she was 7, but “it wasn’t anything that stuck with me,” she says.
A few years ago, Nuyorican playwright Migdalia Cruz was chosen for a commission that initially excited her but also frightened her. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival asked her to translate a Shakespeare play for contemporary audiences.