Theater practitioner
A lover of live theater, Ayanna Thompson works on Shakespearean productions and new works in equal measures. Because her scholarly research focuses on how race operates in performance and as a performance, she is widely sought after by theatre companies, directors, and actors to discuss how race (can, should, and does) makes meaning onstage. Her book Colorblind Shakespeare (Routledge, 2006), analyzed the complex relationship between modern Shakespearean productions and inclusive racial casting, and it has become a canonical book for scholars and practitioners of Shakespeare alike.
Thompson became a Shakespeare Scholar in Residence at The Public Theater in 2020, and in 2021, she was appointed to the board of trustees of the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon. She has served on the Council of Scholars at Theatre for a New Audience in Brooklyn, NY, since 2017, the board of Play On Shakespeare since 2020, and the board for Woolly Mammoth Theater in Washington, DC from 2017-2018.
Productions
Dramaturg & Text Consultant, MACBETH, dir. Sam Gold, starring Daniel Craig & Ruth Negga — Lyceum Theater, New York (Broadway), 2022
Dramaturg, RICHARD III, dir. Robert O’Hara — Public Theater, New York (Off Broadway), 2022
Dramaturg, SUFFS, dir. Leigh Silverman, written by Shaina Taub — Public Theater, New York (Off Broadway), 2022
Dramaturg, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, dir. Arin Arbus — Theatre for a New Audience, New York (Off Broadway), 2022
Shakespeare Scholar, MERRY WIVES, dir. Saheem Ali — The Delacorte Theater, New York (Off Broadway), 2021
Shakespeare Scholar, ROMEO Y JULIETA, dir. Saheem Ali — WNYC & The Public, Free Shakespeare on the Radio, 2021
Shakespeare Scholar, RICHARD II, dir. Saheem Ali — WNYC & The Public, Free Shakespeare on the Radio, 2020
Public work
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Public Square - Richard II - A Podcast of the Public Theater
Multi-hyphenate artist Alec Stephens III sits down with Richard II director Saheem Ali and scholar Ayanna Thompson to interrogate the relevance of Shakespeare work amidst a pandemic and the surge of the Black Lives Matter movement, and why shifting from a stage production to a radio play may be the future for audience accessibility.
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A Thousand Dreadful Things: Shakespeare and the Fear of Black Vengeance - The Public Theater
A look at Aaron the Moor from Titus Andronicus, the presentation of Blackness, and the question of vengeance on Shakespeare's stage. Featuring conversation and readings from the plays by Ron Cephas Jones (This is Us), who played Aaron at The Public Theater, William Jackson Harper (The Good Place), and Public Theater Shakespeare Scholar in Residence Ayanna Thompson.
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Exploring 'Othello' in 2020 with Red Bull Theater
Over the course of four Wednesday afternoons in October 2020, Red Bull Theater brought together a group of BIPOC (black, Indigenous and people of color) theater artists to read and discuss Shakespeare’s Othello with celebrated Shakespeare scholar, Ayanna Thompson. This series of salon discussions provided an opportunity for the entire Red Bull Theater community to explore Othello with BIPOC voices in our current historic moment.