The Politics of Paul Robeson's Othello (Margaret Walker Alexander Series in African American Studies)

242 Pages·2010·2.01 MB·English

by  Lindsey R. Swindall

The Politics of Paul Robeson’s Othello
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The Politics of Paul Robeson’s
Othello
d d d
Lindsey R. Swindall
University Press of Mississippi / Jackson
Margaret Walker Alexander Series
in African American Studies
www.upress.state.ms.us
The University Press of Mississippi is a member of
the Association of American University Presses.
Copyright © 2011 by University Press of Mississippi
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
First printing 2011
∞
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Swindall, Lindsey R., 1977–
The politics of Paul Robeson’s Othello / Lindsey R.
Swindall.
p. cm. — (Margaret Walker Alexander Series in
African American Studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-1-60473-824-7 (cloth : alk. paper) —
isbn 978-1-60473-825-4 (ebook) 1. Robeson, Paul,
1898–1976—Political and social views. 2. African Amer-
icans—Biography. 3. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616.
Othello. 4. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616—Stage
history. 5. Othello (Fictitious character) 6. Acting—
Political aspects. 7. African American actors. 8. The-
ater—Political aspects. I. Title.
E185.97.R63S95 2010
782’.0092—dc22
[B] 2010022783
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 3
chapter one
An Introduction to Shakespeare’s Othello
11
chapter two
Robeson’s Professional Debut as Othello
26
chapter three
A Burgeoning Political Consciousness: Robeson in the 1930s
50
chapter four
Robeson’s Othello on Broadway
69
chapter five
“I Give of My Talents to the People”: Robeson’s Politics in the 1940s
108
chapter six
Robeson, Othello, and the Politics of the Cold War
135
vi contents
chapter seven
Robeson at Stratford
167
Conclusion 190
Notes 195
Sources 219
Index 229
acknowledgments
First, I must offer thanks to those supporters who have witnessed this
project take shape since its inception: John H. Bracey, Jr., Ernest Allen, Jr.,
James Smethurst, and Harley Erdman. I hope I have made them proud.
Thanks also to Robert Paul Wolff, former director of the Graduate Program
in Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst,
who is always available to answer questions large or small. I am grateful to
Arthur Kinney, Carl Nightingale, and Aldon Neilson, who offered input on
my work at various stages. I would like to acknowledge the Gilder Lehrman
Institute of American History for their research grant which enabled me
to delve into several collections in New York City as I began this project.
Thanks also to Randall Burkett and the helpful staff in the Special Collec-
tions at Emory University’s Woodruff Library who awarded me a grant to
pursue research in their valuable collections. I appreciated the assistance
I received from Joellen Elbashir at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Cen-
ter at Howard University. Many thanks need to go to the librarians at the
Shakespeare Centre in Stratford-upon-Avon who were very prompt in
sending materials from the U.K. I’m also appreciative to staff at the Interli-
brary Loan office in the W. E. B. Du Bois Library at the University of Mas-
sachusetts, Amherst, and the Hamilton Library at Franklin College for
ordering materials so efficiently.
I would like to thank my friends and colleagues at Franklin College in
Franklin, Indiana, for their encouragement and support as I revised the
book manuscript, especially Carolyn Owens, Ralph Guentzel, Simone
Pilon, Johanna Moya-Fabregas, Richard Gawthrop, and Kristin Flora. I owe
a sincere debt of gratitude to the colleague who read the manuscript for
the University Press of Mississippi and offered many insightful critiques.
The book is definitely stronger because of her input. Walter Biggins, my
editor at University Press, has been extremely helpful through the process
vii
viii acknowledgments
of publishing my first book. I would also like to thank Seetha Srinivasan,
director emerita of the University Press of Mississippi, with whom I first
discussed publishing this project. A special note of thanks is due to two
teachers who prodded my writing in its very formative stages: Sandra
Pell and Terry Blankenship. Many thanks to friends and family who have
provided listening ears, helpful feedback, shoulders upon which to sigh,
couches upon which to sleep, as well as much-needed happy hour breaks:
Marshall and Lisa Swindall, Lizabeth Foster, H. Edward Foster, Seth Fos-
ter, Jennifer Jensen Wallach, Jessica Overstreet, James Buckwalter, David
Austin, Katja Meinke, Margaret Burggren, Sarah C. Baron, Alicia and Robb
Contreras, and David Ritter. Bright moments to W. S. Tkweme who quite
presciently handed me a biography of Paul Robeson some years ago and
suggested that I might find this man’s life to be of interest.
On a final personal note, I feel, if but in a small way, connected to Paul
Robeson’s legacy as Othello. As an undergraduate exchange student study-
ing in Warwick, England, for the 1999–2000 school year, I went to just
about every Shakespeare production I could afford in Stratford and Lon-
don. One weekend, a friend and I saw Ray Fearon’s portrayal of the Moor
of Venice with the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Barbican Theatre.
Despite our seats being about as far from the action of the play as pos-
sible and the resonating snore of my companion, I was enraptured. Hav-
ing studied the play in high school and college, I went into the production
with a pretty solid idea of what to expect. Yet, the pathos of this revival left
me dazed. I vividly recall leaning on the back of the empty seat in front of
me trying unsuccessfully to conceal the stream of tears that could not be
contained during the cathartic final act of the play. The weight of the trag-
edy had, for the first time, rendered me emotionally devastated. Afterward,
with a tear-smudged face, I staggered to the tube station and felt privileged
to have taken part in, what was for me, such a profound artistic encounter.
At that moment, I was clueless that I would spend several years of my life
pondering this play, but the seed was sown inside of me as to the magic that
can occur on the Shakespearean stage. When I was researching this project,
I discovered that Ray Fearon was only the second actor of African descent
to play Othello for the Royal Shakespeare Company since Paul Robeson had
forty years earlier. Learning this was an epiphany for me since I had been so
moved by Fearon’s performance. As Paul Robeson was the inheritor of Ira
Aldridge’s foundational legacy, Fearon was an heir of Robeson. This narra-
tive is all I have to offer as progeny to their gifted artistry. I do so humbly.
The Politics of Paul Robeson’s Othello