In the blood: William Shakespeare, august wilson, and a black director

Timothy Douglas and I corresponded about this collection via e-mail for a few months in 2005. It was apparent that Douglas’s voice needed to be included in the collection because of his unusual resume: Douglas began his career as an actor in Shakespeare & Company, but he has most recently been noted for his direction of plays by August Wilson, Suzan-Lori Parks, and Lynn Nottage. As Douglas himself jokes, his resume consists of "50 percent dead white playwrights and 50 percent living black playwrights.” Coming from a black actor and director who has managed to perform in and direct both colorblind productions of Shakespeare and black-specific theatre projects, Douglas’s personal reflections on the state of casting in the twenty-first century are not just pertinent but invaluable. This interview was conducted over the phone on December 6, 2005. The transcript of the interview has been edited solely for length.