The other interracial marriage in Othello.

This paper argues that the character of Emilia might be both read and cast as a black woman, and considers the interpretive and performative possibilities in such a move. First it considers the present-day uses of such a reading and discusses the ways that modern theatre practitioners have experimented with race in castingOthello. Then it suggests a sort of thought experiment: imagining a Jacobean performance tailored to the interests of the new royal family—specifically Anne's interest in black entertainers—a performance that in Emilia gives us possibly the first depictions of an African woman on the English stage and an exploration of the racial and gender dynamics in not one, buttwointerracial marriages. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]