Ira Aldridge

19th-century American Actor Ira Aldridge is remembered as a pioneering performer who refused to let racism prevent him from pursuing his passion for performing Shakespeare, first in New York and then abroad. Explore his story.

Lolita Chakrabarti shares historical context about pioneering 19th-century Black actor Ira Aldridge, the subject of her play Red Velvet, including a notable detail about his funeral in Poland which she learned after she’d written the play.

Ira Aldridge as Aaron in Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus. Since their revival by David Garrick in the early eighteenth century, Shakespeare and his plays have always generated a certain aura of celebrity, sometimes referred to as “Bardolatry.” Following in the footsteps…