Ira Aldridge

2015 George Freedley Memorial Award (Theatre Library Association)Volume
2 of the first available biography of this great African-American classical actor, covering
his emergence as a professional actor in Britain during the years 1833-1852.Ira
The Vagabond Years, 1833-1852 deals in depth with the later experiences of one of the modern
world's first black classical actors as he toured throughout the United Kingdom impressing
audiences with his virtuosity and versatility as an interpreter not only of tragic and comic
black roles but also eventually as an actor of classic white Shakespearean parts -- Shylock,
Macbeth, Richard III, even Iago. Aldridge was very popular in Ireland and remained there for
six years, performing in venues large and small. He traveled often in his own carriage with
assistants who supported him in scenes, enabling famous plays to be staged anywhere, even in
villages that did not have a proper theater. He also performed periodically in large cities
with professional acting companies, and returned to the London stage in 1848, after leaving
it fifteen years earlier. During these years he expandedhis repertoire, refined his skills,
and gained a reputation as one of Britain's most talented thespians. In dealing with
Aldridge's emergence as a professional actor in the United Kingdom, Lindfors here records in
detail theups and downs of his itinerant existence in a world where no theatergoer had ever
seen anyone like him on stage before. Aldridge was genuinely a unique phenomenon in Britain
at a pivotal point in history. Bernth Lindfors is Professor Emeritus of English and African
Literatures, University of Texas at Austin, and editor of Ira The African Roscius
(University of Rochester Press, 2007).