"This collection of essays provides new perspectives on reading, reinterpreting, appropriating and popularising Shakespeare through the work of women - actresses, directors, designers, translators and scholars from different cultural, social and political, mostly non-English speaking, contexts. Raising a wide variety of urgent issues relating not only to Shakespeare but also to the arts, to gender matters, and to postcolonial and ethnic studies, this volume advocates both the illumination of the often neglected, forgotten and rarely appreciated women - who deserve the spotlight of attention on an international level - and the need for revisions in Shakespearean studies, which are dominated by cultural sameness of prevalently male professionals." (Prof. Dr. habil. Bozenna Chylinska, Institute of English Studies, University of Warsaw)

This volume is the outcome of the Ira Aldridge Symposium, which the British and Commonwealth Studies Department, University of Łodź (Poland), organized to celebrate the bicentennial anniversary of the birth of this great Afro-American Shakespearean actor (1807-1867). The collection provides invaluable insight into Aldridge's contribution to abolitionist debates raging in mid-nineteenth century in the United States and England. Moreover, it discusses his reception among varied audiences in European countries, such as Germany, Poland, Russia and the Austrian Empire. Last but not least, Aldridge's traces and echoes in modern times are investigated.