The African Roscius

Ira Aldridge (1807 - 1867) was a Black actor, playwright and theater manager. Born free in New York, Aldridge had access to a proper education which allowed for exposure to the art of performance through Shakespearian productions put on by the African Theatre. Having developed a love for the stage, he began his acting career in the early 1820s with William Alexander Brown's company, his first professional credits being his roles as Rolla from Richard Sheridan's Pizarro and later as Romeo from Romeo and Juliet. However, after experiencing several violent protests from white neighbors, Aldridge realized that his ambitions would be limited in America and thus set out for London before his seventeenth birthday and shortly thereafter took to stage in a production of Othello making him the first African American to play the character, and possibly the first actor of African descent to do so. In the years that followed, Aldridge traveled throughout the different provinces in England gathering the attention of critics and the admiration of audiences; using his platform to speak directly to theatregoers about the horrors of slavery and racism across the United States, Africa and Europe. He took the roles of Zanga (from The Revenge), King Lear, and at the age of forty adapted the French play, The Black Doctor and brought dignity to a role that ended in tragedy for its bi-racial lead. So admired was his talent, that in his lifetime Aldridge continued to break down barriers and became the first African American to manage an English theater. The first in many respects, Ira Aldridge truly was the African Roscius and a symbol of perseverance in the face of racism and discrimination.