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Shakespeare & Beyond

The First Folio tour: How American communities celebrated Shakespeare in 2016

he First Folio tour in Hawaii (April 25 – May 25, 2016). Image courtesy of Kapi’olani Community College.

The First Folio tour in Hawaii (April 25 – May 25, 2016). Image courtesy of Kapi’olani Community College.

Shakespeare’s stories have inspired creative works in almost every genre and medium: countless novels, poems, plays, movies, songs, comic books, paintings and drawings, dances, computer games—the list goes on. And we can trace just about all of it back to a book, a book of about 900 pages.

Throughout 2016, the Folger Shakespeare Library has been sending a copy of the First Folio, the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays, to every state, Puerto Rico, and Washington, DC. The traveling exhibition First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare is part of The Wonder of Will, the Folger’s celebration of 400 years of Shakespeare.

Related: How the First Folio tour came together

Special programming at each host site is engaging the general public, as well as teachers and families, in what for many may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see a First Folio.

“Translating the “to be” speech into Hawaiian and Lakota, presenting jazz funerals for Shakespeare, fashion shows, concerts, lectures, and hosting 3-D printing of Shakespeare busts have been extremely popular,” notes Maribeth Cote, public engagement coordinator for the First Folio tour. “Many stops also created companion exhibitions featuring rare books, theatrical costumes and props, musical instruments from the period, and even a look at Elizabethan potions and poisons.”