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Shakespeare & Beyond

Where to find Shakespeare in September

As the school year begins and autumn approaches, there are lots of ways to engage with Shakespeare and his plays. Many of our Shakespeare theater partners are hard at work creating engaging digital content, from Door Shakespeare’s painstakingly-assembled film version of J.M. Barrie’s Rosalind to Theatricum Botanicum’s upcoming month of online programming. Meanwhile, others are beginning to mount innovative, socially-distanced in-person performances. Here’s where to find Shakespeare (and more), online and in-person, this September.

Explore Online Experiences

A reading of “Perkin Warbeck” by Brave Spirits Theatre.

Brave Spirits Theatre’s Online Reading Festival of history plays by Shakespeare’s contemporaries wrapped up yesterday evening with a virtual performance of John Ford’s play about a pretender to the throne, Perkin Warbeck. Performed by a group of guest artists from Scotland, you can catch a recorded version of the reading on YouTube.

The Classical Theatre of Harlem’s Behind The Curtain series continues to grow: now, check out a reading of Claude McKay’s poem Like a Strong Tree from Da 5 Bloods’ star Delroy LindoPlus, clips from the theater’s production of The Bacchae, interviews with playwrights Tracey Scott Wilson and Will Power, and more..

⇒ Related: Watch our chat with Classical Theatre of Harlem Associate Artistic Director Carl Cofield on the Shakespeare Lightning Round.

Kay Allmand as Mrs. Page in Door Shakespeare’s Rosalind, by J.M. Barrie. Photo: Ryan Schabach.

Through September 13, Door Shakespeare presents a virtual production of J.M. Barrie’s 1914 one-act comedy Rosalind. The company delivered identical sets and costumes to each actor’s home (including fake fireplaces), then filmed three versions of each scene from three different angles using the actors’ cell phones (read about the process in a piece from the Door County Pulse). The resulting 45-minute production is a heartfelt roller-coaster of a comedy that moves through the emotional highs and lows of first love, questions what it means to be one’s true self, and examines the powerful pull of a life on the stage and the sacrifices that one is willing to make for the sake of art.

Here at the Folger, our Shakespeare Lightning Round series continues on September 9 at 5 pm ET with an Instagram Live chat with the Folger’s Director of Education, Peggy O’Brien. We’ll talk about students, Shakespeare, and the start of a new school year. Plus, we’ll learn Peggy’s answers to our thirty lightning-fast Shakespeare questions. Want to catch up on past episodes of the Shakespeare Lightning Round? Watch them on our IGTV.

On September 10, the Nashville Shakespeare Festival hosts Black Actors on Shakespeare, a candid virtual discussion with Black actors, directors, and educators on their experiences with Shakespeare. The panel, hosted by Kenny Dozier, the Nashville Shakespeare Festival’s new producer and Founding Artistic Director of Kennie Playhouse Theatre, features Debra Ann Byrd of Harlem Shakespeare, Jacqueline Springfield of The Black Arts Institute at Stella Adler, and others.

⇒ Related: Read Debra Ann Byrd’s reflections on playing Othello.

The Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival’s complete series of online events for the summer of 2020 are available on their website, including over a dozen readings, performances, panels, and live Q&As, all free to watch through July 2021.