Shakespeare & Beyond

In the opening scene of Jennifer Falkner’s novella “Susanna Hall, Her Book,” the queen of England has just arrived at New Place in Stratford-upon-Avon. But Susanna, the eldest daughter of William Shakespeare, has reasons for not wanting to host Henrietta…

Sophia Richardson explores how Gabrielle Zevin’s new novel about video games, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow,” is also a book about Shakespeare.

Austin Tichenor draws comparisons between Kim Wexler and Lady Macbeth, unpacking Shakespearean themes in the “Better Call Saul” series.

Melissa Rohrer explores how “Our Flag Means Death,” a show inspired by the true story of the early 18th-century “Gentleman Pirate” Stede Bonnet, draws on character types and narratives that Shakespeare used frequently across many of his plays, while breathing…

Artist Missy Dunaway explores references to the kingfisher in two Shakespeare plays, King Lear and 1 Henry VI.

Read great tips for helping your kids have a blast watching their very first Shakespeare play.

Helen Hackett explores Shakespeare’s use of the soliloquy in “Hamlet,” including the famous “To be or not to be” speech, in this excerpt from her new book, “The Elizabethan Mind: Searching for the Self in an Age of Uncertainty,” published…

Plan your perfect summer and we’ll tell you which character you are in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Collecting extracts of text in commonplace books and binding multiple books together to create a sammelband were two notable practices of readers in the 16th and 17th centuries, as Jason Scott-Warren (University of Cambridge) explains in this excerpt from a…

These Shakespeare quotes about friendship point to the complexities of relationships between characters in the plays.

“Nowhere does Shakespeare attend more to theatrical enterprise and potential than in A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” writes Michele Osherow, Folger Theatre’s resident dramaturg. “It makes the play irresistible to those who practice theatre and to those who crave its incomparable…

Austin Tichenor explores small-cast Shakespeare and the artistic possibilities of a few performers playing multiple roles.