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Shakespeare & Beyond

Shakespeare & Beyond

The Shakespeare & Beyond blog features a wide range of Shakespeare-related topics: the early modern period in which he lived, the ways his plays have been interpreted and staged over the past four centuries, the enduring power of his characters and language, and more.

Summer reading: Find your next book by listening to these author interviews
book covers
Shakespeare and Beyond

Summer reading: Find your next book by listening to these author interviews

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Shakespeare & Beyond

Looking for a good beach read? Something to bring on your long plane ride? Listen to these author interviews from the Folger’s Shakespeare Unlimited podcast to find a novel inspired by Shakespeare’s stories and his world. Naomi Miller on Mary…

Up Close: Lady Macbeth, America, and the stain of slavery
Shakespeare and Beyond

Up Close: Lady Macbeth, America, and the stain of slavery

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Esther French

In a famous scene from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the sleep-walking Lady Macbeth desperately attempts to scrub her hands clean of the (invisible) blood stains from the murders committed by her and her husband. “Out, damned spot, out, I say!” she says,…

Excerpt - "A Short History of Shakespeare in Performance" by Richard Schoch
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Shakespeare and Beyond

Excerpt - "A Short History of Shakespeare in Performance" by Richard Schoch

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Shakespeare & Beyond

How have directors sought to make Shakespeare productions relevant to contemporary political issues? What is it about these plays that makes them so politically resonant? Richard Schoch (Queen’s University Belfast) explores these questions in the excerpt below, taken from A…

Where to find Shakespeare in June
Shakespeare and Beyond

Where to find Shakespeare in June

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Ben Lauer

This month, Shakespeare theaters across the country are bringing live theater back! Take a look at what the Folger’s theater partners have onstage this month, along with virtual talks, online streaming shows, and audio productions.

Quiz: Shakespeare characters in disguise
Shakespeare and Beyond

Quiz: Shakespeare characters in disguise

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Shakespeare & Beyond

Shakespeare’s plays are full of characters who pretend to be someone else. Take this quiz to see if you can match each character with the false name they assume as part of their disguise. Quiz: Shakespeare Characters in Disguise Shakespeare’s…

Excerpt - "Ghosts, Holes, Rips and Scrapes: Shakespeare in 1619, Bibliography in the Longue Durée" by Zachary Lesser
Edward Gwynn’s set of Pavier Quartos
Shakespeare and Beyond

Excerpt - "Ghosts, Holes, Rips and Scrapes: Shakespeare in 1619, Bibliography in the Longue Durée" by Zachary Lesser

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Shakespeare & Beyond

What’s the most influential book for Shakespeare scholarship? The First Folio of 1623 immediately comes to mind for many. However, there’s another book, less famous but still incredibly important for Shakespeare scholars: Edward Gwynn’s set of Pavier Quartos, found in…

“Good Peter Quince:” Shakespeare’s most autobiographical character
Peter Quince and Bottom
Shakespeare and Beyond

“Good Peter Quince:” Shakespeare’s most autobiographical character

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Austin Tichenor

Richard Ruiz (Peter Quince) and Holly Twyford (Bottom) in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Folger Theatre, 2016. Teresa Wood.  A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream is one of William Shakespeare’s most popular plays, and for good reason. Frequently a young person’s introduction to…

Public performances of blackness: The ‘King of Moors’ pageant in the 1616 Lord Mayor’s Show
Lord Mayor's Show pageant
Shakespeare and Beyond

Public performances of blackness: The ‘King of Moors’ pageant in the 1616 Lord Mayor’s Show

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Author
Maria Shmygol

Elizabethan and Jacobean theatergoers encountered ‘Moor’ figures in plays such as Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, Othello, and The Merchant of Venice, to name a few. However, it was also possible to see blackness performed beyond the playhouse stage, publicly on the…

“I’m Jay-Z on a bad day, Shakespeare on my worst days”: When rappers cite Shakespeare
Shakespeare and Beyond

“I’m Jay-Z on a bad day, Shakespeare on my worst days”: When rappers cite Shakespeare

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Author
Ronan Hatfull

The conversation around Shakespeare and hip-hop to date has tended to focus on either their linguistic malleability or the racial politics which surround the enmeshment of an originally African-American cultural movement with the work of a white playwright who, in…

Not of an age: The history behind Ian McKellen’s Hamlet
Ian McKellen and other Hamlets
Shakespeare and Beyond

Not of an age: The history behind Ian McKellen’s Hamlet

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Author
Daniel Blank

In June, Ian McKellen will take the stage as the title character in Hamlet at the Theatre Royal Windsor. McKellen is no stranger to the role: he played Hamlet in Prospect Theatre Company’s touring production a half century ago. It…

Spilling the beans: The Islamic history of coffee
Shakespeare and Beyond

Spilling the beans: The Islamic history of coffee

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Author
Neha Vermani

Before there were Starbucks and the quirky coffeeshops masquerading as cozy work corners for many of us, there was the mid-17th century coffeeshop boom in England. During the 1600s, the general conversation about coffee nodded to its status as the…

Where to find Shakespeare in May
Shakespeare and Beyond

Where to find Shakespeare in May

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Author
Ben Lauer

Check out awesome performances and programs from Shakespeare theaters across the United States this month.

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