In this special anniversary year for Shakespeare, the Folger has commissioned Caroline Shaw to compose a new vocal piece inspired by The Tempest. Shaw, who has toured with Kanye West and is the youngest person to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, belongs to Roomful of Teeth, which received the Grammy Award for Best Chamber… Continue Reading »
Soldiers returning home. Armies clashing in a bloody struggle for power. Government officials abusing their authority. These are the Shakespeare characters populating the post-election landscape at our theater partners around the U.S. this month. Henry VI Two of the Folger’s theater partners are taking on Shakespeare’s Henry VI plays this month, in which England experiences… Continue Reading »
The word “girl” means different things to us today than it meant in the Middle Ages, and Shakespeare was writing at a time when that meaning was changing, as Deanne Williams of York University in Toronto explains on a recent episode of Shakespeare Unlimited. Williams talks about the girls in Shakespeare’s plays, how he portrays… Continue Reading »
By Esther Ferington Charles, Prince of Wales, celebrates his birthday on November 14. To mark the occasion, we’ve been recalling his visit to the Folger Shakespeare Library in 2005, with his wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall. Prince Charles is the President of the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he appeared in a cameo role this… Continue Reading »
“To see or not to see… is there really any question?” Excited selfies with the First Folio continue to crop up on social media as the Folger’s nationwide tour, First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare, wraps up its final months on the road. In October the First Folio tour traveled to the following… Continue Reading »
In Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor’s Lost, four friends forswear women so that they can focus on their studies. But, of course, as soon as they do, four lovely ladies enter their lives. Oh, what to do? Romance and comedy ensue. Four of our theater partners—The Old Globe, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, and Commonwealth Shakespeare Company—staged the… Continue Reading »
