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.
Shakespeare & Beyond also explores the topics that shape our experience of Shakespeare today: trends in performance, the latest discoveries and scholarship, news stories, pop culture, interesting books, new movies, the rich context of theater and literary history, and more. As the word “beyond” suggests, from time to time Shakespeare & Beyond also covers topics that are not directly linked to Shakespeare.
John Augustus Atkinson. The Taming of the Shrew. Watercolor drawing, late 18th or early 19th century. Folger Shakespeare Library. In The Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio attempts to squelch Katherine’s hot temper by denying her meat, snatching away a roast…
May the Force Be With You: William Shakespeare's Star Wars
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Author
Esther French
Luke Skywalker strikes an iconic Hamlet pose in this illustration from the William Shakespeare’s Star Wars series. Credit Nicolas Delort. Courtesy Quirk Books. Shakespeare and Star Wars would appear to have very little in common. Or at least they did,…
Off the Shelf: Shakespeare and World Cinema, Oxford Illustrated Shakespeare Dictionary, and more
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Author
Karen Lyon
Looking for a new addition to your bookshelf? Here’s a survey of some recently published books about Shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth I, and the early modern age. Pop Sonnets: Shakespeare Spins on Your Favorite Songs by Erik Didriksen “Alas! I once…
Shakespeare Live: How Shakespeare plays are being staged across America
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Author
Esther French
Get a glimpse of how different theaters and festivals around the United States are staging Shakespeare. Featured in this gallery are Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival, The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, and…
Five questions for Pop Sonnets creator Erik Didriksen
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Author
Esther French
On his very popular Tumblr, Pop Sonnets, Erik Didriksen takes hit songs and rewrites them as Shakespearean sonnets. For example, Beyoncé’s “If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it” becomes “If truly you did wish…
Henry Clay Folger paid a world record price for a book—not once, but twice—as he became the world’s leading collector of Shakespeare First Folios. In this episode from Shakespeare Unlimited, economist and author Andrea Mays talks with Neva Grant about…
Shock of the New, or a Ploy from the Past? Thoughts on OSF's Play "Translations"
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Author
Richard Schoch
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Allen Elizabethan Theatre. Featured is the set of OSF’s 2013 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Photo by T. Charles Erickson. Much ado about the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which has announced plans to ‘translate’ all of…
Roxi Victorian as Hero (center) with the cast of Folger Theatre’s Much Ado About Nothing, a 2009 production inspired by the D.C. Caribbean Carnival. Photo by Carol Pratt. As you’ll hear in this episode of the Folger’s Shakespeare Unlimited podcast, Shakespeare…
Folger Finds delivers delightful and insightful moments with the Folger collection. Sarah Hovde, a cataloger at the Folger Shakespeare Library, shares the story behind a 1910 Esperanto edition of Shakespeare’s As You Like It. Heard any Esperanto lately? Designed by…
The first new Folger Folio (Fourth Folio, that is) in over 80 years
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Author
Caroline Duroselle-Melish
This copy of the Fourth Folio, published in 1685, is the first Shakespeare Folio to be added to the Folger Shakespeare Library collection since the days of our founders, Henry Folger (1857-1930) and Emily Folger (1858-1936). The collection now holds…
A recent episode of the Folger’s Shakespeare Unlimited podcast offers an interesting interview with British Shakespearean scholar and author Stanley Wells. At the heart of that conversation, one might say, is a simple question. For all the contributions of directors…
