Welcome to the Folger

Before Shakespeare became a household name, there was Richard Burbage, the first actor to play Hamlet, Macbeth, Richard III, and King Lear. Scholar Siobhan Keenan examines his remarkable career and lasting impact on early modern theater.

Challenge yourself with our haunting quiz about the phantoms and apparitions in Shakespeare’s plays and how they are portrayed, from Banquo’s ghost in Macbeth to Hamlet’s father’s Ghost, and many more.

Two new productions, Al Letson’s Julius X and the Q Brothers Collective’s Rome Sweet Rome, explore contemporary themes of political upheaval and personal betrayal while illuminating aspects of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar we might have missed. 

Scholar Carla Della Gatta looks at the growth of Latinx-inspired Shakespeare productions in the US beginning with West Side Story on Broadway in 1957. She finds the performances as richly diverse in form as they are in content.

Ansel shares how her questions as an artist fellow about Fuseli’s take on Shakespeare’s Macbeth inspired her to create two abstract, large-scale oil paintings but this time from a woman’s perspective that celebrates the play’s sisterhood.

Have you ever noticed a decorated paper on a volume in our collection and wondered how it was made?