Skip to main content
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.

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

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

Posted
Author
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 & Beyond

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

Posted
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 streets of London. Emblematic representations of Moors frequently featured in the annual Lord Mayor’s Day festivities, which celebrated the inauguration of the new mayor-elect of London every October,
“I’m Jay-Z on a bad day, Shakespeare on my worst days”: When rappers cite Shakespeare
Shakespeare & Beyond

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

Posted
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 the eyes of many, symbolizes English power and cultural authority. However, when artists reference Shakespeare’s name itself, to what uses do they put the playwright’s reputation and how do those purposes differ when his name is cited by artists of different ethnicities and genders?
Not of an age: The history behind Ian McKellen’s Hamlet
Ian McKellen and other Hamlets
Shakespeare & Beyond

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

Posted
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 & Beyond

Spilling the beans: The Islamic history of coffee

Posted
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 & Beyond

Where to find Shakespeare in May

Posted
Author
Ben Lauer
Check out awesome performances and programs from Shakespeare theaters across the United States this month.
Excerpt: 'Irregular Unions' by Katharine Cleland
Shakespeare & Beyond

Excerpt: 'Irregular Unions' by Katharine Cleland

Posted
Author
Shakespeare & Beyond
Katharine Cleland examines Jessica and Lorenzo's clandestine marriage in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" in this excerpt from her book "Irregular Unions."
Quiz: Greek mythological figures in Shakespeare's plays
Shakespeare & Beyond

Quiz: Greek mythological figures in Shakespeare's plays

Posted
Author
Shakespeare & Beyond
Troilus and Cressida is perhaps Shakespeare’s most obvious connection with classic Greek literature, given that the play’s events occur during the Trojan War. But references to Greek mythology are liberally sprinkled throughout the rest of Shakespeare’s plays as well. See if you can identify which mythological figure is being discussed in each of the following Shakespeare quotes.
"Painter’s art": Biofictional perspectives on Shakespeare
Austin Tichenor as William Shakespeare
Shakespeare & Beyond

"Painter’s art": Biofictional perspectives on Shakespeare

Posted
Author
Austin Tichenor

Austin Tichenor as William Shakespeare in William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (abridged), Folger Theatre, 2016. Photo by Teresa Wood. Depictions of William Shakespeare in fictional works are animated by the same impulse behind fanfiction — to fill in the…

Performance, advertising, and Anglo-Maghrebi diplomacy in Restoration and Augustan London
The Moroccan ambassador on horseback
Shakespeare & Beyond

Performance, advertising, and Anglo-Maghrebi diplomacy in Restoration and Augustan London

Posted
Author
Nat Cutter

In February 1682, it was reported in the London newspaper Loyal Protestant, and True Domestic Intelligence that ‘His Excellency the Morocco Ambassador is exceedingly well pleased with his Entertainments; Insomuch that he declared, that he thought there were not such…

Highlights from Shakespeare's Birthday 2021
Shakespeare & Beyond

Highlights from Shakespeare's Birthday 2021

Posted
Author
Shakespeare & Beyond

Thanks for celebrating Shakespeare’s birthday with us this year! We received many creative and inspiring responses to our invitation to #ShareYourShakespeare on social media. Many people recited a line, speech, or sonnet from Shakespeare’s works. Here are a few of…

Up Close: A 'Seven Ages of Man' painting
Seven Ages of Man
Shakespeare & Beyond

Up Close: A 'Seven Ages of Man' painting

Posted
Author
Shakespeare & Beyond
Take a closer look at a 19th-century oil painting in the Folger collection that depicts all seven ages of man from Jaques's speech in Shakespeare's "As You Like It."
1 16 17 18 19 20 67