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.

What's onstage at Shakespeare theaters in September
Shakespeare and Beyond

What's onstage at Shakespeare theaters in September

Posted
Author
Shakespeare & Beyond

Read our round-up of September performances from Shakespeare theaters across the country.

Q&A: Greg Prickman on Imprints in Time, a dazzling special exhibition
A detailed papyrus artwork featuring two Egyptian figures. On the left is a human figure, while the right figure has a human body with a jackal head. Both are adorned in traditional garments, shown in a sideways profile, engaging with each other.
Shakespeare and Beyond

Q&A: Greg Prickman on Imprints in Time, a dazzling special exhibition

Posted
Author
Esther Ferington

Greg Prickman discusses Imprints in Time, the first special exhibition in the new space, including Tolkien’s edits and an ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead.

How popular was Shakespeare in his day?
Shakespeare is seated at a desk and is writing, but looking up; the open window behind him has a vista of the city
Shakespeare and Beyond

How popular was Shakespeare in his day?

Posted
Author
Shakespeare & Beyond

In an excerpt from a classic Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episode, Emma Smith explores a fascinating question: how popular was Shakespeare in his lifetime?

Quiz: What do you know about "Romeo and Juliet"?
Colored image of the actors onstage in the tomb scene, with Romeo lying prone and apparently lifeless and Juliet leaning over him but looking up in despair, surrounded by stone walls.
Shakespeare and Beyond

Quiz: What do you know about "Romeo and Juliet"?

Posted
Author
Esther Ferington

Challenge yourself with a quiz about Romeo and Juliet.

The roles of the river in early modern times
Shakespeare and Beyond

The roles of the river in early modern times

Posted
Author
Shakespeare & Beyond

An excerpt from Reading the River in Shakespeare’s Britain surveys some of the cultural roles of rivers, including how Shakespeare mentioned them in his plays.

Q&A: Peggy O’Brien on a fantastical Shakespeare map
Peggy O'Brien, wearing the
Shakespeare and Beyond

Q&A: Peggy O’Brien on a fantastical Shakespeare map

Posted
Author
Esther Ferington

Peggy O’Brien helps us explore a giant, richly detailed fictional map filled with Shakespeare’s characters, newly created for the Folger’s exhibition spaces.

“The purpose of playing”: Working with Shakespeare in Sing Sing and Ghostlight
Still from movie with Colman Domingo in foreground at left, Clarence Maclin to his right.
Shakespeare and Beyond

“The purpose of playing”: Working with Shakespeare in Sing Sing and Ghostlight

Posted
Author
Austin Tichenor

Austin Tichenor explores how the films Sing Sing and Ghostlight show the power and healing of theater and Shakespeare, in both forceful and amusing ways.

Environmental history and the muckhill fine for Shakespeare's father
Shakespeare and Beyond

Environmental history and the muckhill fine for Shakespeare's father

Posted
Author
Esther Ferington

New research casts a more positive light on why Shakespeare’s father was fined for building a muckhill.

What’s onstage at Shakespeare theaters in August
Detail of a production photo from As You Like It, with Duke Seena at left and Rosalind at right looking at each other in a warm, kindly way, with Duke Seena's hands extended to touch Rosalind's face.
Shakespeare and Beyond

What’s onstage at Shakespeare theaters in August

Posted
Author
Colleen Kennedy

Read our round-up of August performances from Shakespeare theaters across the country.

Announced in 1622: A book now known as the First Folio
Two children look at an open First Folio enclosed in a clear case.
Shakespeare and Beyond

Announced in 1622: A book now known as the First Folio

Posted
Author
Greg Prickman

Greg Prickman explains how news of the 1623 book we now call the  First Folio appeared a year earlier, on the occasion of a trade fair in Frankfurt, Germany.

Summer Reading: Romeo and Juliet, revisited
Romeo and Juliet detail from a quilt in the Folger collection, showing the balcony scene, with Romeo standing at left and Juliet above him on a balcony, with flowers scattered below balcony, with additional narrow section to the left showing a flowering plant
Shakespeare and Beyond

Summer Reading: Romeo and Juliet, revisited

Posted
Author
emma poltrack

Looking for summer reading? Try a novel based on Romeo and Juliet, from a San Diege restaurant feud to a zombie horror tale to a story about first love.

Quiz: Games, sports, and Shakespeare
Shakespeare and Beyond

Quiz: Games, sports, and Shakespeare

Posted
Author
Esther Ferington

Shakespeare’s plays are full of sports and games. Test your knowledge with these questions.

1 2 3 4 5 75