Shakespeare & Beyond

As October comes to an end, we celebrate food, drink, and culture in the German cities of Shakespeare’s day, including the creation of beer and wine and the harvest festivals each fall, marked by our modern-day tradition of Oktoberfest.

Artist Paul Glenshaw describes Romeo, Juliet, and the Nurse, poised at a key moment in his drawing of “Romeo and Juliet” from a Folger bas-relief.

As Mary Shelley’s novel “Frankenstein” marks its 200th anniversary (and with Halloween on its way), Austin Tichenor explores the parallels between the Creature from “Frankenstein” and Caliban from “The Tempest” and their fictional creators: Frankenstein and Prospero–as well as what…

If you’ve been following the Shakespeare & Beyond blog, you’ll know that the Folger has been doing a monthly series of Q&As with some of the playwrights and dramaturgs involved with Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Play on! project to translate all…

The poisoning in Shakespeare’s play King John, and in Romeo and Hamlet, too, had real-world parallels, too. Delve into the infamous story of Thomas Overbury’s death at the Tower of London in 1613.

Every month, we share a snapshot of Shakespeare in performance around America. What plays are onstage this month? We visit our theater partners to find out.

The TV series “Shakespeare Uncovered” returns this Friday, October 12, with richly visual episodes. Watch video previews of Helen Hunt on “Much Ado About Nothing” and F. Murray Abraham on “The Merchant of Venice.”

The Nashville Shakespeare Festival’s Pop-UpRight Shakespeare series brings lively, “upright,” on-your-feet staged readings of Shakespeare’s plays to surprise locations in and around Nashville.

See portraits from the Folger collection of Edmund Kean as Richard III, Ellen Terry as Beatrice, Edwin Booth as Iago, and Fanny Kemble as Juliet.

We’ve got five great ideas for a Shakespeare-themed Halloween costume, from Hermione to Touchstone.

Austin Tichenor writes about the theater-going experience in Shakespeare’s time and how that contrasts with audience expectations today.

Lillian Groag writes about the challenges of translating one of Shakespeare’s more obscure plays, ‘Troilus and Cressida,’ for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Play on! project.