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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.

A Shakespeare tale for winter, told in summer
The Winter's Tale at Shakespeare Festival St. Louis
Shakespeare and Beyond

A Shakespeare tale for winter, told in summer

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Author
Esther French

The Winter’s Tale is onstage this summer at Shakespeare Festival St. Louis, African-American Shakespeare Company, and Nashville Shakespeare Festival.

Shakespeare in Love: From the screen to the stage in Chicago, Oregon, Utah, and New Jersey
Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Shakespeare in Love
Shakespeare and Beyond

Shakespeare in Love: From the screen to the stage in Chicago, Oregon, Utah, and New Jersey

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Author
Esther French

“Shakespeare in Love,” the Oscar-winning 1998 movie starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes, has become a popular stage play, adapted by Lee Hall. Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Utah Shakespeare Festival, and Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey are all…

Comparing Timon of Athens with Iago
Shakespeare and Beyond

Comparing Timon of Athens with Iago

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Author
Esther French

Timon of Athens vs. Iago! Actors Ian Merrill Peakes and Louis Butelli discuss these Shakespeare characters, their degree of self-awareness, and their villain status.

An Iranian Hamlet
Shakespeare and Beyond

An Iranian Hamlet

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Author
Esther French

Arian Moayed is an Iranian Hamlet who straddles the line between East and West in a new dual-language production from Waterwell in New York.

Misanthropes: Wyndham Lewis and Timon of Athens
Wyndham Lewis and Timon of Athens
Shakespeare and Beyond

Misanthropes: Wyndham Lewis and Timon of Athens

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Shakespeare & Beyond

Some of the most engrossing illustrations of Shakespeare’s rarely performed tragedy come from Wyndham Lewis, an early 20th-century artist who, like Timon, was a misanthrope.

A Hamlet that's almost too fragile to open
Cork Hamlet
Shakespeare and Beyond

A Hamlet that's almost too fragile to open

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Author
Sarah Hovde

The pages of this 1930 edition of Shakespeare’s Hamlet look insect-eaten or worse, but they’re actually made out of sheets of cork, not paper.

Q&A: Tracy Chevalier on New Boy, her retelling of Shakespeare's Othello
Tracy Chevalier New Boy
Shakespeare and Beyond

Q&A: Tracy Chevalier on New Boy, her retelling of Shakespeare's Othello

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Shakespeare & Beyond

Read this Q&A with Tracy Chevalier about her new novel New Boy, which retells the story of Shakespeare’s Othello and is the latest book in the Hogarth Shakespeare series.

What's onstage at American Shakespeare theaters in May: a 1940s-style Midsummer and more
Seattle Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream
Shakespeare and Beyond

What's onstage at American Shakespeare theaters in May: a 1940s-style Midsummer and more

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Author
Esther French

This month, we check in with our theater partners at Seattle Shakespeare Company, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Folger Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, and Atlanta Shakespeare Company.

The Astor Place riot: Shakespeare as a flashpoint for class conflict in 1849
Astor Place Riot
Shakespeare and Beyond

The Astor Place riot: Shakespeare as a flashpoint for class conflict in 1849

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Shakespeare & Beyond

In the whole history of Shakespeare in American life, perhaps the most shocking single fact is that 22 or more people once died as a result of a riot in New York over the correct theatrical interpretation of Macbeth.

How much has parenting actually changed since Shakespeare's time?
Childhood and early modern parenting
Shakespeare and Beyond

How much has parenting actually changed since Shakespeare's time?

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Author
Karen Lyon

What did people think about childhood and parenting in early modern England? Did parents express fondness for their children? How did they discipline them?

Duke Ellington's Such Sweet Thunder: Shakespeare and jazz
Duke Ellington conducting during the recording session for Such Sweet Thunder. © Don Hunstein.
Shakespeare and Beyond

Duke Ellington's Such Sweet Thunder: Shakespeare and jazz

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Shakespeare & Beyond

It’s been 60 years since Duke Ellington recorded Such Sweet Thunder, a jazz suite based on Shakespeare’s plays. Eleven songs are linked to Shakespearean characters like Othello and Lady Macbeth, and the final number is a tribute to Shakespeare himself.

Taking Hamlet around the globe
Shakespeare and Beyond

Taking Hamlet around the globe

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Shakespeare & Beyond

To commemorate the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth in 2014, Shakespeare’s Globe in London sent a group of actors on a two-year tour to perform Hamlet all around the world. Dominic Dromgoole, the Globe’s artistic director who directed this traveling…

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