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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.

What turns a good writer into a superstar? 200 years and plenty of spectacle
Shakespeare and Beyond

What turns a good writer into a superstar? 200 years and plenty of spectacle

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Author
Janine Barchas Kristina Straub

In commemoration of the approximate 200th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth, the London actor and theatrical entrepreneur David Garrick launched the first celebration of Shakespeare as “the god of our idolatry” in 1769, helping to fashion the Bard as the larger-than-life,…

Shakespeare in prison: How Richard II and Macbeth speak to those in solitary confinement
Shakespeare and Beyond

Shakespeare in prison: How Richard II and Macbeth speak to those in solitary confinement

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Author
Esther French

Blood hath been shed ere now, i’ th’ olden time, Ere humane statute purged the gentle weal; Ay, and since too, murders have been performed Too terrible for the ear. (Macbeth, 3.4.91) What would a roomful of convicted killers see…

'The magic of his language': Authors Nicole Dennis-Benn, Paul Goldberg, and Elizabeth Nunez share their Shakespeare stories
Shakespeare and Beyond

'The magic of his language': Authors Nicole Dennis-Benn, Paul Goldberg, and Elizabeth Nunez share their Shakespeare stories

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Author
Esther French

Three authors talk about the Shakespeare plays they’ve connected with and the way Shakespeare’s stories have influenced their own writing. Nicole Dennis-Benn Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Here Comes the Sun, says her favorite Shakespeare play is The Taming of the…

What happens when actors, musicians, and scholars collaborate on a Restoration Shakespeare play
Shakespeare and Beyond

What happens when actors, musicians, and scholars collaborate on a Restoration Shakespeare play

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Author
Richard Schoch

Participants watch as directors Amanda Eubanks Winkler and Richard Schoch give preliminary stagings to the actors and dancers, for Gildon’s 1700 adaptation of “Measure for Measure.” Part of the November 2014 Folger Institute weekend workshop, “Performing Restoration Shakespeare.” Part of…

Measure for Measure + Dido and Aeneas: A Shakespeare-opera mash-up from 1699 takes the stage
Shakespeare and Beyond

Measure for Measure + Dido and Aeneas: A Shakespeare-opera mash-up from 1699 takes the stage

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Shakespeare & Beyond

Sometimes characterized as a “problem play,” Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure was first performed in the early 1600’s and was printed in the 1623 First Folio where it is listed as a comedy. During the Restoration, many of Shakespeare’s plays were adapted to suit the times, and…

Repetition is celebrity: Shakespeare and Austen
Shakespeare and Beyond

Repetition is celebrity: Shakespeare and Austen

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Author
Janine Barchas Kristina Straub

As curators of Will & Jane: Shakespeare, Austen, and the Cult of Celebrity we both began our work in the archives with established interests in the connections between literary greatness and consumer culture. Janine has written about the marketing tactics…

11 actors who have played Shakespeare and Austen roles
Shakespeare and Beyond

11 actors who have played Shakespeare and Austen roles

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Author
Esther French

If you’re a fan of both Shakespeare and Jane Austen, you may have noticed some overlap in the actors who portray these classic roles in stage productions and film adaptations. As the curators of the Folger exhibition Will & Jane: Shakespeare,…

Shakespeare, in the original Klingon
The Klingon Hamlet
Shakespeare and Beyond

Shakespeare, in the original Klingon

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Author
Sarah Hovde

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). Directed by Nicholas Meyer. Shown from left: David Warner (as Chancellor Gorkon), Christopher Plummer (as General Chang), William Shatner (as Captain James T. Kirk), Walter Koenig, Leonard Nimoy (as Captain Spock), Nichelle Nichols, DeForest Kelley,…

Quiz: Can you pair these Jane Austen and Shakespeare characters?
Shakespeare and Beyond

Quiz: Can you pair these Jane Austen and Shakespeare characters?

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Author
Esther French

Take this quiz and test your knowledge of Jane Austen and Shakespeare! We give you a character from a Jane Austen novel, and you pick the corresponding character from Shakespeare’s plays, based on personality or storyline. Can you pair these Shakespeare…

Will and Jane continued: adaptations, modernizations, and fan fiction
Shakespeare and Beyond

Will and Jane continued: adaptations, modernizations, and fan fiction

Posted
Author
Janine Barchas Kristina Straub

Although the Bard may have a longer history of such flattery, both Will and Jane have suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous adaptations. In the 20th century, Austen joined Shakespeare in his entrance into modern media—film, television, and digital forms—as…

Shakespeare's First Folio: The playlist
Shakespeare and Beyond

Shakespeare's First Folio: The playlist

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Author
Esther French

Curious about the book that gave us Shakespeare? We’ve assembled a playlist of seven Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episodes about the First Folio. Without this first collected edition of Shakespeare’s works, published in 1623, we might not have such famous plays as…

Follow the First Folio tour! Updates from Idaho, Iowa, Delaware, Nevada, and Connecticut
Shakespeare and Beyond

Follow the First Folio tour! Updates from Idaho, Iowa, Delaware, Nevada, and Connecticut

Posted
Author
Esther French

The First Folio continues its national tour celebrating 400 years of Shakespeare in 2016, drawing crowds wherever it goes. Idaho, Iowa, Delaware, Nevada, and Connecticut have all welcomed the Folger Shakespeare Library traveling exhibition, and the Wyoming State Museum in Cheyenne, WY,…

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