Shakespeare in the world

Director Les Kurbas’s 1920 Macbeth was the first production of a Shakespeare play in Ukraine. Scholar Irena Makaryk talks about his work and the role that Shakespeare and theater played in Ukrainian culture, the Russian Empire, and the early Soviet Union.

The first track on Taylor Swift’s new album, The Life of a Showgirl, is “The Fate of Ophelia.” Refresh your memory about Hamlet’s ingenue and why we can’t stop writing, painting, and singing about her.

A round-up of stories about Shakespeare in the news this month—a September issue of our own—with discoveries about miniature portraits, Emma Smith’s webinar series, reading recs for kids, and ad parodies from Improvised Shakespeare.

A round-up of stories about Shakespeare in the news this summer from theater, film, and science.

There’s a new Superman with more than a few Shakespearean echoes. Austin Tichenor writes that it’s no surprise given director James Gunn got his start on a B movie adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.

On display: A letter from Abigail Adams and other extraordinary American items help celebrate the Fourth of July.

Austin Tichenor on whether TikTok, like Shakespeare, is adding new words and phrases.

Shakespeare’s phrase “sermons in stones” is from a speech in As You Like It. Take this quiz to see if you can correctly order the lines.

Explore the new landscape and public spaces of the Folger Shakespeare Library to find touches of Shakespeare and the early modern age in which he lived.

“In both ‘Rosaline,’ a charming teen romcom streaming on Hulu, and ‘& Juliet,’ a splashy new musical making its Broadway debut this week, Shakespeare’s tragedy becomes a surprising springboard for music, comedy, and investigations into narrative ownership,” writes Austin Tichenor.