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Shakespeare in performance

Love's Labor's Lost

Four centuries of staging Shakespeare

In order to make Shakespeare’s plays accessible and appealing to audiences, theater practitioners around the world have shaped both the text and the style of production to mirror and speak into their own time and place.

People have used Shakespeare’s plays as a medium for political commentary, incorporated them into other theatrical traditions, and adapted them as films, operas, musicals and other art forms.

Explore the variety of Shakespeare in performance.

Our Shakespeare theater partnership program:
What’s onstage across America

 

Shakes-year in Review: Shakespeare theaters look back at 2023
Shakespeare and Beyond

Shakes-year in Review: Shakespeare theaters look back at 2023

Posted
Author
Ben Lauer

We asked our theater partners across the United States to share their highlights from 2023.

What's onstage at Shakespeare theaters this fall
Shakespeare and Beyond

What's onstage at Shakespeare theaters this fall

Posted
Author
Ben Lauer

We take a trip across the country to see what’s onstage at Shakespeare theaters this fall.

What's onstage at Shakespeare theaters this summer
Shakespeare and Beyond

What's onstage at Shakespeare theaters this summer

Posted
Author
Ben Lauer

Plan a visit to a theater near you with our guide to summer Shakespeare across the United States.

Folger Theatre

The award-winning Folger Theatre is a national leader in performance related to Shakespeare’s works.

Film, opera, musicals, and other adaptations

David West Read on & Juliet
Shakespeare Unlimited

David West Read on & Juliet

Posted

Hit musical & Juliet combines Romeo and Juliet with the songs of pop hitmaker Max Martin. Its writer, Schitt’s Creek writer and executive producer David West Read, tells us about how the idea came to him while he was concussed.

Ian McKellen on Richard III, Macbeth, and Gandalf
Shakespeare Unlimited

Ian McKellen on Richard III, Macbeth, and Gandalf

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Sir Ian McKellen tells us about some of his most famous roles: playing Macbeth opposite Dame Judi Dench, King Richard III with a screenplay he co-wrote, and Gandalf the Grey in The Lord of the Rings films.

Adapting Shakespeare's 'Antony and Cleopatra' for opera
Amina Edris as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra
Shakespeare and Beyond

Adapting Shakespeare's 'Antony and Cleopatra' for opera

Posted
Author
Lucia Scheckner

Get an insider’s look at adapting a Shakespeare play for opera with this blog post by the dramaturg and libretto consultant for the new John Adams opera of “Antony and Cleopatra.”

John Adams Gives Antony and Cleopatra the Operatic Treatment
Shakespeare Unlimited

John Adams Gives Antony and Cleopatra the Operatic Treatment

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Adams talks with host Barbara Bogaev about how he turned a five-act play into a two-act opera—which scenes got the hook, new lines written in the style of the Bard, and what Shakespeare may have thought of the play’s characters.

Q&A: Allan Clayton on playing Hamlet in Brett Dean's opera
Allan Clayton as Hamlet
Shakespeare and Beyond

Q&A: Allan Clayton on playing Hamlet in Brett Dean's opera

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Author
Shakespeare & Beyond

Hamlet sings! A new opera version of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” is onstage now at the Metropolitan Opera, with tenor Allan Clayton resuming the title role that he played for the opera’s world premiere at the Glyndebourne Festival in 2017. Read our…

Brett Dean and Matthew Jocelyn on Their Hamlet Opera
Shakespeare Unlimited

Brett Dean and Matthew Jocelyn on Their Hamlet Opera

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Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 191 A new opera version of Hamlet is onstage at New York’s Metropolitan Opera through June 9. Composer Brett Dean and librettist Matthew Jocelyn talk with host Barbara Bogaev about adapting the texts of the earliest editions…

Pamela Hutchinson on Asta Nielsen's Hamlet
Shakespeare Unlimited

Pamela Hutchinson on Asta Nielsen's Hamlet

Posted

Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 188 In 1921, Asta Nielsen, one of the world’s biggest movie stars, had just formed her own production company, and decided to open it up by playing Hamlet. Plenty of women had done that on the stage…

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