Q&A

Director Mei Ann Teo shares the vision for Folger Theatre’s production of Twelfth Night. Shakespearean original practice, the soulful pop of local icon composer Be Steadwell, and an ensemble proposition all inform a production that Teo describes as “hilarious, sexy, and devastating.”

Folger Theatre’s Twelfth Night begins performances May 13. Composer Be Steadwell shares how The Cure, Elizabethan traditional ballads, the underground club scene in Berlin, and queer ball culture all inspire the songs for this production.

John Douglas Thompson, who is playing the title role in Othello in the Royal Shakespeare Company production, shares his insights about the character and the play.

Greg Prickman discusses Imprints in Time, the first special exhibition in the new space, including Tolkien’s edits and an ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead.

Peggy O’Brien helps us explore a giant, richly detailed fictional map filled with Shakespeare’s characters, newly created for the Folger’s exhibition spaces.

Michael Witmore talks about his experiences as Folger director and the recent Folger grand reopening.

“We are all Leontes.” Director Tamilla Woodard shares her favorite moments from The Winter’s Tale and what audiences should be watching for when they see the play.

In this bilingual Hamlet, a Black and Latinx prince has his sense of identity fractured by the loss of his Black father.

Lolita Chakrabarti shares historical context about pioneering 19th-century Black actor Ira Aldridge, the subject of her play Red Velvet, including a notable detail about his funeral in Poland which she learned after she’d written the play.

Director Sam Gold shares what he loves most about Macbeth, why it stands out from other Shakespeare tragedies he’s directed, and how his ideas about the play changed over time.

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.