Shakespeare Unlimited
Shakespeare’s Boy Player Alexander Cooke
In Shakespeare’s time, women onstage were played by boys, and for those boy players, fame could be fleeting. Nicole Galland’s novel Boy follows Alexander “Sander” Cooke, a real-life actor in Shakespeare’s company.
King Lear and Mao’s China, with Nan Z. Da
What can King Lear teach us about power today? Nan Z. Da shares how Shakespeare’s play echoes her family’s experience in Maoist China, how Shakespeare anticipates authoritarianism, and why Lear may be Shakespeare’s most “Chinese” play.
Top five Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episodes of 2024
Enjoy the top five Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episodes from 2024, ranked by number of listens.
How popular was Shakespeare in his day?
In an excerpt from a classic Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episode, Emma Smith explores a fascinating question: how popular was Shakespeare in his lifetime?
New ideas for summer reading
Explore great Shakespeare-related ideas for summer reading from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s online book club, blogs, and podcast.
Shakespeare Unlimited podcast: Episodes by play
Marking a milestone: 200 episodes of Shakespeare Unlimited
To celebrate releasing the 200th episode of the Folger’s Shakespeare Unlimited podcast, we revisit our five most popular episodes to date.
Active reading in the 16th century: Commonplace books and sammelbands
Collecting extracts of text in commonplace books and binding multiple books together to create a sammelband were two notable practices of readers in the 16th and 17th centuries, as Jason Scott-Warren (University of Cambridge) explains in this excerpt from a…
Nicholas Rowe, early Shakespeare biographer
Nicholas Rowe is often referred to as William Shakespeare’s first biographer because his 1709 edition of Shakespeare’s works included an introduction with details about Shakespeare’s life. However, some of those details don’t appear to have much basis in the historical…
Top Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episodes of 2021
Our top Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episodes from 2021 explore the British royal family, a Shakespeare-inspired novel, lost plays, and more. Happy listening! How We Hear Shakespeare’s Plays, with Carla Della Gatta In Shakespeare’s time, people talked about going to hear…
Such Sweet Thunder: The musical sonnets in Duke Ellington's Shakespeare suite
Duke Ellington includes “musical sonnets” in his 12-song Shakespeare jazz suite, Such Sweet Thunder. Learn more about this 1957 milestone in the story of jazz and Shakespeare from an interview with Douglas Lanier.
Helena Modjeska, a shining Polish-American star
Born on October 12, 1840, the Shakespearean star Helena Modjeska shone bright in two very different theatrical worlds, first becoming a leading lady in Warsaw and then, after moving to Anaheim, California, launching a second career as a leading actress…