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Staging Shakespeare

From jazzercise to Rococo garden: Four different takes on Love's Labor's Lost
The cast of William Shakespeare's Love's Labor's Lost, directed by Kathleen Marshall, running August 14 - September 18, 2016 at The Old Globe. Photo by Jim Cox.
Shakespeare and Beyond

From jazzercise to Rococo garden: Four different takes on Love's Labor's Lost

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Esther French

In Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor’s Lost, four friends forswear women so that they can focus on their studies. But, of course, as soon as they do, four lovely ladies enter their lives. Oh, what to do? Romance and comedy ensue. Four of our…

How to counteract the curse of Macbeth (er, The Scottish Play)
Macbeth dagger
Shakespeare and Beyond

How to counteract the curse of Macbeth (er, The Scottish Play)

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Author
Esther French

Don’t say “Macbeth” in a theater, or you’ll be cursed. Or at least that’s how the old superstition goes. That’s why you’ll often hear actors refer to it as “The Scottish Play.” It’s one of many stories connected with the performance…

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…

Shakespeare's 'Merchant of Venice': Perpetuating stereotypes or sparking much-needed conversations?
Shylock in District Merchants
Shakespeare and Beyond

Shakespeare's 'Merchant of Venice': Perpetuating stereotypes or sparking much-needed conversations?

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Author
Esther French

Matthew Boston (Shylock) in District Merchants, a variation on Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. Folger Theatre, 2016. Photo by Teresa Wood. Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice ends badly for Shylock, with the court ruling against him and his claim on Antonio’s…

Shakespeare Live: Staging the plays outdoors
Bree Murphy (left) as Mistress Quickly and Marco Antonio Vega as Bardolph in the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s 2016 production of Henry V. (Photo by Karl Hugh. Copyright Utah Shakespeare Festival 2016.)
Shakespeare and Beyond

Shakespeare Live: Staging the plays outdoors

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Shakespeare & Beyond

Bree Murphy (left) as Mistress Quickly and Marco Antonio Vega as Bardolph in the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s 2016 production of Henry V. Photo by Karl Hugh. Copyright Utah Shakespeare Festival 2016. Whether they are produced under the stars, in the moonlight, by…

Charlotte Cushman, an American star
Thomas Sully. Charlotte Cushman. Oil on canvas, 1843. Folger Shakespeare Library.
Shakespeare and Beyond

Charlotte Cushman, an American star

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Shakespeare & Beyond

Thomas Sully. Charlotte Cushman. Oil on canvas, 1843. As we celebrate Shakespeare in 2016, it’s also time to mark some other dates on the calendar. This Saturday, July 23, 2016, is the 200th anniversary of Charlotte Cushman’s birth. Cushman was among the…

Staging Shakespeare in a day
Kimberly Gilbert will play Joan la Pucelle in this year's Bootleg Shakespeare: Henry VI, part 1. Photo by Marcus Kyd.
Shakespeare and Beyond

Staging Shakespeare in a day

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Shakespeare & Beyond

Kimberly Gilbert will play Joan la Pucelle in 2016 in Bootleg Shakespeare: Henry VI, Part 1. Photo by Marcus Kyd. On Monday, July 18, the Taffety Punk Theatre Company will take over Folger Theatre to plan and perform a “bootleg” version…

Orson Welles and the Voodoo 'Macbeth' that launched his directing career
Shakespeare and Beyond

Orson Welles and the Voodoo 'Macbeth' that launched his directing career

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Author
Esther French

That’s a hot ticket! (Photo Credit: Library of Congress) Can you feel the feverish excitement in the air? This photograph from April 14, 1936, shows the crowded streets outside the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem on opening night for the Federal Theatre…

Reduced Shakespeare Company and the golden age of Shakespeare parodies
Shakespeare and Beyond

Reduced Shakespeare Company and the golden age of Shakespeare parodies

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Author
Richard Schoch

Reduced Shakespeare Company. (l-r) Reed Martin, Teddy Spencer, Austin Tichenor. Photo by Jeff Thomas. A high point in the Folger Shakespeare Library’s 2016 celebration of Shakespeare, The Wonder of Will, is the return appearance of the Reduced Shakespeare Company—the other…

Portraits in Hamlet: ‘Look here upon this picture, and on this’
Folger Theatre's 2010 Hamlet
Shakespeare and Beyond

Portraits in Hamlet: ‘Look here upon this picture, and on this’

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Author
Richard Schoch

One of the oldest theatrical legends about Shakespeare is that he played the ghost in Hamlet. We know that Shakespeare was both an actor and a playwright, but we have no idea whether he acted this small, but memorable role.…

King and Country: Shakespeare treasures from the Folger
Charles Kean Promptbook
Shakespeare and Beyond

King and Country: Shakespeare treasures from the Folger

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Author
Esther French

A special exhibition of rare quartos, promptbooks, and other treasures from the Folger collection accompanies the Royal Shakespeare Company staging of King and Country: Shakespeare’s Great Cycle of Kings at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York this month. Director Gregory…

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