Booking and details
RegisterDates Fri, Mar 12 – Sat, Mar 13, 2027
Venue Folger Library
Tickets $350
Duration 10am – 5pm each day
Join a national community of teachers for two days devoted entirely to Hamlet through active learning, performance, and discovery at the Folger Shakespeare Library, home of the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare materials.
Grounded in the Folger Method and the Folger Guide to Teaching Hamlet, this weekend takes the longest, knottiest play in the canon and shows how the same simple, powerful practices can make its language feel like an invitation rather than a wall, making this complex work teachable for every student. Beyond the practical professional learning, the weekend includes time with rare materials from the collection and a ticket to see the Folger Theatre production of Hamlet.
This program is open to middle and high school teachers from across the United States. No prior Shakespeare experience required.
Teaching with the Folger Method
Experience the Folger Method in Action: Step into the role of both learner and teacher. You will work through Hamlet the way your students will, starting with individual words and lines, building toward scenes, and connecting every discovery back to the classroom. Each activity is one you can use the moment you get home.
Make a Hard Play Reachable: Hamlet rewards close attention, and the Folger Method is built for exactly that. You will dig into how to scaffold the play’s density, soliloquies, silences, and shifts in tone, so that students at every level can find their footing and their voice in the text.
Follow the Questions That Last: Grief, memory, conscience, action and delay, and the masks people wear: Hamlet hands students the biggest questions there are. You will explore how performance lets young people inhabit those questions rather than just answer them, building empathy, confidence, and real ownership of the language along the way.
Bring It Back to Your Classroom: By the end of the weekend, you’ll have a clear, flexible plan for teaching Hamlet and a set of Folger Method Essential Practices you can put to work right away.
Sessions will be led by Liam Dempsey, Associate Director of Education at the Folger Shakespeare Library, and Mentor Teacher Corinne Viglietta.
Explore the Folger collection
Beyond the workshops, you will step behind the scenes of the world’s largest Shakespeare collection. Spend hands-on time with rare materials tied to Hamlet and its long performance history, from early printings to the actors and readers who kept the play alive for centuries. You will visit the Shakespeare Exhibition Hall to see the 82 First Folios of Shakespeare’s plays first published in 1623 and watch a demonstration of the Folger’s working replica of a 17th-century printing press in action. Throughout the weekend you will consider how these primary sources, and the Folger’s digital collection, can deepen your students’ encounters with the play.
Experience and receive classroom resources
Participants leave the weekend with:
- Hands-on experience using the Folger Method with a single, challenging play
- Monday-ready lessons and activities built on the Folger Method Essential Practices
- Strategies for scaffolding, adapting, and assessing student work on Hamlet
- A strengthened national network of educators committed to active, inclusive teaching
Cost
Registration is $350, and space is limited. Reserve your spot now and join teachers from across the country for two unforgettable days of learning, performance, and discovery at the Folger Shakespeare Library.
Faculty
Liam Dempsey
Associate Director of Education
Corinne Viglietta
Corinne Viglietta teaches Upper School English at The Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore, Maryland. From 2014-2022, Corinne was Associate Director of Education at the Folger Shakespeare Library, where she had the honor of exploring the wonders of language with thousands of amazing teachers, students, and visitors. Corinne played a key role in Folger’s national teaching community and school partnerships. She has led workshops on the Folger Method for numerous organizations, including the Smithsonian, National Council of Teachers of English, and American Federation of Teachers. Corinne is a lifelong Folger educator, having first discovered the power of this approach with her multilingual students in DC and France. She has degrees in English from the University of Notre Dame and the University of Maryland.