The Two Shakespeares: Myth and Mortal
A discussion with Dr. Farah Karim-Cooper and Karen Ann Daniels
Booking and details
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Dates Sun, Jan 25, 2026, 1:30pm
Venue Reading Room
Tickets $20
Please note: Children under the age of 4 are not permitted.
Folger Director Dr. Farah Karim-Cooper and Folger Theatre Artistic Director Karen Ann Daniels sit down to discuss how Shakespeare is perceived today. Why are so many people compelled by the “authorship” question? How did a working playwright become a mythological genius? And how can we play with perceptions around him and his works to create new meaning?
How to attend the festival
Individual events – $20
Reading Room Festival All-Access Pass – $125
Access to all staged readings, panel discussions, workshops, and community celebrations included in the Festival.
Students – Free admission to readings and conversations
Admitted free one-half hour before event start time, with a valid ID.
Who’s Who
Dr. Farah Karim-Cooper
Dr. Farah Karim-Cooper is the eighth director of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC. The Folger opened in 1932 as a home to the monumental collection of Shakespeare’s works and materials from the early modern world amassed by founders Henry and Emily Folger. Today, Dr. Karim-Cooper leads a staff of around 150 who continue to grow and care for the collection, provide opportunities for research and scholarship, program the Folger’s Elizabethan-style theatre, offer training and classes for educators and students, and operate museum galleries and a café. As the Folger approaches its second century, Dr. Karim-Cooper is positioning the organization as an international leader for practical applications of Shakespeare and the humanities in civic life.
Karen Ann Daniels
Karen Ann Daniels is the Director of Programming and Performance at the Folger Shakespeare Library and Artistic Director of Folger Theatre. A native San Diegan, she is an accomplished actor, director, playwright, vocalist, musician, and community organizer. Prior to joining the Folger, she was director of the Mobile Unit at The Public Theater in NYC, producing tours around all five boroughs of NYC bringing the tools of theater to incarcerated community through Mobile Unit in Corrections (MUiC).
In her prior role as the associate director of The Old Globe’s Arts Engagement department, she managed community partnerships, and created, piloted, and implemented cornerstone programs such as Globe for All, Behind the Curtain, coLAB, Community Voices, and Reflecting Shakespeare. She is a thought-leader, facilitator, and contributing architect for creating tools to help cultural institutions integrate anti-racism, equity, accessibility, community and audience engagement, and shared leadership as a long-term mission-oriented strategy for organizational growth. She is a 2021 Fellow at the Atlantic Fellows on Racial Equity, a network of leaders from the US and South Africa working to build expansive new futures in which Black people, and all people of color, are seen, valued, and respected. She served as chair of the City of Chula Vista’s Cultural Arts Commission, as well as the New California Arts Fund Leadership and Learning Committees, and is a co-producer and facilitator for the biannual Shakespeare in Prisons Conference and Network. In recent years, her creative work focused on co-creation as a composer/lyricist/playwright for musicals like gather ‘round and The Ruby in Us, centering the lives and stories of community.