Shows
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedShakespeare’s Narrative PoemsHow did early modern England understand race and how has that influenced our thinking?
Race is often considered a recent construct, but Shakespeare’s works—both his plays and poetry—reveal a diverse world already aware of race, identity, and difference. In this episode, Patricia Akhimie, editor of The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Race, discusses the growing field of study and what we can learn from it.
She is joined by two of the scholars contributing essays to the guide, Dennis Britton and Kirsten Mendoza, who are exploring the ways race, gender, and power intersect in Shakespeare’s long narrativ...2025-02-0633 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedStudying Shakespeare NowForget dusty textbooks and silent classrooms—the Folger Shakespeare Library has released new teaching guides designed to make the Bard’s works more engaging, accessible, and inclusive than ever before. In this episode, Peggy O’Brien, the editor behind these guides, and teachers Deborah Gascon and Mark Miazga, co-authors of the lesson plans for Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth respectively, explore how the Folger Method transforms student understanding by focusing on performance, collaboration, and creative engagement with Shakespeare’s language.
The discussion also addresses how the guides tackle important topics like race and gender and how to adapt to today’s technolo...2024-11-2036 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedJuliet, Then and Now, with Sophie DuncanWas Romeo and Juliet your first brush with Shakespeare? Whether it was on stage, on screen in films by Franco Zeffirelli or Baz Luhrmann or Shonda Rhimes' Still Star-Crossed, or in the pages of the Folger Shakespeare edition, your early experience probably shaped how you see Juliet. Over 400 years, our thinking about Shakespeare's first tragic heroine has shifted repeatedly, revealing as much about us as Shakespeare's play does. Oxford professor Sophie Duncan, Shakespeare scholar and author of Juliet: The Life and Afterlives of Shakespeare's First Tragic Heroine, explores the enduring legacy of one of Shakespeare's most iconic characters.
The conversation...2024-08-2737 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedA Tour of the Newly-Reopened Folger | Part 2: Research at the FolgerAfter a four-year renovation, the Folger Shakespeare Library is now open with 12,000 square feet of new public spaces. But behind the scenes, in our original building, we’ve also revamped the way we serve researchers working with the world’s largest Shakespeare collection. On this episode, host Barbara Bogaev talks with Director of Collections Greg Prickman, Folger Institute Director Patricia Akhimie, and Folger Director Michael Witmore about how research happens at the Folger, from Folger Institute fellowships to the chairs in our Reading Room. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published July 2, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights...2024-07-0231 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedA Tour of the Newly-Reopened Folger | Part 2: Research at the FolgerAfter a four-year renovation, the Folger Shakespeare Library is now open with 12,000 square feet of new public spaces. But behind the scenes, in our original building, we’ve also revamped the way we serve researchers working with the world’s largest Shakespeare collection. On this episode, host Barbara Bogaev talks with Director of Collections Greg Prickman, Folger Institute Director Patricia Akhimie, and Folger Director Michael Witmore about how research happens at the Folger, from Folger Institute fellowships to the chairs in our Reading Room.
From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published July 2, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produ...2024-07-0231 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedA Tour of the Newly-Reopened Folger | Part 1On June 21, the Folger reopens after a four-year renovation. The reimagined Folger has brand-new public exhibition spaces where we can introduce visitors to Shakespeare and his plays, as well as showcase some of the treasures of the Folger’s collection. Behind the scenes in the original building, we’ve also completely revamped the way we serve researchers visiting the world’s largest Shakespeare collection. In this episode, the first of two parts, celebrate our reopening with us and join Folger Director Michael Witmore and Shakespeare Unlimited host Barbara Bogaev on a tour of our building's public spaces. F...2024-06-1834 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedA Tour of the Newly-Reopened Folger | Part 1On June 21, the Folger reopens after a four-year renovation. The reimagined Folger has brand-new public exhibition spaces where we can introduce visitors to Shakespeare and his plays, as well as showcase some of the treasures of the Folger’s collection. Behind the scenes in the original building, we’ve also completely revamped the way we serve researchers visiting the world’s largest Shakespeare collection.
In this episode, the first of two parts, celebrate our reopening with us and join Folger Director Michael Witmore and Shakespeare Unlimited host Barbara Bogaev on a tour of our building.
From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published...2024-06-1834 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedFred Wilson on His New Othello-Inspired Work for the FolgerFred Wilson’s artistic output includes painting, sculpture, photography, and collage, among other media. But his 1992 work “Mining the Museum” at the Maryland Historical Society used the museum’s own collection as its material, radically reframing how American institutions present their art. Wilson went on to represent the United States at the 2003 Venice Biennale. For that exhibition, Wilson commissioned a black glass chandelier from the famed Venice glassmakers on the island of Murano. Wilson titled the piece “Speak of me as I am,” after the line from Shakespeare’s tragic Venetian, Othello. In the years since then, Wilson has mad...2024-06-0533 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedFred Wilson on his New, Othello-Inspired Work for the FolgerFred Wilson’s artistic output includes painting, sculpture, photography, and collage, among other media. But his 1992 work “Mining the Museum” at the Maryland Historical Society used the museum’s own collection as its material, radically reframing how American institutions present their art. Wilson went on to represent the United States at the 2003 Venice Biennale. For that exhibition, Wilson commissioned a black glass chandelier from the famed Venice glassmakers on the island of Murano. Wilson titled the piece “Speak of me as I am,” after the line from Shakespeare’s tragic Venetian, Othello.
In the years since then, Wilson has made several other p...2024-06-0533 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedRita Dove on Shakespeare and Her Poem of Welcome for the FolgerWhen the Folger reopens on June 21 and you come to take a walk in our new west entrance garden, look down. There, you'll see a new poem, written for the Folger by former US Poet Laureate Rita Dove. Dove joins us on the podcast to read that poem aloud for the first time. Plus, she reflects on how writing for marble is different from writing for the page, and remembers the moment she discovered Shakespeare. Rita Dove is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. Rita Dove served as the US Poet Laureate for two terms, from 1993 to 1995...2024-01-3037 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedRita Dove on Shakespeare and Her Poem of Welcome for the FolgerWhen the Folger reopens on June 21 and you come to take a walk in our new west garden, look down at the garden bed. There, you'll see a new poem, written for the Folger by US Poet Laureate emerita Rita Dove. This week, she joins us on the podcast to read that poem aloud for the first time. Plus, Dove reflects on how writing for marble is different from writing for the page, and remembers the moment she discovered Shakespeare. Rita Dove is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev.
Rita Dove served as the US Poet Laureate for two terms, from 1993 to 1995, an...2024-01-3037 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited400 Years of Shakespeare's First Folio, with Emma SmithThe First Folio—the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays—hit bookstores 400 years ago this November. Emma Smith of Oxford University tells us just what this famous book has been up to for the past four centuries. We explore notable collectors like Sir Edward Dering and our founders, Emily and Henry Folger; how the 18th-century slave trade supercharged the book’s value; how the 235 extant copies scattered across the world; and much more. Emma Smith is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev.
Emma Smith teaches Shakespeare at Oxford University and is the author of Shakespeare's First Folio: Four Centuries of an Iconic Bo...2023-11-0729 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedShakespeare and the Ocean, with Steve MentzToday, we sail the seven seas with Shakespeare. In addition to being a dedicated swimmer, Steve Mentz is a professor at St. John’s University. His books, including 2009’s At the Bottom of Shakespeare’s Ocean, connect literary criticism with marine ecology. Mentz talks with Barbara Bogaev about Shakespeare’s oceanic metaphors, how much Shakespeare really knew about the ocean, and what plays like The Tempest, King Lear, and Twelfth Night can teach us as we face rising sea levels and more destructive storms.
Steve Mentz is a Professor of English at St. John’s University. His new book, An Introducti...2023-08-2933 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedArtificial Intelligence Goes to English Class, with Jennifer Black, John Ladd, and Laura TurchiThe Folger: Hey ChatGPT! Could you write a six line Shakespearean monologue in iambic pentameter about an interview with Jennifer Black, Laura Turchi, and John Ladd about the challenges and opportunities that ChatGPT presents in the English classroom? Thank you!
ChatGPT: Of course, I'd be happy to write a Shakespearean monologue on that topic! Here it is:
Oh, how ChatGPT may bring the bard to light,
And in the English classroom, set things right.
With Jennifer, Laura, John to lead the way,
They'll show the world what ChatGPT can convey.
For in its code, a wealth of knowledge lies,
And...2023-02-2837 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedDebra Ann Byrd on Becoming Othello: A Black Girl's JourneyTheater-maker Debra Ann Byrd has played Othello in three different productions: first, in a staged reading in 2013, then again in 2015 and 2019. Each time, she learned a little bit more about Othello, and about herself. In her one-woman show Becoming Othello: A Black Girl’s Journey, Byrd recounts her experience discovering herself while playing Shakespeare’s tragic hero. The show reaches back to her childhood in Spanish Harlem, her mother’s tragic death, and her own struggles with depression. She also tells the story of how she was inspired to start the Harlem Shakespeare Festival after seeing how few opportunities there were f...2023-01-1735 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedBilly Collins on Writing Short Poems and Reading Shakespeare's SonnetsBilly Collins is one of America’s most well-known poets. He served as U.S. Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2003. His poetry collections frequently show up on bestseller lists, and his popular readings—three of which we’ve been lucky to host at the Folger—are warm and laughter-filled affairs.
In a wide-ranging interview, Collins talks about humanizing Shakespeare and other literary titans, delves into his own work and inspirations, and reads from his newest collection, Musical Tables. He is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev.
Billy Collins's new collection, Musical Tables, is available now from Random House.
From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Publishe...2022-11-2234 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedThe Robben Island Shakespeare, with David Schalkwyk (Rebroadcast)While Nelson Mandela was incarcerated on South Africa's Robben Island, one of the other political prisoners, Sonny Venkatrathnam, managed to retain a copy of Shakespeare's complete works. Venkatrathnam secretly circulated the book to many of his fellow prisoners—including Mandela—asking them to sign their names next to their favorite passages. As South African Shakespeare scholar David Schalkwyk explains to interviewer Rebecca Sheir, there is something special about "a book that had passed through the hands of the people who had saved my country." Schalkwyk shares some personal history and reveals what Shakespeare might have meant to the men who sign...2022-07-2019 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedAndrea Mays on The Millionaire and the Bard (Rebroadcast)Henry Clay Folger paid a world record price for a book—not once, but twice—as he became the world's leading collector of Shakespeare First Folios. The Folger Shakespeare Library celebrated its 90th birthday this past April. Did you ever wonder how all of our books got here? We talk with economist and author Andrea Mays about The Millionaire and the Bard, her 2015 biography of Henry Clay Folger, who founded the Folger together with Emily Jordan Folger, his wife. Mays shares some of the fascinating financial and personal details of Folger's life: in particular, how he went about assembling the world...2022-06-2228 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedShakespeare and Ukraine, with Irena MakarykDirector Oleksandr “Les” Kurbas’s 1920 Macbeth was the first production of a Shakespeare play in Ukraine. Kurbas staged the play in the midst of the famine and violence of the Russian Civil War: Lady Macbeth fainted from hunger in the wings, and Kurbas used series of hand signals to warn the actors onstage that they were about to be shot at.
Kurbas was one of the main subjects of “‘What's Past is Prologue’: Shakespeare and Canon Formation in Early Soviet Ukraine,” a presentation given by Dr. Irena Makaryk at Shakespeare and the Worlds of Communism, a 1996 conference sponsored by the Folger, Penn S...2022-05-1032 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedBlack Women Shakespeareans, 1821 – 1960, with Joyce Green MacDonaldBetween 1821 and 1960, it would have been vanishingly rare to see a Black woman onstage performing Shakespeare. In Dr. Joyce Green MacDonald’s chapter in the new Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Race, “Actresses of Color and Shakespearean Performance,” she digs deep into the history of American professional theater in the United States to find records of every Black woman who has been paid to perform or recite Shakespeare on stage in the United States. Barbara Bogaev talks with MacDonald about four performers who took to the stage in those 139 years: The African Grove Theatre’s “Miss Welsh,” Henrietta Vinton Davis, Adrienne McN...2022-02-0133 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedLena Cowen Orlin on The Private Life of William ShakespeareDr. Lena Cowen Orlin’s new book, The Private Life of Shakespeare, isn’t exactly a biography. Rather, it’s an exhaustive return to the primary sources that document Shakespeare’s life, a book that scholar James Shapiro says “demolishes shoddy claims and biased inferences that have distorted our understanding of Shakespeare’s life.” Orlin focuses on five much-talked-about elements of Shakespeare’s life, and then lays out fact after fact after fact about them drawn from her assiduous research. We talk with her about a few of those elements, including Shakespeare’s relationship with Anne Shakespeare, how he escaped an apprenticeship...2021-12-2135 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedShakespeare's Language and Race, with Patricia Akhimie and Carol Mejia LaPerleClose reading of Shakespeare is not a new concept. But this kind of close reading is more challenging—and it can help us interpret Shakespeare’s words in new and profound ways. Our guests are two contributors to the new Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Race: Dr. Patricia Akhimie, who wrote a chapter on race in the comedies, and Dr. Carol Mejia LaPerle, who wrote a chapter on race in the tragedies. Together, they explore the ways that Shakespeare’s language—think descriptors like “fair,” “sooty,” or “alabaster”—constructs and enshrines systems of race and racism. Akhmie and LaPerle are interviewed by Barbara...2021-10-2632 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedHow We Hear Shakespeare's Plays, with Carla Della GattaIn Shakespeare’s time, people talked about going to hear a play and going to see one in equal measure. So, what exactly do we hear when we hear one of Shakespeare’s plays? What information do we gather from its words, music, or sound effects? What if it has been adapted, updated, or translated? We ask Dr. Carla Della Gatta of Florida State University, co-editor of the new book "Shakespeare and Latinidad." Her study of Spanish-language or bilingual Shakespeare productions has led her to think a lot about the act of listening to a play. She talks to Barbara Boga...2021-07-2033 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedRace and Blackness in Elizabethan EnglandWhen did the concept of race develop? How far should we look back to find the attitudes that bolster white supremacy? We ask Dr. Ambereen Dadabhoy, an assistant professor of literature at Harvey Mudd College, and the author of a chapter in the monumental new Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Race called “Barbarian Moors: Documenting Racial Formation in Early Modern England.” Dadabhoy takes us back to Shakespeare’s London—a more diverse city than you might have imagined—to look at the racial ideologies reflected in two plays: George Peele’s The Battle of Alcazar and William Shakespeare’s Othello. Plus, we learn...2021-05-2533 min
Laborers in the HarvestConversation with Pete Folger - Part 3Conversation with Pete Folger - Part 32020-09-2221 minLaborers in the HarvestConversation with Pete Folger - Part 2Conversation with Pete Folger - Part 22020-09-1519 minLaborers in the HarvestConversation with Pete Folger - Part 1Conversation with Pete Folger - Part 12020-09-0817 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedMaggie O'Farrell on "Hamnet"Anne and William Shakespeare’s son Hamnet died in 1596, when he was 11 years old. We don’t know too much more about him. But novelist Maggie O’Farrell’s new book "Hamnet" delves into his story and comes away with a lyrical and moving portrait of a family’s grief. The novel is focused not so much on William Shakespeare—in fact, O’Farrell never actually mentions his name in the book—as it is on his family back in Stratford, and how they cope with Hamnet’s tragic death. On this episode, we talk to Maggie O’Farrell about how the idea for "Ha...2020-08-0435 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedDirecting ShakespeareNo two theater directors approach Shakespeare’s plays in the same way. When it comes to setting, blocking, costuming, casting, and cutting, there are countless ways directors can shape Shakespeare to make his works their own.
It’s with this sense of infinite possibility in mind that we invited two theater directors to join us for a conversation about how they approach Shakespeare. What goes in to directing one of Shakespeare’s plays? Where does a director start? What do directors think about as they kick off rehearsals?
Laura Gordon is a Milwaukee-based freelance theater director. She has directed at theate...2020-07-2136 minLaborers in the HarvestInterview with Andrew Folger - Part 2Interview with Andrew Folger - Part 22020-07-1415 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedThe BooksellersThe Folger started with Henry and Emily Folger, two collectors who loved books and Shakespeare and had the means to pursue what they loved. They were supported by booksellers, who make their livelihoods poring through collections of books and ephemera and bringing those items to the people who want them.
"The Booksellers," a new documentary directed by D.W. Young, explores the New York rare book world in all its depth, breadth, history, and quirkiness. In it, you’ll meet Syreeta Gates, who is preserving the artifacts of ‘80s and ‘90s hip-hop; Caroline Schimmel, a pioneering collecting of women’s writing...2020-07-0726 minLaborers in the HarvestInterview with Andrew Folger - Part 1Interview with Andrew Folger - Part 12020-07-0715 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedShakespeare and SolaceDo you have a passage from Shakespeare that you return to in difficult times? Is there a sonnet or soliloquy you keep coming back to for comfort or wisdom? This episode of Shakespeare Unlimited will be a little different. We sat down with the Folger’s director, Michael Witmore, and his predecessor in that office, Director Emerita Gail Kern Paster, to talk about the bits of Shakespeare that bring them solace. We also reached out to a few friends of the podcast and asked them to share a little Shakespeare with us. In the 52 minutes traffic of our episode, you’ll h...2020-04-2852 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedBooks and Reading in Shakespeare's EnglandDo you have a book that means something special to you? 400 years ago, when printed books were a fairly new thing, they meant something to their owners too. But what they meant was, in many ways, much different from what they mean today. In this episode we talk to two authors about how people read, acquired, and collected books in Shakespeare’s time. Stuart Kells is the author of Shakespeare’s Library (Counterpoint, 2019). It speculates on what books the Bard might have owned and tells some intriguing stories about people over the years who’ve claimed either to have found the li...2020-02-0434 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedIqbal Khan“If, with Shakespeare, we can thrill and tease an audience into embracing unknowing, that is one of the most important gifts that we can give,” says director Iqbal Khan. Khan has directed at Shakespeare’s Globe, in the West End, and at the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he staged Much Ado About Nothing, Antony and Cleopatra, Tartuffe, and Othello. We talked to Khan about race in Shakespeare’s plays, the math and physics degrees he almost got, and the importance of staging Shakespeare’s complexities and contradictions. Khan is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. From the Folger's Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published September 17...2019-09-1735 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedActing, Emotion, and Science on Shakespeare's StageHow do actors do what they do? How do they stir up emotions, both in themselves and in us as we watch them? Joseph Roach’s 1985 book The Player’s Passion: Studies in the Science of Acting examined how the actor’s art has been understood through history: from Shakespeare’s 17th century, when spirits emitted by actors’ eyes took hold of audiences, to David Garrick’s 18th century, when pneumatic tubes transmitted emotion from the brain to the body. We talk with Joseph Roach about historical theories of acting. These theories—shared by doctors, scientists, actors, and audiences—affected the way some of...2019-03-0534 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedPop Culture Shakespeare with Stefanie JochmanDo you remember what sparked your interest in Shakespeare? Was it a great performance, a magic moment in a high school English class, or a clever adaptation? When did you realize you were hooked? Across today’s pop culture landscape, there are more ways than ever to introduce young people to Shakespeare. Pop culture representations of Shakespeare’s plays aren’t just fun: they can help kids—and adults—to take ownership of Shakespeare’s language, critically examine his plots, and connect to his themes. And from West Side Story to The Simpsons, there’s no shortage of options. So we called up o...2018-11-2732 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedJulie Schumacher on The Shakespeare RequirementShould college students be required to study Shakespeare? As American universities examine the role of the liberal arts and humanities in our society, what will—and what should—happen to the Bard’s place in English curricula? The Shakespeare Requirement, novelist (and creative writing professor) Julie Schumacher’s new academic satire, asks just that. Jason Fitger, hero of Julie Schumacher’s 2014 novel Dear Committee Members, returns in her new book. The tactless and ineffective Fitger is now chair of the fictional Payne University’s English department, and he’s been tasked with marshaling the department’s faculty to approve a new Statement of...2018-11-1328 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedMarketing ShakespeareGetting audiences interested in Romeo and Juliet might be easy. But what about those more unfamiliar Shakespeare plays? Here’s an insider’s take on marketing and promotion at America’s Shakespeare festivals and theaters. Our guests are Katie Perkowski, Director of Marketing at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery, Alabama; Jeff Fickes, who is Communications Director at the Seattle Shakespeare Company; and Emma Corey, Director of Marketing and Communications at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in Garrison, New York. All three are part of the Folger’s Theater Partnership Program. They are interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. From the Shakespeare Unlimite...2018-01-0935 minShakespeare UnlimitedMarketing ShakespeareGetting audiences interested in Romeo and Juliet might be easy. But what about those more unfamiliar Shakespeare plays? Here’s an insider’s take on marketing and promotion at America’s Shakespeare festivals and theaters. Our guests are Katie Perkowski, Director of Marketing at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery, Alabama; Jeff Fickes, who is Communications Director at the Seattle Shakespeare Company; and Emma Corey, Director of Marketing and Communications at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in Garrison, New York. All three are part of the Folger’s Theater Partnership Program. They are interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. From the Shakespeare Unlimite...2018-01-0935 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedShakespeare and WarIn his one-man show "Cry Havoc!" actor Stephan Wolfert, a US Army veteran, draws together lines in Shakespeare’s plays spoken by soldiers and former soldiers—including Macbeth, Othello, and Richard III. He puts those words to the task of explaining the toll that soldiering and war can take on the psyches of the men and women who volunteer for military duty. He is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev.
From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published September 5, 2017. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode, “To the Battle Came He,” was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was ed...2017-09-0635 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedAdapting ShakespeareWhat exactly counts as a Shakespeare adaptation? And why bother in the first place? In this podcast episode, we talk with three writers who have wrestled with these questions.
Craig Wright is a TV writer and showrunner whose play, Melissa Arctic, a retelling of "The Winter’s Tale" set in rural Minnesota, premiered at Folger Theatre in 2004 and went on to play across the country. Chris Stezin’s play "Mac, Beth," which just ended a run at DC’s Keegan Theater, involves a businessman and his PR executive wife plotting to kill the CEO of Duncan Enterprises. Washington Post humor column...2017-05-0335 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedShakespeare and MarloweA few months ago, Oxford University Press decided that in the New Oxford Shakespeare, the plays Henry VI, Parts 1, 2, and 3 would no longer be listed as having been written by Shakespeare alone. Instead the title pages will say: “By William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe.”
To discuss how this kind of author attribution happens, we have Folger Director Michael Witmore and Eric Rasmussen, chair of the English department at the University of Nevada, Reno. They’re interviewed by Barbara Bogaev.
From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published February 21, 2017. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. “As if a Man Were Author if Himself”...2017-02-2135 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedUncovering Shakespeare's HouseSince 2002, a major organization in Stratford-upon-Avon, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, has supported an archaeological dig on the former grounds of a house called “New Place.” New Place was one of the biggest houses in Stratford when Shakespeare was a boy. Once he became a wealthy and famous playwright, he bought it. When he wasn’t in London, he lived there with his family until his death, 19 years later, in 1616.
The dig has revealed some tantalizing clues about how the Shakespeare family lived their lives – what they ate, how they cooked what they ate, and – as you’ll hear – how they worked and pla...2016-12-1333 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedShakespeare and YA NovelsWhile print sales of adult fiction are down in the last decade, the juvenile market – which includes young adult literature or "YA" – has actually gone up 40 percent. In this episode, two YA authors talk about their writing, their audience, their inspirations, and the role that Shakespeare plays in all of it.
Molly Booth’s first novel, "Saving Hamlet," was published in 2016 by Disney-Hyperion. It tells the story of an American teenager who time-travels back to Shakespeare’s Globe during the original production of "Hamlet."
Ryan North, best known as the creator of Dinosaur Comics, is the author of two titles that tak...2016-11-2931 min
Shakespeare UnlimitedStephen Greenblatt on Shakespeare's Life StoriesThere are a surprising number of characters in Shakespeare who propose or ask or even demand that someone tell their life’s story. (Think of Hamlet’s dying words to Horatio: “And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain / To tell my story.”) While that may not seem surprising on the face of it – Shakespeare was a storyteller after all – this idea of re-imagining your life so that it tells a story was not a common one in Shakespeare’s time.
In this episode of Shakespeare Unlimited, Harvard University’s Stephen Greenblatt expands upon the talk he gave earlier this yea...2016-11-1528 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedStephen Greenblatt on Shakespeare's Life StoriesThere are a surprising number of characters in Shakespeare who propose or ask or even demand that someone tell their life’s story. (Think of Hamlet’s dying words to Horatio: “And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain / To tell my story.”) While that may not seem surprising on the face of it – Shakespeare was a storyteller after all – this idea of re-imagining your life so that it tells a story was not a common one in Shakespeare’s time.
In this episode of Shakespeare Unlimited, Harvard University’s Stephen Greenblatt expands upon the talk he gave earlier this yea...2016-11-1528 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedShakespeare and GirlhoodHow does Shakespeare portray girls and girlhood in his plays, and what do those portrayals tell us about life in Elizabethan and Jacobean England? Our guest for this Shakespeare Unlimited episode, Deanne Williams of York University in Toronto, is the author of Shakespeare and the Performance of Girlhood, published in 2014. She is interviewed by Neva Grant.
From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published November 1, 2016. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This podcast episode, “Why, here's a girl!” was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster and Esther Ferington. Esther French is th...2016-11-0127 min
Shakespeare UnlimitedShakespeare in Sign LanguageGallaudet University in Washington, DC, is the world’s only university designed to be barrier-free for deaf and hard of hearing students. For more than 150 years, its students have been performing Shakespeare without spoken words. This month, the Folger Shakespeare Library’s nationwide First Folio tour stops at Gallaudet, which also has a companion exhibition called “First Folio: Eyes on Shakespeare,” curated by Jill Bradbury, a Gallaudet English professor. In this podcast she takes us on a tour of the exhibition and of the world of Shakespeare in sign language.
Transcript here: http://www.folger.edu/sites/default/files/ShaxUnlimited_Gallaude...2016-10-1827 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedShakespeare in Sign LanguageGallaudet University in Washington, DC, is the world’s only university designed to be barrier-free for deaf and hard of hearing students. For more than 150 years, its students have been performing Shakespeare without spoken words. This month, the Folger Shakespeare Library’s nationwide First Folio tour stops at Gallaudet, which also has a companion exhibition called “First Folio: Eyes on Shakespeare,” curated by Jill Bradbury, a Gallaudet English professor. In this podcast she takes us on a tour of the exhibition and of the world of Shakespeare in sign language.
Transcript here: http://www.folger.edu/sites/default/files/ShaxUnlimited_Gallaude...2016-10-1827 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedAnecdotal ShakespeareThe curses associated with the Scottish play. Using a real skull for the Yorick scene in "Hamlet." Over the centuries, these and other fascinating theatrical anecdotes have attached themselves to the plays of William Shakespeare.
Many of these stories have been told and re-told, over and over, century after century – with each new generation inserting the names of new actors into the story and telling the story as if it just occurred. So “One night David Garrick was backstage” becomes, “So one night Edmund Kean was backstage” which then becomes, “So one night Richard Burton was backstage.” And so on.
Our guest, Pau...2016-09-2030 min
Shakespeare UnlimitedHow Shakespeare's First Folio Became a StarToday, the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s works, printed in 1623, can sell for millions of dollars. But the First Folio wasn’t always valued so highly. In this podcast episode, two experts in the First Folio and the book trade, Adam Hooks and Dan De Simone, chart the rise of the First Folio—how and when this book became a cultural icon with such a dizzying price tag.
Adam Hooks is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the University of Iowa and author of “Selling Shakespeare: Biography, Bibliography, and the Book Trade.” Dan De Simone is the Eric W...2016-09-0632 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedHow Shakespeare's First Folio Became a StarToday, the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s works, printed in 1623, can sell for millions of dollars. But the First Folio wasn’t always valued so highly. In this podcast episode, two experts in the First Folio and the book trade, Adam Hooks and Dan De Simone, chart the rise of the First Folio—how and when this book became a cultural icon with such a dizzying price tag.
Adam Hooks is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the University of Iowa and author of “Selling Shakespeare: Biography, Bibliography, and the Book Trade.” Dan De Simone is the Eric W...2016-09-0632 min
Shakespeare UnlimitedElizabethan MedicineBeing a patient in Shakespeare’s time was an adventure. You might be told to drink liquid gold or syrup of violets. You might undergo a violent purgation to take the bad humors out of your body. They might draw blood from your ankle or your arm. But while these prescriptions seem laughable today, elements of the thinking they were based on have come all the way down to us in the 21st century. That thinking, though it might seem unrelated to Shakespeare's stories, is surprisingly present in his writing.
Neva Grant interviews Gail Kern Paster and Barbara Traister about me...2016-08-2328 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedElizabethan MedicineBeing a patient in Shakespeare’s time was an adventure. You might be told to drink liquid gold or syrup of violets. You might undergo a violent purgation to take the bad humors out of your body. They might draw blood from your ankle or your arm. But while these prescriptions seem laughable today, elements of the thinking they were based on have come all the way down to us in the 21st century. That thinking, though it might seem unrelated to Shakespeare's stories, is surprisingly present in his writing.
Neva Grant interviews Gail Kern Paster and Barbara Traister about me...2016-08-2328 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedAmerican Moor"Othello" is the story of a tragic murder and suicide involving a dark-skinned general and his aristocratic, white-skinned bride. Who should direct it? Who’s “allowed” to? What if a white director and the actor he’s cast as Othello simply do not see eye-to-eye on the play’s subtext, the Moor’s motivations, and what the audience is supposed to take away from the production?
That conflict is at the heart of a one-man show currently being performed around the country called "American Moor." In it, a black actor – the play’s author, Keith Hamilton Cobb – stands on stage and addresses an i...2016-08-0925 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedThe Food of Shakespeare's WorldThis episode shifts slightly from our usual intense focus on Shakespeare. Instead, we are talking about the world that he inhabited, or at least a small part of that world: the kitchen. Kitchens, and what goes on in them, come up in Shakespeare’s plays with surprising frequency, whether directly or, more often, obliquely.
Our guest is Wendy Wall, an English professor at Northwestern University and director of the Kaplan Institute for the Humanities. Her 2015 book Recipes for Thought: Knowledge and Taste in the Early Modern English Kitchen explores household recipes and what they tell us about English culture when Sh...2016-07-2628 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedRecreating the Boydell GalleryIn the decades after Shakespeare's death, his works temporarily fell out of favor. His renaissance is usually credited to actor-manager David Garrick, who staged a Shakespeare Jubilee in 1769. Riding Garrick's coattails, an artistic entrepreneur named John Boydell later opened one of England's first art galleries, devoted to paintings of scenes from Shakespeare plays. The Boydell Shakespeare Gallery has now been recreated online.
Our guest is Janine Barchas, an English professor at the University of Texas at Austin and curator of the Folger's upcoming exhibition, "Will & Jane." Barchas led the team that reconstructed Boydell's gallery as a website. We talked with...2016-07-1229 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedReduced Shakespeare CompanyDiscovered in a treasure-filled parking lot in Leicester, England, an ancient manuscript proves to be the long-lost first play by none other than the young William Shakespeare from Stratford. That’s the premise of the latest work from the Reduced Shakespeare Company, “William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (Abridged),” which premieres at Folger Theatre in April 2016.
The comedy troupe’s current directors are also its longest-serving performers, Austin Tichenor and Reed Martin. Barbara Bogaev interviews them about this new play and how it’s radically different from every other show they’ve written up to now.
From the Shakespeare Unlimited podc...2016-04-0525 min
Shakespeare UnlimitedInside the Folger Conservation LabThe Folger is the world’s largest Shakespeare collection, and the crown jewels of that collection are the 82 First Folios. To celebrate 400 years of Shakespeare, eighteen of these rare books are traveling the country throughout 2016 in the “First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare” exhibition. But before they hit the road, each First Folio received a little TLC from Folger conservators up on the third floor. In this podcast episode, Renate Mesmer takes us on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Werner Gundersheimer Conservation Laboratory.
Renate Mesmer is the Folger’s Head of Conservation. Austin Plann-Curley is a project conservator in the l...2016-03-2230 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedInside the Folger Conservation LabThe Folger is the world’s largest Shakespeare collection, and the crown jewels of that collection are the 82 First Folios. To celebrate 400 years of Shakespeare, eighteen of these rare books are traveling the country throughout 2016 in the “First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare” exhibition. But before they hit the road, each First Folio received a little TLC from Folger conservators up on the third floor. In this podcast episode, Renate Mesmer takes us on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Werner Gundersheimer Conservation Laboratory.
Renate Mesmer is the Folger’s Head of Conservation. Austin Plann-Curley is a project conservator in the l...2016-03-2230 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedInside the Folger Conservation LabThe Folger is the world’s largest Shakespeare collection, and the crown jewels of that collection are the 82 First Folios. To celebrate 400 years of Shakespeare, eighteen of these rare books are traveling the country throughout 2016 in the “First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare” exhibition. But before they hit the road, each First Folio received a little TLC from Folger conservators up on the third floor. In this podcast episode, Renate Mesmer takes us on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Werner Gundersheimer Conservation Laboratory. Renate Mesmer is the Folger’s Head of Conservation. Austin Plann-Curley is a project conservator in the l...2016-03-2230 minShakespeare UnlimitedInside the Folger Conservation LabThe Folger is the world’s largest Shakespeare collection, and the crown jewels of that collection are the 82 First Folios. To celebrate 400 years of Shakespeare, eighteen of these rare books are traveling the country throughout 2016 in the “First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare” exhibition. But before they hit the road, each First Folio received a little TLC from Folger conservators up on the third floor. In this podcast episode, Renate Mesmer takes us on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Werner Gundersheimer Conservation Laboratory.
Renate Mesmer is the Folger’s Head of Conservation. Austin Plann-Curley is a project conservator in the l...2016-03-2230 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedShakespeare and MagicIn Shakespeare’s THE TEMPEST, the magician Prospero conjures up a storm, charms his daughter to sleep, and uses his power to control Ariel and other spirits. Is this magic for real, or is Prospero pulling off elaborate illusions?
Fascinated by this question and by Prospero’s relinquishing of magic at the play’s end, Teller (of the magic/comedy team Penn & Teller) co-directed a production of THE TEMPEST with Aaron Posner at Chicago Shakespeare Theater in 2015.
In this episode of Shakespeare Unlimited, Teller joins Barbara Mowat, director of research emerita at the Folger and co-editor of the Folger Editions, to tal...2016-03-0832 minShakespeare UnlimitedShakespeare and MagicIn Shakespeare’s THE TEMPEST, the magician Prospero conjures up a storm, charms his daughter to sleep, and uses his power to control Ariel and other spirits. Is this magic for real, or is Prospero pulling off elaborate illusions?
Fascinated by this question and by Prospero’s relinquishing of magic at the play’s end, Teller (of the magic/comedy team Penn & Teller) co-directed a production of THE TEMPEST with Aaron Posner at Chicago Shakespeare Theater in 2015.
In this episode of Shakespeare Unlimited, Teller joins Barbara Mowat, director of research emerita at the Folger and co-editor of the Folger Editions, to tal...2016-03-0832 min
Shakespeare UnlimitedAndrea Mays: The Millionaire and the BardHenry Clay Folger paid a world record price for a book—not once, but twice—as he became the world's leading collector of Shakespeare First Folios.
In this episode, economist and author Andrea Mays talks with Neva Grant about some of the fascinating financial and personal details of Folger's life, and in particular, how he went about collecting all these books.
Folger, of course, did not limit himself to First Folios. He also, together with his wife Emily Jordan Folger, assembled the world’s largest Shakespeare collection—and founded the Folger Shakespeare Library. Mays's book "The Millionaire and the Bard" was publ...2015-11-1828 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedAndrea Mays: The Millionaire and the BardHenry Clay Folger paid a world record price for a book—not once, but twice—as he became the world's leading collector of Shakespeare First Folios.
In this episode, economist and author Andrea Mays talks with Neva Grant about some of the fascinating financial and personal details of Folger's life, and in particular, how he went about collecting all these books.
Folger, of course, did not limit himself to First Folios. He also, together with his wife Emily Jordan Folger, assembled the world’s largest Shakespeare collection—and founded the Folger Shakespeare Library. Mays's book "The Millionaire and the Bard" was publ...2015-11-1828 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedStanley Wells on Great Shakespeare ActorsFor the majority of audience members, Shakespeare is brought to life by the actors and actresses who speak his lines.
Shakespeare scholar Stanley Wells considered all of the most outstanding Shakespeare performers, from past to present, and essentially created his own personal Hall of Fame. He’s written about these artists in a book called "Great Shakespeare Actors: Burbage to Branagh."
Wells sifted through firsthand accounts from those who saw these great performers on stage to get a sense of what the actors brought to Shakespeare and why it was worth going to see them.
Stanley Wells is interviewed by St...2015-10-2123 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedMusic for Shakespeare's LyricsThe majority of Shakespeare’s plays call for singing — sometimes it’s part of the action, sometimes it seems to spring out of nowhere. And while the lyrics to the songs appear to have always been a part of the text, the musical notes for those lyrics have been lost over the years.
Over four centuries of staging Shakespeare, directors have explored different approaches to filling in these musical gaps.
David Lindley, professor emeritus of literature and music at the University of Leeds, is our guest for this episode of Shakespeare Unlimited.
His book, SHAKESPEARE AND MUSIC, appeared in 2006 in the Ar...2015-10-0731 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedThe Year of Lear1606 was a critical year for Shakespeare’s creative career. It was the year in which he wrote KING LEAR, MACBETH, and ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. It was also a time in which the king of England, James I, faced internal political challenges that threatened to tear the nation apart.
James Shapiro is our guest for this episode of Shakespeare Unlimited. His new book, THE YEAR OF LEAR, examines how the events of 1606 touched Shakespeare’s life and whether they are reflected in his work.
James Shapiro is a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. THE YEAR OF LEAR: SHAK...2015-09-2329 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedEditing ShakespeareJust what exactly does it mean to edit the works of Shakespeare, particularly since we have no surviving manuscript copies? Why is it that new editions of the plays continue to be published?
In this episode of Shakespeare Unlimited, Rebecca Sheir interviews Paul Werstine and Suzanne Gossett about the how and why of editing Shakespeare.
Since 1989, Paul Werstine has been the co-editor of the Folger Editions, along with Barbara Mowat. He’s also a professor of English at King’s University College in London, Ontario.
Suzanne Gossett is co-general-textual editor of "The Norton Shakespeare, 3rd Edition" and professor emerita of Engl...2015-09-0931 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedShakespeare's France and Italy"Myself, a prince by fortune of my birth, . . .
Have stooped my neck under your injuries
And sighed my English breath in foreign clouds"
—RICHARD II (3.1.16, 19–20)
Shakespeare's plays are well stocked with merchants of Venice, gentlemen of Verona, lords and ladies of France, and other foreign characters. But what did he—and his audiences—really know about such distant places and people?
In this episode of Shakespeare Unlimited, Rebecca Sheir poses that question about France and Italy—the two foreign lands that Shakespeare wrote about the most.
Her guests are Deanne Williams, author of "The French Fetish from Chaucer to Shakespeare" (2004) and associ...2015-05-2022 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedElizabethan Street Fighting"Blood hath been shed ere now, i' th' olden time,
Ere humane statute purged the gentle weal;
Ay, and since too, murders have been performed
Too terrible for the ear."
—MACBETH(3.4.91–94)
From the duels in ROMEO AND JULIET to a brutal mob in JULIUS CAESAR, street fighting transforms several of Shakespeare's plays. How much, though, does it reflect (or differ from) the mean streets of his day?
Rebecca Sheir talks violence in Elizabethan times with Vanessa McMahon, author of "Murder in Shakespeare's England" (2004), and Casey Kaleba, an expert in Elizabethan street crime and one of the Washington, DC, area's most soug...2015-05-0530 minShakespeare UnlimitedElizabethan Street Fighting"Blood hath been shed ere now, i' th' olden time,
Ere humane statute purged the gentle weal;
Ay, and since too, murders have been performed
Too terrible for the ear."
—MACBETH(3.4.91–94)
From the duels in ROMEO AND JULIET to a brutal mob in JULIUS CAESAR, street fighting transforms several of Shakespeare's plays. How much, though, does it reflect (or differ from) the mean streets of his day?
Rebecca Sheir talks violence in Elizabethan times with Vanessa McMahon, author of "Murder in Shakespeare's England" (2004), and Casey Kaleba, an expert in Elizabethan street crime and one of the Washington, DC, area's most soug...2015-05-0530 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedMyths About Shakespeare"It is not so. Thou hast misspoke, misheard.
Be well advised; tell o'er thy tale again.
It cannot be; thou dost but say 'tis so."
—KING JOHN (3.1.5–7)
Even if you’re not a Shakespeare scholar, there are things you have learned about Shakespeare and his plays throughout your life – that it’s bad luck to say the name of “the Scottish play” or that Shakespeare hated his wife. Are any of these stories true? And whether they are or not, what do they tell us about previous eras, and our own?
Rebecca Sheir talks Shakespeare myths with Emma Smith, professor of English at...2015-04-2225 min
Shakespeare UnlimitedRecounting Shakespeare's LifeHer father loved me, oft invited me,
Still questioned me the story of my life
From year to year—the battles, sieges, fortunes
That I have passed.
—Othello (1.3.149–152)
What do we know about Shakespeare's life? The answer: Not as much as we would like to. As much or as little, in other words, as we would about any middle-class Englishman of his time.
This episode of Shakespeare Unlimited considers not only that question, but two others: During the past four centuries, when and how did biographers learn about Shakespeare's life? And does knowing about any writer's biography, including Shakespeare's, make any di...2015-04-0828 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedRecounting Shakespeare's LifeHer father loved me, oft invited me,
Still questioned me the story of my life
From year to year—the battles, sieges, fortunes
That I have passed.
—Othello (1.3.149–152)
What do we know about Shakespeare's life? The answer: Not as much as we would like to. As much or as little, in other words, as we would about any middle-class Englishman of his time.
This episode of Shakespeare Unlimited considers not only that question, but two others: During the past four centuries, when and how did biographers learn about Shakespeare's life? And does knowing about any writer's biography, including Shakespeare's, make any di...2015-04-0828 min
Shakespeare UnlimitedShakespeare in Black and White"Our own voices with our own tongues"
—CORIOLANUS (2.3.47)
In one of two podcasts on Shakespeare and the African American experience, "Our Own Voices with Our Own Tongues" revisits the era when Jim Crow segregation was at its height, from a few years after the end of the Civil War to the 1940s and 1950s.
Rebecca Sheir, host of the Shakespeare Unlimited series, talks about black Americans and Shakespeare in that time with two scholars of the period, Marvin MacAllister and Ayanna Thompson.
The discussion ranges from landmark performances—Orson Welles's Depression-era all-black MACBETH and Paul Robeson's Othello— to powerful, though less f...2015-03-2030 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedShakespeare in Black and White"Our own voices with our own tongues"
—CORIOLANUS (2.3.47)
In one of two podcasts on Shakespeare and the African American experience, "Our Own Voices with Our Own Tongues" revisits the era when Jim Crow segregation was at its height, from a few years after the end of the Civil War to the 1940s and 1950s.
Rebecca Sheir, host of the Shakespeare Unlimited series, talks about black Americans and Shakespeare in that time with two scholars of the period, Marvin MacAllister and Ayanna Thompson.
The discussion ranges from landmark performances—Orson Welles's Depression-era all-black MACBETH and Paul Robeson's Othello— to powerful, though less f...2015-03-2030 min
Shakespeare UnlimitedThe Rarely Performed Shakespeare Plays"As jewels lose their glory if neglected,
So princes their renowns if not respected."
—PERICLES (2:2:12–13)
Every year, theaters across the United States and the world treat us to Shakespeare—which usually means such frequently produced plays as HAMLET, MACBETH, and ROMEO AND JULIET. Some Shakespeare plays, however, are rarely performed today.
Why is that, was this always the case, and what is it like to stage those plays now? Rebecca Sheir, host of the Shakespeare Unlimited series, talks with historian Richard Schoch and two contemporary directors—Stephanie Coltrin, of California's Little Fish Theatre, who directed KING JOHN, and Noah Brody, co-artis...2015-03-2028 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedThe Rarely Performed Shakespeare Plays"As jewels lose their glory if neglected,
So princes their renowns if not respected."
—PERICLES (2:2:12–13)
Every year, theaters across the United States and the world treat us to Shakespeare—which usually means such frequently produced plays as HAMLET, MACBETH, and ROMEO AND JULIET. Some Shakespeare plays, however, are rarely performed today.
Why is that, was this always the case, and what is it like to stage those plays now? Rebecca Sheir, host of the Shakespeare Unlimited series, talks with historian Richard Schoch and two contemporary directors—Stephanie Coltrin, of California's Little Fish Theatre, who directed KING JOHN, and Noah Brody, co-artis...2015-03-2028 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedA New First Folio Discovery"As truth's authentic author to be cited,
'As true as Troilus' shall crown up the verse"
—TROILUS AND CRESSIDA (3.2.182–183)
Not long ago, the world learned of a remarkable discovery: An old book in a French library, acquired in the 1790s, was identified as an unknown copy of the 1623 First Folio of Shakespeare—the first collection of Shakespeare's plays. Before this find, there were 232 known First Folios in the entire world. Now, there are 233.
Rebecca Sheir, host of the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series, talks with Eric Rasmussen, who authenticated the French discovery. An expert on the First Folio, Rasmussen gets the call w...2015-03-2020 min
Shakespeare UnlimitedPronouncing English as Shakespeare Did"Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced
it to you, trippingly on the tongue."
—HAMLET (3:2:1–2)
When Shakespeare wrote his lines, and actors first spoke them, how did they say the words—and what does that tell us?
Rebecca Sheir, host of the Shakespeare Unlimited series, talks "original pronunciation" (OP) with Shakespearean actor Ben Crystal and his father, linguist David Crystal, one of the world's foremost researchers on how English was spoken in Shakespeare's time.
Filled with lively banter as well as familiar lines spoken in OP, the conversation offers a different perspective on the plays, from the puns and rh...2015-03-2028 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedPronouncing English as Shakespeare Did"Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced
it to you, trippingly on the tongue."
—HAMLET (3:2:1–2)
When Shakespeare wrote his lines, and actors first spoke them, how did they say the words—and what does that tell us?
Rebecca Sheir, host of the Shakespeare Unlimited series, talks "original pronunciation" (OP) with Shakespearean actor Ben Crystal and his father, linguist David Crystal, one of the world's foremost researchers on how English was spoken in Shakespeare's time.
Filled with lively banter as well as familiar lines spoken in OP, the conversation offers a different perspective on the plays, from the puns and rh...2015-03-2028 min
Shakespeare UnlimitedBrave New Worlds: The Shakespearean Moons of UranusSometimes it seems you can hear or see traces of Shakespeare just about anywhere on Earth. But how about around the planet Uranus, which had not even been discovered in Shakespeare's time?
In this celestial edition, Rebecca Sheir, host of the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series, traces the quirky, fascinating, and little-known tale of the 27 known moons of Uranus—nearly all of which have Shakespearean names.
Through the voices of historians, actors, and modern scientists, "Brave New Worlds" tells the story behind that curious fact, starting with the planet's discovery in 1781 and continuing through Voyager 2's flyby in 1986 and the discoveries of...2015-03-2040 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedBrave New Worlds: The Shakespearean Moons of UranusSometimes it seems you can hear or see traces of Shakespeare just about anywhere on Earth. But how about around the planet Uranus, which had not even been discovered in Shakespeare's time?
In this celestial edition, Rebecca Sheir, host of the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series, traces the quirky, fascinating, and little-known tale of the 27 known moons of Uranus—nearly all of which have Shakespearean names.
Through the voices of historians, actors, and modern scientists, "Brave New Worlds" tells the story behind that curious fact, starting with the planet's discovery in 1781 and continuing through Voyager 2's flyby in 1986 and the discoveries of...2015-03-2040 min
Shakespeare UnlimitedRomeo and Juliet Through the Ages"For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."
—ROMEO AND JULIET(5.3.320)
Though the tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet is a perennial favorite, the world around the play has changed in the four centuries since it was first performed. Shifting attitudes about taboo love and marriage, gender roles, and even guns and street violence inform the way we read or see the play today.
Rebecca Sheir, host of our Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series, talks with theater scholars and artists about how ROMEO AND JULIET has been cut and molded to fit certain cu...2015-03-2031 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedRomeo and Juliet Through the Ages"For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."
—ROMEO AND JULIET(5.3.320)
Though the tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet is a perennial favorite, the world around the play has changed in the four centuries since it was first performed. Shifting attitudes about taboo love and marriage, gender roles, and even guns and street violence inform the way we read or see the play today.
Rebecca Sheir, host of our Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series, talks with theater scholars and artists about how ROMEO AND JULIET has been cut and molded to fit certain cu...2015-03-2031 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedArtistic Directors Talk Shakespeare"And by that destiny to perform an act / Whereof what’s past is prologue, what to come / In yours and my discharge."
(The Tempest, 2.1.288)
Shakespeare's words and stories may be timeless, but what does that mean when you stage his plays for a modern American audience? That's a challenge that artistic directors relish as they explore the plays' many possibilities. This podcast looks at some of the ingenious approaches they’ve come up with, as well as the thinking behind them.
"What's Past Is Prologue" features the voices of artistic directors from Oregon to Minneapolis to Washington, DC. These interviews were...2015-03-2019 minShakespeare UnlimitedArtistic Directors Talk Shakespeare"And by that destiny to perform an act / Whereof what’s past is prologue, what to come / In yours and my discharge."
(The Tempest, 2.1.288)
Shakespeare's words and stories may be timeless, but what does that mean when you stage his plays for a modern American audience? That's a challenge that artistic directors relish as they explore the plays' many possibilities. This podcast looks at some of the ingenious approaches they’ve come up with, as well as the thinking behind them.
"What's Past Is Prologue" features the voices of artistic directors from Oregon to Minneapolis to Washington, DC. These interviews were...2015-03-2019 min
Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedWhy Shakespeare's Stories Still Resonate"I prithee speak to me as to thy thinkings," (Othello, 3.3.152)
How do Shakespeare's works, written so long ago, still speak to us today?
Just as actors and directors strive to work out this question on the stage, the academy continues to find new meaning in Shakespeare, too.
Rebecca Sheir, host of our Shakespeare Unlimited series, talks with scholars Gail Kern Paster and Jeremy Lopez about why we continue to learn something new from Shakespeare's plays more than four hundred years after their first performance.
Gail Kern Paster is director emerita of the Folger Shakespeare Library.
Jeremy Lopez is an associate...2015-03-2016 minShakespeare UnlimitedWhy Shakespeare's Stories Still Resonate"I prithee speak to me as to thy thinkings," (Othello, 3.3.152)
How do Shakespeare's works, written so long ago, still speak to us today?
Just as actors and directors strive to work out this question on the stage, the academy continues to find new meaning in Shakespeare, too.
Rebecca Sheir, host of our Shakespeare Unlimited series, talks with scholars Gail Kern Paster and Jeremy Lopez about why we continue to learn something new from Shakespeare's plays more than four hundred years after their first performance.
Gail Kern Paster is director emerita of the Folger Shakespeare Library.
Jeremy Lopez is an associate...2015-03-2016 min
Shakespeare UnlimitedActresses on Shakespeare"All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players."
(As You Like It, 2.7.146-147)
In Shakespeare's time, only men appeared on stage, with teenage boys playing the women's parts. Today, women play women and sometimes men—and vice-versa.
In this podcast we have gathered some of the best-known actresses in the Folger's home town, Washington, DC—Naomi Jacobsen, Cam Magee, Francelle Stewart Dorn, Victoria Reinsel, Charlene V Smith, and Holly Twyford—to talk about their experiences on stage with Shakespeare.
The all-female staging of RICHARD III was produced for Brave Spirit Theater, with Jenna Berk as Georg...2015-03-2020 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedActresses on Shakespeare"All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players."
(As You Like It, 2.7.146-147)
In Shakespeare's time, only men appeared on stage, with teenage boys playing the women's parts. Today, women play women and sometimes men—and vice-versa.
In this podcast we have gathered some of the best-known actresses in the Folger's home town, Washington, DC—Naomi Jacobsen, Cam Magee, Francelle Stewart Dorn, Victoria Reinsel, Charlene V Smith, and Holly Twyford—to talk about their experiences on stage with Shakespeare.
The all-female staging of RICHARD III was produced for Brave Spirit Theater, with Jenna Berk as Georg...2015-03-2020 min
Shakespeare UnlimitedThe Robben Island ShakespeareWhile Nelson Mandela was incarcerated on South Africa's Robben Island, one of the other political prisoners managed to retain a copy of Shakespeare's complete works, which was secretly circulated through the group. At that prisoner's request, many of the others—including Mandela—signed their names next to their favorite passages.
As Shakespeare scholar David Schalkwyk, also a South African, explains to interviewer Rebecca Sheir, there is something special about "a book that had passed through the hands of the people who had saved my country."
Schalkwyk shares some personal history and reveals what Shakespeare might have meant to the men who...2015-03-2018 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedThe Robben Island ShakespeareWhile Nelson Mandela was incarcerated on South Africa's Robben Island, one of the other political prisoners managed to retain a copy of Shakespeare's complete works, which was secretly circulated through the group. At that prisoner's request, many of the others—including Mandela—signed their names next to their favorite passages.
As Shakespeare scholar David Schalkwyk, also a South African, explains to interviewer Rebecca Sheir, there is something special about "a book that had passed through the hands of the people who had saved my country."
Schalkwyk shares some personal history and reveals what Shakespeare might have meant to the men who...2015-03-2018 min
Shakespeare UnlimitedDesigning Shakespeare“And I hope here is a play fitted.”
—A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (1.2.63)
There's an old Broadway saying (sometimes attributed to Richard Rodgers) that "No one ever walked out of a theater humming the scenery." Nevertheless, costume and scenery designers can be vital to the success of a play.
In this episode of the Shakespeare Unlimited series, Steve Martin talks with Denise Walen about the sweeping changes in costumes, scenery, and other staging choices in the 400 years since Shakespeare's time.
From elaborate settings and carefully researched costumes that were meant to educate audiences, to modernist stripped-down sets or fanciful reimaginings, Shakespeare produc...2015-02-2518 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedDesigning Shakespeare“And I hope here is a play fitted.”
—A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (1.2.63)
There's an old Broadway saying (sometimes attributed to Richard Rodgers) that "No one ever walked out of a theater humming the scenery." Nevertheless, costume and scenery designers can be vital to the success of a play.
In this episode of the Shakespeare Unlimited series, Steve Martin talks with Denise Walen about the sweeping changes in costumes, scenery, and other staging choices in the 400 years since Shakespeare's time.
From elaborate settings and carefully researched costumes that were meant to educate audiences, to modernist stripped-down sets or fanciful reimaginings, Shakespeare produc...2015-02-2518 min
Shakespeare UnlimitedAfrican Americans and Shakespeare"Freedom, high-day! High-day, freedom! Freedom, high-day, freedom!"
—THE TEMPEST(2.2.192-193)
In this second of two podcasts on Shakespeare and the African American experience, "Freedom, Hey-Day! Hey-Day, Freedom!" examines some of the many ways—including, but not limited to, performance—that black Americans have encountered, responded to, taken ownership of, and sometimes turned away from Shakespeare's words.
Rebecca Sheir, host of the Shakespeare Unlimited series, narrates this expansive, interview-filled look at the intersection between African American life and Shakespeare, from stage productions to personal and academic encounters with the texts.
Kim Hall is a professor of English at Barnard College.
Caleen Sinnet...2015-02-2532 minFolger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare UnlimitedAfrican Americans and Shakespeare"Freedom, high-day! High-day, freedom! Freedom, high-day, freedom!"
—THE TEMPEST(2.2.192-193)
In this second of two podcasts on Shakespeare and the African American experience, "Freedom, Hey-Day! Hey-Day, Freedom!" examines some of the many ways—including, but not limited to, performance—that black Americans have encountered, responded to, taken ownership of, and sometimes turned away from Shakespeare's words.
Rebecca Sheir, host of the Shakespeare Unlimited series, narrates this expansive, interview-filled look at the intersection between African American life and Shakespeare, from stage productions to personal and academic encounters with the texts.
Kim Hall is a professor of English at Barnard College.
Caleen Sinnet...2015-02-2532 min