Austin Tichenor
![All Is True and Upstart Crow All Is True and Upstart Crow](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2019/06/all-is-true-upstart-crow.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Ben Elton’s 'Upstart Crow' and 'All Is True': Shakespeare in different keys
Kenneth Branagh in All Is True and David Mitchell in Upstart Crow. (IMDB) Ben Elton is no stranger to Shakespeare. The British author and actor played Verges alongside Michael Keaton’s Dogberry in Kenneth Branagh’s 1993 film Much Ado About Nothing.…
![Love's Labor's Lost Love's Labor's Lost](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2019/05/Loves-Labors-Lost-020-crBrittanyDiliberto.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Love's Labor's Lost: The end of study
“What’s especially delightful about Love’s Labor’s Lost is that it’s a comedy about melancholy, a satire on youthful arrogance, intellectual pretension, and romantic naiveté,” writes Austin Tichenor.
![John Barrymore as Hamlet Photograph of John Barrymore as Hamlet](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2019/04/003014.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
John Barrymore: A bridge to Shakespearean actors past
John Barrymore is sometimes passed over in the lists of great Shakespeare actors, but he was an important transitional figure in our understanding of the evolution of Shakespearean performance styles, writes Austin Tichenor.
![Merchant of Venice Merchant of Venice](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2019/03/009060-cropped.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Whither the Shakespeare purist?
Austin Tichenor of the Reduced Shakespeare Company asks what it means to be a Shakespeare purist and attempts to interpret audience reactions.
![Chicago Shakespeare Theater: The Taming of the Shrew Chicago Shakespeare Theater: The Taming of the Shrew](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2019/02/Chicago-Shakespeare-Taming-of-the-shrew-book-club.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Shakespeare book clubs: the pleasures and frustrations of diving into the plays with a group
It’s not unusual to see theaters sponsoring monthly or semi-regular meetings devoted to reading and talking about Shakespeare’s plays.
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In the Giving Vein: The Pop-Cultural Legacy of Olivier's Richard III
With a US audience of tens of millions in its TV release at the same time it was released in American theaters, Laurence Olivier’s film “Richard III” (1955) has left a lasting, sometimes hilarious, legacy in pop culture, from Peter…
![TWood_AYLI_640_web sm Aaron Krohn as Touchstone, in green with guitar, in As You Like It, Folger Theatre, 2017. Photo by Teresa Wood.](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2018/12/TWood_AYLI_640_web-sm.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Thine Own Self
From the question “What are you?” (Countess Olivia) to “Tell my story” (Hamlet), Austin Tichenor looks at finding your identity and telling your story, through a decidedly Shakespearean lens.
![Twelfth Night web-244 William Oliver Watkins as Orsino and Caitlin McWethy as Viola in Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s 2018 Twelfth Night, directed by Austin Tichenor. By Mikki Schaffner Photography.](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2018/11/Twelfth-Night-web-244.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Twelfth Night: The Hamlet of the comedies
Austin Tichenor suggests that “Twelfth Night” is the “Hamlet” of the comedies, dealing with loss, separation, and death and using some surprisingly similar elements — but in a far happier way.
![035772 The Tempest at His Majesty's Theatre, Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Caliban. Charles A. Buchel. Tatler, 1904. Folger Shakespeare Library.](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2018/10/035772.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
This thing of darkness: Caliban and the Creature from Frankenstein
As Mary Shelley’s novel “Frankenstein” marks its 200th anniversary (and with Halloween on its way), Austin Tichenor explores the parallels between the Creature from “Frankenstein” and Caliban from “The Tempest” and their fictional creators: Frankenstein and Prospero–as well as what…
![045891 Imagining the audience at the Globe](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2018/09/045891-audience-globe.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Elizabethan theater etiquette and audience expectations today
Austin Tichenor writes about the theater-going experience in Shakespeare’s time and how that contrasts with audience expectations today.
![William Shakespeare's Long Lost First Play (abridged) William Shakespeare's Long Lost First Play (abridged)](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2018/08/RSC-LongLost-crTWood.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Discovering Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play
Austin Tichenor of the Reduced Shakespeare Company writes about the creation of William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (abridged).
![Photograph from Laurence Olivier's movie of Henry V Photograph from Laurence Olivier's movie of Henry V](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2018/07/003441.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Shakespeare's patriotic empathy
Austin Tichenor writes about Shakespeare’s history plays, the political considerations of the day, and patriotic portrayals centuries later.