The Shakespeare & Beyond blog features a wide range of Shakespeare-related topics: the early modern period in which he lived, the ways his plays have been interpreted and staged over the past four centuries, the enduring power of his characters and language, and more.
Shakespeare & Beyond
![Shax_beyond_small_banner](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2022/11/Shax_beyond_small_banner.jpg?resize=1200%2C400&gravity)
Shakespeare & Beyond also explores the topics that shape our experience of Shakespeare today: trends in performance, the latest discoveries and scholarship, news stories, pop culture, interesting books, new movies, the rich context of theater and literary history, and more. As the word “beyond” suggests, from time to time Shakespeare & Beyond also covers topics that are not directly linked to Shakespeare.
Questions or comments? You can reach us at shakespeareandbeyond@folger.edu.
![A scene from The Merchant of Venice A scene that takes place in Venice in Italy](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2022/01/034397-fb.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
The world of Italy in Shakespeare's comedies - Excerpt: Shakespeare and the Comedy of Enchantment
Charles Cattermole. A scene from The Merchant of Venice. 19th century. Folger ART Box C368.5 no.1 (size S) Italy is the setting most associated with Shakespeare’s comedies, providing layers of dramatic potential that Kent Cartwright explores in an excerpt from…
![Diana and Pericles The Greek goddess Artemis - also called Diana](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2022/01/TWood_Pericles_520.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Artemis, a fierce and fickle goddess
Artemis (possibly Shakespeare’s favorite) was the Greek goddess of chastity, hunting, and the moon, often depicted with her trusty bow and arrow and a short tunic to aid in running through the woods.
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Quiz: Siblings in Shakespeare's plays
Folger ART File R667.3 no.7 copy 1 PHOTO (size S) Shakespeare’s plays are full of brothers and sisters. Test your knowledge by seeing if you can correctly identify these characters’ siblings. Siblings in Shakespeare’s Plays Shakespeare’s plays are full of…
![Denzel Washington in “The Tragedy of Macbeth Denzel Washington in “The Tragedy of Macbeth](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2022/01/The_Tragedy_of_Macbeth_Photo_0103_sm.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
The power of restriction: Joel Coen's 'The Tragedy of Macbeth'
Denzel Washington in The Tragedy of Macbeth, now streaming on Apple TV+ A movie that honors a play’s theatricality: That’s what director Joel Coen said he wanted for The Tragedy of Macbeth, his new adaptation of the Scottish play. The…
What's onstage at Shakespeare theaters in January
This January, new productions kick off at the Atlanta Shakespeare Company and Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. Plus, streaming productions of Macbeth, a podcast returns, and a new audio play.
![Production crew of BEDLAM: The Series Production crew of BEDLAM: The Series](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2022/01/Bedlam-The-Series-Day-1-3-scaled-fb.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Making BEDLAM: Creating a Shakespeare mash-up series
Production crew of BEDLAM: The Series. Photo by Ashley Garrett. Eric Tucker is an off-Broadway director and Artistic Director of Bedlam Theatre. Musa Gurnis is an early modern theater scholar and actor. When we pitched our Shakespeare mash-up series BEDLAM…
![West Side Story cast](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2022/01/west-side-story-2021-fb.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
West Side Story: A new take on Romeo and Juliet, 60 years later
Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story is a layering of theatrical devices, a Hollywood riff on both a famous musical and a Shakespearean story for 21st-century audiences.
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Top Folger Finds on Instagram in 2021: Shakespeare books
Calling all book lovers! Some of our most popular #FolgerFinds posts on Instagram this year featured beautiful bindings of Shakespeare’s collected works or early editions of Shakespeare plays that may have slightly different plot elements than the versions we’ve come…
Year in Review: Top Shakespeare & Beyond stories in 2021
What were the most popular stories this year on the Shakespeare & Beyond blog? Posts about love, coffee, and Ian McKellen made the top five.
Top Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episodes of 2021
Our top Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episodes from 2021 explore the British royal family, a Shakespeare-inspired novel, lost plays, and more. Happy listening! How We Hear Shakespeare’s Plays, with Carla Della Gatta In Shakespeare’s time, people talked about going to hear…
![Station Eleven miniseries two men onstage hovering over a third man lying dead](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2021/12/himesh-patel-gael-garcia-bernal-fb.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
“The world unwinding”: Station Eleven, Shakespeare, and an artist’s-eye view of apocalypse
During the covid-19 pandemic, two methods of escape for me have been Shakespeare and depictions of fictional catastrophes, so you can imagine my excitement when I learned that a novel that combines both — Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven…
![John Cranford Adams with his model of the Globe Theatre man with a scale model of the Globe Theatre](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2022/01/man-with-scale-model-globe-scaled-1.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Miniature models of the Globe—with Folger connections
There is a long tradition of attempting to reconstruct the 1599 Globe, the multi-level open-air playhouse where many of Shakespeare’s plays were first performed. It will always be difficult to determine various details about the 1599 Globe, which burned to…