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
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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.
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The curious and complicated case of Locrine
The curious and complicated history of the 16th-century play “The Lamentable Tragedie of Locrine” prompts interesting conversations about the Shakespeare canon and its apocrypha.
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Our revels now are ended: Reflections on the Shakespeare 2020 Project
Shakespeare & Beyond readers may remember author Ian Doescher’s announcement here in December 2019 that he would be reading through all of Shakespeare’s works in 2020, inviting anyone interested to join him. Many of our readers said yes! We asked…
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Top 5 Folger Finds of 2020
Revisit the bright spots of 2020 by taking a look at some of our most popular #FolgerFinds posts on Instagram from the past year. Highlights from the Folger collection include a beautiful book binding, a striking costume design, and a…
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Razing the Theatre, raising the Globe
The story of the Globe Theatre’s beginnings is one of intrigue, legal hairsplitting, holiday opportunity, and the disassembly of another playhouse.
Top 5 Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episodes of 2020
Our top Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episodes from 2020 explore Shakespeare’s sources, his sonnets, and the solace we take in his work. Happy listening!
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Early modern recipe combinations to get you through the winter
We’ve shared so many early modern recipe adaptations on this blog that it might feel overwhelming to choose from them all. That’s why we’ve created some delicious combinations for you to experiment with over the holidays and beyond. You’ll find…
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The post-modern peregrinations of Pericles
The story of Pericles continues to be retold by twenty-first century novelists, among them Mark Haddon, in The Porpoise (2019), and Ali Smith, in Spring (2019), the penultimate book in her “Seasonal Quartet.”
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Strange Shakespeare: Shakespeare in the flesh and the beginnings of the biopic
Charles Somerset’s “Shakspeare’s Early Days” of 1829 was a prototype of the Shakespearean biopic and also a critique of the theatrical establishment.
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What theater makers learned from 2020
We asked some of our Shakespeare theater partners what the events of 2020 had illuminated for them about Shakespeare and theater.
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Order It: The prologue to Romeo and Juliet
“Two households, both alike in dignity…” Take this quiz to see if you can correctly order the lines of the prologue to Romeo and Juliet.
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Early modern sleep care: Recipes for restful sleep
Thomas Sheppey devoted several densely written pages of his 17th-century manuscript to the topic of sleep — how to trigger it, how to interrupt it, how to influence its depth and length, and even how to stop people talking in…
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William Shakespeare: International man of mystery
Austin Tichenor writes about how the lack of biographical details about Shakespeare’s life leaves his audience always wanting more.