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Orson Welles

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A memorable Macbeth: Setting the Scottish play in 19th-century Haiti
Shakespeare and Beyond

A memorable Macbeth: Setting the Scottish play in 19th-century Haiti

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Shakespeare & Beyond

Read about the 1936 “voodoo Macbeth” in this excerpt from The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War by James Shapiro.

Up Close: The voodoo Macbeth that generated jobs for Black Americans during the Great Depression
Shakespeare and Beyond

Up Close: The voodoo Macbeth that generated jobs for Black Americans during the Great Depression

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Shakespeare & Beyond

A spectacular 1936 Federal Theatre Project production of “Macbeth” in New York City employed hundreds of black actors and theater technicians. It was financed by the Federal Theatre Project, a controversial part of the federal government’s New Deal programs to…

Chimes at Midnight: Orson Welles is Falstaff
Orson Welles as Falstaff in Chimes at Midnight
Shakespeare and Beyond

Chimes at Midnight: Orson Welles is Falstaff

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Michael Anderegg

Chimes at Midnight, the 1966 film directed by and starring Orson Welles, constructs a rich, complex, and moving portrait of the larger-than-life Sir John Falstaff, who appears in three of Shakespeare’s plays and is among the best-known characters in all…

Orson Welles and the Voodoo 'Macbeth' that launched his directing career
Shakespeare and Beyond

Orson Welles and the Voodoo 'Macbeth' that launched his directing career

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Esther French

That’s a hot ticket! (Photo Credit: Library of Congress) Can you feel the feverish excitement in the air? This photograph from April 14, 1936, shows the crowded streets outside the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem on opening night for the Federal Theatre…