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Shakespeare in performance

Love's Labor's Lost

Four centuries of staging Shakespeare

In order to make Shakespeare’s plays accessible and appealing to audiences, theater practitioners around the world have shaped both the text and the style of production to mirror and speak into their own time and place.

People have used Shakespeare’s plays as a medium for political commentary, incorporated them into other theatrical traditions, and adapted them as films, operas, musicals and other art forms.

Explore the variety of Shakespeare in performance.

Our Shakespeare theater partnership program:
What’s onstage across America

 

What's onstage at Shakespeare theaters in April
Shakespeare and Beyond

What's onstage at Shakespeare theaters in April

Posted
Author
Ben Lauer

We take a look at what’s onstage at Shakespeare theaters across the United States.

What's onstage at Shakespeare theaters in March
Shakespeare and Beyond

What's onstage at Shakespeare theaters in March

Posted

Find out what’s happening at Shakespeare theaters across the US this month, including Caesar, Merchant, Macbeth, and more.

What's Onstage at Shakespeare Theaters in February
Shakespeare and Beyond

What's Onstage at Shakespeare Theaters in February

Posted
Author
Ben Lauer

See what’s onstage at Shakespeare theaters across the United States this month.

Folger Theatre

The award-winning Folger Theatre is a national leader in performance related to Shakespeare’s works.

Film, opera, musicals, and other adaptations

Worthy scaffold: The epic intimacy of William Shakespeare
a dramatic black and white image of a man and woman leaning with their faces close together
Shakespeare and Beyond

Worthy scaffold: The epic intimacy of William Shakespeare

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Author
Austin Tichenor

Austin Tichenor writes about movies that feel like plays and theater that feels cinematic.

David West Read on & Juliet
Shakespeare Unlimited

David West Read on & Juliet

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Hit musical & Juliet combines Romeo and Juliet with the songs of pop hitmaker Max Martin. Its writer, Schitt’s Creek writer and executive producer David West Read, tells us about how the idea came to him while he was concussed.

Ian McKellen on Richard III, Macbeth, and Gandalf
Shakespeare Unlimited

Ian McKellen on Richard III, Macbeth, and Gandalf

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Sir Ian McKellen tells us about some of his most famous roles: playing Macbeth opposite Dame Judi Dench, King Richard III with a screenplay he co-wrote, and Gandalf the Grey in The Lord of the Rings films.

Adapting Shakespeare's 'Antony and Cleopatra' for opera
Amina Edris as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra
Shakespeare and Beyond

Adapting Shakespeare's 'Antony and Cleopatra' for opera

Posted
Author
Lucia Scheckner

Get an insider’s look at adapting a Shakespeare play for opera with this blog post by the dramaturg and libretto consultant for the new John Adams opera of “Antony and Cleopatra.”

John Adams Gives Antony and Cleopatra the Operatic Treatment
Shakespeare Unlimited

John Adams Gives Antony and Cleopatra the Operatic Treatment

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Adams talks with host Barbara Bogaev about how he turned a five-act play into a two-act opera—which scenes got the hook, new lines written in the style of the Bard, and what Shakespeare may have thought of the play’s characters.

Q&A: Allan Clayton on playing Hamlet in Brett Dean's opera
Allan Clayton as Hamlet
Shakespeare and Beyond

Q&A: Allan Clayton on playing Hamlet in Brett Dean's opera

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Author
Shakespeare & Beyond

Hamlet sings! A new opera version of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” is onstage now at the Metropolitan Opera, with tenor Allan Clayton resuming the title role that he played for the opera’s world premiere at the Glyndebourne Festival in 2017. Read our…

Brett Dean and Matthew Jocelyn on Their Hamlet Opera
Shakespeare Unlimited

Brett Dean and Matthew Jocelyn on Their Hamlet Opera

Posted

Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 191 A new opera version of Hamlet is onstage at New York’s Metropolitan Opera through June 9. Composer Brett Dean and librettist Matthew Jocelyn talk with host Barbara Bogaev about adapting the texts of the earliest editions…

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