Jane Austen

Take this quiz and test your knowledge of Jane Austen and Shakespeare! We give you a character from a Jane Austen novel, and you pick the corresponding character from Shakespeare’s plays, based on personality or storyline. Can you pair these Shakespeare…

Sense & Sensibility set designer John McDermott designed Bedlam’s Sense & Sensibility in New York and has designed over 100 productions in theaters around the country. Check out the first part of his reflections on the Folger’s Sense & Sensibility and read on to learn about about why designing this production…

Although the Bard may have a longer history of such flattery, both Will and Jane have suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous adaptations. In the 20th century, Austen joined Shakespeare in his entrance into modern media—film, television, and digital forms—as…

Sense & Sensibility is set designer John McDermott’s first Folger production. He designed Bedlam’s Sense & Sensibility in New York and has designed over 100 productions in theaters around the country. You can learn more about John’s work and see photos of his previous designs on…

One of the stories told by the current exhibition Will & Jane: Shakespeare, Austen, and the Cult of Celebrity is that literary renown is as much about commodities as about books. Literary celebrity transforms authors into objects. Our exhibition traces…

Sense & Sensibility costume designer Mariah Hale has previously designed productions of Julius Caesar, Mary Stuart, and more at the Folger. Visit these links to explore her design process for those performances, and check out her costume sketches for Sense & Sensibility below! The Ladies  Gentlemen   

Jane Austen, who was born in 1775, came of age in the 1790s and started publishing in the 1810s; her first novel, Sense and Sensibility, came out in 1811. She died in 1817, which makes 2017 the 200th anniversary of…

Sense & Sensibility starts rehearsals on Monday and performances on September 13. Come meet the Dashwoods, Steeles, Middletons and more! The Dashwood Sisters The Eligible Bachelors  Friends of the Dashwoods The Steele Sisters 

As you’ve seen on this blog already, the next Folger exhibition, Will & Jane: Shakespeare, Austen, and the Cult of Celebrity (August 6 to November 6), will be a fascinating look at the posthumous celebrities of William Shakespeare and Jane…

As curators of the upcoming exhibition Will & Jane: Shakespeare, Austen, and the Cult of Celebrity opening at the Folger on August 6, we could not help viewing the new Austen film Love & Friendship through a Shakespearean lens—and with…