Shakespeare's tragedies

When theaters shut down during COVID, actors Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen performed Hamlet inside Grand Theft Auto Online. Filmmaker Pinny Grylls captured it in Grand Theft Hamlet, winner of the 2024 SXSW Grand Jury Award. Sam and Pinny share how creativity and chaos sparked connection during lockdown.

“Serious actors. No director. One rehearsal. In a bar.” That’s Back Room Shakespeare Project’s motto and it makes for a unique relationship between actor and audience that Austin Tichenor writes enhances the power of Shakespeare’s work.

Called “the finest actor of his generation,” Beale has played just about everyone in Shakespeare’s canon. He reflects on the roles that have shaped his career and how his approach has evolved over time.

What can King Lear teach us about power today? Nan Z. Da shares how Shakespeare’s play echoes her family’s experience in Maoist China, how Shakespeare anticipates authoritarianism, and why Lear may be Shakespeare’s most “Chinese” play.

Director Sam Gold reflects on the challenges and joys of reinterpreting a well-known story for Broadway and shares the creative process behind staging a Romeo and Juliet that feels relevant to a whole new generation of theatergoers.

Discover how the Folger’s new teaching guides make Shakespeare’s works more engaging, accessible, and relevant, with strategies for teaching the plays, tackling topics like race and gender, and meeting the needs of today’s students.

Explore how Shakespeare reshaped the tragic form with complex characters and self-deception. Rhodri Lewis dives into the evolution of Shakespearean tragedy, revealing its lasting modern impact.

“We’re told from a young age that tragedy teaches us important things about what it means to be human. But does it actually teach us anything, or simply reveal what we already know?” writes Austin Tichenor, who looks at Shakespeare’s…