The Reading Room Festival 2025
Join us for Folger Theatre’s third annual Reading Room Festival, with new work and conversations inspired by or in response to the plays of William Shakespeare. This festival unites artists, critics, and scholars in a celebration of creative community, as they collaboratively explore the multifaceted nature of Shakespeare’s stories.
How to attend the festival
Individual events – $20
Tickets are now on sale.
Reading Room Festival All-Access Pass – $150
Access to all staged readings, panel discussions, workshops, and community celebrations included in the Festival. Buy now
Students – Free admission to readings and conversations
Admitted free one-half hour before event start time, with a valid ID.
About the festival
The Reading Room Festival is a four-day festival of staged readings, panel discussions, workshops, and community celebrations. Shakespeare serves as a catalyst for today’s playwrights—in a collaborative community, artists, critics, and scholars unite and actively engage in creating new narratives that speak to our time. Works presented at the Reading Room Festival are each at different points of their creative journey, and a goal of the Festival is that these plays will later be staged at the Folger or regional American theaters.
Several Reading Room Festival presentations have enjoyed exciting post-Festival outings:
- Folger Theatre commissioned and toured Our Verse in Time to Come in the spring of 2023 in honor of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio.
- In March 2025, Lauren M. Gunderson’s A Room in the Castle, which was first workshopped at the inaugural festival in 2023, will have its world premiere in a co-production with Folger Theatre and Cincinnati Shakespeare Company.
- Everything That Never Happened by Sarah Mantell opens at Baltimore Center Stage in February.
Featured new plays
This year’s playwrights and adaptors of Shakespeare’s works include Barry Edelstein, Emily Lyon, Reynaldo Piniella, and Whitney White.
Henry 6 | The Reading Room Festival
Henry 6
Artistic Director of San Diego's Old Globe Barry Edelstein shares selections and commentary on the process of creating Henry 6, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s rarely produced Henry VI, Parts I, II, and III.
Thu, Jan 30, 2025, 7:30pm
Valor, Agravio y Mujer (The Courage to Right a Woman's Wrongs) | The Reading Room Festival
Valor, Agravio y Mujer (The Courage to Right a Woman's Wrongs)
This play is a celebration of women’s agency, written by Shakespeare’s Spanish contemporary Ana Caro Mallén de Soto.
Fri, Jan 31, 2025, 8pm
By the Queen | The Reading Room Festival 2025
By the Queen
This dynamic new drama by Whitney White, lifted and remixed from the text of Henry VI and Richard III, finally gives Queen Margaret's story the telling it deserves.
Sat, Feb 1, 2025, 8pm
Hamlet: The Reading Room Festival 2025
Hamlet
Hamlet is a Black, Latinx prince in this bilingual reimagining of Shakespeare’s tragedy, with text infused by the Spanish spoken in present-day New York City.
Sun, Feb 02, 2025, 4pm
Festival schedule
Many of this year’s workshops and panels interweave with the staged readings by focusing on translating and adapting Shakespeare, Shakespeare with/in local communities, and experiencing the creation, evolution, and interpretation of new works in their various stages of development.
Day 1: Thursday, January 30
Shakespeare as a Starting Point: Shakespeare with Community | The Reading Room Festival
Shakespeare as a Starting Point: Shakespeare with Community
The annual festival kickoff explores the unexpected ways Shakespeare’s legacy has endured, and how engaging with theater-making enhances the relevance and value of Shakespeare in the everyday lives of people.
Thu, Jan 30, 2025, 6:30pm
Henry 6 | The Reading Room Festival
Henry 6
Artistic Director of San Diego's Old Globe Barry Edelstein shares selections and commentary on the process of creating Henry 6, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s rarely produced Henry VI, Parts I, II, and III.
Thu, Jan 30, 2025, 7:30pm
Day 2: Friday, January 31
Liquid Courage (6pm)
Before the evening’s first event, join us in the Great Hall for light fare, libations, and music as we celebrate the 3rd annual Reading Room Festival! Mix and mingle with the Festival’s featured playwrights, artists, and scholars.
Writing, Adapting, and Translating Shakespeare for Performance | The Reading Room Festival
Writing, Adapting, and Translating Shakespeare for Performance
A panel of artists explores the challenges and opportunities of turning Shakespeare's beloved 400-year-old texts into compelling contemporary works.
Fri, Jan 31, 2025, 6:45pm
Valor, Agravio y Mujer (The Courage to Right a Woman's Wrongs) | The Reading Room Festival
Valor, Agravio y Mujer (The Courage to Right a Woman's Wrongs)
This play is a celebration of women’s agency, written by Shakespeare’s Spanish contemporary Ana Caro Mallén de Soto.
Fri, Jan 31, 2025, 8pm
Day 3: Saturday, February 1
Make Hamlet Your Own: A Rewriting Workshop | The Reading Room Festival
Make Hamlet Your Own: A Rewriting Workshop
This interactive workshop offers participants a hands-on opportunity to rewrite key passages from Shakespeare's Hamlet from their own cultural perspectives.
Sat, Feb 01, 2025, 11am
DC, I Love You | The Reading Room Festival 2025
DC, I Love You
"DC, I Love You" is an immersive performance experience that brings real love stories to life across the neighborhoods where they originated. This workshop at the Reading Room Festival offers a first look at one of the scripts.
Sat, Feb 01, 2025, 12pm
The Beatrice Project | The Reading Room Festival
The Beatrice Project
At this open rehearsal, Folger Theatre Artistic Director and playwright Karen Ann Daniels invites audiences to walk through the beginning stages of writing her new adaptation with music of Much Ado About Nothing.
Sat, Feb 01, 2025, 4pm
By the Queen | The Reading Room Festival 2025
By the Queen
This dynamic new drama by Whitney White, lifted and remixed from the text of Henry VI and Richard III, finally gives Queen Margaret's story the telling it deserves.
Sat, Feb 1, 2025, 8pm
Maggie’s Mixer (10pm)
Celebrate the 3rd annual Reading Room Festival with us in the Great Hall! Enjoy delicious food, refreshing libations, and music while connecting with the festival’s talented playwrights, artists, and scholars.
Day 4: Sunday, February 2
Translating Shakespeare's English into ASL | The Reading Room Festival
Translating Shakespeare's English into ASL
In this workshop, learn about the challenges and opportunities that occur when translating Shakespeare's works into American Sign Language, with specific examples from Hamlet.
Sun, Feb 02, 2025, 11am
DC New Play Development | The Reading Room Festival
DC New Play Development
A panel considers the opportunities that exist in our city for artists to develop new works. What opportunities can be created if we examine our collective resources as writers, directors, leaders, audiences, and organizations?
Sun, Feb 02, 2025, 12pm
Hamlet: The Reading Room Festival 2025
Hamlet
Hamlet is a Black, Latinx prince in this bilingual reimagining of Shakespeare’s tragedy, with text infused by the Spanish spoken in present-day New York City.
Sun, Feb 02, 2025, 4pm
Exit, Pursued by a Beer (6pm)
Join us for a farewell toast in the Folger Theatre.
All events
Shakespeare as a Starting Point: Shakespeare with Community | The Reading Room Festival
Shakespeare as a Starting Point: Shakespeare with Community
The annual festival kickoff explores the unexpected ways Shakespeare’s legacy has endured, and how engaging with theater-making enhances the relevance and value of Shakespeare in the everyday lives of people.
Thu, Jan 30, 2025, 6:30pm
Henry 6 | The Reading Room Festival
Henry 6
Artistic Director of San Diego's Old Globe Barry Edelstein shares selections and commentary on the process of creating Henry 6, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s rarely produced Henry VI, Parts I, II, and III.
Thu, Jan 30, 2025, 7:30pm
Writing, Adapting, and Translating Shakespeare for Performance | The Reading Room Festival
Writing, Adapting, and Translating Shakespeare for Performance
A panel of artists explores the challenges and opportunities of turning Shakespeare's beloved 400-year-old texts into compelling contemporary works.
Fri, Jan 31, 2025, 6:45pm
Valor, Agravio y Mujer (The Courage to Right a Woman's Wrongs) | The Reading Room Festival
Valor, Agravio y Mujer (The Courage to Right a Woman's Wrongs)
This play is a celebration of women’s agency, written by Shakespeare’s Spanish contemporary Ana Caro Mallén de Soto.
Fri, Jan 31, 2025, 8pm
Make Hamlet Your Own: A Rewriting Workshop | The Reading Room Festival
Make Hamlet Your Own: A Rewriting Workshop
This interactive workshop offers participants a hands-on opportunity to rewrite key passages from Shakespeare's Hamlet from their own cultural perspectives.
Sat, Feb 01, 2025, 11am
DC, I Love You | The Reading Room Festival 2025
DC, I Love You
"DC, I Love You" is an immersive performance experience that brings real love stories to life across the neighborhoods where they originated. This workshop at the Reading Room Festival offers a first look at one of the scripts.
Sat, Feb 01, 2025, 12pm
The Beatrice Project | The Reading Room Festival
The Beatrice Project
At this open rehearsal, Folger Theatre Artistic Director and playwright Karen Ann Daniels invites audiences to walk through the beginning stages of writing her new adaptation with music of Much Ado About Nothing.
Sat, Feb 01, 2025, 4pm
By the Queen | The Reading Room Festival 2025
By the Queen
This dynamic new drama by Whitney White, lifted and remixed from the text of Henry VI and Richard III, finally gives Queen Margaret's story the telling it deserves.
Sat, Feb 1, 2025, 8pm
Translating Shakespeare's English into ASL | The Reading Room Festival
Translating Shakespeare's English into ASL
In this workshop, learn about the challenges and opportunities that occur when translating Shakespeare's works into American Sign Language, with specific examples from Hamlet.
Sun, Feb 02, 2025, 11am
DC New Play Development | The Reading Room Festival
DC New Play Development
A panel considers the opportunities that exist in our city for artists to develop new works. What opportunities can be created if we examine our collective resources as writers, directors, leaders, audiences, and organizations?
Sun, Feb 02, 2025, 12pm
Hamlet: The Reading Room Festival 2025
Hamlet
Hamlet is a Black, Latinx prince in this bilingual reimagining of Shakespeare’s tragedy, with text infused by the Spanish spoken in present-day New York City.
Sun, Feb 02, 2025, 4pm