King John

With Herbert Beerbohm Tree as the king, the four-minute silent movie “King John” (1899) is often called “the first Shakespeare film,” as Michael Anderegg explains. Watch the surviving one-minute fragment and learn more about its theatrical star.

From the battlefield to the throne room, scenic designer Andrew Cohen offers a glimpse into the inspirations behind the set for Folger Theatre’s King John.

Today we look at a few ways audiences can get closer to the action and brush up their Shakespeare before (and during) a performance.

We look more closely at the music of Folger Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s timely political drama with sound designer and composer Lindsay Jones.

King John is one of Shakespeare’s lesser-known plays, and we can’t wait to share it with you when performances begin this week. To get in the spirit, here’s a playlist of songs that speak to the themes of the play.

olger Resident Dramaturg Michele Osherow introduces us to King John—Shakespeare’s play about the troublesome, Magna-Carta-signing English ruler—before this rarely performed play takes the Folger stage later this month.

Kimberly Gilbert will play Joan la Pucelle in 2016 in Bootleg Shakespeare: Henry VI, Part 1. Photo by Marcus Kyd. On Monday, July 18, the Taffety Punk Theatre Company will take over Folger Theatre to plan and perform a “bootleg” version…

Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 18 Every year, theaters across the United States and the world treat us to Shakespeare—which usually means such frequently produced plays as Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet. Some Shakespeare plays, however, are rarely performed today. Why…