Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

Can you love Shakespeare and be an antiracist? Farah Karim-Cooper’s book The Great White Bard explores the language of race and difference in Shakespeare’s plays. Dr. Karim-Cooper also looks at the ways Shakespeare’s work became integral to Britain’s imperial project and its sense of cultural superiority. But, for all this, Karim-Cooper is an unapologetic Shakespeare fan. It’s right there in the subtitle of her book: “How to Love Shakespeare While Talking about Race.” Far from casting Shakespeare out of the classroom or playhouse, Karim-Cooper shows new ways to appreciate him. By drawing connections between the plays and current events, she offers an eyes-wide-open tour of Shakespeare’s continued relevance. Karim-Cooper talks with Barbara Bogaev about the role of race in Titus Andronicus, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, and more. Farah Karim-Cooper, is the new Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library, was previously a Professor of Shakespeare Studies at King’s College London and Director of Education at Shakes

Shakespeare is often associated with tragedy, but did you know that he changed the genre? In this episode, Rhodri Lewis, professor of English at Princeton University and author of Shakespeare’s Tragic Art, explores how Shakespeare redefined tragedy in ways that still feel modern today. Through a close examination of plays like Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet, and King Lear, Lewis explains how Shakespeare shifted the traditional classical form of tragedy, introducing characters who deceive themselves and struggle to understand their own nature. From the slasher-style Titus to the complex interiority of Juliet, Shakespeare experimented with plot, language, and character to push the boundaries of tragic drama, giving audiences an unsettling yet profoundly human insight into the flawed nature of existence. Rhodri Lewis teaches English at Princeton University. His previous books include Hamlet and the Vision of Darkness (Princeton) and Language, Mind, and Nature: Artificial Languages in England from Bacon to L

Forget witches, broomsticks, and cauldrons bubbling over—when it came to real magic in Shakespeare’s time, most people turned to their local cunning folk. These magical practitioners wielded spells to cure illnesses, recover lost items, and even spark a bit of romance. Far from the dark, devilish image popularly associated with witchcraft, cunning folk were trusted members of society, providing magical services as casually as a modern-day plumber or dentist. In this episode, Barbara Bogaev talks with Tabitha Stanmore, a scholar from the University of Essex, about the fascinating, overlooked world of practical magic in early modern England. Drawing from her new book, Cunning Folk: Life in the Era of Practical Magic, Stanmore sheds light on how cunning folk, who served as diviners, astrologers, charm makers, and healers, shaped the lives of both ordinary people and royals alike. These practitioners were called upon for everything from predicting the future to healing the sick, and their magic was seen as helpf

How did Shakespeare engage with the complexities of gender and sexuality in his time? Was his portrayal of cross-dressing and same-sex attraction simply for comedic effect, or did it reflect a deeper understanding of queer desire? In this episode, host Barbara Bogaev speaks with scholar Will Tosh, who delves into these questions through his new book Straight Acting: The Hidden Queer Lives of William Shakespeare. Tosh, Head of Research at Shakespeare’s Globe, explores Shakespeare’s work in the context of early modern London—a city bustling with queer subcultures. This conversation touches on Shakespeare’s depictions of gender fluidity, same-sex desire, and the influence of classical literature on his plays. The episode highlights the cultural and social dynamics of the time, revealing the complex ways in which gender and sexuality were understood and expressed in early modern England. Tosh also examines Shakespeare's schooling, shaped by homoerotic classics like Cicero’s De Amicitia and Ovid’s Metamorphoses,

How can educators effectively incorporate discussions about race into the study of Shakespeare and other premodern texts in the college classroom? Barbara Bogaev speaks with scholars Ayanna Thompson and Ruben Espinosa about Throughlines, a pedagogical resource developed by the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Arizona State University. This free online tool offers professors a variety of accessible teaching materials for incorporating premodern critical race studies into their teaching. Specifically designed for use in higher education, the materials include lectures, syllabi, and activities on a unique and expansive range of topics that will continue to grow. >>Explore Throughlines, a free online resource for the college classroom at throughlines.org Espinosa and Thompson share their experiences teaching Shakespeare in diverse higher education settings. Their conversation underscores students' need for open dialogue and provides practical strategies for navigating these discussions. Th

Was Romeo and Juliet your first brush with Shakespeare? Whether it was on stage, on screen in films by Franco Zeffirelli or Baz Luhrmann or Shonda Rhimes' Still Star-Crossed, or in the pages of the Folger Shakespeare edition, your early experience probably shaped how you see Juliet. Over 400 years, our thinking about Shakespeare's first tragic heroine has shifted repeatedly, revealing as much about us as Shakespeare's play does. Oxford professor Sophie Duncan, Shakespeare scholar and author of Juliet: The Life and Afterlives of Shakespeare's First Tragic Heroine, explores the enduring legacy of one of Shakespeare's most iconic characters. The conversation touches on Juliet's cultural impact, why Shakespeare may have centered his tragedy around a young woman and the societal reflections found in the various interpretations of Juliet throughout history. The episode also discusses how different eras, particularly the Victorian period, have grappled with Juliet's rebellious and passionate nature, often reshaping

This summer San Diego’s Old Globe became one of only 10 theaters in America who have produced all of Shakespeare’s plays (or 11, depending on how you count it) with their production of Henry VI, parts 1, 2, and 3. Artistic Director Barry Edelstein shares the details of how they tackled staging three rarely seen works with more than 150 characters, and condensed it into two exciting nights of theater. The epic production includes contributions from nearly a thousand San Diegans, many of whom have participated in the Globe’s community programs. Edelstein, the Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director of The Old Globe, is one of America’s most experienced Shakespeare directors and has staged more than half the canon himself. Before joining the Globe in 2012, he directed the Public Theatre’s Shakespeare Initiative and was the artistic director for Classic Stage Company in New York City. He is the author of Thinking Shakespeare about American Shakespearean acting and Bardisms: Shakespeare for All Occasions. Henry

Can a musical comedy featuring Hamlet and Nightmare on Elm Street’s Freddy Krueger change lives? Actor, playwright, and director Colman Domingo thinks so. In Sing Sing, a new film from A24, Domingo stars in a true story about the power of theater. Inspired by the real-life Rehabilitation through the Arts program at Sing Sing Maximum Security Prison, Sing Sing tells the story of Divine G, played by Domingo, imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, who finds purpose by acting in a theater group with other incarcerated men. When a wary outsider joins the group, the men decide to stage their first original comedy. Sing Sing stars an ensemble cast of formerly incarcerated actors who are alumni of the RTA program, including Clarence "Divine Eye" Maclin and Sean San José. Domingo takes us behind the scenes of the making of Sing Sing. He also shares how he became an actor after a class at Temple University and his own Shakespeare story including an inventive take on Helena from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Domin

Imagine: a fiercely idealistic, politically progressive artist takes the stand at a hearing of the House Un-American Activities Committee. The chair of the committee is a hard-right demagogue with a gift for sound bites and a fixation with Communism. If you’re picturing Joseph McCarthy’s anti-Communist crusade in the 1950s… think two decades earlier. This story played during the Great Depression. The congressman was Martin Dies, a Democrat from Texas. On the stand was Hallie Flanagan, the director of the Federal Theatre Project, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s ambitious program to rescue live theater in America. The project attempted to create jobs for thousands of out-of-work playwrights, actors, directors, and backstage technicians. It commissioned new plays and staged productions all around the country. And, despite logistical hitches and ideological blowback, the Federal Theatre managed to reach millions of Americans, many of whom had never seen a live production ever before. Columbia University Professor Jam

After a four-year renovation, the Folger Shakespeare Library is now open with 12,000 square feet of new public spaces. But behind the scenes, in our original building, we’ve also revamped the way we serve researchers working with the world’s largest Shakespeare collection. On this episode, host Barbara Bogaev talks with Director of Collections Greg Prickman, Folger Institute Director Patricia Akhimie, and Folger Director Michael Witmore about how research happens at the Folger, from Folger Institute fellowships to the chairs in our Reading Room. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published July 2, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits a transcript of every episode, available at folger.edu. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.

On June 21, the Folger reopens after a four-year renovation. The reimagined Folger has brand-new public exhibition spaces where we can introduce visitors to Shakespeare and his plays, as well as showcase some of the treasures of the Folger’s collection. Behind the scenes in the original building, we’ve also completely revamped the way we serve researchers visiting the world’s largest Shakespeare collection. In this episode, the first of two parts, celebrate our reopening with us and join Folger Director Michael Witmore and Shakespeare Unlimited host Barbara Bogaev on a tour of our building. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published June 18, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.

Fred Wilson’s artistic output includes painting, sculpture, photography, and collage, among other media. But his 1992 work “Mining the Museum” at the Maryland Historical Society used the museum’s own collection as its material, radically reframing how American institutions present their art. Wilson went on to represent the United States at the 2003 Venice Biennale. For that exhibition, Wilson commissioned a black glass chandelier from the famed Venice glassmakers on the island of Murano. Wilson titled the piece “Speak of me as I am,” after the line from Shakespeare’s tragic Venetian, Othello. In the years since then, Wilson has made several other pieces that engage with Othello, many of them made from the same evocative black Murano glass. In a new installation piece commissioned by the Folger, Wilson brings together two sides of his artistic practice: institutional critique and glass sculpture. It’s titled “God me such uses send, Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend”—another line from Othello, this one

The desire for a second chance provides the engine for many of Shakespeare’s plays. In their new book, Second Chances: Shakespeare and Freud, Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt and psychologist Adam Phillips argue that this fascination with the second chance links Shakespeare with one of his biggest 20th century fans: Sigmund Freud. Shakespeare helped Freud think about second chances—why we desire them so deeply, and why, sometimes, we push them away. Host Barbara Bogaev talks with Greenblatt and Phillips about how reading Freud alongside Shakespeare can help illuminate both writers’ insights into human nature. Second Chances: Shakespeare and Freud is available from Yale University Press. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published May 21, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. We had technic

When Mary Zimmerman's adaptation of Ovid's Metamorphoses was on Broadway in 2002, it won a host of awards, including the Drama Desk, Drama League, and Lucille Lortel awards for best play. Zimmerman took home the Tony award for best director. This spring, director Psalmayene 24 and an all-Black cast stage a new production of the play interpreted through the lens of the African diaspora.  Zimmerman joins us on the podcast to talk about the process of adapting Metamorphoses and The Odyssey, directing Shakespeare, and more. She is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. Beyond Metamorphoses, Zimmerman has adapted other ancient texts for the stage, like The Odyssey, Jason and the Argonauts, and Journey to the West. She has directed many of Shakespeare’s plays, as well as operas at the Metropolitan Opera. She co-wrote the libretto for the Phillip Glass opera Galileo Galilei. The Matchbox Magic Flute, her new adaptation of Mozart, plays at DC's Shakespeare Theater Company this month, in association with the Goodman Theatre

In her new book, Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent, Dame Judi  Dench and actor/director Brendan O'Hea chat about her long history with the Bard. On this episode, Dench and O'Hea join host Barbara Bogaev to talk about Dench's experiences playing Ophelia, Gertrude, Lady Macbeth and Titania. Plus, parrots, Polonius, dirty words, Ian McKellen, why it's easier to laugh while working on a tragedy, and more. Dame Judi Dench has played nearly all of Shakespeare's great roles for women, plus a few non-Shakespearean parts, too, including the title role in Stephen Frears’ Philomena, M in 8 of the James Bond films, Granny in Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast, and Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love, for which she won an Academy Award. Brendan O’Hea has acted in and directed multiple productions at Shakespeare's Globe in London, and appeared with Dench in the film Quantum of Solace. Their book Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent is available from St. Martin’s Press. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published A

Land enclosure. Wildlife management. Erosion. Pollution. Mining practices. Today, we’d call these environmental issues. But, hundreds of years before the modern environmental movement coalesced, these issues also appeared in Shakespeare’s plays. We talk to Todd Andrew Borlik, a professor at the University of Huddersfield and author of Shakespeare Beyond the Green World, Drama and Ecopolitics in Jacobean Britain, about ecology and environmentalism in Shakespeare’s works. Shakespeare Beyond the Green World, Drama and Ecopolitics in Jacobean Britain is out now from Oxford University Press. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published April 9, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica, with help from Kendra Hanna. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits a transcript of every episode, available at folger.edu. We had technical help from Voice Trax West in Studio

In A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf famously imagined what might have happened if Shakespeare had a sister who was as gifted a writer as he was. She invents “Judith” Shakespeare, and concludes that this female genius would have been doomed. But that’s not the end of the story. If Woolf had read Mary Sidney, Aemelia Lanyer (nee Bassano), Anne Clifford, and Elizabeth Carey, she might have thought differently about the fate of her fictional Judith Shakespeare. Ramie Targoff's new book, Shakespeare's Sisters: How Women Wrote the Renaissance, explores the lives and works of those four women.. Targoff tells us about them and reflects on why reading their work is so important. Ramie Targoff teaches English and Italian literature at Brandeis University. She’s also a member of the Folger’s Board of Governors. Her book Shakespeare’s Sisters: How Women Wrote the Renaissance is available from Knopf. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published March 12, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights res

In her new memoir, "Green World," Shakespeare scholar Michelle Ephraim tells the story of how she came to Shakespeare relatively late in her education. Although she didn’t grow up with Shakespeare, Ephraim became transfixed by "The Merchant of Venice" as a grad student. In particular, she found herself drawn to Jessica, Shylock’s daughter, and the mysteries of their relationship. That curiosity led Ephraim to discover a novel Biblical interpretation of some lines from the play as she researched her dissertation. In Ephraim’s memoir, "Merchant" refracts through the changing dynamics of her own family, as her Holocaust-survivor parents age and she becomes a mother herself. She shares her story with host Barbara Bogaev. Michelle Ephraim teaches Shakespeare at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. She’s the co-author of a cocktail recipe book called Shakespeare, Not Stirred, and the co-host of the Everyday Shakespeare podcast, both with Caroline Bicks. Her memoir Green World: A Tragicomic Memoir of L

Eddie Izzard has a long record of dramatic roles. But it’s her decades of experience as a stand-up comedian that prepared Izzard for her recent solo shows—first Great Expectations, and now Hamlet at New York’s Greenwich House Theatre. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published February 27, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. We had technical help from Digital Island Studios in New York and Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.

Maybe there really was something rotten in Denmark. On this episode, we talk with Bradley J. Irish about disgust in Shakespeare. In his new book, Irish identifies the emotion, which combines physical revulsion and moral outrage, as one of the central thematic emotions in Shakespeare’s plays. In his close readings across the canon, Irish finds disgust everywhere: in Caius Martius Coriolanus’s disdain for ordinary Romans, in the over-indulgent food Antony eats in Egypt, in Henry IV’s preoccupation with sickness and disease in Henry IV, and beyond. Bradley Irish is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. Bradley J. Irish is a professor at Arizona State University. Shakespeare and Disgust: The History and Science of Early Modern Revulsion is out now from Bloomsbury Publishing. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published February 13, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster.