The Folger Spotlight

Marina Singing Before Pericles, 1825. Pericles is a play haunted by loss. Sometimes loss is figured as a sudden and calamitous separation from one’s friends and belongings, as when Pericles at the top of the second act is washed ashore…

Pericles Director Joseph Haj Pericles was wildly popular during Shakespeare’s lifetime and in the decades following; indeed, it was among his most popular works. It was the play that reopened the London Globe Theatre in 1631 after it was shuttered…

Folger Resident Dramaturg, Michele Osherow Pericles, Prince of Tyre is unusual among Shakespeare’s plays. The hero travels Odysseus-like from place to place on a fantastical quest to showcase honor, announce virtue, and dodge the fury of a perverse king. Pericles…

Images from Pericles at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606 Author James Shapiro’s new book The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606 considers the period when the playwright wrote three of his greatest tragedies, King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra. Dr. Shapiro…

Queen Elizabeth has a long history of appearing on stage at the Folger. She was recently played by Holly Twyford in last season’s Mary Stuart, by Michael Learned in 2003’s Elizabeth the Queen, and by an un-credited baby doll in the last moments…

The 2015/16 season at Folger Theatre kicks off with a special engagement of texts&beheadings/ElizabethR, which heads into rehearsal next week and we’re delighted to have the opportunity to host the world premiere of this new American play (we have more than one this…

Louis Butelli Hello, dear readers of the Folger Production Diary! This is your friend Louis Butelli writing you once again. How’ve you been? The reason for this entry is to proudly announce a brand new collaboration between myself, director Robert…

Ian Merrill Peakes Actor Ian Merrill Peakes (The Player) shares his final thoughts about the Folger Theatre production of Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.  Learn more about Ian at the Folger and read his previous posts.  We close Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead this…

Folger Dramaturg Michele Osherow. Michele Osherow is the Folger Theatre’s Resident Dramaturg and has worked on over twenty productions here. She is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Her notes on the Folger’s production of…