Know someone who is graduating from high school or college or perhaps there’s another milestone or special person that you’re celebrating? We’re sharing some favorite gift ideas from our Folger Shop. www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...

A century after Shakespeare’s death, his words were in danger of being forgotten. How did his original works re-emerge? Thank the Shakespeare Ladies Club, a group of influential women who rescued his plays from obscurity. Listen on the podcast: www.folger.edu/podcasts/sha...

Female, queer, non-academics, in a world dominated by male editors with university affiliations, Helen Clarke and Charlotte Porter were outliers in the world of Shakespeare scholarship. The Folger's Curator of Manuscripts Heather Wolfe explores their life and work: www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet,” says Juliet. References to plants of all kinds enliven Shakespeare’s plays. Test your knowledge of Shakespeare’s plentiful use of plants with our springtime quiz: www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...

I’m so glad I got to write this piece for the @folger.edu’s Collation blog about the work I’m doing as part of my short-term Artistic Research Fellowship! www.folger.edu/blogs/collat...

We round up all the Shakespeare news this spring, including the exciting discovery by scholar Lucy Munro of an overlooked map confirming the location of the Blackfriars Gatehouse, Shakespeare's only London real estate purchase. www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...

We round up all the Shakespeare news this spring, including the exciting discovery by scholar Lucy Munro of an overlooked map confirming the location of the Blackfriars Gatehouse, Shakespeare's only London real estate purchase. www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...

It's not often you get to hear a king recite Shakespeare. King Charles III knows the power of Shakespeare's words and included them - and a lovely shoutout to the Folger collection of First Folios! - during his speech at the state dinner last night.

During her week-long Director's Residency at the Folger, Adjoa Andoh MBE spoke with @theguardian.com about Shakespeare, the importance of representation in storytelling, and what the arts (and Leeds football) mean to her: www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/a...

Is Shakespeare still Shakespeare even if every word is changed? On the "Shakespeare Unlimited" podcast, author and translator Daniel Hahn dives into the challenges and rewards of translation. 🎧 Listen at www.folger.edu/podcasts/sha...

"My job as an artist who trades in play is to bring as much joy and as much connection... into the lives that I touch as I possibly can." The incomparable Adjoa Andoh, MBE joined us for the Inaugural Director's Residency last week and spoke to @npr.org: www.npr.org/2026/04/24/n...

The paperback of Much Ado About Numbers is published in the USA today, Shakespeare's birthday. Fun fact: Chapter 9 reveals that Shakespeare probably used an early pencil - but it was not "2B", it was probably a "9B" on the graphite scale. @folger.edu bookshop.org/p/books/much...

A reminder that the 'Race in the Early Modern Seminar' is hosting PGR lightning talks on 8th June. If you'd like to present, please submit a bio and paper abstract by 1st May. Full details below! @folger.edu @kingsartshums.bsky.social kingsearlymodern.co.uk/race-and-the...

Viewers might be surprised by the number of Shakespearean elements in the miniseries which fictionalizes the doomed relationship between John F. Kennedy, Jr. and his wife Carolyn Bessette. @austintichenor.bsky.social explains on the blog: www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...

It's (probably!) Shakespeare's birthday! 🎈🎊 In honor of the man behind the plays and poetry, we're sharing five Shakespeare facts. Read along here and explore more on our blog: www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...

Happy National Volunteer Week! 😇 We're so grateful for the volunteers that help make the Folger a welcoming and engaging place to visit. Interested in joining us as a docent? Applications are open now through July 17, 2026. Apply at folger.edu/docents

Acclaimed actor Sir Patrick Stewart talked to "Shakespeare and Beyond" about the essential message of love he discovered at the heart of each sonnet while recording all 154 for a new audiobook. More - including recordings of three of the sonnets - here: www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...

Did you catch the @folger.edu Shakespeare's Birthday Lecture from Emma Smith this weekend? www.youtube.com/live/KZV-21r...

In honor of Shakespeare's birthday month, the Folger's own emma poltrack, Arts Engagement Program Manager, spoke to "The Perks of Being a Book Lover" podcast about our virtual book club. Listen to emma at the link! 🎧 podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

As a supplement to the piece in The Times Literary Supplement (@thetls.bsky.social), www.the-tls.com/regular-feat..., here’s a (rather long!) thread on Shakespeare’s house in the Blackfriars, what we knew, and what we now know, with some links to key documents. (1/20)

"Macbeth" tells a story of ambition, violent murder, and its crippling psychological aftereffects. Ahead of our staged reading of "Macbeth" with Adjoa Andoh MBE on April 25, we're looking at some of our favorite quotes from the play: www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...

New on the Collation blog! Folger Artistic Research Fellow Billy Morgan @billymorgan.bsky.social shares and contextualizes part of a fiction piece shaped by their work at the Folger: www.folger.edu/blogs/collat...

April is Shakespeare's birthday month and we're celebrating with a ton of free activities on Saturday, April 18! 🥳 Join us for stage combat, dancing, trivia, salons with Folger Fellows and, of course, cupcakes! 🧁 Details at folger.edu/birthday

A concert sampling of 16th-century music-- striving to feel light like a garden...Click the link to read the preview... @folger.edu #DCMusic #PictureThisPostMusic #EmilyNoël #HollyTwyford #RobertEisenstein #LawrenceLipnik #MarkRimple #MarySpringfels

What happens when a Shakespeare play is made up in real time? On the "Shakespeare Unlimited" podcast, we had the pleasure of talking to Blaine Swen and Ross Bryant of The Improvised Shakespeare Company about creating an unscripted performance. 🎧 www.folger.edu/podcasts/sha...

"The Infant Shakespeare Attended by Nature and the Passions" is, without a doubt, one of the strangest paintings in the Folger collection. Let's dig into it: www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...

If you're in DC a week Saturday come to the @folger.edu for Shakespeare's Birthday. Bonus! Hear me talk about terrible haircuts of the past and Tudor MAGA www.folger.edu/whats-on/sha...

Folger Theatre's "As You Like It" brings "joy throughout." Tsilala Brock (Rosalind) and Ahmad Kamal (Touchstone) spoke to WUSA 9 about this DC-centric production, on stage through April 19. www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o5v...

Love, merriment, and hopefully a happy ending! Tsilala Brock (Rosalind), Ahmad Kamal (Touchstone), and Gisela Estrada (Scenic Designer) spoke with @dcnewsnow.bsky.social about the joys of Folger Theatre's "As You Like It" (on stage through April 19). www.dcnewsnow.com/living-local...

"Richard II" opens Shakespeare’s Henriad tetralogy of English history plays and is one of Shakespeare’s most eloquent works. Explore some of the most well-known lines, in order of their appearance in the play, on our blog: www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...

I wrote about NBC Peacock's The Traitors use of Shakespeare as a vibe and an aesthetic. Thanks to @folger.edu for letting me share this on their Shakespeare and Beyond blog! www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...

Announcing Folger Consort's 50th Anniversary Season! 💛 The golden anniversary season features four superb concerts: "Monteverdi's Legacy," "An English Christmas for the Ages," "Folktales and Storied Traditions," and "Folger Consort's Golden Jubilee." Subscribe now: www.folger.edu/tickets/subs...

For an early April Fool's Day treat, enjoy this selection of collection items that showcase the weird and wonderful history of early modern comedy. Brought to you by our own @sbschliep.bsky.social and @egiddens.bsky.social: www.folger.edu/blogs/collat...

In an excerpt from "Thinking Through Shakespeare," author David Womersley looks at "Richard II" and how the monarch misunderstands the divine right of kings in ways that lead to his eventual downfall. www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...

Announcing Folger Theatre's 2026/27 Season! 📣 The season begins with Shakespeare’s "Measure for Measure," then Shakespeare’s iconic tragedy "Hamlet," followed by one of Shakespeare’s treasured comedies. The Reading Room Festival returns in January 2027. www.folger.edu/tickets/subs...

"Shakespeare’s Unruly Women," a 1997 Folger exhibition, focused primarily on the ways in which Shakespeare’s heroines were appropriated into the moral, literary, and theatrical culture of the 19th century. For Women's History Month, we're revising it on our blog: www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...

"AS YOU LIKE IT" IS NOW EXTENDED! 🎉 🥂 ❤️ 🌳 If you haven't had a chance to see Folger Theatre's "splendidly sharp-witted, joyful, and highly entertaining" (Tom Navratil, Washington Unbound) production, you can see it now through April 19. 🎟️ : folger.edu/ayli

We’re celebrating the upcoming start of spring with Shakespeare quotes about the season—a time of renewal, rebirth, and new beginnings. www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...

Welcome to the Shakespeare Championships bracket! As our own form of March Madness (or maybe just madness in general), we’re running a bracket of your favorite plays. Head over to our IG stories to vote! More info at the link: www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...

"As You Like It" offers an abundance of pleasures, among them memorable songs, one of Shakespeare’s best-loved female characters, Rosalind, and the Seven Ages of Man speech. But how much do you know about the details of the play? Test your knowledge with this quiz. www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...

In "Thinking Through Shakespeare" from @princetonupress.bsky.social, scholar David Womersley suggests that Shakespeare's plays offer a way of exploring some of the deepest questions about human life. Listen to the "Shakespeare Unlimited" podcast: www.folger.edu/podcasts/sha...

DC's own KOKAYI is a grammy-nominated artist, MC, a producer, a published author, and more. He's the composer for both our production of "As You Like It" and Mosaic Theater Company's upcoming "Young John Lewis." He spoke to the Theater District podcast: www.theaterdistrictdc.com/kokayi

The Ides of March have not yet come or gone...but they're on their way! On the blog, we explore what "Ides" are and how Shakespeare helped cement them in the popular imagination: www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...

Over on the Collation, we take a look at Edwin Austin Abbey's snowy Stratford scene of "The Guild Chapel & Grammar School," and what it illustrates about Shakespeare's life: www.folger.edu/blogs/collat...

"As You Like It" is a sparkling story of love, hidden identity, and an escape to a world beyond society’s strictures. But there are also heavier themes. We asked Folger Director Dr. Farah Karim-Cooper for her take on Shakespeare’s beloved comedy. www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...

On the blog, we're exploring collection items from early 20th century outdoor performances of "As You Like It" and designs from the Folger's upcoming production: www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...

Henry Irving and Ellen Terry were beloved for their Shakespeare performances, particularly notable pairs like Hamlet and Ophelia and Benedick and Beatrice. New additions to the Folger collection show the acclaimed artists at work and play in Victorian England: www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...

In 1936, Britain's first feature-length Shakespeare "talkie" premiered. "As You Like It" featuring Elisabeth Bergner and Laurence Olivier in his first Shakespeare role on screen. Explore the film's press kit and study guides in the Folger collection: www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...

In London in 1789, publisher John Boydell began an ambitious project: a gallery devoted entirely to scenes from Shakespeare. On the podcast, we explore the rise and fall of the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery: www.folger.edu/podcasts/sha...

Filmmaker and Folger Artistic Research Fellow Fred Kuwornu found himself looking at Renaissance paintings and wondering who the Black Africans were in some of these iconic works. In his documentary, "We Were Here," Kuwornu shares what he discovered: www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...