This summer, The Boston Public Library, in partnership with the University of Massachusetts Boston, is presenting “All the World’s a Page: 400 Years of Shakespeare in Print,” an exhibition that explores the importance of books to the creation and transmission of Shakespeare’s works. The exhibition examines how our understanding and appreciation of Shakespeare is largely dependent on books in which his works have been published, edited, altered, annotated, translated, and illustrated in the centuries since his death.
The Stratford Shakespeare Festival has announced its 2009 season. Artistic Director Des McAnuff has selected four plays from the Elizabethan-Jacobean period, four other classics, and three contemporary Canadian plays, along with two musicals based on classical works.
The Royal Shakespeare Company is once again opening its doors to the public for its annual Open Day in Stratford-upon-Avon. Open Day is designed to give visitors a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to bring a production to life. The open house will feature talks and hands-on sessions about costumes, lighting and sound, make-up, wigs, armory and stage fighting. One of the highlights of the day will be a talk by the stars of the RSC’s sold out production of Hamlet, Oliver Ford Davies, Patrick Stewart and David Tennant
August 14, 2008
“Stratford-upon-Avon, the Warwickshire birthplace of William Shakespeare, has suffered a difficult time in recent years. Foot-and-mouth disease, the slowdown in US tourists after 9/11, flooding and building work at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s main theatre have all led to fears of doom and gloom for the town’s tourist industry…since the opening [...]
Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London is hosting a range of family activities every Tuesday and Thursday throughout the month of August. Visitors will be able to watch performances by the Globe’s musicians, see sword fighting demonstrations and learn about the costumes used at the theatre. Visitors will also be able to watch craftsmen demonstrate some of the Elizabethan wood working techniques used to build the Globe.
August 2, 2008
Oxford University’s Bodleian Library, founded during Shakespeare’s lifetime and home to a copy of the rare First Folio, will soon play host to the Globe Theatre’s touring production of The Winter’s Tale. The play will be performed in the historic Bodleian Library Quadrangle between 17 and 22 August as part of the ‘Playhouse [...]
A rare collection of historically significant paintings and artifacts from Chequers, the official country residence of the British Prime Minister, is now on display at Compton Verney in Warwickshire. The items in the collection have not been seen by the public for almost a century. Portraits from Chequers: Kings, Queens and Revolutionaries includes portraits of Mary I, Lady Margaret Beaufort, James I, Lady Mary Grey, sister of Lady Jane Grey, Charles I and his wife, The Children of Charles I, Oliver Cromwell and Elizabeth Claypole, Daughter of Oliver Cromwell. The exhibition also features a mother of pearl and ruby locket ring belonging to Queen Elizabeth I, which contains portraits of the queen and her mother, Anne Boleyn.
Within a generation of Shakespeare’s death in 1616, the English Civil War transformed the cultural and political landscape of the British Isles. Public theatrical performances were outlawed and, in 1644, the Globe Theatre was demolished by the Puritans. Five years later, the revolution culminated in the trial and execution of King Charles I. This weekend, the National Portrait Gallery in London opens a new display, Charles I: King and Martyr, which explores how people struggled to understand and commemorate the king’s death.
“A New World: England’s First View of America,” a British Museum exhibition of the first English record of the New World is now on display at Jamestown Settlement in Williamsburg, Virginia.
The centerpiece of the exhibition is a collection of watercolors and drawings by John White, the Elizabethan gentleman-artist most responsible for shaping England’s first view [...]
Even though Shakespeare probably never left his native England, thirteen of his plays, roughly a third, are set in the Italian peninsula. The Rome of “Julius Caesar” and the Verona of “Romero and Juliet” have become part of the popular imagination and helped shape views of Italy since Shakespeare first wrote the plays. This summer, [...]
