Another year of Shakespeare has drawn to a close. This week on Broadway the curtain came down on the hit show Something Rotten! whose song “I Hate Shakespeare” offered the closest thing to a respite from the past year’s tempest of fulsome tributes. Those weary of the much ado can take heart: the next anniversary…
A library for a stage, students to act
Last night, within the girdle of Houghton’s walls, Harvard’s own Hyperion Shakespeare Company worked on our imaginary forces, staging five scenes from Shakespeare on four unworthy scaffolds throughout the library. Visitors jumped o’er time, from room to room, to behold the swelling scene! Thank you Hyperion!…
Caliban inspires Klingon makeover
“You have never experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon.” At least that’s what Klingon chancellor Gorkon tells Spock in The Undiscovered Country, the last installment of the original Star Trek film series. Like self-serious English majors, Klingons quote the Earth-poet Shakespeare more than any other author—yes, sometimes even in their…
Three Hamlets film series
The Harvard Film Archive and Houghton Library are partnering to screen three critically acclaimed adaptations of Shakespeare’s most enduring play, beginning with Laurence Olivier’s 1948 classic on Monday, March 21 at 7pm. Join curators Dale Stinchcomb and Peter Accardo for a free pre-show tour of the exhibition, Shakespeare: His Collected Works at 6pm in Houghton…
Full freedom, not an inferior brand
The centerpiece of Houghton’s current exhibition, Shakespeare: His Collected Works, is a life-size poster from the 1943 Broadway production of Othello starring Paul Robeson. Paul Robeson was the son of an escaped slave who became his generation’s most outspoken defender of civil liberties. A graduate of Rutgers and Columbia Law School, he was a distinguished athlete,…
Tickets on the Royal Dime
Houghton’s latest exhibition, Shakespeare: His Collected Works, marks the 400th anniversary of the playwright’s death. Here is a closer look at one object on display. Actress and royal mistress Nell Gwyn began her career in the theatre selling oranges for sixpence. By 1676 she had retired from the stage and born Charles II two sons, yet she…
Shakespeare: His Collected Works—January 19–April 23, 2016
Conservators at the Weissman Preservation Center have been busy preparing for Houghton’s upcoming exhibition, Shakespeare: His Collected Works, which marks the 400th anniversary of the playwright’s death and opens January 19th. Their work often involves analyzing the material makeup of artifacts at high magnification to determine the best and safest course of treatment. Debora Mayer is Helen H. Glaser…