Folger Shakespeare Library: Our galleries have a fresh rotation of books, manuscripts, prints, and performance ephemera. Nearly 30 new objects are on exhibit, including a royal proclamation about the (inflated) price of wine during Queen Elizabeth’s reign, a brooding statue of Hamlet produced in Spain, and the early plan for the Folger’s theater to be shaped in the round along with the items featured below: First Folios owned by two 17th-century women, a prop dagger used by a leading actress of the late 19th century, and scripts and programs from a 20th century women’s theater in Japan that’s still performing Shakespeare today. On view in our Shakespeare Exhibition Hall through November 16, 2025.
3 comments:
This is honestly so fascinating, and as a woman it is inspiring to see other women that came before me showing such artistry and craftsmanship at a time when that would have been so highly scrutinized. Even though women have come so far in theater spaces, it is so important to remember those who were leaders and innovators in the field in order to bring us to where we are today. As a young designer and performer myself, everything about this article is just right up my alley. Beyond the fact that they are all women making contributions to classic theater, but they are completely turning the concepts on their heads as well. Theater, and especially Shakespeare when performed was so inherently male focused, that even the men were playing the women, it is refreshing to see the this situation the other way around, and it proves to be very amusing.
I feel like people misrepresent Shakespeare and his plays as being a “boy’s club,” which is SO untrue. Many of his female characters are stock, but so are his male ones. The female ones have incredible depth and are shown to be smarter than the men in most plays. I love seeing that women enjoyed these things that were “made for men.” They weren’t: women enjoyed them too. I love Viola, and I feel like she would be representative of a lot of women from those times: an emotional pawn, feeling a lack of power, etc. The dagger is awesome. I wonder how expensive it was? Was it real? If so, it must've been expensive. It makes me wonder how theatre budgets worked back in the 19th century. Also, the all-female performances are AWESOME, especially knowing how Shakespeare’s plays were performed in 17th-century England, with all men. It’s a wonderful, incongruous reveral.
Love that they included photos from the productions of them could, it really helps give context to some of the pieces featured like the prop dagger as you can really see how much it complements the Cesario costume. Also, being able to see original costume designs like this is so cool, especially with seeing how little has changed in that process when it comes to water color. My friend used to be obsessed with the Takarazuka Girls and I can’t blame her. You can really tell how skilled the actors they are and their costuming and makeup for the cross-dressed rolls are incredible. It really is interesting to think about just how impactful Shakespeare's works were even outside of the US and Europe and how cool it is that we can now directly compare different cultures' interactions with the same text and how all of these portrayals are influenced with time. With how popular his works still are today and how people keep finding new and exciting ways to perform these pieces, I’m excited to see what this type of collection will look like in 50 years or so, especially as we get more entries from elsewhere. Its honestly one of the coolest things about living in this day and age is that we can be exposed to this sort of thing without having to be there physically. Digital data banks are so overlooked.
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