First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare – Rhodes Island

First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare was a touring exhibition from the Folger Shakespeare Library that visited one location in all 50 United States, Puerto Rico, and Washington DC in 2016 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.


This article provides highlights from the exhibition’s visit to Rhodes Island.

Exhibition Location: Providence, Rhode Island

Exhibition Venue: Brown University

Exhibition Dates: April 11, 2016 – May 1, 2016


Partner Organization:

  • Rhode Island Historical Society
  • Providence Athenaeum
  • Providence Community Library
  • Sophia Academy
  • Providence Public Schools


Complementary Exhibitions:

  • Shakespeare Plays in Rhode Island, April 6 – May 1
How did Rhode Islanders come to know their Shakespeare in the 19th and early 20th centuries? Choice items from the John Hay collections, including sheet music, advertising, blackface minstrelsy, playbills, and engravings of Shakespearean characters.
  • Special Display of Brown University’s John Hay Library copy of the First Folio, April 6-May 1, 2016


Event List:

  • March 3-6, and 10-13, 2016 – Performance, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Brown University’s Department of Theater Arts and Performance Studies
  • March 6, 2016 – Shakespeare Film Festival, Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood
  • March 13, 2016 – Shakespeare Film Festival, Janet Suzman’s Othello
  • April 10, 2016 – Shakespeare Film Festival, Julie Taymor’s Titus Andronicus
  • April 11, 2016 – Opening Night Panel and Reception
  • April 15, 2016 – Friday Salon Talk, The First Folio and the Making of Shakespeare, by Professor Coppélia Kahn
  • April 16, 2016 – America’s Shakespeare Symposium with the Rhode Island Historical Society
  • April 16, 2016 – The Play’s the Thing, a workshop for middle and high school teachers
  • April 16, 2016 – Special showing of Brown University’s John Carter Brown Library copy of First Folio
  • April 17, 2016 – Shakespeare Film Festival, Ralph Fiennes’s Coriolanus
  • April 21- May 29, 2016 – Performance of The Winter’s Tale by Gamm Theatre
  • April-May, 2016 – ¡Shakespeare para todos!: teaching Romeo and Juliet in Spanish to Latino middle-schoolers
  • April 30, 2016 – Teaching Shakespeare Workshop
  • April 30, 2016 – Leviton Dual Language School performs Romeo and Juliet: Romeo y Julieta en Providence
  • May 1, 2016 – Easy As Lying: The Music of Shakespeare’s Globe, performed by Seven Times Salt


Click here to learn about the First Folio that visited Rhodes Island.