Talks and Screenings at the Folger

The Folger Shakespeare Library hosts an array of talks and screenings—generally relating to other ongoing events in Folger Theatre, Folger Consort, or Exhibitions at the Folger—throughout the year.

Past seasons

2020s

• Brews and Banter: The Merry Wives of Windsor (2020)
• Folger Friday: Rom-Com Trivia Night (2020)
• Teacher Talk: The Merry Wives of Windsor (2020)
• Folger Friday: Hysterical Women (2020)
• Pre-Show Talk: The Merry Wives of Windsor (2020)
• Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale (2020)
• Free Folger Friday: The Bardy Bunch (2020)
• Stage Director Talk: The Merry Wives of Windsor (2020)

2010s

• Brews and Banter: Amadeus (2019)
• Free Folger Friday: Mozart vs. Salieri (2019)
• Pre-Show Talk: Amadeus (2019)
• Folger Friday: A Viennese Ball (2019)
• Stage Director Talk: Amadeus (2019)
• Nicholas Meyer: The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols (2019)
• Brews and Banter: 1 Henry IV (2019)
• Free Folger Friday: Chimes at Midnight (2019)
• Pre-Show Talk: 1 Henry IV (2019)
• Teacher Talk: 1 Henry IV (2019)
• Stage Director Talk: 1 Henry IV (2019)
• Ghost Light (2019)
• Free Folger Friday: Paster Reading Room in Play (2019)
• Folger Friday: Trivia Night (2019)
• Pre-Show Talk: Love's Labor's Lost (2019)
• Brews and Banter: Love's Labor's Lost (2019)
• RSC Live: As You Like It (2019)
• Free Folger Friday: Pop-Up Exhibition (2019)
• Stage Director Talk: Love's Labor's Lost (2019)
• Free Folger Friday: The Country Gentleman (2019)
• Folger Friday: The Language of the Fan (2019)
• Brews and Banter: Nell Gwynn (2019)
• Pre-Show Talk: Nell Gwynn (2019)
• RSC Live: Troilus and Cressida (2019)
• Free Folger Friday: Cooking in the Archives (2019)
• Stage Director Talk: Nell Gwynn (2019)
• Free Folger Friday: King John On Stage and Screen (2018)
• Kirsten Gillibrand: Bold & Brave (2018)
• Free Folger Friday: The Lion in Winter (2018)
• Pre-Show Talk: King John (2018)
• RSC Live: The Merry Wives of Windsor (2018)
• Folger Friday: What's Your Poison? (2018)
• Brews and Banter: King John (2018)
• Ramie Targoff: Renaissance Woman (2018)
• Stage Director Talk: King John (2018)
• Free Folger Friday: Early Music 101 (2018)
• Brews and Banter: Macbeth (2018)
• Stage Director Talk: Macbeth (2018)
• Bard in the Park (2018)
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2018)
• McKellen: Playing the Part (2018)
• Photographing Shakespeare (2018)
• RSC Live: Macbeth (2018)
• Free Folger Friday: Thinking Shakespeare with Barry Edelstein (2018)
• Brews and Banter: Saint Joan (2018)
• In Conversation: Peter Marks and Eric Tucker (2018)
• Stephen Greenblatt: Tyrant (2018)
• Ladies Night: Perdita’s Flowers (2018)
• RSC Live: Twelfth Night (2018)
• Brews and Banter: The Winter's Tale (2018)
• The Royal Ballet: The Winter’s Tale (2018)
• Pre-Show Talk: The Winter's Tale (2018)
• Dear Jack, Dear Louise (2018)
• Free Folger Friday: Illustrating Shakespeare (2018)
• Stage Director Talk: The Winter's Tale (2018)
• Free Folger Friday: Flowers, Fashion, and the 18th c. Dining Room (2018)
• Brews and Banter: The Way of the World (2018)
• Pre-Show Talk: The Way of the World (2018)
• Free Folger Friday: Bernhardt/Hamlet (2018)
• Stage Director Talk: The Way of the World (2018)
• RSC Live: Coriolanus (2017)
• Free Folger Friday: The Imaginary Cleopatra (2017)
• Ladies Night: Some Excellent Fortune (2017)
• Brews and Banter: Antony and Cleopatra (2017)
• Pre-Show Talk: Antony and Cleopatra (2017)
• Free Folger Friday: On Set with Tony Cisek (2017)
• Stage Director Talk: Antony and Cleopatra (2017)
• RSC Live: Titus Andronicus (2017)
• Nerd Nite (2017)
• RSC Live: Antony and Cleopatra (2017)
• Free Folger Friday: The Bard and The Duke (2017)
• RSC Live: Julius Caesar (2017)
• Free Folger Friday: Timone of DC (2017)
• Brews and Banter: Timon of Athens (2017)
• Tracy Chevalier (2017)
• Pre-Show Talk: Timon of Athens (2017)
• Free Folger Friday: My Fool, My Purse (2017)
• Stage Director Talk: Timon of Athens (2017)
• RSC Live: The Tempest (2017)
• Free Folger Friday: Middle English Manuscripts (2017)
• Free Folger Friday: "Play, Music!" (2017)
• Free Folger Friday: "Under that habit play the knave" (2017)
• Brews and Banter: As You Like It (2017)
• Ladies Night: As You Like It (2017)
• Pre-Show Talk: As You Like It (2017)
• Stage Director Talk: As You Like It (2017)
• The Book of Will (2017)
• RSC Live: King Lear (2016)
• Free Folger Friday: Come for the Dancing, Stay for the Show (2016)
• Free Folger Friday: Theodore Leinwand on Writers Reading Shakespeare (2016)
• Brews and Banter: Sense and Sensibility (2016)
• Free Folger Friday: Jazz Funeral for Shakespeare (2016)
• Branagh Theatre Live: Romeo and Juliet (2016)
• Pre-Show Talk: Sense and Sensibility (2016)
• Stage Director Talk: Sense and Sensibility (2016)
• Almedia Theatre Live: Richard III (2016)
• CrossTalk DC: DC Public Library's Peabody Room (2016)
• CrossTalk DC: Muslim American Identity in the US (2016)
• CrossTalk DC: A.C.T.O.R (2016)
• CrossTalk DC: Jewish Life in Washington, DC During and After the Civil War (2016)
• Curator Talk: Daniel De Simone (2016)
• Bard in the Park (2016)
• CrossTalk DC: A History of Housing Covenants (2016)
• Brews and Banter: District Merchants (2016)
• Pre-Show Talk: District Merchants (2016)
• Stage Director Talk: District Merchants (2016)
• Free Folger Friday: The Elfin Sprite (2016)
• Free Folger Friday: Shakespeare and Comics (2016)
• Brews and Banter: The Reduced Shakespeare Company (2016)
• An Art That Nature Makes (2016)
• Howard Jacobson (2016)
• Free Folger Friday: Thyramus and Pisbee (2016)
• Free Folger Friday: Shakespeare and Sir Thomas More (2016)
• Free Folger Friday: Shakespeare Documented (2016)
• Brews and Banter: A Midsummer Night's Dream (2016)
• “Dig for Shakespeare”: New Place Revealed (2016)
• Free Folger Friday: Ken Ludwig on A Midsummer Night's Dream (2016)
• Curator Talk: Georgianna Ziegler on America's Shakespeare (2016)
• Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale (2016)
• Free Folger Friday: Write Your Renaissance Love Letter (2016)
• Pre-Show Talk: A Midsummer Night's Dream (2016)
• Free Folger Friday: Crime Writers on Shakespeare (2016)
• Stage Director Talk: A Midsummer Night's Dream (2016)
• Free Folger Friday: Age of Lawyers (2015)
• Free Folger Friday: Shakespeare's Kitchen (2015)
• Brews and Banter: Pericles (2015)
• Pre-Show Talk: Pericles (2015)
• Curator Talk: Heather Wolfe on Shakespeare, Life of an Icon (2015)
• Free Folger Friday: Refugees from Pericles to Now (2015)
• Stage Director Talk: Pericles (2015)
• James Shapiro: The Year of Lear (2015)
• Free Folger Friday: Georgianna Ziegler on Elizabeth I (2015)
• Free Folger Friday: Shakespeare, Not Stirred (2015)
• Stage Director Talk: texts&beheadings/ElizabethR (2015)
• RSC Live: The Merchant of Venice (2015)
• Folger Friday: Daniel De Simone (2015)
• Pre-Show Talk: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (2015)
• Brews and Banter: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (2015)
• Bard in the Yards (2015)
• Lynne Magnusson: Shakespeare and the Language of Possibility (2015)
• RSC Live: Love's Labour's Won (2015)
• Don't Rock the Cradle Symposium Books in Exhibitions—Mounts, Materials, and Economy (2015)
• RSC Live: Love's Labour's Lost (2015)
• Brews and Banter: Mary Stuart (2015)
• “They Would Never Allow Me to Live”: The Secret Writings of Mary Queen of Scots (2015)
• Pre-Show Talk: Mary Stuart (2015)
• Paul Strohm: Chaucer's Tale (2015)
• Public Panel: The Voynich Manuscript (2014)
• Neil L. Rudenstine: Ideas of Order (2014)
• Pre-Show Talk: Julius Caesar (2014)
• Paul Dickson: Authorisms (2014)
• Brews and Banter: Julius Caesar (2014)
• Cry "Havoc!" (2014)
• Peter O’Donoghue: York Herald (2014)
• The Institute of Heraldry: Guardians of our National Symbolic Heritage (2014)
• Thomas Cahill: Heretics and Heroes (2014)
• Macbeth Screening at the Carter Barron Amphitheatre (2014)
• Shakespeare's Coat of Arms and the Early Modern Heraldry Wars (2014)
• RSC Live from Stratford-upon-Avon: Henry IV, Part 2 (2014)
• RSC Live from Stratford-upon-Avon: Henry IV, Part 1 (2014)
• Pre-Show Talk: Cymbeline with Valerie Wayne (2014)
• Preview Screening: Still Dreaming (2014)
• James Shapiro: Shakespeare in America (2014)
• Pre-Show Talk: The Two Gentlemen of Verona (2014)
• Shakespeare's Birthday Lecture: Brian Cummings: Shakespeare, Biography and Anti-Biography (2014)
• Folger Friday: Mimi Yiu (2014)
• Pre-Show Talk: Richard III (2014)
• Finding Richard: Turi King and Mathew Morris (2014)
• RSC Live from Stratford-upon-Avon: Richard II (2013)
• Shakespeare for My Father: A Staged Reading by Kathleen Chafant (2013)
• Folger Friday: Ayanna Thompson (2013)
• Post-Show Talk: Romeo and Juliet, Judith Chertoff, M.D. (2013)
• Shakespeare's Birthday Lecture 2013: Andrew Hadfield, April 8, 2013
• John Killen, The Breifne O'Reillys: An Ulster Clan in Medieval Ireland, March 4, 2013
• Patrick Tuite: The Irish Imagined in Henry V and other Early Modern Plays, March 1, 2013
• James Shapiro: 1599 and Essex’s Irish Rebellion, January 25, 2013
• Stephen Landrigan & Qais Akbar Omar: Shakespeare in Kabul, November 16, 2012
• Ricky Jay, November 8, 2012
• Peter Sís, November 2, 2012
• Deborah Harkness: The Experience of Early Modern London, September 27, 2012
• Ralph Alan Cohen: Blackfriars: The Most Convenient Place, July 9, 2012 (Read the transcript)
• John Schofield: St. Paul's Cathedral Before Wren, June 18, 2012 (Read the transcript)
• Pre-Show Discussion: The Taming of the Shrew, May 16, 2012
• Elizabethan Garden Tour, April 21, 2012–October 31, 2014
• Shakespeare's Birthday Lecture 2012: Sarah Beckwith, April 16, 2012.
• Arthur Phillips: The Tragedy of Arthur, February 24, 2012
• Pre-Show Discussion: The Gaming Table, February 8, 2012
• Women On Stage: A Conversation about Susanna Centlivre, February 5, 2012
• Poetics and the Bible, December 16, 2011
• Pre-Show Discussion: Othello, November 2, 2011
• Director's Choice: Data-Mining Shakespeare, October 26, 2011
• KJV in the USA: The King’s Bible in a Country without a King, September 29, 2011
• Guns, Barges, and Books: Reassessing the Stationers’ Company of Early Modern London, July 21, 2011
• To Catch a Thief: Recovering the Durham First Folio, July 7, 2011
• Collecting the Book that Breaks the Rules: Shakespeare’s First Folio at Auction, June 23, 2011
• Folger Friday: Lecture on American Wine, May 20, 2011
• A Lecture by Michael Hollinger, playwright/translator of Cyrano, May 9, 2011
• Shakespeare's Birthday Lecture 2011: Wendy Wall, April 25, 2011
• Folger Friday: Rebecca LaRoche, February 18, 2011
• The Co-Creators of Kill Shakespeare on Their Epic Comic Graphic Novel, February 15, 2011
• Folger Friday: Deborah Tannen, February 11, 2011
• A Reading by Margaret George, author of The Autobiography of Henry VIII, November 29, 2010
• Henry VIII: Art and Magnificence, November 5, 2010
• Folger Friday: Henry VIII Discussion, October 15, 2010
• Stories from the Sea: Sea Dogs, Buccaneers, and Corsairs —Piracy Then and Now, July 27, 2010 (Read the transcript)
• Stories from the Sea: At the Bottom of Shakespeare's Ocean, July 13, 2010 (Read the transcript)
• Stories from the Sea: Three Englishmen and an Island—Richard Hakluyt, Samuel Purchas, John Smith, and Bermuda, June 29, 2010 (Read the transcript)
• Discovering Hamlet, June 7, 2010
• Shakespeare's Birthday Lecture 2010: Jonathan Bate, April 26, 2010
• James Shapiro, April 16, 2010

2000s

• Pre-Performance Exhibition Tour, November 25, 2009
• Simon Reade: Dear Mr. Shakespeare, November 20, 2009
• Derek Hirst to Lecture on “William Walwyn’s ‘Darling’: The Happy Life of an Ageing Former Radical”, November 19, 2009
• Pre-Performance Exhibition Tour, November 18, 2009
• Paul Collins, November 16, 2009
• Perspectives on China: The Perpetual Discovery, November 10, 2009
• Pre-Performance Exhibition Tour, October 4, 2009
• Pre-Performance Exhibition Tour, October 3, 2009
• Shakespeare Birthday Lecture: "Sensational Shakespeare", April 13, 2009
• Words on Will: Marina Warner, April 9, 2009
• Words on Will: Germaine Greer, March 23, 2009
• Words on Will: Marjorie Garber, February 13, 2009
• Truth, Lies, and Videotape: Media Coverage of the 2008 Presidential Campaign in Review, November 18, 2008
• Words on Will: Jess Winfield, October 27, 2008
• Pre-Performance Exhibition Tours, October 15, 2008–June 10, 2009
• Shakespeare's Birthday Lecture: Alan Stewart: "How Shakespeare Made History", April 21, 2008
• Words on Will: Shakespeare + Manga, March 31, 2008
• Words on Will: Teller Talks, February 27, 2008
• Words on Will: Jennifer Lee Carrell, January 25, 2008
• Words on Will: Bill Bryson, October 29, 2007
• Words on Will: Mercedes Ellington, May 15, 2007
• Words on Will: Marjorie Garber, March 23, 2007
• Words on Will: Samuel Crowl, February 5, 2007
• Words on Will: Aliki, March 6, 2006
• Words on Will: James Conlon, January 30, 2006
• Words on Will: Peter Ackroyd, November 21, 2005