Author Archives: abejm

During the early afternoon of January 6th, I was reading 2 Henry VI when we started to hear the helicopters. Since moving home to Maryland after my college campus closed in March, I had reacclimated to the daily helicopters and jets patrolling DC’s border.  By 3pm, it was clear that something was different. I putContinue reading “Henry VI Part 2”

Out of Shakespeare’s entire canon, Titus Andronicus is one of the plays I have seen least often. The only production I can remember attending was performed at Gallaudet University, a college for deaf and hard of hearing students where my mother used to teach history. Faction of Fools, a DC-based commedia del’arte theater company, performedContinue reading “Titus Andronicus”

The first production of The Taming of the Shrew that I remember seeing was at a local community theater. I had just decided not to be bar mitzvahed, and, facing pushback from my grandparents, was questioning all religious tradition. I came away from the production (put on by mostly Christian homeschoolers) feeling that the playContinue reading “The Taming of the Shrew”

Three hours southwest of DC in Staunton, Virginia is the American Shakespeare Center, a theater which at first glance takes a distinctly non-traditional approach to the Bard. The stage has no dedicated lighting and no set. Sound effects are created by the cast themselves. Those same actors play contemporary music before every show. While theContinue reading “Two Gentlemen of Verona”

When I finished my third year of college at home last May, I had just written a junior paper on Shakespeare and was scrambling to come up with a topic for my senior thesis. Less than a month later, when it became clear that classes would be online, I decided to take a one-year leaveContinue reading “Restarting the Canon”