The Shakespeare Newsletter

06/04/2026

Subscribers take note: the new issue of Shakespeare Newsletter is now online with three performance reviews and two special features.

Performance Reviews
• Henry IV at TFANA by Laura Kolb
• Richard III at the Globe by M. Tyler Sasser
• Romeo and Juliet at The Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck by Kim Paffenroth

Newsletter Features
• Talking Books Update by Michael P. Jensen
• Oregon Shakespeare Festival 2025 by Michael P. Jensen

Non-subscribers please note that Sasser’s performance review of Richard III is open access, available to all.

75.1

05/27/2026

4 stars of 5.
Less story and therefore less action than in the other Bad Kitty books I have read, but Nick Bruel does a good job of explaining the American elections system.

05/27/2026

05/27/2026

CD 1 is my afternoon work music.

05/27/2026

Morning work music.

05/27/2026

FOUND ANOTHER SHAKESPEARE!
A page from No Fear HAMLET.

05/20/2026

I am editing an anthology and trying to help one of my authors find some information that extensive internet searches by both of us have failed to locate.

Do you have the BBC audio CDs of Kenneth Branagh's 1992 Hamlet? If so, please check one of the discs and post the RC number here. It will be three digits.

Please note, the audio cassettes have a different RC number and CDs from other parts of the world have a different numbering system. Only the UK CDs have the number needed. Thanks.
- Michael P. Jensen

05/16/2026

FOUND ANOTHER SHAKESPEARE!
George Herriman, BARON BEAN, 7 May 1918. Untangling that last word balloon, "Play on" is a famous line from TWELFTH NIGHT. "Lay on, Macduff" is from MACBETH. Mr. Herriman is clearly paraphrasing the line from Mac but he does it with one of the best known lines from TN.

05/03/2026

FOUND ANOTHER SHAKESPEARE!
The frontispiece from Langston Hughes's SHAKESPEARE IN HARLEM.

05/02/2026

FOUND ANOTHER SHAKESPEARE!
George Herriman, BARON BEAN, 19 April 1918. "Honest gentleman" may be found in R&J, but this may be a coincidence. On the other hand, Herriman used a Shakespearean line the very next day and again two days later. He did sometimes clump them in this way.