SENSE AND SENSIBILITY to Open Folger Theatre's 2016-17 Season

Folger Theatre's 2016/17 season kicks off with an inspired stage adaptation of one of literature's most cherished novels, Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. This all-new production of the critically acclaimed play is adapted by Kate Hamill and directed by the Wall Street Journal's Director of the Year (2014), Eric Tucker, Artistic Director of Bedlam Theater in New York. This DC premiere at the Folger breathes new life into the 200-year old favorite with a whimsical and theatrical staging. On stage from September 13 through October 30, 2016, the production continues Folger Shakespeare Library's year-long Wonder of Will celebration commemorating 400 years of Shakespeare. Tickets are available online at www.folger.edu/theatre or by calling the Folger Box Office at (202) 544-7077.

Reason and passion collide in this beloved tale of sisterhood and romance. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters find themselves in sudden financial straits and are forced to vacate their grand home and move to a distant, crowded cottage. With their lives in a constant state of adjustment, sisters Elinor and Marianne each confront and grapple with heart-wrenching romances in contrasting ways. Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen's first published novel, remains a joyous and heart-warming tale of family, manners, obligation, love, and heartbreak.

The subdued and compassionate Elinor Dashwood will be played by Maggie McDowell. Ms. McDowell has most recently performed at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. Four-time Helen Hayes Award-winning actress Erin Weaver stars as the idealistic and impulsive Marianne Dashwood. Ms. Weaver was last seen on the Folger stage earlier this year as Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream. She has also starred in Romeo and Juliet, The Comedy of Errors, and Arcadia at Folger Theatre.

Alongside sisters Ms. McDowell and Ms. Weaver are Caroline Stefanie Clay as the gossipy Mrs. Jennings; Jacob Fishel as John Willoughby, the man who steals Marianne's heart; Michael Glenn as the buoyant Sir John Middleton; and Jamie Smithson in the role of the highly respected and well-mannered Edward Ferrars. The cast also includes Lisa Birnbaum (Mrs. Dashwood/Anne Steele), Nicole Kang (Margaret Dashwood), James Patrick Nelson (Colonel Brandon), and Kathryn Tkel (Fanny Dashwood/Lucy Steele).

"Folger Theatre's 25th-anniversary brings to our historic stage the sparkling work of two literary celebrities-William Shakespeare and Jane Austen," says Janet Alexander Griffin, Folger Theatre's Artistic Producer. "To open the season, Kate Hamill's captivating adaptation of Austen's great novel is a treat-full of fun while true to the heart of the much-loved novel. And, along with an exciting cast and team of designers, I'm delighted to welcome Eric Tucker to the Folger. His imaginative and fresh direction inspires actors as well as audiences and delivers an amazing theater experience."

This lively, fast-paced production features choreography by Alexandra Beller, with scenic design by John McDermott and costume design by Mariah Hale. The creative team also includes Jesse Belsky (lighting design) and James Bigbee Garver (sound design).

"I'm very excited to be working on a new production of Kate Hamill's Sense and Sensibility," said Eric Tucker. "Whether you've read Jane Austin or not, this play is wonderful entertainment. It's wickedly funny and extremely romantic, and I am sure DC audiences will love the storytelling and staging of this piece. The intimacy of the Folger Theatre is perfectly suited to this material and we have an extremely talented cast and design team."

The world premiere of Sense and Sensibility was produced Off-Broadway by Bedlam (Eric Tucker, Artistic Director; Andrus Nichols, Producing Director) in New York City in 2014. It was voted "Top 10 Theater of 2014" by The New York Times and the Huffington Post and has since been extended three times.

Sense and Sensibility is presented in concert with the Folger Shakespeare Library's exhibition Will & Jane: Shakespeare, Austen, and the Cult of Celebrity, currently on display in the Folger's Great Hall through November 6, 2016. This exhibition takes a close look at the two celebrated authors' literary afterlives-and finds some surprising parallels. From portraits to porcelain collectibles, branded merchandise, and gravestone rubbings, these two authors have traced intriguingly similar arcs in their posthumous fame. Curated by Janine Barchas (Professor of English, University of Texas) and Kristina Straub (Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies, Carnegie Mellon University), this exhibition is part of Folger's year-long The Wonder of Will celebration, commemorating 400 years of Shakespeare in 2016. Visit www.folger.edu/exhibitions for details; free.

Sense and Sensibility plays at Folger Theatre from September 13 through October 30, 2016. Tickets are $30-$75. Lower-priced previews and discounts for students, seniors, military, educators, young professionals, and groups of ten or more may be purchased at the Folger Theatre Box Office at (202) 544-7077 or online at www.folger.edu/theatre. $30 rush tickets are available prior to each performance (subject to availability).

Related Programming:

Pay-What-You-Will performance is on Tuesday, September 13 at 7:30pm. Tickets will be available to the public at 5pm. One ticket per person.

Folger Theatre's Stage Director Talk will take place on Thursday, September 15 at 6:30pm. Learn about the creative process and vision of bringing Sense and Sensibility to the stage with director Eric Tucker. $20, includes light fare reception.

College Night will be held on Friday, September 23 at 8pm. Tickets are $15, with a valid student ID to be presented at the box office.

A Pre-Performance Seminar with Austen expert Tara Ghoshal Wallace explores the play from a scholarly perspective on Wednesday, September 28 at 6:30pm. Tickets are $20, with light fare included.

Audience members are encouraged to stay for our Post-Show Discussion with the cast of Sense and

Sensibility on Thursday, October 6. This interactive discussion will follow the 7:30pm performance.

Folger Theatre's Brews & Banter Pre-Show Talk will be held on Thursday, October 13 at 6:30pm. Before the show, quench your thirst and join this small group conversation with cast members Actor A and Actor B. $15, with beer and light fare included.

Free Folger Fridays - Free humanities programs that take place on each performance Friday at 6pm.

An Open-Captioned performance will take place on Sunday, October 16 at 2pm.

ABOUT THE CAST:

Lisa Birnbaum (Mrs. Dashwood/Anne Steele) - Shakespeare Theatre Company: The Taming of the Shrew. Regional: Connecticut Rep: Lysistrata; Playmakers Rep: A Midsummer Night's Dream; Theatre Workshop of Nantucket: The Moscows of Nantucket; The Long Wharf Theatre: Italian American Reconciliation; Huntington Theatre Company: The Cry of the Reed; Yale Rep: All's Well That Ends Well; Williamstown Theatre Festival: Romeo and Juliet, Anything Goes, Triangle, Spring Awakening, I Have Loved Strangers. Off-Broadway: Griffin Theatre: 210 Amlent Ave; Elektra Theatre: F#%king Up Everything; York Theatre: I'm Getting My Act Together...; Acorn Theatre: Abraham Lincoln's Big Gay Dance Party; The Living Theatre: Lizzie Borden; 59E59th: On Island. Film: Callie Wants a Solo. Television: Deception, Law & Order, Guiding Light, What Would You Do.

Caroline Stefanie Clay (Mrs. Jennings) - Folger Theatre: A Midsummer Night's Dream; Shakespeare Theatre Company: The Duchess of Malfi; Forum Theatre: Clementine in the Lower 9, Gidion's Knot; Ford's Theatre: The Widow Lincoln; Arena Stage: The Blood Quilt. Broadway: Doubt, The Royal Family. Off-Broadway: Playwrights Horizons: Breath Boom; Atlantic Theater Company: Force Continuum; NYTW: Light Raise; Signature Theatre/Public Theatre: Funnyhouse of a Negro. Regional theaters include work at: Yale Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Goodman Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, McCarter Theatre. Tours: Doubt (Helen Hayes Award for Best Supporting Actress in Non- Resident Production). Film: Everybody's Fine, Sherrybaby, Morning Glory. Television: Law & Order: SVU, House of Cards, The Knick.

Jacob Fishel (John Willoughby/John Dashwood) - Regional: Two River Theater Company: Henry V, As You Like It; Intiman Theatre: The Real Thing. Broadway: Fiddler on the Roof. Off-Broadway: TFANA: King Lear, The Broken Heart; Roundabout Theatre Company: The Common Pursuit; The Public Theater: Titus Andronicus; Red Bull Theater: Women Beware Women; NYSF: Macbeth. Film: A Night Without Armor, Across the Sea, How I Got Lost. Television: Cold Case, Medium, Without a Trace, Numb3rs.

Michael Glenn (Sir John Middleton) - Folger Theatre: The Gaming Table, Henry VIII (Helen Hayes Ensemble nomination), Hamlet, Arcadia, Twelfth Night, Elizabeth the Queen; Round House Theatre: Stage Kiss, THIS; Studio Theatre: Jumpers for Goalposts (Helen Hayes Ensemble nomination); Arena Stage: Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery (Helen Hayes Ensemble nomination), Good People; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: Clybourne Park (Helen Hayes Ensemble nomination); Olney Theatre Center: Marjorie Prime, Neville's Island; Theater J: Brighton Beach Memoirs (upcoming), Photograph 51; Constellation Theatre Company: Absolutely! (Perhaps), Scapin, A Flea in Her Ear, On the Razzle; Longacre Lea: Fear, Cat's Cradle, The Hothouse, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Helen Hayes Ensemble nomination); Signature Theatre: The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Fallen From Proust; Washington Stage Guild: The Underpants, A Skull in Connemara, Major Barbara (Helen Hayes Supporting Actor nomination); African Continuum Theatre: Blood Knot (Mary Goldwater Award).

Nicole Kang (Margaret Dashwood) - Regional: Williamstown Theatre Festival: Song for a Future Generation; Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival: The Liar, A Midsummer Night's Dream; Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey: The Winter's Tale, The Marriage of Figaro; Vermont Shakespeare Company: The Winter's Tale, Will

Maggie McDowell (Elinor Dashwood) - Regional: Williamstown Theatre Festival: Song for a Future Generation; Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival: The Liar, A Midsummer Night's Dream; Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey: The Winter's Tale, The Marriage of Figaro; Vermont Shakespeare Company: The Winter's Tale, Will; Texas Shakespeare Festival: The Taming of the Shrew, Ernest in Love; Cape May Stage: Time Stands Still. Off-Broadway theaters include: Playwrights Horizons New Works Lab, HERE, Joe's Pub, Fresh Ground Pepper.

James Patrick Nelson (Colonel Brandon) - Olney Theatre Center: Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest. Regional Theater: Berkeley Rep: Pericles; Mirror Rep: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Actors Shakespeare Project: Duchess of Malfi; Central Square Theater: Galileo; Depot Theatre: Living Together. Off-Broadway: Classic Stage Company: Three, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Ivanov; Mint Theater: Rutherford and Son; New Brooklyn Theatre: The Death of Bessie Smith. NYC Fringe Festival: Old Familiar Faces (Innovative Theater Award nomination). Original Work: Signature Center: The Second Sun; The Custom. National Tour: American Shakespeare Center: Romeo and Juliet, All's Well That Ends Well, Knight of the Burning Pestle, A Christmas Carol. Film: Adam, Being, The Reaper (upcoming). Television: Tin Man, In Between Men.

Jamie Smithson (Edward Ferrars) - Imagination Stage: Seussical the Musical, Double Trouble, Jack and Phil; Signature Theater: Cake Off; Arena Stage: Fiddler on the Roof; No Rules Theater Company: Boeing, Boeing, In Love and Warcraft (Helen Hayes Ensemble nomination), Sketch!; Everyman Theater: Crimes of the Heart. Regional theaters include: The Guthrie Theater, The Acting Company, The Guthrie Lab, Mile Square Theater, Crescent Stage, The Village Repertory Theater, Charleston Stage.

Kathryn Tkel (Fanny Dashwood/Lucy Steele) - Ford's Theatre: The Guard; Mosaic Theater Company: Promised Land; Rep Stage: Venus in Fur, Hunting and Gathering; Everyman Theatre: By the Way, Meet Vera Stark; Kennedy Center TYA: Mockingbird. Regional: Arizona Theatre Company: Romeo and Juliet; San Jose Repertory Theatre: Legacy of Light, Secret Order; San Francisco Playhouse: Den of Thieves, The Story; Lorraine Hansberry Theatre: Almost Nothing, Day of Absence; California Conservatory Theatre: Steel Magnolias; Willows Theatre: The Kentucky Cycle; Just Theatre: 1001; Boxcar Theatre: Museum, Headspace, Animal Kingdom, Manners and Civility.

Erin Weaver (Marianne Dashwood) - Folger Theatre: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet (Helen Hayes nomination), The Comedy of Errors, Arcadia (Helen Hayes Award), The Tempest. Signature Theatre: Xanadu (Helen Hayes nomination), The Last Five Years (Helen Hayes nomination), Company (Helen Hayes Award); Arena Stage: Mother Courage and Her Children (Helen Hayes Award); Round House Theatre: Ordinary Days (Helen Hayes Award), The Nutcracker, A Wrinkle in Time, A Murder, A Mystery and A Marriage; Imagination Stage: Night Fairy; Adventure Theater: A Lump of Coal for Christmas. Regional: Delaware Theatre Company: A Murder, A Mystery and A Marriage (Barrymore Award nomination); People's Light and Theatre Company: eight productions including Gossamer, Cinderella (Barrymore Award, Best Ensemble), Jack & the Beanstalk (Barrymore Award nomination), Treasure Island (Barrymore Award nomination); Two River Theater Company: A Midsummer Night's Dream, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, Our Town (New Jersey Star Ledger Award), A Murder, A Mystery and A Marriage (New Jersey Star Ledger Award), Mary's Wedding; Act II Playhouse: Syncopation, Mary's Wedding (Barrymore Award nomination); Arden Theatre Company: Into the Woods. National Tour: LES MISERABLES.

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM:

Kate Hamill (Playwright) - Sense and Sensibility (reading at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, New York debut Bedlam, regional debut Dallas Theater Center); EMMA (finalist Red Bull Theatre Short New Plays Festival); The Little Fellow (Phoenix Theatre Ensemble's First Stories Festival). Kate Hamill is an actor/playwright based in NYC. In 2014, her adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility (in which she originated the role of Marianne Dashwood) had its world premiere off-Broadway with critically acclaimed theater troupe Bedlam, helmed by Eric Tucker (Best Director of 2014 - Wall Street Journal). Sense and Sensibility was named one of the Top Ten Plays of 2014 by both Ben Brantley of the New York Times, and by the Huffington Post, which called it "the greatest stage adaptation of this novel in history". Sense and Sensibility had its regional debut in spring 2015 at Dallas Theater Center. Kate's other plays include The Little Fellow (or, the Prostitute Play), Emma, Vanity Fair, Pride and Prejudice and In the Mines (a folk musical). EMMA was a finalist for the Red Bull Theatre Short New Plays Festival; The Little Fellow was selected to be part of Phoenix Theatre Ensemble's First Stories Festival. Sense and Sensibility was also selected to kick off Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival's HVSF2 series in 2014 by Artistic Director Davis McCallum. Kate works regularly as an actor and writer off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway, regionally, and in independent films; she is a company member of Bedlam, a member of Jose Rivera's writers' group, and a member of both AEA and the Dramatists' Guild.

Eric Tucker (Director) - Wall Street Journal Director of the Year 2014. Off-Broadway: Bedlam's Sense and Sensibility (Off-Broadway Alliance Award; Lucille Lortel Award nomination, Best Director; Drama League Award nomination, Best Revival); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Drama League Award nomination, Best Revival; Wall Street Journal Best Classical Production, 2015; The New York Times' Critics' Pick), Bedlam's Saint Joan (The New York Times' Top Ten; Time Magazine's Top Ten; Off-Broadway Alliance Best Revival, 2014), Bedlam's Hamlet (The New York Times' Top 10; Time Out NY's and Backstage Critics' Pick); Tina Packer's Women of Will, The Belle of Belfast. Bedlam: Dog Park, New York Animals (world premiere by Steven Sater and Burt Bacharach), Twelfth Night and what You Will (The New York Times' Critics' Picks), Sense and Sensibility (The New York Times' Top 10; The New York Times', Wall Street Journal's, and Time Out NY's Critics' Picks), The Seagull (Wall Street Journal's Best Classical Production, 2014), Saint Joan and Hamlet (NYC, DC, Boston, Elliott Norton Outstanding Visiting Production and Outstanding Ensemble, Boston Globe's Top Ten). Additional work includes productions at: Central Square Theatre: Copenhagen; Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival: A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Two Gentlemen of Verona; The Kirk: The Libertine (IRNE nomination, Best Director); Stella Adler Theatre: Hamlet (with William Hurt); The Actors' Gang: Mate; Macbeth (Best Overall Production and Best Director nominations LA Weekly). Eric is the Artistic Director of Bedlam.

John McDermott (Scenic Design) - Studio Theater: Time Stands Still. Shakespeare in Clark Park: Henry IV; New York Shakespeare Festival: The Singing Forest. New York Theater Workshop: Play Yourself. Atlantic Theater Company: This Thing of Darkness, White People; Bedlam: Hamlet, Saint Joan, New York Animals, Sense and Sensibility, The Seagull, Dead Dog Park; Rattlestick: 3C, Lady, The Undeniable Sound of Right Now, The Revisionist, Saved or Destroyed; Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival: Macbeth, Measure For Measure, As You Like It, The Winter's Tale, A Midsummer Night's Dream; Shakespeare and Company: Red Velvet, The Comedy of Errors, An Unexpected Man, Sotto Voce, The Taming, Ugly Lies the Bone. Assistant Professor, Adelphi University.

Mariah Hale (Costume Design) - Folger Theatre: Cyrano, Macbeth, Measure for Measure. Regional: Guthrie Theater: Stage Kiss, Shadowlands, Private Lives, Death of a Salesman, All My Sons; Additional productions at theaters include: Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Geva Theatre Center; The Denver Center for the Performing Arts; Actors Theatre of Louisville; Delaware Theatre Company; Milwaukee Repertory Theater; Kansas City Repertory Theatre; Westport Country Playhouse; Two River Theater Company; The Contemporary American Theater Festival; Shakespeare Santa Cruz; Shakespeare Festival St. Louis; Utah Shakespeare Festival; American Players Theatre. Off-Broadway: Ensemble Studio Theatre; The Culture Project; The Juilliard School; The Pearl Theatre Company. Painter's designs were selected for the exhibit Curtain Call: Celebrating a Century of Women Designing for Live Performance.

Jesse Belsky (Lighting Design) - Folger Theatre: A Midsummer Night's Dream; Studio Theatre: ANIMAL; Signature Theatre: The Mystery of Love and Sex; Everyman Theatre: Deathtrap, Blithe Spirit, Outside Mullingar. Regional: Yale Repertory Theatre: Lydia, Rough Crossing; Triad Stage: The 39 Steps, Pump Boys & Dinettes, Shipwrecked, Kingdom of Earth; Playmakers Repertory Company: The Year of Magical Thinking; Mabou Mines: Glass Guignol. Off-Broadway: 59E59: The Body Politic; Midtown Theater: My Trip Down the Pink Carpet; La Mama Annex: Lysistrata, The Women of Troy. Touring: Bang On A Can/Asphalt Orchestra: Unpack the Elephant. International: Lee Breuer's Antigone (Athens, Greece); Anonymous Ensemble: THEBEST (Brisbane, Australia); Theater Roes: The Return (Athens, Greece). Dance: Japhy/Wideman Dance: CANE.

James Bigbee Garver (Sound Design) - Folger Theatre: District Merchants; Woolly Mammoth Theatre: Lights Rise On Grace; Signature Theatre: Sex With Strangers, Vini Vidi Vici; Round House Theatre:Stage Kiss; Theater J: Our Class; Studio Theatre: Cock, Lungs, Mary Kate Olsen Is In Love, The Walworth Farce, New Electric Ballroom, Moth, Contractions, Skin Tight, 2-2 Tango; Synetic Theatre: Kafka's Metamorphosis; Word Dance Theater: Once Wild,Faces Of Love. Regional: ACT Theatre (Seattle): Fail Better; Performance Space 122: Terrible Things; Atlantic Theatre Company:Three Sisters; Joyce SoHo: Self Evident; Japan Society: The Lady AOI. Off-Broadway: Lincoln Center: the Tiny Dance Film Series; Theater Row Studios: A Bicycle Country. Museum Installations: National Museum of Natural History: Sound Lab; National Museum of American History: Mobile Audio Cart; American Museum of Natural History: Water=Life; Megapolis Audio Festival:Silosphere.

Alexandra Beller (Choreographer) - Off-Broadway: Bedlam's Sense and Sensibility (Lortel Nomination, Outstanding Choreography). New York: La MaMa: milkdreams; New York Live Arts: You Are Here, Art is as is and as it is not...; 92nd Street Y: Why Things Fall; Movement Research: other stories; Brooklyn Arts Exchange: egg; Abrons Art Center: what comes after happy; egg; Dixon Place: other stories; P.S.122: Why Things Fall; Danspace Project at St. Mark's: We Sink As We Run, other stories; The Connelly Theatre: other stories; Joyce SoHo: other stories, 50 Ways to Find a Mate, Waiting for Chekhov or a Bit of Rope, Sifting Miracles; HERE Art Center: us, You Are Here, other stories, what comes after happy; University Settlement Society of New York: Moving Men, or Telling Left From Right, We Sink as We Run; Roulette: Surprise Every Time; Symphony Space: what comes after happy; Dance New Amsterdam: Forever's Gonna Start Tonight; other stories; piece; egg; what comes after happy; Give up, or a bird lying on its back; Green Building: Give up, or a bird lying on its back; milkdreams; The Tank: us. "I." Regional: Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival: Two Gentlemen of Verona, As You Like It; Smith Opera House: Then Quiet the Hook; Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston: other stories; egg; Jacob's Pillow Dance: Why Things Fall, other stories; Kendall Hall: We Sink As We Run; Wellspring Theatre: We Sink As We Run; Pease Theatre: We Sink As We Run; Cyprus Dance Festival: lie where I fall; The Patterson: us; Berkshire Fringe Festival: us. International: Duo MultiCultural Art Center: piece Bytom Festival (Poland): what comes after happy, egg; Open Look Festival (St. Petersburg): what comes after happy, egg; Digital Dance Festival (Korea).

About Folger Theatre and Folger Shakespeare Library: Folger Theatre is the centerpiece of Folger Shakespeare Library's programs for the public and is recognized for dynamic performances in its 250-seat Elizabethan-styled theatre and for specializing in innovative stagings of works by Shakespeare, other classical work, and new plays inspired by these traditions. Since 1991, Folger Theatre has been honored by the Helen Hayes Awards with 24 awards and 140 nominations for excellence in acting, direction, design, and production-including the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Resident Play in 2011 for Hamlet (a year in which all three of Folger's theatrical productions were nominated in that category) and in 2013 for The Taming of the Shrew. In 2012, Folger Theatre brought Shakespeare's Globe's Hamlet from London for the company's first Washington appearance and continued that collaboration in 2014 with the touring production of King Lear (featuring Joseph Marcell). Folger Theatre produced The Two Gentlemen of Verona with the highly celebrated Fiasco Theater Company, a production that went on to win two Helen Hayes Awards, including "Outstanding Ensemble in a Play," and was restaged at the Theatre for A New Audience in New York City. Last season, Folger Theatre collaborated with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for the first time to stage Shakespeare's adventure tale Pericles, and commissioned Aaron Posner's District Merchants, which had its world premiere at Folger Theatre and will be produced at South Coast Repertory in California this Fall. Janet Alexander Griffin is the Artistic Producer of Folger Theatre and Director of Public Programs which includes the Folger's music and literary series.

Folger Shakespeare Library is a renowned center for scholarship, learning, culture, and the arts. Home to the world's largest Shakespeare collection and a primary repository for research material from the early modern period (1500-1750), Folger Shakespeare Library is an internationally recognized research library offering advanced scholarly programs in the humanities; a national leader in how Shakespeare is taught in grades K-12; and an award-winning producer of cultural and arts programs -theatre, music, poetry, exhibits, lectures, and family programs. A gift to the American people from industrialist Henry Clay Folger, Folger Shakespeare Library-located one block east of the U.S. Capitol-opened in 1932 and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.