The Book of Will

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

Folger Shakespeare Library

Arts

4.8 • 878 Ratings

🗓️ 4 April 2017

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Shakespeare is famous today thanks in no small part to two members of his acting company, John Heminge and Henry Condell, who published a collection of his plays seven years after his death. Lauren Gunderson has written a new play called "The Book of Will" that portrays Heminge and Condell, along with their families and everyone involved in gathering and creating the First Folio. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published April 4, 2017. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode, “You That Survive, And You That Sleep In Fame,” was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster and Esther Ferington. Esther French is the web producer. We had help from Melissa Marquis at NPR in Washington and Monty Carlos at KQED in San Francisco.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Here are some dispatches from another universe.
0:03.2	We're headed up to Ashland this summer for the Oregon Beaumont Festival.
0:07.6	Or how about this?
0:09.2	The public theater presents Witt Without Money, the centerpiece of this summer's Fletcher
0:14.5	in the Park.
0:15.9	Or how about, coming this fall, a soldier for the ladies, a production of the Royal Scentleaver Company.
0:23.5	It's safe to say in the world where we all live.
0:26.6	You've never heard anyone say any of those things.
0:29.8	Ever wonder why?
0:36.9	From the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited. I'm Michael Whitmore,
0:42.1	the Folgers director. This podcast is called You That Survive and You That Sleep in Fame.
0:49.5	So why is it that Shakespeare thrives 400 years after his death in a way that not one of his contemporaries can match?
0:57.6	Why isn't there such a thing as the Folger Chapman Library or the Folger Marlow Library?
1:03.5	Partly it's because of Shakespeare's talent.
1:05.8	He was a wonderfully gifted writer.
1:08.0	But that's not the only reason.
1:10.3	Shakespeare is what he is, thanks in no small
1:13.1	part, to the devotion and persistence of two men, two kingsmen, members of Shakespeare's acting
1:19.4	company, John Hemming and Henry Condal. Seven years after the death of their friend, Will Shakespeare,
1:26.2	they decided to seek out and publish his plays into what
1:29.1	today we call the first folio. We can't know what their true motivations were, but playwright Lauren
1:36.2	Gunderson has decided that we're certainly allowed to guess. She's written a new play called The Book of Will
	...

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