Shakespeare in the Light: Essays in Honor of Ralph Alan Cohen

Shakespeare in the Light convenes an accomplished group of scholars, actors, and teachers to celebrate the legacy of renowned Shakespearean and co-founder of the American Shakespeare Center, Ralph Alan Cohen. Each contributor pivots off a production at the ASC’s Blackfriars Playhouse to explore Cohen’s abiding passion, the performance of the plays of William Shakespeare under their original theatrical conditions. Whether interested in early modern theatre history, the teaching of Shakespeare to high school students, or the performance of Shakespeare in twenty-first century America, each essay sheds light on the professing of Shakespeare today, whether on the page, on the stage, or in the classroom. Guided by the spirit of “universal lighting” – so central to the aesthetic of the American Shakespeare Center – Shakespeare in the Light illuminates the impact that the ASC and its founder have made upon the teaching, editing, scholarship, and performance of Shakespeare today.

Farah Karim-Cooper is Head of Higher Education & Research, Shakespeare's Globe and Professor of Shakespeare Studies, King's College London, UK.

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Jeremy Lopez is Associate Professor of English at the University of Toronto, Canada

Russ McDonald is Professor of English Literature at Goldsmiths College, University of London and a past President of the Shakespeare Association of America. He is a successful author having written the best-selling Bedford Companion to Shakespeare as well as the influential Shakespeare's Late Style. He has also edited four plays for the New Pelican Shakespeare

Paul Menzer is the Provost at Mary Baldwin University, USA, where he is a Professor of Shakespeare and Performance. He is the editor of Inside Shakespeare: Essays on the Blackfriars Stage (2006) and author of The Hamlets: Cues, Q's, and Remembered Texts (2008), Anecdotal Shakespeare: a New Performance History (2015), Shakespeare in the Theatre: The American Shakespeare Center (2017), as well as editions of Romeo and Juliet (2017) and Doctor Faustus (2018).

Tiffany Stern is Professor of Shakespeare and Early Modern Drama at the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, UK.