Shakespeare in the Light

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.

Amy R. Cohen is professor of classics and theatre at Randolph College. She is director of the Center for Ancient Drama and holds the William Erness Thoresen and Catherine Ehrman Thoresen '23 Chair of Speech and Theatre.
Paul Menzer is a professor and director of the Mary Baldwin University MLitt/MFA Shakespeare and Performance graduate program.

Introductions:
Being Ralph Cohen
Paul Menzer
A Runaway American Dream: The Birth of the American Shakespeare Center
Jim Warren
Part 1: In the Library
Actors as Evidence
Alan Armstrong
The Pressures of Immediacy: The Alchemist and Theatrical Magic
Evelyn Tribble
Text as performance as text: the King's disease in All's Well that Ends Well
Jeremy Lopez
Reading Lady Macbeth's Line, 3.4.117
George Walton Williams
Blackfriars Then and Now
Tiffany Stern
Taking Our Hats Off to Ralph
Andrew Gurr
Facts Don't Always Do What We Want Them To
Farah Karim-Cooper
Macbeth and the Power of Poetry
Russ McDonald
Part 2: In the Classroom
Othello: Three Notes for Dr Ralph to Query
Patrick Spottiswoode
"What wouldst thou do now": The Visionary Impact of Shakespeare on a Small College Town
Mary Hill Cole and Marlena Hobson
Ralph Alan Cohen's Fearless Teaching: The Language of Shakespeare
Sally Southall
Part 3: On the Stage
Dionysus at Play with Antony and Cleopatra
Amy Cohen
"Change Place