Educator Dr. Peggy O’Brien and actor/director Michael Tolaydo have for many years collaborated in the public humanities mission of making Shakespeare accessible to students nationwide. In this workshop they will describe their work and show us how it is done.

In addition to being the long-term Director of the Education Division of the Folger Shakespeare Library, Dr. O’Brien served for many years as the Vice President and Senior Vice President for Education of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and produced the American collection of TV adaptations of famous American novels for Masterpiece Theatre. A director of SAGE Publications, she is the founder of the nationwide Folger/NEH “Teaching Shakespeare” workshops and the editor of the famous Shakespeare Set Free volumes. She teaches at Trinity Washington and Georgetown Universities.

In a career spanning almost 50 years, her husband, Washington-based actor Michael Tolaydo, has undertaken Shakespearean roles ranging from Edgar, Claudio and Laertes in his youth through to Shylock, Richard III and Prospero in his later years, and most recently has directed Julius Caesar (2017) for the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company. He is Professor Emeritus of drama at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

Sponsored by the HI Early Modern and Performance Research Workshops, The Experiential Learning Network; the Departments of English, Learning and Instruction and Theatre and Dance, and the UB Libraries.