The resources of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. are unparalleled not only in many of the fields of early modern study, but also in the field of performance studies. In this work-in-progress/workshop session, UB Associate Professor Barbara Bono of the Departments of English and of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies, and UB Associate Professor Maria Horne of the Department of Theatre and Dance will speak to and demonstrate their recent financially-supported work in the programs of the Folger Institute:

• the 2016-17 year-long Colloquium on “Teaching Medieval Drama in Performance” organized by Professor Theresa Coletti of the Department of English, The University of Maryland;
• the spring 2018 Conference on “Exploring Entangled Histories: Britain and Europe in the Age of the Thirty Years’ War, c. 1590-1650” organized by Professor Alastair Bellany of the Department of History, Rutgers University;
• and the 2018 Seminar on “What Acting Is” organized by Sterling Professor Emeritus Joseph Roach of the Departments of Theater and English, Yale University.

They will also illustrate some of its outcomes in the Folger’s growing collection of electronic publications such as Folgerpedia, The Collation, The Digital Anthology of Early Modern Drama, “Transcribathons,” and “The Elizabethan Court Day-by Day Project,” and will conclude by anticipating the forthcoming April 26, 2019 visit to UB of Folger Education Director Dr. Peggy O’Brien, the architect and convener of the nationwide Folger/NEH “Teaching Shakespeare” initiative and the editor of the famous Shakespeare Set Free volumes.

They will discuss with attendees how they can best take academic and fellowship advantage of UB’s 27-year membership in the Folger Institute.

Come one, come all—faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students—from English, History, Theatre and Dance, Romance Languages and Literatures, Digital Humanities, the UB Libraries, and other University units—to learn and to learn how to participate.