Shakespeare’s work is alive and well, and his work continues to illuminate and inform who we are. The Dubuque Shakespeare Project acts as a focal point for celebrating the Bard’s work in the Tristate area.

In 2023, we celebrate the 400th anniversary of the publication of the First Folio, which is among the most influential books ever published.

Carnegie-Stout Public Library launches a monthly series in which participants will examine Shakespeare’s work in somewhat chronological order. The series will highlight common themes across plays and narrative poems and will chart the writer’s growth as a dramatist. As a starting point, each month’s discussion will place the work in the contexts of Shakespeare’s canon and the play’s relevance to our current human condition.

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Fall 2024: Becoming the Bard

Carnegie-Stout Public Library 360 W 11th Street, Dubuque, IA, United States

William Shakespeare’s mastery of language is apparent from his earliest works, but reaches new heights in his intensely poetic phase and with the twin breakthroughs of Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. During this period, he also published two long narrative poems both dedicated to the Earl of Southampton. Shakespeare’s poetic phase freed him from the stylized stage language to more nimbly suit language to character, expanding the representation of […]

Discussion: Love’s Labor’s Lost

Carnegie-Stout Public Library 360 W 11th Street, Dubuque, IA, United States

Synopsis: A college comedy with four pairs of lovers and a delightful sendup of pedantry. The King of Navarre and his three friends take an oath to devote themselves to studies and forswear women. The Princess of France and her three friends arrive soon after setting up a raucous farce that is also one of his subtlest explorations of language itself. Discussion Topics: As the title implies, love and endless ruminations on […]

Discussion: Romeo and Juliet

Carnegie-Stout Public Library 360 W 11th Street, Dubuque, IA, United States

Synopsis: In this, the most famous love tragedy of all time, Shakespeare’s doomed lovers find each other in a violent society beset with ancient grudges. Exquisite poetry, memorable characters and a relentless pace immerse the audience into the world of the play. Discussion Topics: How is love portrayed in this quintessential love story? What devices does Shakespeare employ to delineate Romeo and Juliet’s love to make it bigger and truer than what […]

Discussion: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Carnegie-Stout Public Library 360 W 11th Street, Dubuque, IA, United States

Synopsis: A royal wedding from Greek mythology. Two pairs of lovers with all sorts of love triangles. A troupe of amateur actors. A quarrel between the faerie queen and the faerie king. And the delightful faerie mischief-maker Puck with assorted woodland creatures from the English countryside. Shakespeare’s second shortest play sets up all these plot strands and lets them collide into each other while creating a panoply of memorable characters. Discussion Topics: […]