Carnegie-Stout Public Library
The Merchant of Venice
Carnegie-Stout Public Library 360 W 11th Street, Dubuque, IA, United StatesTHE DUBUQUE SHAKESPEARE PROJECT at the Carnegie Stout Library, Dubuque, IA Fall 2025 REINVENTING COMEDY The Merchant of Venice In William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, the wealthy but depressed merchant Antonio defaults on a loan from the Jewish moneylender Shylock, who demands a literal pound of Antonio's flesh as payment due to past mistreatment. Antonio's friend Bassanio must go to Belmont to court the rich heiress Portia, whose hand in marriage […]
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Carnegie-Stout Public Library 360 W 11th Street, Dubuque, IA, United StatesTHE DUBUQUE SHAKESPEARE PROJECT at the Carnegie Stout Library, Dubuque, IA Fall 2025 REINVENTING COMEDY The Merry Wives of Windsor Synopsis: Shakespeare’s only full play to be set in contemporary England, Merry Wives borrows Falstaff and other characters from Henry IV’s Eastcheap and throws them into suburban small town Windsor. Falstaff tries to seduce the titular wives, but the smart wives know just how to play him. A list of suitors to […]
Henry IV – Part 1
Carnegie-Stout Public Library 360 W 11th Street, Dubuque, IA, United StatesSynopsis: The usurper Bolingbrooke from Richard II is now Henry IV and is beset with external and internal threats. The rebels led by The rebels led by erstwhile ally Northumberland and his son ‘Hotspur’ join forces with the Welsh Glendower posing the external threat. The crown prince Hal is meanwhile carousing in disreputable Eastcheap in the company of the dissolute Falstaff, drinking and thieving while his father King frets and worries. […]
Discussion: Richard II
Carnegie-Stout Public Library 360 W 11th Street, Dubuque, IA, United StatesSynopsis: A poetic history written entirely in verse, Richard II is about the struggle between the legitimate but tyrannical Richard and the competent plainspoken Bolingbroke who is wronged yet unsympathetic. Exquisitely balanced in plot, character and tone, the play raises several troubling questions about the divine right of kings. Discussion Topics: Richard is highly performative with theatrically extravagant gestures, but in many ways opposite of the performative Richard III who invites the […]
Discussion: King John
Carnegie-Stout Public Library 360 W 11th Street, Dubuque, IA, United StatesSynopsis: Set further back than any other history, King John deals with rival claims to the English throne after the death of Richard I (the Lionheart). The brother John occupies the throne guided by his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine. The King of France supports John’s nephew Arthur, a young boy who has a better claim through primogeniture. The power plays are crude, accidental fate introducing further uncertainty. Discussion Topics: The idea […]
The Making Of A Leader
Carnegie-Stout Public Library 360 W 11th Street, Dubuque, IA, United StatesShakespeare first gained notice with his early histories chronicling the Wars of the Roses. When he started work on the prequels that lay the historical basis for the Wars of the Roses ending in the short triumphant reign of Henry V, Shakespeare’s interests and talents had grown too big for any one genre. Though nominally histories, Shakespeare questions everything from the monarchy itself and delves deep into the qualities that seem to […]
Discussion: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Carnegie-Stout Public Library 360 W 11th Street, Dubuque, IA, United StatesSynopsis: 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: […]
Sonnet Workshop
Carnegie-Stout Public Library 360 W 11th Street, Dubuque, IA, United StatesJoin Sunil Malapati and the sonnet competition judges Ann Pelelo and Steve Bellomy as they walk through the form and writing modern sonnets. Students can then work on their sonnets for submission to Clarke University’s literary magazine Tenth Muse. The top sonnets will receive coaching from the judges and published in the Spring 2025 edition of Tenth Muse. Prize winners will publicly read their sonnets at the launch event in April 2025. […]
Tenth Muse Sonnet Competition
Carnegie-Stout Public Library 360 W 11th Street, Dubuque, IA, United StatesJoin Sunil Malapati and the sonnet competition judges Ann Pelelo and Steve Bellomy as they walk through the form and writing modern sonnets. Students can then work on their sonnets for submission to Clarke University’s literary magazine Tenth Muse. The top sonnets will receive coaching from the judges and published in the Spring 2025 edition of Tenth Muse. Prize winners will publicly read their sonnets at the launch event in April 2025. […]
Discussion: Romeo and Juliet
Carnegie-Stout Public Library 360 W 11th Street, Dubuque, IA, United StatesSynopsis: 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: Love’s Labor’s Lost
Carnegie-Stout Public Library 360 W 11th Street, Dubuque, IA, United StatesSynopsis: 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: Venus and Andonis / The Rape of Lucrece
Carnegie-Stout Public Library 360 W 11th Street, Dubuque, IA, United StatesSynopsis: Shakespeare’s first published work Venus and Adonis is a lyrical tale of goddess Venus being infatuated with and pursuing the youthful hunter Adonis. The narrative is witty and erotic with supporting tangential stories of animals. The other long narrative poem The Rape of Lucrece is more somber and portrays the lust of Tarquin and the subsequent shame experienced by Lucrece devoting very few lines to the rape itself. Lucrece’s lament takes […]
Discussion: The Comedy of Errors
Carnegie-Stout Public Library 360 W 11th Street, Dubuque, IA, United StatesShakespeare’s shortest play is also his most farcical comedy with multiple mistaken identities. Two sets of identical twins, the masters both named Antipholus and the servants both named Dromio are separated at birth. One set grows up in Syracuse and comes to Ephesus to find the other, and every possible combination of master and servant happens resulting in gleeful chaos. Discussion Topics: Comedy starts with a serious ticking clock where Egeon […]
Discussion: The Taming of the Shrew
Carnegie-Stout Public Library 360 W 11th Street, Dubuque, IA, United StatesSuitors are lining up for the lovely Bianca, but her father refuses to let her be wooed until her elder sister, Katherina, the titular shrew is wedded. The suitors draft the treasure hunter Petruchio to woo and wed Katherina, after which he successfully ‘tames’ her and shows off the seemingly obedient Katherina at Bianca’s wedding. Discussion Topics: Induction: the process or action of bringing about or giving rise to something. Taming is […]
Discussion: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Carnegie-Stout Public Library 360 W 11th Street, Dubuque, IA, United StatesThe titular two gentlemen start out as friends, but inconstancy in love leads to strife. The play features the first instance of cross-dressing, much used and abused in Shakespeare’s later comedies. The cast is small, comic plots abound, but the dog Crab steals the show along with its master Launce. Discussion Topics: Friendship and love are the dominant themes with women intruding on male brotherhood. The climactic scene is ambiguous in how […]