By Melanie Schefft
513-556-5213   
Photos provided and by Jay Yocis/UC Creative Services

Aug. 24, 2017

Friends, students, countrymen, lend me your ears!

As part of the upcoming “Shakespeare and the Queen City” exhibition at the Cincinnati Museum Center (CMC), the extensive Shakespeare collection in the University of Cincinnati Libraries will play a major role in offering visitors a glimpse into the history of the city’s love of the Bard.

“Shakespeare and the Queen City” is FREE and runs from Aug. 25 through Oct. 29 as a multicollaborative effort to commemorate Cincinnati’s connection to Shakespeare and celebrate the vibrant and complex history of bringing Shakespeare’s works into print.

The focal point of the exhibit includes a rare peek at one of 82 First Folios belonging to the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., each containing 36 of the playwright’s published works.

Recent UC alumna Sydney Vollmer devoted a large portion of her summer internship to scanning and documenting specially selected pieces from UC's archives library for the exhibition.

Early in the planning process, Sarah Lima, business development manager for the Cincinnati Museum Center and curator for the exhibit was inspired by a UC Libraries Shakespeare blog written by UC alumna Sydney Vollmer, a student intern for UC’s Archives and Rare Books Library.

As part of her internship assignment, she was asked to help select and organize the most engaging pieces for the exhibit to shine a light on Cincinnati’s celebrations of Shakespeare’s work throughout the centuries.

“The multicollaborative efforts of the Cincinnati Museum Center, UC Libraries, the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County and the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company helps shed light on how Shakespeare is a part of our everyday culture and how Cincinnati has loved and interpreted him in different ways over the decades,” says Kevin Grace, UC graduate and head of the university’s Archives and Rare Books Library. “Phrases highlighted throughout the exhibit such as, ‘In my mind’s eye,’ ‘To thine own self be true’ and ‘Neither a borrower nor a lender be,’ shows how powerfully Shakespeare is a part of our lives every day whether we realize it or not.”

Scene from Cincinnati's 1916 commemoration of the tercentenary (300th anniversary) of Shakespeare's death - English faculty from UC perform dances in Burnet Woods.

Shakespeare by the book

As a result of blog-writer Vollmer’s inspiration, visitors will enter the exhibit through a forest of trees. Little fairy doors that can be opened on the trees will reveal enlarged copies of illustrations from UC’s collection, such as watercolor paintings of the fairy Puck from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and other ink and watercolor illustrations by Arthur Rackham from the early 1900s.

“The blog I created as part of my internship in the library describes everything from UC’s holdings to events that may be going on and comparisons between Shakespeare then and now and how they’re used in popular culture,” says Vollmer. “Along with UC’s books and illustrations in the exhibit, photos will be on display showing exuberant UC campus celebrations during the 1916 tercentenary of the 300th anniversary of the Bard’s death.”

UC English faculty perform in the Burnet Woods market parade as part of the 1916 commemoration of the tercentenary. Many tercentenary events on UC's campus were filmed for theater news reels at that time.

Grace noted that UC’s campus in 1916 was consumed by celebrations of Shakespeare’s work 300 years after his death.

“It took an entire week at that time to mount the plays, put on Elizabethan markets and dances performed by UC’s English faculty in Burnet Woods –– the photos for which are all part of the exhibit,” Grace adds.

In addition, UC’s library will feature two pages from the unpublished autobiography of Theda Bara, a UC student in the early 1900s before she went on to become a silent film star.

Shortly after the anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, Bara appeared in the silent film “Cleopatra,” based on the playwright’s “Antony and Cleopatra.” Visitors can get an up close view of some of the pages in her autobiography where she candidly describes the costuming and direction during the filming.

All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players

Along with the fantastical illustrations and 400-year-old Folio, onlookers will have the opportunity to get “caught up in the act.”

Winding their way through the exhibit, visitors will discover a stage and set where budding actors can don authentic costumes provided by the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company.

“The whole idea is for you to become a part of Shakespeare in an interactive mode,” says Grace. “You can act out a scene from a play such as ‘Richard III’ and people from the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company will be there to direct you.”

The exhibit –– free and open to the public –– is on the lower level of the CMC across from the Children's Museum and next to the "Star Wars and the Power of Costume" exhibit where both will go on simultaneously.

Ironically, there have actually been parodies of Shakespeare as Star Wars figures –– six issued so far –– and Vollmer writes about one of them in her Shakespeare blog.

A watercolor of elves and fairies from Shakespeare's "Tempest" by Edmund Dulac in early 1900s.

An ink and watercolor of Titania sees Bottom from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by Arthur Rackham.