Rare Shakespeare ‘First Folio’ to be seen at Drew

One of the Holy Grails of the theater world will make its way to Madison next year when Drew University plays host to a national touring exhibition featuring a rare “First Folio” of published plays by William Shakespeare.

The original printing of the first collected edition of the plays of William Shakespeare will be exhibited in the fall of 2016 at Drew University in partnership with the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, which has its main stage F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre on Drew’s campus.

The national traveling exhibition, “Shakespeare and His First Folio,” which is jointly organized by the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., and the American Library Association, will mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.

The First Folio is the earliest published collection of Shakespeare’s plays, and was compiled by two of his actors in 1623. Only about 800 copies of the First Folio were printed, with about 233 copies known to still exist. The First Folio compiled many of Shakespeare’s greatest and most treasured works for the first time, including “Macbeth,” “Julius Caesar,” “The Tempest” and “The Comedy of Errors,” were published as a single collection.

Drew is the only stop for the exhibition in New Jersey. The First Folio tour will reach 53 sites, one location in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Only about 233 of the original estimated 800 First Folio copies still exist, according to a 2014 New York Times report. The Folger Library claims to have the largest single collection of copies — 82 — in the world.

A First Folio was discovered as recently as last year, when a damaged, miscategorized copy was discovered in a library near Clais, France. Another copy fetched a record price of $6.16 million at auction in 2001.

While on display at Drew, in the Wendel Room at Mead Hall, the book will be open to the famous line from “Hamlet,” “To be or not to be.” As part of the exhibit, “Hamlet” will be performed in the Kean Theatre by Drew’s Department of Theatre and Dance.

“The 36 plays preserved in this ancient book have for centuries helped us to understand, even to define, what it means to be human,” said Chris Ceraso, chairman of Drew’s Department of Theatre and Dance and author of Drew’s application to host the First Folio. “To have the book itself, and the accompanying exhibit, housed for a time on our campus, is not just a prestigious honor, but also the perfect embodiment of the liberal arts mission, especially when paired with the performance mission of the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey.”

Drew will also showcase the First Folio for local students and host seminars and lectures featuring Drew faculty experts. A companion exhibit of rare books contemporary to the First Folio, drawn from Drew’s own collection, will also help visitors understand the First Folio in the context of the tumultuous world of the English Reformation in which Shakespeare lived and wrote.

“This is a tremendous honor for Drew and a wonderful opportunity for our students and the community,” said Drew President MaryAnn Baenninger.

“Co-hosting the presentation of one of the world’s most treasured cultural artifacts is a great honor and a thrilling, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the theater, Drew University and our greater community,” said Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey Artistic Director Bonnie J. Monte. “In tandem with and in celebration of the Folio’s month-long residency, The Shakespeare Theatre will produce one of Shakespeare’s greatest masterpieces on our Main Stage, which will include numerous student matinee performances featuring tours of the Folio exhibit and post-show discussions with our company of artists.”

The Shakespeare Theatre of new Jersey has partnered with the Folger Library in the past, including the ongoing Shakesperiance program, a non-competitive forum for students in grades 5 to 12 that spends an entire day engaging language-arts students in live Shakespeare as both actors and audience members.

Staff Writer William Westhoven: 973-428-6627; wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com.