Teaching Shakespeare Institute 2026

I just documented this year's Teaching Shakespeare Institute (TSI) on assignment for the Folger Shakespeare Library. A lively group of master teachers from across the country study and learn at the Folger for three weeks in an intensive hands-on professional development program. 

Thanks to the staff at the Folger for this opportunity: David Kilpatrick, Liam Dempsey, and Garland Scott. 

Julia Sues For Freedom | Ball Sellers House

A play, "Julia Sues For Freedom" was staged at the Ball-Sellers House in the Glencarlyn neighborhood of Arlington,Virginia. This play, put on by the Guillotine Theatre tells the true story of Julia Roberts' successful 1842 petition in court to insure her freedom from enslaverment, in a case that went to the Supreme Court. Julia was a resident of what is today Arlington County. 

The drama was co-sponsored by the Arlington Historical Society and the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington.

The actors were: Julia Roberts- by Lisa Hill Corley; Judge William Cranch by Sean Denniston; Attorney Robert Brent by Ricardo Frederick Evans; and Attorney Christopher Neale by Ken Jackson

Additional information is  here. 

Folger Student Shakespeare Festival 2025

I documented this year's Folger Student Shakespeare Festival. Lively interpretations of the Bard's plays were staged by students from Poe Middle School, Montgomery Blair High School, Duke Ellington High School for the Performing Arts, Falls Church High School, Ballou High School, Quince Orchard High School, Bullis Prep, Swanson Middle School, Ashreinu, and other regional school drama programs.

Thanks to Garland Scott for the assignment, the education staff at the Folger, and the Mistress of the Revels.