Since the autumn of 1998, when the GUILD launched its most versatile program format with a sequence of dialogues at the NATIONAL PRESS CLUB in Washington, SPEAKING OF SHAKESPEARE has enabled attendees to meet and converse with some of the most engaging artists, journalists, and other public figures of our time. Installments in this or in closely related series have taken place under the aegis of such organizations as the AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE, the ARTS CLUB, the BRITISH EMBASSY, the COSMOS CLUB, DACOR BACON HOUSE, the FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY, the FRENCH EMBASSY, the SHAKESPEARE THEATRE COMPANY, the UNIVERSITY CLUB, the WASHINGTON CLUB, and the WOMAN’S NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC CLUB in the District of Columbia, the CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER in the Windy City, and the ALGONQUIN HOTEL, the NATIONAL ARTS CLUB, and THE PLAYERS in Manhattan.
Guests have included actors F. Murray Abraham, Jane Alexander, Simon Russell Beale, Zoe Caldwell, Henry Goodman, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Bill Irwin, Dana Ivey, Sir Derek Jacobi, Stacy Keach, Kevin Kline, Sir Ian McKellen, Christopher Plummer, Lynn Redgrave, Roger Rees, Prunella Scales, Liev Schreiber, Patrick Stewart, Janet Suzman, Timothy West, and Michael York, directors Peter Brook, Sir Peter Hall, Michael Kahn, and Robert Whitehead, dramatists Edward Albee, Alan Bennett, Michael Frayn, Sir David Hare, Ken Ludwig, David Mamet, and Sir Peter Shaffer, and writers Michael Dirda, Sir Harold Evans, Adam Gopnik, Anthony Hecht, Judith Martin, James Shapiro, Ammon Shea, Jesse Sheidlower, Deborah Tannen, Stanley Wells, and Garry Wills. For information on recent events, and for details about current programs in our SOS series, click here.
