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 NATION'S CAPITAL BRANCH OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING UNION, the FOLGER SHAKESPEARE
LIBRARY, FORD'S THEATRE, the FRENCH EMBASSY, the SHAKESPEARE THEATRE COMPANY,
the UNIVERSITY CLUB, the WASHINGTON CLUB, and the WOMAN’S NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC
CLUB in D.C., the CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER in the Windy City, and the
ALGONQUIN HOTEL, the DICAPO OPERA THEATRE, the ENGLISH-SPEAKING UNION, the
LAMBS, the NATIONAL ARTS CLUB, THE PLAYERS, and the PRINCETON CLUB OF NEW
YORK in Manhattan, and the LENSIC PERFORMING ARTS CENTER in Santa Fe.
Events in the series have been covered not only by newspapers such as the
New York Times and the Washington
Post, but by American Theatre
and other periodicals, And guests have included actors F.
Murray Abraham, Jane Alexander,
Keith Baxter, Simon
Russell Beale, Zoe Caldwell,
Richard Clifford, Richard
Easton, Alvin Epstein,
Edward Gero, Henry Goodman,
Kitty Carlisle Hart,
Hal Holbrook, Dana Ivey,
Stacy Keach, Kevin Kline,
Michael Learned, Dakin Matthews,
Estelle Parsons,
Christopher Plummer, Lynn Redgrave,
Roger Rees, Prunella
Scales, Liev Schreiber, Marian
Seldes, Jean Stapleton,
Janet Suzman,
John Douglas Thompson, Ted van
Griethuysen, Timothy West,
and Michael York, directors Bill
Alexander, Peter Brook, Robert
Brustein, Ralph
Alan Cohen, Karin Coonrod,
Barry Edelstein, Barbara
Gaines, Margot Harley,
Jeffrey Horowitz, Nagle Jackson,
Michael Kahn, Tina
Packer, Molly Smith, Julie
Taymor, and Robert Whitehead, dramatists
Edward Albee, Michael
Frayn, Ken Ludwig, and Sir
Peter Shaffer, filmmaker Eleanor
Bergstein, portrait painter Everett
Raymond Kinstler, architect Hugh
Hardy, corporate executives Kenneth
Adelman and Norman Augustine, scholars, writers, and journalists E.
R. Braithwaite, Robert Aubry
Davis, Paul Dickson, Michael
Dirda, Sir Harold Evans, Flora
Fraser, Marjorie Garber, George
Garrett, Adam Gopnik, Stephen
Greenblatt, Marjorie Garber,
John Guy, Anthony
Hecht, John Heilpern, Peter
Holland, Russell Jackson, David
Scott Kastan, John Lahr, Sarah
Lyall, Robert MacNeil, Peter
Marks, Judith Martin, Richard
McCoy, John Miller, Mark
Olshaker, Diana Owen, Gail
Kern Paster, Bill Press, Cokie
Roberts and Linda Wertheimer, Neil
Rudenstine, Kiernan Ryan, James
Shapiro, Ammon Shea, Jesse
Sheidlower, Deborah Tannen,
Alden and Virginia Vaughan, Stanley
Wells, and Garry Wills.
For details about offerings that have been presented in various seasons,
click on the blue link for the year that interests you: 1998,
1999, 2000,
2001, 2002,
2003, 2004,
2005, 2006,
2007, 2008,
2009, 2010,
2011, 2012,
2013, 2014,
2015, 2016,
2017, 2018.
And for information about upcoming programs, visit our Current
Events page.