Hello and welcome to our read-along of Shakespeare's plays. Our intent is to read a play a month until we've read them all (yes, we're aware that this will take more than three years), and we hope you'll join us! Along the way, we'll post our thoughts, as well as any resources we come across, and we encourage read-along-ers of all ages and backgrounds -- from novice to bardolater -- to do the same.
We plan on reading the plays in loose chronological order, according to the current, commonly accepted list found on Wikipedia, with the small change of reading Henry VI Part 1 before the second and third parts instead of after, and leaving off a few lost or questionable works. So, our schedule for our first year of reading looks like:
June 2015: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
July 2015: The Taming of the Shrew
August 2015: Henry VI Part 1
September 2015: Henry VI Part 2
October 2015: Henry VI Part 3
November 2015: Titus Andronicus
December 2015: Richard III
January 2016: The Comedy of Errors
February 2016: Love's Labour's Lost
March 2016: Richard II
April 2016: Romeo and Juliet
May 2016: A Midsummer Night's Dream
We'll be reading from our beat-up, old Riverside Shakespeare, but there are plenty of online versions you can go to: MIT, for example, has a no-frills, Complete Works available, and the Folger Shakespeare Library has a more edited collection.
Watch this space in the next few days for more general information and introductions, and get started with The Two Gentlemen of Verona next week!
