brush up your shakespeare: 2025

if you’ve ever met me, or seen me around the interwebs, you can probably guess that i’m a woman of too many ideas.

annual reading goals? definitely don’t set them ‘cuz i already read all the time.

monthly reading themes? (ex: “nonfiction november”) never stick to ‘em.

miiiiiight read next? uh, somewhere between a 20-40% chance i guess what i’ll read next before i finish the current read.

BUT, as my literary agent is going out on SUBMISSION (!!) to editors and publishers with my middle grade theatre novel in 2025… well, since it’s sorta-loosly-sorta-inspired-loose-retelling-within-its-own-shakespeare-play… well, i thought it’d be fun to:

brush up my shakespeare!!

not that this movie is perfect, but i do get this song stuck in my head a lot. ;)

i did an inventory of my shakespeare shelf, and of the 38 plays marjorie garber lists as credited to the bard, i have read 22 of the published (unlost) works. (golly i loooove her book “shakespeare after all!” always worth a pick-up.)

that leaves 16 unread by me.*

so for 2025, my “reading goal” of sorts is to go alphabetically through the plays as listed in the cambridge shakespeare guide by emma smith.

so how ambitious i’ll be is still up for sound debate— one a week? two a month? a blog post every four titles? i dunno yet. but if you care, i’ll do my best to keep you posted on the journey. :)

here are the titles in the order (assuming i can acquire any holes in my colection) i’ll be reading (or re-reading) them:

  • all’s well that ends well

  • antony & cleopatra

  • as you like it

  • the comedy of errors

  • coriolanus

  • cymbeline, king of britain

  • hamlet

  • julius caesar

  • king henry iv part 1

  • king henry iv part 2

  • king henry v

  • king hnery vi parts 1, 2 and 3

  • king henry viii, or all is true

  • king john

  • king lear

  • king richard ii

  • king richard iii

  • love’s labor’s lost

  • macbeth

  • measure for measure

  • the merchant of venice

  • the merry wives of windsor

  • a midsummer night’s dream

  • much ado about nothing

  • othello, the moor of venice

  • pericles

  • the phoenix and the turtle

  • the rape of lucrece

  • romeo & juliet

  • the sonnets and a lover’s complaint

  • the taming of the shrew

  • the tempest

  • timon of athens

  • titus andronicus

  • troilus and cressida

  • twelfth night, or what you will

  • the two gentlemen of verona

  • the two noble kinsmen

  • venus and adonis

  • the winter’s tale

used my b&n rewards to get this missing piece of my collection: and the first on the alphabetical read through/re*read list! :D (and yes, of CouRSe it’s a different size than the kinuko craft covers i began collecting in high school... sigh!)

and let me state clear out: while my nerdy, over-research brain would LOVE to deep-dive into all of these plays, that’s not gonna be my goal.

i’m just gonna read them as they are. (with any of the folger shakespeare library notes on the left, as required for some meaning of context.) :)

many scholars continue to devote their lives into deep-dives, but i’m gonna just have to say no on that for this round. ;)

in the meantime, as you eagerly await my re-reads (ha!?), or would like some deeper dives, here are some of my favorite podcasts about the bard and his works:

  • shakespeare unlimited, folger shakespeare library

  • shakespeare, anyone? a podcast about shakespeare minus the bardoloatry

  • approaching shakespeare, university of oxford


ones i haven’t listened to yet, but keep in my podcast library for potential future use:

  • scurvy companions, the nosweatshakespeare podcast

  • protest too much

  • where there’s a will

as ever, let me know YOUR fave shakespeare plays, adaptations, movies, versions, podcasts, spin-offs, retellings, and assorted stage-adjacent story-telling fun!

ever onward in 2025,

yours in accessible POP theatre for all,

*hallie :D

all you need is a bench.

it’s been said that all you need to perform any of shakespeare’s works in a Bench. well, my particular dream is a fainting couch, but i won’t argue. :)

i took this picture years and years ago at the high museum of art in ATL, and it’s been on my mind as the PerFECt reference for something i’m cooking up. for reasons. :)

coming soon to the crayon box in early 2025…!! :D

*although i knoooooow i read julius caesar in english class, but it must have been a school copy. boo! mostly the ones i’ve never gotten around to are the history plays. ugh politics, amiright? but people seem to reference a bunch of iconic characters from those, too. so i kinda want in on that.

hallie bertling