Library fans, downtown denizens, theatre nerds of all ages! Rejoice, for Shakespeare cometh to Central Library!
"All the world's a stage" is perhaps Shakespeare's most famous line. Our friends at Denver Center for the Performing Arts take that very, very seriously. On Saturday, October 10, their specific stage will be Acoma Plaza, the outdoor space between Central Library and Denver Art Museum. All are welcome to join us for a theatrical double feature of A Midsummer Night's Dream (12pm) and Romeo and Juliet (2pm).
These performances are free and appropriate for all ages. Visit our online events calendar to see more details.
But wait, there's more!
There's no need to wait until October 10 to activate Shakespeare mode.
Staff in our Children's and Teen Libraries have been hard at work devising programs for Bard fans young and younger. There will be games! There will be dancing! There will be stage combat! Learn all about these and more in our events calendar.
And, of course, our staff have also selected some titles to bring you bookish Bard joy. View the list below to see how Shakespeare shows up in picture books, memoir, genre fiction, contemporary re-tellings, and more.
You can also view a single list of all these titles in all available formats.
We hope you'll join us for any or all of the fun over the coming weeks. Because we here at DPL take another Shakespeare quote very seriously: "[F]rame your mind to mirth and merriment, which bars a thousand harms and lengthens life."
Books for Kids | Books for Teens | Books for Adults
It all starts one morning when words fly into William's window. He wants to catch them, but they are flibbertigibbety and quick and slip right through his fingers. Soon whole lines of verse are leading him on a wild goose chase as they tumble, dip, flip and skip all through town, past a host of colorful characters the observant reader may find as familiar as the quotes. William remains persistent, and with time and the proper tools he finds a way to keep the words with him.
By expertly reimagining eight of the bard's most famous plays, including A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, Farah Karim-Cooper breathes new life into these well-loved works. With insightful storytelling combined with historical context and key themes for each play, readers will discover how Shakespeare gives us tools to think about the world today--and realize that Shakespeare really is for everyone.
Two dinosaurs whose species are sworn enemies want to become friends in New York Times-bestselling author O'Hara's prehistoric spin on Shakespeare.
Hot-headed and energetic Romea Marino is starting ninth grade with a full plate.[...] Ro can only find peace in the reliable comfort of her kitchen [...]. Thoughtful and reserved Julianna Cangelosi is dying to help in her family's restaurant [...]. But because Jules suffers from anxiety and struggles with overstimulation, her parents are wary of their daughter being in the chaos of a New York City kitchen. When Ro and Jules meet on the first night of the San Gennaro Festival, sparks fly...until they learn that their fathers own dueling Italian restaurants across the street from each other. But the more the girls hang out...the more their feelings grow. Can they rewrite the old tale of star-crossed kids from rival families and create a new recipe for love and friendship?
Rosa Capistrano has been attending posh North Phoenix High School to boost her chances of a college education and a career in journalism, thanks to the groundbreaking Brown v. Board of Education verdict for desegregation. But though she’s legally allowed to be there, it’s still unsafe for Mexican Americans. That’s why she’s secretly passing as Rosie, a white girl. [...] Rosa’s two worlds collide when her best friend Ramon and classmate Julianne meet and find themselves entangled in a star-crossed romance. Rosa is terrified about what their relationship could mean for her and them . . . and her worst fears are soon realized in an unspeakable tragedy.
Pia and her brother, Max, live on an isolated farm in rural Maine, and it's the only life they remember. Their father says the only way for them to stay protected is to stay on the farm. Pia doesn't question it. Pia's entire world turns upside down when her father breaks his leg, and she must be the one to venture into town to make farm deliveries. And then she sees him. Felix, a boy who is both a stranger and somehow familiar, makes her question everything [...]. But Pia's feelings are too big to ignore, and the more she engages with Felix, the more she begins to see that there's promise for her beyond the isolated world to which she's grown accustomed.
Viola Reyes is annoyed. Her painstakingly crafted tabletop game campaign was shot down, her best friend is suggesting she try being more "likable," and her school's star running back Jack Orsino is the most lackadaisical Student Body President she's ever seen, which makes her job as VP that much harder. Vi's favorite escape from the world is the MMORPG Twelfth Knight, but online spaces aren't exactly kind to girls like her [...]. So Vi creates a masculine alter ego, choosing to play as a knight named Cesario to create a safe haven for herself. But when a football injury leads Jack Orsino to the world of Twelfth Knight, Vi is alarmed to discover their online alter egos...are surprisingly well-matched.
The letters went out in mid-February. Each letter invited its recipient to spend a week at Camp So-and-So, a lakeside retreat for girls nestled high in the Starveling Mountains. Each letter came with a glossy brochure with photographs of young women climbing rocks, performing Shakespearean theatre under the stars, and spiking volleyballs.[...]By the end of the month, twenty-five applications had been completed, signed, and mailed [...]. Had any of these girls tried to follow the directions in the brochure and visit the camp for themselves on that day in February, they would have discovered that there was no such town and no such mountain and that no one within a fifty-mile radius had ever heard of Camp So-and-So.
Note that DPL only owns this title as an eBook. Physical books are available through Prospector.
Meet Puck: the nonbinary, thirty-year-old mastermind behind Homewreckers, a dating show that puts troubled couples through hell. Used to being the one pulling the strings, Puck is shocked when [...] their college roommate Mia announces her engagement to her ex's best friend, Damon. Having only recently broken up with longtime-boyfriend Zander, and never having had much in common with Damon, Mia's news leaves her friend group reeling. [...] Puck immediately sees that Mia's marriage will lead to misery, and so they take it upon themself to save their friend by secretly rearranging the couples. But [...] it becomes clear that they will have to deliver the greatest stunt of their career.
In the heart of Elizabethan England, Richard Shakespeare dreams of a glittering career in one of the London playhouses, a world dominated by his older brother, William. [...] As William's star rises, Richard's onetime gratitude is souring and he is sorely tempted to abandon family loyalty. So when a priceless manuscript goes missing, suspicion falls upon Richard, forcing him onto a perilous path through a bawdy and frequently brutal London. Entangled in a high-stakes game of duplicity and betrayal... Richard has to call on all he has now learned from the brightest stages and the darkest alleyways of the city. To avoid the gallows, he must play the part of a lifetime.
For the very first time, Judi opens up about every Shakespearean role she has played throughout her seven-decade career [...]. In a series of intimate conversations with actor & director Brendan O'Hea, she guides us through Shakespeare's plays with incisive clarity, revealing the secrets of her rehearsal process, and inviting us to share in her triumphs, disasters, and backstage shenanigans. Interspersed with vignettes on audiences, critics, company spirit, and rehearsal room etiquette, she serves up priceless revelations on everything from the craft of speaking in verse to her personal interpretations of some of Shakespeare's most famous scenes [...].
Romeo and Juliet are alive and well and the parents of seven kids. I’m the oldest, with the emphasis on ‘old’—a certified spinster at twenty, and happy to stay that way. It’s not easy to keep your taste for romance with parents like mine. Picture it—constant monologues, passionate declarations, fighting, making up, making out . . . it’s exhausting. Each time they’ve presented me with a betrothal, I’ve set out to find the groom-to-be a more suitable bride. [...] But their latest match, Duke Stephano, isn’t so easy to palm off on anyone else. [...] At our betrothal ball [...] I stumble upon Duke Stephano with a dagger in his chest. But who killed him?