First Folio inspires a party for the Bard

Sometime next week — exactly when and how are being kept strictly secret — a treasured book about the size of an iPad and the vintage of a Rembrandt will complete its journey to San Diego and be escorted into the Central Library downtown.

In a way, the arrival of the First Folio here echoes the quiet manner of the book’s debut in London nearly 400 years ago: It was a collection of plays cobbled together by friends of a deceased writer, William Shakespeare, whose genius had yet to seize the world’s imagination.

But oh, what sound and fury (signifying plenty) those plays were destined to make. And what fanfare the Folio is bound to inspire when it’s unveiled to the public at the library beginning June 4.

The visit is the rare volume’s only California stop on the Folger Shakespeare Library’s national tour of “First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare.”

And it comes thanks to a broad collaboration among local organizations spearheaded by the Old Globe Theatre and the San Diego Public Library, which have teamed to help roll out a wide array of Folio-related happenings.

The tour, produced in association with the Cincinnati Museum Center and the American Library Association, commemorates the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.

At the Central Library, the Folio’s pages will be open to the “To be or not to be” speech from “Hamlet.”

Those words are a meditation on the prospect of passing into oblivion. But that will never be the question for Shakespeare himself, whose legacy — thanks in large part to the First Folio — has long since extended into nearly every corner of our culture.

There are a lot of reasons Shakespeare matters, says Barry Edelstein, the Old Globe’s artistic director: His plays’ influence on our daily language, the persistence of the Bard’s characters and stories in our popular culture, even (some argue) his contribution to our modern conception of what it means to be human.

But “if you can accept he’s the most influential writer ever in the English language — and maybe one of the most influential writers ever to have lived on Planet Earth — then the appearance of the first book that collected all of his plays in one volume is obviously important,” says Edelstein, a nationally renowned Shakespearean.

“The number to keep in mind is 18 plays that had never been published before. Without those 18 plays, Shakespeare would be significantly poorer in our imaginations than he has become, and the world would be without an awful lot of things that we cherish.”

Edelstein notes that by the end of this summer, the Globe — long a bastion of the Bard — will have staged 11 Shakespeare plays in various forms over the past three years.

“And here’s the point: Eight of those 11 are Folio-only plays,” he says. “That really brings it home to me in a very powerful way, just the contribution this one book has made.”

Casting a spell

It so happens that D.J. Hopkins, director of San Diego State University’s School of Theatre, Television and Film, fostered a lifelong passion for Shakespeare’s work via one of those Folio-only plays.

Both of Hopkins’ parents were high school English teachers and kept stacks of Shakespeare volumes around the house.

“I remember when I was in second grade, I closed the door to our little laundry room, which was like the size of a closet, and I started reading ‘Macbeth,’ because it had a cool picture of witches on the cover,” Hopkins recalls.

“And I thought I was doing something kind of naughty. It was a little above my reading level, but it was life-changing.”

Hopkins came to make a career out of teaching and writing about the Bard, with a specialty in film adaptations of his work. For the Folio visit, he’s curating a mini-festival of movies based on or inspired by Shakespeare.

(SDSU was another of the major players in bringing the Folio to town, along with the University of California San Diego, the University of San Diego, the San Diego Public Library Foundation and KPBS.)

Hopkins has also seen a First Folio once before, at the British Library in London.

“It’s simultaneously underwhelming and awesome,” he says. “Because it’s not a huge book. It’s kind of the Mona Lisa effect — you stand in line a while at the Louvre, and you look at this thing, and it’s not very big.

“But the cultural significance of the Mona Lisa is vast and covers a long period of time. The same is true of the Folio.” To me it’s even more valuable, in that it’s the product of so much collaboration.”

A panel display from the First Folio exhibition. — (Courtesy Folger Shakespeare Library)

( / (Courtesy Folger Shakespeare Library))

Misty Jones, director of the San Diego Public Library, is yet another Shakespeare devotee who was smitten by “Macbeth” early on. (Score one more for the bloody “Scottish play.”)

Students at her high school were assigned to read both “Macbeth” and “Hamlet,” and “so many of my classmates struggled,” she recalls.

“But I had an excellent English teacher, and he just explained it and broke down the language to layman’s terms so we could understand it.

“And I fell in love with both of them. But ‘Macbeth’ is by far my favorite.” (Lucky for her and other fans, the Old Globe is staging the great tragedy in late June to open its summer Shakespeare Festival.)

The downtown library Jones oversees, with its large exhibition spaces, is displaying a host of Shakespeare-related material, including a showcase of original props, costumes, photos and more from the Globe’s 80-year production archives.

But at the center of it all will still be the Folio: humble in appearance, maybe, but — to quote another of those 18 rescued plays, “The Tempest” — the stuff that dreams are made on.

“You just imagine where that book has been,” says Jones. “Just where it has traveled to come to us here — all the different people it’s gone through.

“It really is surreal to think that people who knew him, who had a relationship with him, put this together so that his plays would survive.

“It’s going to be an experience like no other.”

FOR YOUR BARD DANCE CARD

The First Folio visit comes with a huge range of attendant events and activities. But here are five that could prove highlights. (For a full rundown of happenings, go to www.firstfoliosandiego2016.org.)

“Thinking Shakespeare Live! — Folio Edition,” 11 a.m. June 11 and 25: Old Globe artistic director Barry Edelstein reprises his popular presentation on the magic of Shakespeare’s language, with assistance from professional classical actors. (The June 11 event takes place on the Globe’s main Shiley Stage in Balboa Park; the June 25 event happens at the Central Library’s Neil Morgan Auditorium.)

Old Globe Family Day, June 18: Celebrate Shakespeare, the First Folio and the Old Globe during a day of special events, workshops, live performances, tours of the theater and other activities. It all happens on the Copley Plaza in front of the Globe in Balboa Park.

D.J. Hopkins, director of San Diego State University’s School of Theatre, Television, and Film, is curating a five-film festival of Shakespeare adaptations: Julie Taymor’s “The Tempest” (June 9); Akira Kurosawa’s Macbeth-inspired “Throne of Blood” (June 16); Ethan Hawke in Michael Almereyda’s “Hamlet” (June 23); the “Taming of the Shrew”-based “10 Things I Hate About You” (June 30); and “Caesar Must Die” (July 7), which follows high-security inmates in Rome as they prepare for a public performance of “Julius Caesar.” All screenings are free and take place at 6 p.m. at the Central Library’s Neil Morgan Auditorium; each screening also features guest speakers.

“A Midsummer Night’s Circus”: The LindleyLopez Circus created this free event, based on “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The all-ages show takes in everything from English choral singing to juggling to acrobatics. Performances are at 10 a.m. June 2; 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. June 3; 3 and 8 p.m. June 4, at the Performance Annex at the City Heights/Weingart Branch Library, 3795 Fairmount Ave. More details: (619) 641-6100.

“Versions of Shakespeare: A Roundtable Discussion”: An impressive lineup of scholars and theater-makers will sit down for this free Shakespeare “show and tell”; each will bring in an example of a Shakespeare manifestation (could be a movie, could be an action figure) to spark the discussion. Participants include key leaders and faculty members from San Diego State University, the University of California San Diego and the University of San Diego. 6 p.m. June 27 at the Central Library’s Neil Morgan Auditorium.