In 2007, Washington, DC will pay a six-month tribute to William Shakespeare with more than 40 arts organizations coming together for Shakespeare in Washington, a landmark festival of theatre, music, dance, films and art exhibits at venues throughout the Washington, DC area. The festival coincides with the 75th anniversary of the Folger Shakespeare Library, which houses the largest collection of Shakespeare memorabilia outside of Stratford-upon-Avon.

Highlights of Shakespeare in Washington

With over 100 Shakespeare performances being held in the Washington, DC area, there is something for everyone.

Here is a sample of some of the performances.

• The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts presents special Shakespeare-inspired events, programs, and workshops by some of the world's greatest companies in ballet, opera, and theater, as well as the Millennium Stage and the Kennedy Center Education Department. Ballet highlights will include Kirov Ballet’s Romeo and Juliet (January 16-21) and New York City Ballet’s A Midsummer Night's Dream (February 28 – March 4).
   
• National Gallery of Art Special exhibition, The Artist's Vision: Romantic Traditions in Britain, features as its centerpiece Dante Gabriel Rossetti's chalk drawing, Desdemona's Death Song (November 19 – March 18).
  
   
• The Folger Shakespeare Library celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2007 with many events throughout the year. Don’t miss a unique treatment of King Lear, co-produced by the Classical Theatre of Harlem (January 18 – February 25).
   
• The Shakespeare Theatre Company Titus Andronicus, an early, rarely-produced Shakespearean masterpiece that re-invents the revenge tragedies of his era (January 18 – March 18).
   

• The Washington Performing Arts Society Virtually Richard, an audaciously original version of Shakespeare’s Richard III blending theater and dance. (March 23-24).
   
• The Royal Shakespeare Company Coriolanus, featuring William Houston and Academy Award® nominee Janet Suzman, performed at the Kennedy Center (April 14 – May 6).
   
• The Washington Ballet 7x7: Shakespeare. A set of seven world premieres exploring elements of Shakespeare's diverse compositions (May 14-21).
   
• Synetic Theater Award–winning wordless adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, Hamlet…The Rest Is Silence. Directed and choreographed by Paata and Irina Tsikurishvili, respectively, Hamlet has been streamlined to 90 minutes, with no intermission (June).

See an up-to-date schedule of performances