“All that one needs to love Shakespeare is a great guide. Sometimes it’s an inspiring teacher. Sometimes it’s a fine performance.”
Gail Kern Paster (B.A., Smith College, Ph.D, Yale University) was Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library from 2002 to 2011. Under her leadership, the Folger created a new division devoted to K-12 education, initiated a seminar program for undergraduates, digitized 35,000 images from its collection, and increased attendance at its public performances by 25 %. Her book The Body Embarrassed: Drama and the Disciplines of Shame in Early Modern England (1993) interpreted theatrical representation of the body through the Renaissance theory of the humors, introducing a new category to Shakespearean interpretation. President of the Shakespeare Association of America in 2003, she currently edits Shakespeare Quarterly.