The Alaska State Library, Archives, and Museum gives Juneau a round of applause for making First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare, on tour from the Folger Shakespeare Library, a smashing success.
Special thanks to:
Aaron Elmore, Katie Jensen and the legions of Theatre in the Rough readers who made Shakespeare’s words come alive by performing all 36 plays in the First Folio in less than four weeks. Thanks to the Juneau Arts & Humanities Council, Egan Library at the University of Alaska Southeast, Rockwell, Mendenhall Valley Public Library and Holy Trinity Church for giving these performances a home.
Thanks goes to Ann Gifford, Anne Fuller, Bride Seifert, Daniel and Louise Cornwall, Jean Hoegler, Jon Loring, Kristin Garot, Linda Thibodeau, Marjorie Menzi, MaryLou Gerbi and Sarah Isto, volunteer docents who shared their knowledge and love of Shakespeare with visitors.
Thanks goes to Jim Hale, Dr. Rick Knecht and Professor Nina Chordas for teaching us something new about the First Folio, the 17th century and Shakespeare.
Thank you Donnie Gott, Valerie Snyder, Susan Oshida and Averyl Veliz for developing and leading our First Folio youth activities, and the City and Borough of Juneau Youth Activities Committee for funding the professional artists and art supplies for these programs.
Thank you Friends of the State Library, Archives, and Museum for hosting receptions, helping with programs and spreading the word.
Thank you Beth Weigel and the Juneau Public Libraries for hosting events, bringing Graham Watts and the Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre to Juneau and developing the FolioGo tours.
Thanks goes to the Juneau School District and the middle and high school English teachers for giving us in-service time to hold an educators’ workshop, and to Aaron and Katie for leading it.
Thank you James Brooks of the Juneau Empire; Lakeidra Chavis, Jeff Brown and Laury Scandling of KTOO; Randi Spray of the Capital City Weekly and Sharon Gaiptman of KINY for featuring the First Folio in their articles and programs.
The exhibit was made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor, and by the support of Google.org, Vinton and Sigrid Cerf, the British Council, Stuart and Mimi Rose and other generous donors. It was organized by the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., and produced in association with the American Library Association and the Cincinnati Museum Center.
As Sebastian says in Twelfth Night (which we would have lost without the First Folio), “I can no other answer make, but thanks, and thanks.”
Claire Imamura,
Alaska State Library
