My article in the Autumn issue of Notre Dame Magazine is now on the magazine’s site. Click here to read my story on the university’s ever-expanding Shakespeare program. Here’s an excerpt:

In 2000, Paul Rathburn, a professor in Notre Dame’s English department, founded Summer Shakespeare (now known as the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival). The idea was simple enough: Take literary study to the stage and perform a work the way Shakespeare intended; combine a cast of student and professional actors; and perform a classic production. The Taming of the Shrew was first. Others followed.

Suddenly Shakespeare was popping up everywhere. Notre Dame became the American base for Actors From The London Stage, a prestigious traveling troupe of classically trained performers. Guests such as Michael York and Claire Bloom appeared on the University’s stages. There was a residency by Minneapolis’ famed Guthrie Theater and lectures by world-renowned Shakespeare scholars.