Commemorate Shakespeare in Chicago in 2016

Chicago will commemorate 400 years since Shakespeare’s death with hundreds of events around the city this year.

Helene Bouchet (Desdemona) and Amilcar Moret Gonzalez (Othello) in Hamburg Ballet’s Othello, featured at Harris Theater of Music and Dance as part of Shakespeare 400 Chicago in 2016. Image by Hamburg Ballet

Shakespeare 400 Chicago announced its full festival line-up this week, and it will feature 850 events in museums, restaurants, parks and schools around Chicago. The yearlong event is spearheaded by the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, and will include theatre, opera, music, dance, cuisine, exhibitions, workshops and discussion series.

Performances will include the Supernatural Shakespeare exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, a performance of Romeo and Juliet by the Joffrey Ballet, a performance of Richard III by The Gift Theatre Company and many more performances through 2016.

There will also be a celebration of Shakespeare through the city’s culinary scene. Culinary Complete Works “translates the 38 plays of Shakespeare through the immense talents of 38 of Chicago’s most inventive chefs in restaurants across the city”. Even craft beer makers will get in on the celebration, a North Coast Brewing Co. will release a special Shakespeare 400 Chicago edition of a popular beer called Puck.

But Chicago is not the only city to mark the death of the bard. A tour of the Folger Shakespeare Library’s copies of the First Folio will make its way to every American state. In Shakespeare’s birthplace, England, a major exhibition at the British Library will cast light on how he became a cultural giant through ten performances.

Read more: Shakespeare’s First Folio tour to visit every American state

Shakespeare tops British Library’s 2016 highlights