This year, the Shakespeare Club will read “Antony and Cleopatra,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” “Coriolanus,” and “Twelfth Night.”

The UCOP Shakespeare Club meets intermittently to do a cold reading of Shakespeare’s plays — aspiring to boil down all swashbuckling and soliloquizing to one hour. This season, the UCOP Shakespeare Club will explore the interplay of power, identity and social order through four richly contrasting plays: “Antony and Cleopatra,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” “Coriolanus,” and “Twelfth Night.”

Moving from imperial spectacle to intimate social drama, from civic unrest to the fluidity of gender and self-fashioning, we will consider how Shakespeare stages authority at every level — political, communal and personal. Across tragedy and comedy alike, these plays ask enduring questions: How is reputation made and undone? What does leadership require — performance, compromise, integrity or charisma? How do desire and ambition reshape public life? And where does social harmony mask deeper instability? Together, we’ll read these works as studies in how communities negotiate power and belonging, approaching them with rigor, curiosity and the lively exchange that makes our discussions so rewarding.

Join us!

The Shakespeare Club meets quarterly, on the second Friday of the month, from 12:05 – 12:55 p.m. (PT). Mark your calendar for the following dates:

• April 10, 2026: “Antony and Cleopatra”
• July 10, 2026: “Much Ado About Nothing”
• October 9, 2026: “Coriolanus”
• January 8, 2027: “Twelfth Night”

Preregistration is not required. Simply join via Zoom (Meeting ID: 744 708 5448 // Passcode: 577977)

To subscribe to the Shakespeare Club listserv, contact Nicola Gruen.

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