UCOP Shakespeare Club
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.
Dates (2nd Friday of the month, quarterly from 12:05pm – 12:55pm)
- April 10, 2026: Antony and Cleopatra
- July 10, 2026: Much Ado About Nothing
- October 9, 2026: Coriolanus
- January 8, 2027: Twelfth Night
To subscribe to the Shakespeare Club listserv, contact Nicola Gruen Nicola.gruen@ucop.edu
