RIPR’s John Bender speaks with Gamm Theatre Artistic Director Tony Estrella about Shakespeare’s First Folio. Estrella has performed and directed the Bard for the last two decades, he’s currently starring as King Leontes in the Gamm Theatre’s production of ‘The Winter’s Tale.’

Time is almost up to see William Shakespeare’s First Folio on display at Brown University this month. As Rhode Island Public Radio’s John Bender reports, the 17th Century book thought to have save some of Shakespeare’s most beloved plays leaves Providence after the weekend.

Collected in 1623, the First Folio is widely considered to be  one of the reasons Shakespeare has endured as one of the most important figures in Western writing. The book contains 35 of Shakespeare’s plays, 18 of them had never been printed before; including some of the most famous plays, like Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and The Tempest.

The Folio is on display at Brown University in Providence as part of a nationwide tour, organized by the Shakespeare Folger Library in Washington, D.C. to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death. This First Folio is on display in Providence through Sunday.

Reporter John Bender was the general assignment reporter for The Public's Radio for several years. He is now a fill-in host when our regular hosts are out.