Shakespeare’s plays are designed to entertain. They were written for the popular stage, and over the last four centuries they have been taken up in a variety of media for audiences all around the world. This course investigates Shakespeare’s art in relation to the commercial theater for which he wrote and the popular culture of the modern world: film, theater, and radio, but also graphic novels, tv shows, and pop music. As we discuss these plays and their creative reworkings, we will touch on topics ranging from the politics of voice to the performance of mind and emotion, from the ethics of revenge to the fluidity of gendered identity.