The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is the largest repertory theater in the US

Shakespeare’s American productions have often reflected the state of the country

Shakespeare’s works have been used to interpret moments in US history, from the Astor Place Riot in 1849 and Lincoln’s frequent quotations of “Macbeth,” to the use of Shakespeare in nationwide classrooms today.

‘Hamlet’ is a widely produced show, including a famous performance at one prison

Rehabilitation of convicted violent criminals in Missouri’s Eastern Correctional Center included performances of “Hamlet,” one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays.

The best Shakespeare plays, ranked

The Guardian worked through the Bard's plays, from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" to "The Winter's Tale," evaluating what distinguishes the mediocre from the truly excellent.

Plenty of excellent shows take place far outside the Big Apple

Regional theaters like the La Jolla Playhouse often act as testing grounds for Broadway, allowing audiences to witness groundbreaking world premieres before they hit the Great White Way.

The Ford Foundation helped expand America’s regional theater

In 1961, the philanthropic arm of Henry Ford’s massive empire seeded an initial grant of $9M to fund regional theaters around the United States. This was done to replicate the repertory theaters throughout Europe.

One '$64,000 Question' winner went from police officer to Shakespearean scholar overnight

Redmond O’Hanlon was a police officer living on Staten Island, New York, when he competed on “The $64,000 Question.” His knowledge of Shakespeare earned him $16,000, which was four times his annual salary. After appearing on the show, he became a minor celebrity, and created a Shakespeare-themed set of playing cards and established the O'Hanlon Shakespeare Service, a consultancy on the Bard, all while continuing to work for the NYPD.

Renaissance Faire's provide an escape into the late medieval world

These cultural events (roughly 300 distinct fairs in the US) stem from the original festival in Los Angeles in 1963. Long viewed as a hippie festival, the fests attract eclectic fans—historians, craftworkers, dramatists and drinkers. Listen to a quick survey of the festival's surprising origins.

Eugene O'Neill is the lone American playwright to win the Nobel Prize

The writer was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1936, with the prize committee noting "the power, honesty, and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy."

Sarah Bernhardt was the first actress to play Shakespeare's iconic Hamlet on film

Bernhardt was a popular 19th- and 20th-century actress with a knack for self-promotion. Case in point: When she took over the Théâtre de Ville in Paris, she renamed it Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt. Her production of "Hamlet" at the theater starred her, naturally, as the titular character. A recording of the performance is believed to be the first woman to play Hamlet caught on film.

Oregon was the first state to recognize Labor Day

In 1887, Oregon became the first of the 50 states to recognize Labor Day as an official holiday. By June 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed a bill making it a holiday for federal workers. Today, we mostly know Labor Day as summer’s last gasp, but its origin is more nuanced.

A theater group staged 'Waiting for Godot' at San Quentin prison in 1957

The play, about being stuck, resonated with inmates. Critics noted that the incarcerated audience empathized with its hopeless characters much more than those at the show's North American premiere in Miami, who'd walked out in disgust.

Off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway are about more than location

A Broadway theater is located in Manhattan and seats more than 500 people. Off-Broadway theaters have 100 to 499 seats, while off-off-Broadway theaters house up to 100.

Portland, Oregon, ran under a commission government for more than 100 years

From 1913 to 2024, Portland operated under a commission form of government, in which five elected commissioners each directly managed their own city bureaus—a structure that was largely abandoned elsewhere in the US by the mid-20th century.

The ‘humongous fungus’ may be the largest organism on Earth at more than 2,300 acres

Discovered in 1988, when it was only covering 400 acres, this massive colony of Armillaria ostoyae, based in Oregon, has taken hold among the tree roots of the Malheur National Forest. It consists of a vast network of unique long black filaments of fungal tissue called rhizomorphs that grow under the soil and infect tree roots, nourishing the fungus but killing the trees. Researchers believe this fungal growth dates back more than 8,000 years and currently weighs approximately 35,000 tons.

Opera faces many economic problems today

Opera is a notably expensive art form, and therefore currently struggling to survive economically. Pandemic losses, reduced government funding, and dwindling ticket sales all pose a threat to its continuation. According to a recent survey, about half of the UK wouldn't feel impacted if all opera houses were shut down.

The annual “Fiesta” parade features the largest equestrian parade in the US

Every first week of August, Santa Barbara welcomes tens of thousands of tourists for Old Spanish Fiesta Days festival, a five-day event downtown celebrating Spain’s legacy in the town. A capstone moment is the annual equestrian parade, honoring the region’s horse tradition with hundreds of the animals.

Film festivals are where independent projects find studios

Film festivals are incubators for the movie industry, providing smaller films and their producers with opportunities to screen in front of live audiences, as well as potential investors who may offer wider distribution.

'Our Towns' offers a portrait of civic life in smaller cities in America

Based on the book of the same name by journalists James and Deborah Fallows, the 2021 documentary follows the pair as they travel across small and mid-sized American cities to show how communities handle economic setbacks and reinvent themselves locally.

Auditions for the US adaptation of 'The Office' included many now-famous actors

When NBC decided to adapt "The Office" for American audiences, they auditioned in several comic character actors, including Seth Rogen, Bob Odenkirk, Kathryn Hahn, and Adam Scott. Though those actors didn't land the parts, they did end up with major roles in other critically-acclaimed movies and TV shows, including "Knocked Up," "Abigail All Along," "Better Call Saul," and "Severance."

The Oscars of food

Every year, the James Beard Awards spotlight the best in food, media, and hospitality—often called the "Oscars of the food world." But behind the prestige is the story of James Beard himself: a failed actor turned culinary icon.

Performance art depends on the actions of the artist

Part theater, part anarchy, part absurdism, performance art encompasses a whole range of media and genres. The short version is that it’s conceptual, often spontaneous art that is performed live. Performance art is inherently confrontational, challenging societal ideas of what constitutes “fine art,” making it an ideal vehicle for political and protest pieces. It’s closely related to other avant-garde movements like Dada and Futurism.

The 'Wicked' movie is based on several previous ‘Oz’ adaptations

Gregory Maguire's novel "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West," published in 1995, is based on"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." It offers an adult-oriented retelling of the Oz story, focusing on Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. The book was then adapted for the stage, which premiered on Broadway in 2003. The Broadway musical was then adapted for the screen—the first film in the series debuted in 2024.

Alaska's Bristol Bay hosts the world's largest self-sustaining wild salmon runs

Nearly 50 million of the fish return to the area each year to spawn, sometimes in the same spot they were born. A journalist tracked the supply chain journey of one sockeye salmon from the sea to the customer's plate.

The best beer cities in the US

This list contains some expected mainstays, like Asheville, North Carolina, and Portland, Oregon, as well as less-mentioned enclaves, like Minneapolis and Richmond, Virginia.

“Dotting the i” in Script Ohio is one of college football’s most famous band traditions

Performed by The Ohio State University Marching Band since 1936, Script Ohio culminates with a sousaphone player ceremonially dotting the “i”—a revered honor that’s become an iconic symbol of Buckeye football Saturdays.

The distributor behind 'Rocky Horror' pulled the film from its scheduled national release, believing it would be a failure, though it eventually amassed a dedicated fanbase through midnight showings, a trend that continues over 50 years later.

Comedy legend Catherine O'Hara, star of 'Schitt's Creek' and 'Home Alone,' quit 'Saturday Night Live' after just one week to return to her old job.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

Between 10 million and 50 million people in the US develop rashes from poison ivy, poison sumac, and poison oak each year.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps is independent of Iran's regular army and is one of the most powerful and influential military-political organizations in the Middle East.

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

See this overview of the firework rules across all 50 states, ranging from a complete ban on non-professional fireworks in Massachusetts to states with more lax rules like Indiana.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

The rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson centered on federalism—the question of how much power the federal government should hold relative to the states.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

Explore the known asteroids, comets, and spacecraft involved in asteroid studies within our solar system with 'Eyes on Asteroids,' a 3D visualization from NASA.

Search a massive database of over 4 decades of clues from the TV quiz show 'Jeopardy!'

The USPS spent $3.97B in 2024, accounting for .058% of the federal budget.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

Some renewable energy sources may weaken the resiliency of electric grids by removing outage buffers provided by coal- and natural gas-fired plants, which provide the system with more time to find a new power source if a plant goes down.

Planarian flatworms are small, aquatic worms with exceptional regenerative capabilities. When cut, the worms can regenerate multiple bodies in a matter of weeks.