With ‘Cardenio’ the Shakespeare Scholar Stephen Greenblatt Brushes Up His Playwriting - New York Times

With ‘Cardenio’ the Shakespeare Scholar Stephen Greenblatt Brushes Up His Playwriting

THERE are classes on Shakespeare at Harvard University that students are happy to see dismissed early, especially when the spring weather grows as enticing as Titania’s bower, or the gossips at Lamont, the undergraduate library, have some unusually esoteric knowledge to impart.
Not when Stephen Greenblatt is teaching.

One of the country’s top Shakespeare scholars, Mr. Greenblatt, the Cogan university professor of the humanities, enjoys rock star status on campus. His lectures are legendary, and gaining admission to one of his limited-enrollment seminars is an academic brass ring.

But on a Tuesday afternoon last month he had to cut short his seminar on “Hamlet” to be on time for his maiden voyage into making theater. Professor Greenblatt, 64, has written his first play, “Cardenio,” a collaboration with Charles Mee, and was expected at the opening rehearsal.