In November of 2025, Tony Haigh was directing a production of “The Book of Will” by Lauren Gunderson in Lexington. The play chronicles the story behind the creation and publishing of the First Folio - the first definitive collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays. The Gunderson's play follows Shakespeare's friends and fellow actors, John Heminges and Henry Condell, who, 7 years after the playwright’s death in 1623, decide to gather and preserve his works before they are lost forever. Knowing that Tony’s friend and neighbour Jonas Hurley was an avid collector of early print materials it was decided to build a lobby display for the run of the play with parts of Jonas’ collection from the era of Shakespeare with particular emphasis on the folio form. Following the success of that display it was decided that they remount that exhibition in their home town of Danville.
They will present a talk on the exhibition at 6:30 PM on Thursday April 9th at the Boyle County Public Library. Tony will talk about the writing the plays and the process of publication during the English Renaissance and Jonas will outline the developments in printing during that period. The display will be on the first floor of the library through the month of April.
English born Anthony Haigh is a retired professor of Theatre from Centre College. He taught in Michigan and Colorado before coming to Kentucky. Throughout his academic career, and since, he has maintained a professional interest in acting and directing outside of directing plays for Centre College. He has worked with, among other companies, West T Hill, Scarlet Cup, Pioneer Playhouse, Actor’s Guild of Lexington, Athens West, Jenny Wiley Theatre, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, and was the founding director of Shakespeare at Equus Run. He even acted for a Christmas season at Dollywood! He is an emeritus professor at Centre College and a fellow of the Rose Bruford College in London
Jonas Hurley grew up spending time in the newsroom of a small daily newspaper in eastern Tennessee and has loved the printed word and the process of printing for as long as he can remember. He studied biology and literature in college, ultimately deciding to go to medical school rather than pursue a career teaching English. He has been interested in printmaking for 25 years and has pursued letterpress printmaking for the last 10 years, obtaining various presses and trays of lead type. I've had the opportunity the last few years to dabble at collecting some examples of early printing, satisfying both his love of literature and love of the printed word.