Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast

Dramaturg Kate Pitt joins us for a deep dive into the creation of the script for Hamlet's Big Adventure! (a prequel), on which she cast her dramaturgical magic (and which we'll finally get to tour once this stupid pandemic is over). Kate discusses HBA's intertextual conversation with Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, and its biofictional elements, and reveals the identity of the most confusing Hamlet...

Robert McDonald is the director of special events at The Book Stall in Winnetka, IL, and tell us exactly why supporting independent bookstores — and all small businesses, including theater companies! — is not only a good but an important idea. Featuring changing landscapes; romantic notions of bookstores, and the ways in which those notions are true (and not); ways to pivot; the importance of lear...

"Beware the Ides of March..." because March 15 is also the day in 1973 that George McFly was killed by Biff Tannen in one of the series' darkest timelines of Back to the Future. Jeffrey Weissman, who played George in Back to the Future II and III, talks about playing Marty McFly's father (and other stories from the film's set); the unreduced story of how he got the role; lessons learned from roles...

Pat Verducci is a screenwriter, writing coach and consultant, and old UC Berkeley classmate and collaborator, and this week offers the encouraging wisdom that most of us are storytellers even if we don't know it! Pat discusses how training in different disciplines can help a writer; the importance of barfing out that first draft because you can’t edit a blank page; the benefit of a routine; the we...

Jeffrey Sweet’s Something Wonderful Right Away, an oral history of The Compass Players and Second City was first published in 1978 and it’s arguably still one of the definitive works about the rise of Chicago improvisation and maybe the defining actor training method of the second half of the 20th-century. Jeffrey discusses how the book came to be and talks about his encounters with such greats as...

We tell our RSC actors to always ask themselves, "Yes, it's silly...but is it Truly Silly?" This week, we talk to the man who taught as that: film editor Doug Purgason (left), an alum of the University of California, Berkeley, Drama Department (along with Reed, Austin, RSC founding member Jess Winfield, and RSC performing alums David Letwin (UK), John Tichenor (US), and Phil Abrams (US, Israel).)...

Kamilah Long is the new managing director of Play On Shakespeare, the company dedicated to exploring the world of Shakespeare by commissioning living playwrights — many of them women, many of them playwrights of color — to create new translations and adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays. Like all of us, Play On Shakes is changing and evolving through the course of this pandemic, and Kamilah discusse...

Master of the Revels is Nicole Galland’s sequel to her New York Times best-selling novel The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., and picks up right where that fast-paced adventure takes off. It's a thrilling tale of time-travel, witchcraft, and Shakespeare, and Nicole describes how the novel came to be; how she dipped into Shakespearean fiction before with her memoir I, Iago; some twisted love letters; how...

The "grand old man of the theatre" energy of the late Christopher Plummer lives on in our production of Completely Hollywood (abridged), through our old friend, actor and Broadway fight director Thomas Schall (left), who, in this special bonus podcast episode, remembers the extra-close encounter he had with the legendary actor while appearing in the ill-fated (is there any other kind?) 1988 produc...

RSC company manager Alli Bostedt has just discovered (through the genealogical detective work of her husband, RSC web dude Davey Naylor), that she's the 30th great granddaughter of Scottish King Duncan I, the one slain by Macbeth in both real-life and Shakespeare's tragedy. Alli and Davey share how they made this very cool discovery and it how it will radically change their lives (SPOILER ALERT: I...

Author, journalist, and theater advocate Howard Sherman talks about his new book, Another Day's Begun: Thornton Wilder's Our Town in the 21st Century, a fascinating oral history featuring conversations with over a hundred theater artists talking about productions of this seminal work from Chicago to Miami, from off-Broadway to the UK, and from professionals to students to Kate Powers' transformati...

The animated film Balto celebrated its 25th Anniversary last month, and RSC members Adam Long, Reed Martin, and Austin Tichenor played the sidekick sled dogs Nikki, Kaltag, and Star...until they, like most of the cast, were replaced with different actors. Their voices stayed in the film, however, and this week Reed (left, with the statue of Balto in Anchorage, Alaska in 2012) and Austin remember t...

Suzy Nakamura, a familiar face from The West Wing, Dr. Ken, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Modern Family, Veep, and over a hundred film and TV credits, is in London shooting the second season of Avenue 5, Armando Iannucci’s comedy starring Hugh Laurie (left) about an interstellar cruise ship that gets knocked off course and struggles to return to Earth. Suzy talks about her journey from Second City to Los...

Dr. Jeffrey R. Wilson, author of Shakespeare and Trump, now has a much more fun book to talk about, Shakespeare and Game of Thrones! Joining us in the discussion are Dr. Kavita Mudan Finn, a professor and scholar of medieval and early modern literature, and Senior Editor at The Public Medievalist; and Dr. Shiloh Carroll, whose book Medievalism in A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones was publ...

For this last podcast of 2020 (and thank goodness this annus horribilus is over!), we present highlights from our favorite episodes from over 14 years of regular weekly podcasting! Featuring solid categorization; excessive candidates; important work; stories of process; helpful tips; new partners and old friends; and ultimately, passionate chats about things both serious and ridiculous. (Length 23...

Inspired by the Berko Speakeasy, this week we present a festive tale by Canadian novelist Robertson Davies, from his slim volume High Spirits: A Collection of Ghost Stories. Abridged and read by Austin Tichenor. Featuring: ghostly visitations; poor relations; spectral elitism; Norwegian sneering; drafty accommodations; phantom arthritis; and something called…a rumpus room. (Length 24:34) The post...

Two-time Olivier Award-winner Adrian Scarborough talks about the latest edition of The Berko Speakeasy which has turned its annual holiday edition of festive favo(u)rites into a virtual international affair, allowing folks from all over the world to enjoy excellent short stories performed by terrific actors. Adrian discusses the pleasures and challenges of moving to a virtual format and reveals so...

RSC UK member James Percy (William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (abridged)) is playing “Silly Billy” in Dick Whittington at the King’s Theatre in Portsmouth, England, from December 8 through (God and COVID willing) January 3rd, 2021. James (left, on the right, with Austin and Joe Maudsley) talks about how they’re doing it, how it’s all going, who he’s playing, and how it feels to be back in...

Anthony Clarvoe’s play The Living takes place in London during the plague year of 1665, and its echoes to our current moment are unmistakable. Anthony discusses how The Living (written in 1990) was inspired by the AIDS crisis of the 1980s; how he discovered his primary play’s sources; how he was galvanized by Daniel Defoe's 18th-century novel A Journal of the Plague Year; moving descriptions of em...

Old friend (and Thanksgiving bestie) Rachel Dratch (Saturday Night Live) joins us for this very special 14th Anniversary episode! Rachel shares holiday memories; how she's navigated her career; and reveals who she always associates with Abba's "Dancing Queen;" the opportunities she's had and the ones she's fought for; how she's drawn to more comedic roles than dramatic ones; how she's made peace w...

Now in its sixth year, Louder Than A Mom is a monthly storytelling show that celebrates voices you don't usually get to see or hear. Co-founder Dee Ryan (left) talks about how LTAM evolved and reveals many moments of generosity; her comparisons to Mary Shelley; how she and co-hosts Kate Hill and Erin McEvoy Mason create their ever-growing community (first in person and now online); how we all miss...

Author Katharine Duckett talks about her new novella Miranda In Milan, which explores what happens when Prospero's daughter from The Tempest returns with her father to Milan after the events in Shakespeare's play. Katharine talks about her influences; how she draws on not only Shakespeare but Mary Shelley; how the novel came out of her reading of the play and found its eventual form; dominant stor...

Peter James Smith and William Duffy played Washington power couple, comedy duo, and the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of the White House, Ed and Larry, for seven seasons on Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing, plus the special reunion event A West Wing Special now streaming on HBO Max. On this 2020 Election Eve, Duffy and Peter discuss how they got their roles, how the roles evolved, and the adventure of...

Actor and author Emily Carding’s latest book So Potent Art: The Magic of Shakespeare (due July 2021), explores how Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets are suffused with magic, prophecy, astrology, alchemy, herbalism, witchcraft, hauntings, and divine intervention. Emily (left, pictured as Richard III) talks about her background; where Shakespeare (and his audience) came across their knowledge of magic...

Daniel Jose Molina brilliantly played Hal in both parts of Henry IV and the title role of Henry V At the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2017 & 2018. Now quarantining in the Chicago area with his wife Alejandra Escalante (who fiercely played Hotspur opposite him in Henry IV Part 1), Daniel discusses how the roles came to him, and shares how Hal’s fear of becoming king matches the actor’s fear of pl...