The Bardcast: "It's Shakespeare, You Dick!"

Sent us a text, you dicks!! Double double toil and trouble... It's Spooky Season!!!  Spirits and vampires and werewolves - oh my!!! In this episode we discuss all the ghosts that are present in Shakespeare plays.  Some are benevolent, some are malevolent, and some are just plain boring  - but we love them anyway!! (Angels and ministers of grace defend us.) Happy All Hallow's Eve!!! To se...

Sent us a text, you dicks!! To act Shakespeare or not to act Shakespeare... that is the question!! In this episode, we begin our exploration of The Ones Who Act Shakespeare with the household names of actors that you may have actually seen in a Shakespeare play in your time on this rock!! And we peruse a list of modern day well known celebrities  who have dipped a toe or ten into the waters of The...

Sent us a text, you dicks!! And now, for something completely different...... We invited some dear friends to play Trivial Pursuit Shakespeare Edition via Zoom.  The caveat was that we should all be imbibing some delicious drinkables, smokables, and/or edibles.  The result is this episode. ENJOY!!!!! (Shakespeare knows we did!!!!!) To send us an email - please do, we want to hear from you!!! - wri...

Sent us a text, you dicks!! In the beginning.... Will created plays, and they were played outdoors.   In today's world, we have indoor theaters, and microphones, and all kinds of things to make the Bard more accessible to modern day audiences. But does it, really?  On this episode we talk to two guests both well acquainted with Shakespeare outdoors, one primarily an actor, and one an actor/pr...

Sent us a text, you dicks!! Guess how many times the actual word "animal" shows up in all of Shakespeare's plays?? HUH????      C'MON!!!!!      GUESS!!!!!!! There are all KINDS of animals in the canon - mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, and reptiles - they're all in there!!! In this episode, we begin to scratch (ha!!) the surface... of the winter lion, the Hyrcanian tiger,...

Sent us a text, you dicks!! Hey, you crusty toad-spotted turds!  Thou puny tallow-faced giggles!!   Thou droning ill-nurtured pignuts!!! Thou sanctimonious rude-growing canker-blossom!!!! WHAT THE HELL DO THOSE MEAN?!?!?!?!?!?!?! In today's episode, we deep dive into the insults in Shakespeare plays and those of Elizabethan times in general.  Think about it - you can learn how to insult your...

Sent us a text, you dicks!! Listen.... we know that William Shakespeare was English.  We know that the English have performed Shakespeare plays WAAAAAAY more than Americans, simply because they've been around longer!!!  And there are many, many British actors and directors and productions of Shakespeare that we just LOOOOOOVE. That being said... we have heard that "Americans can't d...

Sent us a text, you dicks!! Look.... we LOVE Shakespeare.  Like we love theatre in general.  That being said.... ....some of it just - simply - sucks.  We are NOT bardolators.  Nothing is sacred, dammit!!!! Crappy characters, plays that don't work, story lines that are quintessentially uninteresting, oodles of misogyny.... So, in this episode we discuss the stuff in Shakespeare's plays t...

Sent us a text, you dicks!! To doob or not to doob??  That IS the question!! There are many substances that are consumed in Shakespeare plays and, indeed, the Bard himself may have snorted a fingerful or smoked the proverbial bowl before he sat down to write the canon.  Not to mention the usual pint or five!! In this episode, we discuss the ways and means that the Elizabethans adjusted their attit...

Sent us a text, you dicks!! It's June - Happy Pride everyone!!!  Love is Love is Love!!! That being said (even though it should have ALWAYS been love is love), in the Elizabethan times things were very different as far as the way people lived, loved, and talked about same sex relationships. In fact, they didn't really outwardly deal with anything other than the traditional man and wife (...

Sent us a text, you dicks!! HOLY SHAKESPEARE!!!!!!! Or not so holy!!!  We don't actually know for sure whether Will was a practitioner of ANY organized religion, especially because he lived when one's religious beliefs were literally a matter of life or death. And who says we can decipher his personal beliefs by what he writes in his plays???   Did Theodore Geisel - better known as Dr. S...

Sent us a text, you dicks!! What???? It's been an ENTIRE YEAR?!?!!?!?!? And we STILL have SO much to talk about!!!!  In this episode, we are joined by our wonderful guests Michael Daly, Alvin Keith, Caleb Feigles, Randy Kovitz, and Patrick Lawlor - past experts on the pod and amazing artists who have also been a part of Shakespeare Sunday and The Bardcast Players, which has kept us SANE throu...

Sent us a text, you dicks!! Coming to you live from.......... Maine?   Owen is off directing a play, so even though this episode is chockfull of more opinion than fact, we do discuss a bunch of famous productions of Shakespeare plays that are "conceptual." Do they work?  What makes a concept fly or not?  Does it add to the text or distract from it?? The answer is..... both!!! Depending o...

Sent us a text, you dicks!! You know how sometimes you just feel like dishing and bitching about a particular topic instead of getting all academic?? Welcome to Dishy Shakespeare! In this episode, we let it all (proverbially speaking) hang out, insofar as what WE think about all things Shakespeare - plays, productions, and people.  WTF, sometimes you just gotta bitch. It's gettin' real,...

Sent us a text, you dicks!! We WERE going to call this episode Romantic Shakespeare - but then we realized in a lot of the plays, non-platonic relationships are often UNromantic so.... yeah. So therefore, in this episode, we discuss the believability and viability of the "love" relationships in Shakespeare's plays.  Can one really sustain a marriage when you fall in love in less tha...

Sent us a text, you dicks!! The Elizabethan era was a time of great fun and frivolity.... usually involving beating the crap out of someone or something. Seriously.  You can't make this shit up. Although........... since this episode was recorded on April 1 - Happy April Fool's Day!! - we did!!  Listen to the episode and hit us up via our website or social media and tell us which two gam...

Sent us a text, you dicks!! What the dickens does "Invented by Shakespeare" mean??? As luck would have it - in this week's episode, we discuss all the phrases and words we modern folk use every day - that came directly from William Shakespeare!! It's a brave new world !!   Can there be too much of a good thing ?? It may be a foregone conclusion! ! But we wear our heart on our s...

Sent us a text, you dicks!! What do farting, syphillis, misogyny, homo-erotica, and bodily mutilation have in common?? They're ALL in the plays of Shakespeare!!! In this episode we discuss all the things that make us go:  "What the actually fuck, William Shakespeare?!??" Make sure you stay tuned for information our next FREE benefit live stream of As You Like It in April 2021 - all...

Sent us a text, you dicks!! "It's the end of the world as we know it......" Not really, although the pandemic has put quite a damper on theatre.  How to get around that???  One word.... ZOOM!!!!!! In today's episode we discuss the inaugural livestream performance of The Bardcast Player's Macbeth.  How do artists make what quintessentially depends on the congregation of hum...

Sent us a text, you dicks!! An academic walked into a bar and sat down at the counter.  "Barkeep," he said "Pour me a stiff one. I've had a hard day." "What's the matter, friend?" said the barkeep. "Well," said the academic, "this morning's class was all about the life of Shakespeare himself. This afternoon's class will be all about...

Sent us a text, you dicks!! The well known American author Susan Vreeland was correct - art begets art!!! On the heels of our Film Shakespeare series - here is our longest episode so far, comprising even MORE stuff that is based on, or inspired by, the works of our friend Will!!! His plays have given birth to SOOOOO MUCH ART!!!!! We can tell you this....  Shakespeare AIN'T GOING NOWHERE, folk...

Sent us a text, you dicks!! "Have at thee, coward!!!" As we've discussed before, there are SOOOOO many instances of violence of one kind or another in the Shakespeare canon.  So... how does that get translated onto the stage or in a film in a believable way? We talk to Randy Kovitz, master fight choreographer, who helps us understand how we can stab, strangle, smother, or otherwise...

Sent us a text, you dicks!! Merrie Christmas, dear listeners!!!  In this episode we discuss how those Elizabethans celebrated Christmas - for twelve days, those filthy animals!!! ALSO..... At the end of the episode is a special gift from us to you... Merry Merry!!!! So now is come our joyful'st feast,     Let every man be jolly.  Each room with ivy leaves is drest,     And every post with hol...

Sent us a text, you dicks!! Was Shakespeare racist?  Was he anti-Semitic?  Or was he just writing as a product of his times? And what about modern day productions of Shakespeare - how  do they deal with these  issues?  Is there such a thing as truly colorblind casting? We are proud to  welcome our first guest (YAY!!!!), the wonderful and talented Alvin Keith, to discuss this very timely, important...

Sent us a text, you dicks!! We're back at it!  The bard's youngest lovers on the big screen!! For this episode, we stuffed ourselves full of Romeo and Juliet in preparation for stuffing ourselves full of turkey!! Although frankly, some of the Romeo and Juliet was far less palatable... But we digress. We give thanks for YOU this year, dear listener!!!   So dive in with us to the world of...