The State of Shakespeare

Voice CoachActing TeacherAugust 30, 2018 Welcome to the Revolution!  John Patrick is calling for a radical change to the way we approach voice work and actor training.  Click here to listen to John Patrick's thoughts on Actor Training. Sam Shepard Quote: “I feel there are territories within that are totally unknown. Huge, mysterious and dangerous territories. We think we know ourselves, when we re...

Liz Wisan is a member of the New Neighborhood, a theater company in NYC.  She also works seriously as a clown.  Although she admits that sometimes it feels like she is in a cult, she finds the clown work extremely rewarding as an actor.  Check this short interview out! And here is her full interview about working on Kate in Taming of the Shrew!

The Taming of the Shrew; Act 5, Scene 2 Kate July 31, 2018         Liz Wisan is performing Kate in her first season at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival.  What surprises does she have for the role and does Hudson Valley have for her?  A rousing interview about love and relationships ensues. Click here to follow along with the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Fest text. Click here to follow along with th...

Richard II: Act 3, Scene 2RichardJuly 1, 2018 In her second season at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Julia Coffey takes on the role of Richard II, Shakespeare's most famous deposed king.  It's a play which bridges the gap between the medieval and the modern world, and with a woman in the title role, this production opens some intriguing questions about the times we're living in today. Cli...

Henry V: PrologueChorusMay 31, 2018 Like a great Jazz Musician, Shakespeare uses Iambic pentameter as the underlying time signature to his rhetorical flourishes.  David Hammond explores this and many other ways of approaching the first playwright to give his characters language that pursues objective actions. Click here to follow along with the text. Click here for a First Folio version of the tex...

The Lost Letters of William Shakespeare April 24, 2018 Years ago, Terry Tamminen was given a treasure trove of letters, reported as written by Shakespeare.  Are they real?  If so, they give a never before seen insight into the life of the playwright we know as William Shakespeare.

Othello; Act 2, Scene 3 IagoMarch 28, 2018 “What’s he then that says I play the villain?”  Iago may be the baddest of Shakespeare’s bad guys, so what’s the trick to keeping the audience on your side when you’re clearly up to no good?  According to our guest Lee Nishri-Howitt, the answer lies in the structure.  Join us for a conversation with Lee about his journey from a non-native speaker of Engli...

  Alone on stage and getting laughs, Michael Urie had a question.  The answer is not what he expected. Click here to listen to his interview on Hamlet.   

Hamlet; Act 2, Scene 2 Hamlet February 27, 2018 Is Hamlet the Paragon of animals or a Quintessence of dust? For Michael Urie, appearing at the Shakespeare Theater of DC, Hamlet is mentally and emotionally ambidextrous and has more than a few tricks up his sleeve.  Mr. Urie, who is directed by Michael Kahn, brings clarity to Hamlet's journey by trusting the text and using himself to the fullest. Cl...

Macbeth; Act 3, Scene 1MacbethJanuary 25, 2018 Benjamin Curns has been with the American Shakespeare Center for 16 years.  In this interview with a recent black belt, Ben describes the magic of ASC, the perspective he has gained over the years and dives deep into an oft overlooked speech from Macbeth. Click here to follow along with the text. Click here for a First Folio version of the text. Click...

The Winter's Tale; Act 3, Scene 2 Paulina December 15, 2017 Have Bard, Will Travel!  The Public Theater's Mobil Unit brings Shakespeare all over the 5 boroughs of NYC.  Patrena Murray, playing Paulina in the Mobile Unit's production of The Winter's Tale, talks the audiences, the impact and of course what is going on in one of Shakespeare's most beloved "problem" plays. Click here to follow along w...

Improvised Shakespeare Company November 15, 2017 Shakespeare as Socrates? … The founder and AD of the Improvised Shakespeare Company, Blaine Swen cozies up to the mic to drop some knowledge.  It's anything but Greek philosophy as Blaine shares some tricks of the trade and recites a never before heard Shakespeare Prologue.

Oregon Shakespeare Festival Play On! ProjectMeasure for MeasureOctober 6, 2017 Just in time for Halloween… How do you make a 400-year-old laugh?  (Tickle his funny bone.)  Aditi Kapil and Liz Engelman are digging up ways to breathe life into some of Shakespeare’s (ahem) “mustier” laugh lines for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s “Play On! 36 playwrights translate Shakespeare” project.  Aditi and L...

Oregon Shakespeare Festival Play On! ProjectThe Merchant of VeniceAugust 28, 2017 Play On! Playwright Elise Thoron and Dramaturg Julie Dubiner have teamed up to take on the tricky business of "translating" The Merchant of Venice for The Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Play On Project.  Find out how Thoron and Dubiner are tackling one of the most ambitious, talked-about, and controversial projects in...

Utah Shakespeare FestivalJuly 26, 2017 What is the future of Shakespeare?  Brian Vaughn, the Artistic Director of the Utah Shakespeare Festival talks to us about the new developments at the USF, how current events might affect Shakespeare Festivals and what he looks for in an actor.  With Mr. Vaughn at the helm, the future looks bright.

Illinois Shakespeare Festival I Heart JulietJune 20, 2017 Kevin Rich is on the move.  As the Artistic Director of The Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Kevin's commitment to Applied Shakespeare has inspired him to seek out new and bold voices, including the Q Brothers Collective.  The Q's will be premiering I Heart Juliet at the ISF this summer.  What surprises are in store?  Kevin has the answers.

Richard II; Act 5, Scene 5 Richard II May 24, 2017 Is there a message of hope in the words that King Richard II speaks to us from his prison cell in the Tower of London?  Our guest, Curt Tofteland, is the Founder of the internationally acclaimed Shakespeare Behind Bars program.  In 22 years at the helm of SBB, Curt has discovered three noble truths:  Humans need a Tribe, Humans need a Story and Hu...

Unearthing ShakespeareMarch 31, 2017 Dig it.  Valerie Clayman Pye discovered the Globe as a student in London.  Years later, she has unearthed a way of playing Shakespeare that is fit for the ages.  From the stage to the audience and back again in her elliptical training and direct address techniques. Valerie Clayman Pye will be holding a discussion and signing at the Drama Book Shop in New York C...

Timon of Athens; Act 4, Scene 3 Apemantus February 8, 2017 Claim it.  It's yours.  If Timon of Athens is a perfect play for these frighteningly uncertain times, who would you cast to play Apemantus?  In a world where cynics and flatterers seem to rule the day, Vilma Silva sends a message of hope. Click here to follow along with the text. Click here for a First Folio version of the text. Click here...

Macbeth; Act 5, Scene 5 Macbeth December 23, 2016 James Shapiro had no interest in Shakespeare in high school and never took a Shakespeare course at college.  Today, the author of 1606: William Shakespeare in the Year of Lear, has a legitimate claim to be recognized as one of world’s foremost Shakespeare scholars. Shakespeare's heroes almost always get a last great speech.  Not so with Macbeth.  W...

Macbeth: Act 1, Scene 7MacbethNovember 11, 2016 "Unsexy" and "middle-class" are not words you would naturally associate with Ty Jones, the actor and Producing Artistic Director of the Classical Theatre of Harlem.   But when it comes to his vision for the future of the American Theatre, Mr. Jones makes no bones about what it will take for both actors and theatre companies to survive and thrive.   W...

License to QuillNovelOctober 6, 2016 Shaken, not Stirred.  Was Shakespeare involved in a treasonous conspiracy to bring down the British monarch?  Our guest, author and historian Jacopo Della Quercia, spins a fantastical yarn that places Shakespeare at the center of the real-life Gunpowder Plot of 1605.  Della Quercia’s latest novel, License to Quill, is a James Bond-esque Spy thriller set in a El...

Henry VI, Part III: Act 3, Scene 2Richard of GloucesterAugust 15, 2016 The pursuit of.... Hamilton Clancy, Artistic Director of The Drilling Company and Shakespeare in the Parking Lot relates Richard of Gloucester's pursuit of the crown with, among other things, the current election and a petulant teenager.  Hear the speech and his fascinating take on the character everyone loves to hate. Click he...

Macbeth; Act 1, Scene 7 MacbethJuly 20, 2016 Photograph © T Charles Erickson tcepix@comcast.net Something wicked this way comes!  Maria-Christina Oliveras and Nance Williamson are two-thirds of a three woman Macbeth playing at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival.  They explore how Macbeth's "vaulting ambition" resonates today, the challenges of doing a three woman play and how the weather chang...

Titus Andronicus; Act 3, Scene 1TitusInitiative / 26June 9, 2016 What if you threw a party and sh!t got a little crazy and then you decided to read Shakespeare's entire canon?  You might be Valorie Curry and Sam Underwood, two hot young actor/producers with a healthy appetite for wine, wordplay and Bardolatry.  Listen as they finish each others sentences, reveal discoveries they have made and brin...