Welles's University

“Keep Ted Turner and his g*ddamn Crayolas away from my movie.” Hope and Stephen discuss some Orson Welles adjacent news including an upcoming Parisian Welles retrospective, the death of one of Orson’s proteges, and the encroaching spectre of AI on the art and legacy of Orson Welles. Read the articles we reference here: BREAKING NEWS: ‘Rare’ Welles BBC interview on his infamous War of the Worlds br...

“It was a send-up, Peter – a charade. Sunday-afternoon fun out on the lawn.” Get ready, class, because we’ve brought in our first guest lecturer - amateur filmmaker and technical director for The Department of Menial Humor, Samuel Dumas - to discuss Welles’s first foray into filmmaking with the 1934 short film The Hearts of Age . We discuss this film’s surrealist influences, the parallels with Wel...

“Shakespeare said everything. Brain to belly; every mood and minute of a man’s season… He wrote it with tears and blood and beer, and his words march like heart beats. He speaks to everyone.” This week, we’re taking our first deep foray into the work of William Shakespeare as we take a look at Welles’s first actually published work (with Roger Hill) - Everybody’s Shakespeare ! We’ll be discussing...

“John Brown’s body lies mouldering in the grave, but his soul goes marching on!” This week, we’re finally getting into The Work™ as we discuss Orson’s “collaboration” with his teacher/father-figure Roger Hill about the life of “prophet–warrior–zealot (and) the most incredible and dynamic figure in American history,” abolitionist John Brown, Marching Song ! Orson Welles “Battle Hymn of the Republic...

“My happiness and self-respect seem founded only on an admiration and confidence in that, our play.” This week, we're talking all about Orson's return to the States following his triumphs on the Irish stage. We'll discuss the vindication of his Todd School production of Twelfth Night and his collaboration with Roger ‘Skipper’ Hill that would become the biography play on the life of John Brown - Ma...

“To stay out of school, I went on the stage. I only fell in love with it afterwards.” We finally got Orson to Ireland! And while Welles is lost in Eire, Hope and Stephen discuss new resources, Orson's thoughts on Chaplain and Dracula , and a recently-released (at the time of recording, anyway) ranking of Orson's 13 films. Gold Derby’s 13-film Welles ranking: https://www.goldderby.com/gallery/best-...

“I got through school because I paid a boy named Guggenheim to take that sort of drudgery off my shoulders… I graduated magna cum laude .” We pick back up with Orson as he ends his time at Todd commandeering the school’s drama program, taking a summer trip to his beloved Asia, and coping with the death of his father, with whom he shared a complicated relationship. Follow us on our (admittedly limi...

“I attacked the textbooks rather than mastered them.” In the first part of our first-ever two-part episode, we discuss Welles’s early years at the Todd School in Woodstock, Illinois, his burgeoning relationship with eventual headmaster Roger Hill, and how Orson spent his summer vacations. Follow us on our (admittedly limited) socials to keep up with assignments and other exciting Welles-related ne...

“Have you ever wanted to return?” “To childhood? I’ve been back there ever since I left.” With all the pomp and circumstance we’re capable of mustering for an episode recorded in the wake of the 2024 US presidential election results, we finally arrive at the advent of the man himself - Orson Welles is born! We talk about the early years of his life growing up in Kenosha and Chicago, the formative...

Class is back in session and your TAs - Hope and Stephen - are back to take a climb up the Welles family tree to see just how far the apple that is Orson fell. We're taking things right up to the birth the man himself, so get ready for a LOT of (necessary!) table setting. Follow us on our (admittedly limited) socials to keep up with assignments and other exciting Welles-related news: @wellesupod o...

“Hello, Americans, this is Orson Welles…” Join Hope and Stephen, your TAs for this course, as they introduce themselves, their objective, their respective histories with the subject, and their bona fides on the advent of this exciting new exploration into the life and work of one of the greatest filmmakers in modern history - the late, great Orson Welles! Follow us on our (admittedly limited) soci...