Macbeth; Act 3, Scene 1 MacbethSeptember 20, 2024From Whiffenpoof to Macbeth. Graham Stevens has worn many hats in his career, none of which fits as comfortably as Macbeth's crown. How does he bring all of his diversity of skills to bear in the role of the Scottish King? And it isn't just the kilt...Click here to follow along with the text.Click he…

The American Shakespeare Center July 30, 2024Vanessa Morosco likes asking the big questions. As Executive Director of the American Shakespeare Center, she is perfectly positioned to do just that. Using Original Practices, Vanessa and ASC are re-centering the focus on Shakespeare for the 21st Century.Click here for more information on the American S…

Henry IV, Part I; Act 5, Scene 1 WorcesterJune 30, 2024Inside-out or outside-in? Accomplished stage actor and teacher Jasmine Bracey gives Stanislvaski his due, but argues for a more visceral approach to crafting character. Either way, her objective is all about change.Click here to follow along with the text.Click here for a First Folio Version.Cl…

Fight Direction ShakespeareMay 30, 2024There’s more to choreographing stage combat than beating shields and bashing heads. Fight Director Rod Kinter works closely with Actors, Directors and Designers on "Designing the Fight". Safety and repeatability are paramount, but swords are optional. Click here for more information about Rod Kinter…

Henry V; Prologue PrologueApril 30, 2024In his second season as the Artistic Director of the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Jason King Jones brings a seemingly boundless energy and enthusiasm to the leadership role. This summer, PSF will produce 8 shows, the equivalent of a full regional theatre season, in just sixteen weeks. Click here for mor…

Pericles; Act 5, Scene 1 Pericles and MarinaMarch 12, 2024We welcome one of our favorite guests back to the State of Shakespeare. Ben Steinfeld catches us up on his own epic journey and on Fiasco Theatre’s production of Pericles, in performances now at the Classic Stage Company in NYC.Click here to follow along with the text.Click here For More inf…

Richard III; Act 5, Scene 1 BuckinghamFebruary 28, 2024Photo by Adrian Sanchez-GonzalezActor Yao Dogbe returns to the stage of Chicago Shakespeare Theatre for the highly-anticipated production of Richard III. The inaugural effort by brand-new helmsman Edward Hall, this reimagining of one of Shakespeare’s bloodiest plays has been grabbing attention …

The Tempest; Act 4, Scene 1 ProsperoJanuary 16, 2024To the uninitiated, northwest Arkansas may sound like an unlikely paradise for an actor. But as Shakespeare’s Prospero shows us, magic is found where you choose to make it. Our guest Steven Charles Marzolf has happily made an artistic home in Fayetteville for the past twelve years, where he recent…

Macbeth; Act 5, Scene 1 Lady MacbethNovember 21, 2023Elena Hollenbeak is the winner of the 2023 English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition. We spoke with the talented Ms. Hollenbeak and her mentor, Dr. Lyn Ackerman, about this year’s competition and what’s so fascinating about Shakespeare. Along the way we learn about a heart-stopping …

Romeo & Juliet; Act 3, Scene 2 JulietOctober 24, 2023Canadian actor Sara Topham met Shakespeare’s Juliet when she was just seventeen and facing the premature overthrow of a promising career. This could be a story about how a star-crossed young dancer became one of the most accomplished classical stage actors of her generation. Or it could be a mast…

Hamlet; Act 2, Scene 2 HamletSeptember 29, 2023Marquis D. Gibson's Broadway debut was as sudden as it was spectacular. Appearing in the Hamlet inspired Fat Ham, Marquis played the Hamlet character wrestling with a lot of different big questions. For Marquis, it came down to truth, connection and a big dose of relationship. What a piece of work is a…

Unrehearsed: A Midsummer Night's Dream The Barefoot Shakespeare CompanyAugust 29, 2023Memorizing lines comes quickly for Andrew J. Dunn. Putting the fun back in theater is what he is all about, which is why he agreed to produce, publicize and act in the Unrehearsed Midsummer Night's Dream by the Barefoot Shakespeare Company. He even referees in wha…

Love's Labor's Lost The Hudson Valley Shakespeare FestivalJuly 12, 2023(Photo by John Nordell/The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images)Ask Amanda Dehnert what she does for a living, and she’ll laughingly say she “imagines things.” As a visionary theatre creator, she has worked with some of the most exciting theatre companies to emerge over th…

Hamlet; Act 2, Scene 2 HamletMay 26, 2023When it comes to Shakespeare's secrets, "meaning" and "sense" stand separate, yet actors must master both. So asserts Dakin Matthews: actor extraordinaire, seasoned stage savant of 250+ productions, and the scribe behind Shakespeare Spoken Here. Delving daringly into Hamlet's "Is it not monstrous..." soliloq…

The Winter's Tale; Act 3, Scene 2 HermioneMarch 23, 2023 Photo: Jenny Graham. Photo: Jenny Graham.For Miriam Laube, 16 is a magic number. 16 years at Oregon Shakespeare Festival and 16 years away from court in Winter's Tale (for her featured character, Hermione). With a dash of humor and a fierce sense of self, Miriam has breathed life into countle…

Hamlet; Act 3, Scene 1 HamletFebruary 28, 2023Drop in! All Chukwudi Iwuji needs is the language, how the words resonate in him, their sounds and meanings and rhythms. Using these, how is he affecting the listener? When you listen, you will know.Click here to follow along with the text.Click here for a First Folio version of the text.…

Midsummer Night's Dream: Act 4, Scene 1 BottomJanuary 27, 2023What does it mean to be “smartly stupid,” and how might this approach help an actor reveal delightfully unexpected moments in well-worn texts? Ian Gould credits his training at the Shakespeare Theatre Company Academy in Washington DC for this technique, which he demonstrates in his fresh…

Shakespeare's Sceptered Isle November 30, 2022What did it mean to be “English” in Shakespeare’s day? How may Shakespeare’s most patriotic play, Henry V, have shaped notions of English identity ever since? Brian Carroll’s new book, Shakespeare’s Sceptered Isle: Finding English National Identity in the Plays examines hints in Shakespeare’s text about…

Julius Caesar; Act 2, Scene 1 Brutus October 11, 2022With double digit years at a trio of theaters, Lynn Robert Berg is on the move. The self-proclaimed character actor has moved from intern to company leader with a skill set most actors would kill for (especially after listening to his reading of Brutus’ bloody-minded monologue from Julius Caesar.…

Romeo and Juliet; Act 3, Scene 5 Romeo and Juliet August 23, 2022 After a lifetime in the theatre, what does Shakespeare still have to teach us about life and love? Long-time stage veterans (and real-life couple0 Nance Williamson and Kurt Rhoads take on the titular roles in Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival’s “age-blind” production of Romeo and Ju…

The Book of Will Colorado Shakespeare FestivalAugust 1, 2022 Who were the men and women who miraculously rescued half of Shakespeare’s plays from being lost forever – and what mystery, tragedy, romance, and drama raged around them as they struggled against greed, politics and their own mortality in order to grant immortality to a few precious words…

Twelfth Night Act 1, Scene 5July 8, 2022PHOTO CREDIT - Richard TerminePHOTO CREDIT - Richard TermineSomething special is happening in Harlem. The Classical Theater of Harlem is bringing its unique brand of Shakespeare to Marcus Garvey Park. Associate Artistic Director Carl Cofield is directing an Afro-Futuristic version of Twelfth Night - complete …

Val Winkelman and John Dodd June 18, 2022In Texas, when something delightful has been marinating for 36 years, you know you’re in for a treat. The Texas Shakespeare Festival has been a staple of East Texas since the 1980's. For five decades, TSF’s own John Dodd and Val Winkelman have helped to feed (literally) and nurture hundreds of theatre artist…

Aili Huber and Toby Malone Cutting Plays for PerformanceMay 16, 2022Was this the kindest cut of all? It began as a friendly argument between fellow Shakespeareans, Aili Huber and Toby Malone, about how to trim the text of Richard III. They've since collaborated on a book and website with tools and hints to how to cut Shakespeare effectively. With a…

Henry V: Act 1, Scene 2King HenryMarch 28, 2022Named for the rowdy Jacobean playhouse that illegally performed plays in England during the years of Puritan rule, the Red Bull Theater is breaking barriers. Using one of Henry V's speeches, Associate Artistic Director Nathan Winkelstein reveals the power of Shakespeare and other plays of heightened la…

Teenage DickFebruary 23, 2022What happens if you plunk down Richard III in a modern day High School? You get Teenage Dick. Teenage Dick, Written by Mike Lew, was commissioned and developed by Gregg Mozgala's own theater company, The Apothetae, which is dedicated to productions that illuminate the disabled experience.“Exhilarating. It suggests how m…

The Untitled Othello ProjectJanuary 27, 2022What is the Untitled Othello Project? According to Keith Hamilton Cobb, the award-winning playwright who is the driving force behind the ensemble-based “adventure in theatre-making”, it’s much more than a deep and sustained exploration of Shakespeare’s text, it’s an “exercise in creative justice.” With th…

The Tragedy of MacbethAct 5, Scene 5December 10, 2021Paul Alan Ruben has a sense for the feeling of a piece. The Grammy award winning director has finally turned his sense to Shakespeare. With Scott Brick in the title role, he has created the audiobook of The Tragedy of Macbeth. Creating this piece was a delicate balancing act between director, act…

Albert's Adventures in Willy WorldNovelSeptember 30, 2021Prolific author, and two time guest, Scott Kaiser returns to tease his latest book, Albert’s Adventures in Willy World. It’s a detective story that pokes fun at the “Shakespeare Industry”, set in a fictional wonderland which may seem oddly familiar to friends of the Oregon Shakespeare Festiva…

Henry VI, Part 3: Act 3, Scene 2GloucesterAugust 25, 2021Why Shakespeare? Jeffrey Wilson, the author of the book Shakespeare and Trump, explores this question in depth, centering on the character of Richard III. Why is evil so exciting and good so boring? Is deformity a sign of his evil or is the deformity and social stigma the cause of it? We expl…

A Midsummer Night's Dream: Act 3, Scene 1BottomJuly 18, 2021Live theatre is back! Our guest, Patrick Harvey, is a member of the inaugural cast of the Connecticut Shakespeare Festival. He’s playing Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Hartford’s Playhouse on Park. In this interview, Patrick shares why he especially loves playing characters who spe…

Titus Andronicus: Act 1, Scene 4TamoraJune 28, 2021Kamilah Long, the Managing Director of Play On Shakespeare, is a force of nature. Growing up in Alabama, she discovered Shakespeare and has never looked back. Kamilah has big plans for Play On Shakespeare and performs Tamora from Titus Andronicus. If you have doubts about the Play On Project, Kamil…

Twelfth Night: Act 5, Scene 1ViolaMay 30, 2021The Folger Shakespeare Library stands in a prominent place in our nation’s capital. Since its founding, the building, its architecture, contents, and programming have been thoughtfully curated with this in mind. Dr. Michael Witmore, Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library, reveals how Shakespeare’s w…

Hamlet: Act 2, Scene 2HamletApril 30, 2021The cast of Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, directed by Barry Edelstein, running August 6 - September 10, 2017. Photo by Jim Cox.Louisa Jacobson as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare and directed by Barry Edelstein, runs August 11 – September 15, 2019 at The Old Globe. Photo by Jim Cox.Grant…

March 19, 2021Villain? Master Painter? Sociopath? Surfer? Patrick Page has spent a lifetime acting Shakespeare. He has become fascinated by villains, leading to a one man show "All the Devils are Here." What does it take to play a villain well? Patrick has some fascinating answers.Click here to see Patrick Page in All the Devils are Here.…

February 28, 2021Jim and Gerritt celebrate ten years of The State of Shakespeare. We listen to some of our most memorable guests from the early days of the podcast and share our favorite moments from the past decade.Af The State of Shakespeare

The Taming of the Shrew: Act 4, Scene 3KatherineDecember 13, 2020As a young “bookworm,” she fell in love with Shakespeare’s intoxicating language. But after an early career playing Shakespeare’s romantic ingenues, Susan Heyward began to wonder whether modern theatre’s relationship with Shakespeare is as healthy as it once seemed. Is it time to brea…

Author and scholar Andrew Muir is fascinated with two poets: one “the greatest artist of all time” and another “the most important artist since the second World War.” They may have more in common than mere verses can express. His latest book “Dylan & Shakespeare: The True Performing of It” explores why. From live performances to influencing genres …

Richard III: Act 1, Scene 2Richard, Duke of GloucesterSeptember 30, 2020Words, words, words. Milan Dragicevich is fascinated by what he calls "the verbal surface" - a place where rhetoric lies and where you will take your voice to the borders of your personality. Milan believes that rhetoric is not just the art of persuasion but a chance to contrib…

Before "quarantine" and "social distancing" and "Zoom" were household words we were just beginning to grasp the impact of the sudden shuttering of our theatres. Shirine shares her thoughts on how to survive the times, the production of Timon of Athens and shares Queen Margaret's infamous speech from Henry VI, Part 3.…

Before "quarantine" and "social distancing" and "Zoom" were household words we were just beginning to grasp the impact of the sudden shuttering of our theatres. Shirine shares her thoughts on how to survive the times, the production of Timon of Athens and shares Queen Margaret's infamous speech from Henry VI, Part 3.…

How to Think Like ShakespeareMay 31, 2020What can we learn about the state of modern education by taking a look back at how young pupils were schooled during Shakespeare’s day? Our guest Scott Newstok shares some collected wisdom from his book How to Think Like Shakespeare, which has us wondering: when education policy makers prioritize standardize…

The L.A. Subway Shakespeare Project April 15, 2020What do John Cassavettes, August Wilson and the Three Stooges have in common? They all inspired Hassan Jamal to create the LA Subway Shakespeare Project. Hassan films short Shakespeare scenes in and around the LA Subways, all in one take, all on the go. Part street theater, part guerilla film, the L…

The Play On! ProjectJuly 18, 2021Kenneth Cavender said, translations are like lovers. The faithful ones aren’t beautiful, the beautiful ones aren’t faithful. Dave Hitz is putting this quote to the test with his ambitious Play On! Project - translating all of Shakespeare's plays to modern English. Mr. Hitz makes a compelling argument for the project…

Dave Hitz, co-founder of the Play On Project, has a very specific view when it comes to the idea of translation. Is the Play On Project a translation of Shakespeare? Full Interview coming soon!Af The State of Shakespeare

Hamlet; Act 1, Scene 2HamletNovember 30, 2019A Hamlet for the Modern Age. In about a fortnight, Jack Cutmore-Scott shot Hamlet 360 - a virtual version of Shakespeare's great play. The challenges for the actor add up to amazing rewards for the audience. Hamlet 360 is sure to cause shock waves in the Shakespeare world. Click here to follow along with…

Love's Labour's Lost; Act 3, Scene 1BerowneOctober 30, 2019A life in the theater. Bradford Cover grew up surrounded by theater, became an actor and has resurrected the Pearl Theater Co. - creating the Resident Acting Company. His breadth of knowledge and experience comes to bear on Berowne, the Play On Project and the Sonnets. Click here to follow …

Macbeth: Act 1, Scene 7MacbethSeptember 27, 2019What do you get when you take the First Folio, add a little Original Practice and stir in a smattering of cue scripts? You get William Downes. The Artistic Director of Classics on the Rocks joins us to discuss all things Shakespeare. We surprise him with a lightning round of questions, the answers to …

Twelfth Night: Act 4, Scene 3SebastianJuly 31, 2019“If it is poetry, it’s music.” Deaon Griffin-Pressley has gone from Florida to New York, BADA and finally landed at Shakespeare and Company. His travels have given him a unique perspective on Shakespeare, Acting and how his Art will change the world.Click here to follow along with the textClick her…

Polishing ShakespeareJune 24, 2019Brian Dykstra has written the play Polishing Shakespeare in reaction to the Play On Translation project. Should Shakespeare be translated? If this interview doesn't reveal Brian's answer, his play will. The reading is on July 1st. Information about the reading and The Resident Acting Company.…