Michael Witmore is the new (and appropriately named) director of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, and shares his enthusiastic insight into how Shakespeare opens doors into other worlds, why original annotated texts are awesome, why the humanities matter, how Shakespeare got away with what he did, why the Folger is ‘scholar heaven’, and what makes Shakespeare both one of a kind — and one of us. (MP3. Length 24:46)
Podcast: Download (11.5MB)
austin
Proof, if more were needed, that theatre is dangerous!
David Sanderson
My nightmares have nothing to do with a real show. I show up backstage just to say hello to friends and give encouragement. The stage manager comes up to me and says I’m late. They rush to get me in a costume made for me. I’m saying I’m not in the show, but they insist I was cast. Then I’ll say I haven’t even read the script, let alone come to any rehearsals. They don’t care and get me ready to go on stage. That’s when I’ll wake with a start and just be drenched in sweat.
Also related to this episode, I did a community theater show when I was 14 years old where I fell ill with a super high fever half way through rehearsals. I had a non-speaking, rather minor part, so they left me in. I showed up for the last rehearsal feeling better. On show night my fever came back, but I did two performances with a 102 degree fever. Turned out I had mono and pneumonia, and I missed two months of school.