In honor of Groundhog Day last week, we swap favorite time travel stories with fellow nerd AJ Mass that run the gamut from Ray Bradbury, Jack Finney, and Stephen Fry to Eliza Dushku and Ashton Kucher. Featuring nods to precision, romance, 12 monkeys, gateway drugs, literary detectives, time-traveling Irish playwrights, open and closed universes, and the surprising double presence of Christopher Plummer. Heavy, doc. (Length 37:40)
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Madeline Sayet's one-woman show Where We Belong tells the story of her journey from discovering Shakespeare as a child to studying him in England and directing him (and others, and opera) around the world. Madeline is a director, educator, and writer, a member of the Mohegan Tribe in Connecticut, and she discusses her play's origins; how different audiences react to it; how Shakespeare became a part of her normal childhood fairy-tale world; the sometimes thorny challenge of adapting personal relationships to accommodate the art; an uncomfortable reminder about how history works; possible sequel titles; how everybody wants to be in the play now that it’s a success; the art – and importance – of loving a thing and still being able to criticize a thing; and how theatre can also be good medicine. Where We Belong ran at the Goodman Theatre and will play Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in August 2022, Seattle Repertory Theatre and New York's Public Theatre in the Fall of 2022, and Portland Center Stage and Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2023. (PHOTO: Madeline Sayet in Where We Belong. Photo by Liz Lauren.) (Length 21:33)
(No, not that one.) This weekend is the 399th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare’s wife Anne Hathaway, and to commemorate the occasion we talk to Dr. Katherine Scheil, author of Imagining Shakespeare’s Wife: The Afterlife of Anne Hathaway. Dr. Scheil discusses what drew her to Hathaway as a subject for study; how Hathaway is almost always portrayed in relationship to Shakespeare; what to make of the “second best bed” she received in Shakespeare’s will; the wonderful democratization and liberating opportunities of biofiction; how sex is frequently the default source of Shakespeare’s “inspiration;” a discussion of the relative merits of the films Shakespeare In Love and All Is True, the TV series Upstart Crow, and the novel Hamnet; and ultimately, how biofiction can be a more insightful way of understanding historical figures, and even how sitcoms can reveal greater story and character nuance than drama. (Length 25:59)
Children’s book author (Great Estimations, The Beastly Feast) Bruce Goldstone discusses his new book Zero Zebras: A Counting Book About What’s Not There, an adorable way of introducing the idea of nothing (and everything!) to a young audience...and maybe even you. Bruce explains how zero’s possibly the most powerful number, and shares inspirational childhood delight from Hughes Mearns’ “I met a man who wasn’t there;” how divisions and categorization are our enemy; a previous collaboration with the world’s most famous (and surprisingly talkative) mime; his fondness for the absurd; the theatrical nature of children’s picture books; mixing classics with vaudeville; how he's introducing children to the concept of seeing and imagining things that aren’t there; and how – as in jazz – it’s all about the zebras you don’t count. (Length 19:22)
17 Comments
Julie K. · March 24, 2012 at 9:49 pm
Other time travel favorites inculde the following:
1. Wrinkle in Time (Madeline L’Engle)
2. Chronicles of Narnia
3. Fringe (You say “altenate universe”, I say “timeline.”)
4. Adventures in Odyssey (the Imagination Station)
5. Hitchhiker’s Guides
6. Brigadoon
7. Daybreak (Similar to Groundhog’s Day, but Detective Brent Hopper wakes up to the same day on which he’s been accused of murdering a district attorney. Every morning is identical, except for any new information that he has discovered from the previous day–and anything that has happened to his body.
8. Lost in Austen (Elizabeth Bennett comes to the present and current day Amanda Price goes back to Pride and Prejudice times.)
austin · February 20, 2012 at 7:35 am
I agree on both points, and you’ve convinced me to go back and re-watch “Blink”. Thanks, Hilary!
Hilary Giffen · February 20, 2012 at 7:27 am
The Doctor may be a time traveller, but most of his stories aren’t actually time travel stories. They’re more settings for stories. There are a few individual episodes that do qualify. “Blink” from series 3 is outstanding on so many levels and is a true time travel story. I would put that episode in my top 10 list of “best hours of television” and the top of my list of best time travel stories.
austin · February 13, 2012 at 8:16 am
Seriously? How can we trust somebody with a *Stanford* email address… Holy crap, you ain’t kidding! This is a shocking blind spot. I look forward to checking out her books. Thanks for the recommendation…and Go Bears!
Joe Pallas · February 13, 2012 at 7:32 am
Hello, Connie Willis? Firewatch, Doomsday Book, and To Say Nothing of the Dog? Not only does she present the time machine as a fait accompli without any silly pseudo-technical explanation, she puts it in the hands of academic historians, because really, who else should be operating a time machine?
austin · February 9, 2012 at 7:33 am
Names of fans are culled from these comments, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, iTunes reviewers, and actually (gasp!) meeting fans in person. They’re then thrown into a digital hat and I pluck one out each week, double-checking that I haven’t given them a shout-out before. I usually try to get both first and last names but sometimes will use noms de web if it looks like I’ll totally screw up the pronunciation.
Colin · February 8, 2012 at 8:02 pm
How do you decide random fans? I know they’re random but how do you have a list?
austin · February 8, 2012 at 10:45 am
Love it. There’s a similar bit in the DS9 episode “Trials & Tribble-ations”, in which an agent from the “Department of Temporal Investigations” refers to Capt. James T. Kirk as “The worst. A menace.”
Frank Forkl · February 8, 2012 at 10:34 am
My favorite Star Trek time travel story is from Voyager. A renegade time cop from the future travels back in time to kill Janeway because she’s messed with time too much. For me its so meta. Star Trek always seems to do a time travel ep when they run out of other ideas. So, for there to be an in-universe character who just flips his lid and goes “STOP. MESSING WITH. THE TIMELINE!” is hysterical to me.
austin · February 8, 2012 at 10:29 am
Ooh…excellent point, sir.
Frank Forkl · February 8, 2012 at 10:22 am
I also love Back to the Future, including the chalk board bit, BUT: Back to the Future Pt. II isn’t internally consistent! After Biff brought the almanac back, he would have traveled to the newly created 2015, not the one Marty and Doc were walking around in. They should have been stranded in that 2015 forever. But then, of course, there’s no story.
austin · February 8, 2012 at 10:03 am
That may well be it!
Katy Hargreaves · February 8, 2012 at 10:02 am
Trust me, I noticed and was outraged by the lack of Dr Who. I put it down to you being Americans… 😛
austin · February 8, 2012 at 7:56 am
Thanks, Dustin! You’re the third person to post that information (the other two were on Facebook and Twitter). Thanks for the confirmation!
Dustin · February 7, 2012 at 10:10 pm
FYI – Austin, the story you are looking for is “Behold the Man” by Michael Moorcock.
Kyle · February 6, 2012 at 10:35 pm
By the way…Where the hell is Hot Tub Time Machine in this? Major failure, guys. This will be on your permanent record
Kyle · February 6, 2012 at 10:26 pm
Yes! Love it! PRIMER! That’s how I know you’re picking the right interviewees. I literally had my comments all ready: “PRIMER IS THE BEST”. He. Said. It. For. Me! <3 <3 <3