A Bonus episode! For all who celebrate – the only thing you’ll ever have to say. From The Ultimate Christmas Show (abridged).
Podcast: Download (Duration: 0:57 — 1.1MB)
Writer and actor Mitchell Bisschop discusses his new one-man show Royko: The Toughest Man in Chicago, now running at the Chopin Theater until the end of September (2024). Bisschop shares his inspirations for the show, including talking to Royko's surviving friends and relatives; how he based his script on Royko's 34-year career and over 7500 columns; how Royko – like a Shakespearean fool – told truth to power and ended up winning a Pulitzer Prize; how he got to know Royko's "leg creatures;" and how Mike Royko asked the questions nobody else was asking. (LENGTH 18:20)
We remember longtime RSC colleague Jerry Kernion, who passed away last week after a short illness. Jerry acted for us in multiple shows and produced, directed, and edited our DVD film version of The Complete History of America (abridged). A much in-demand stage and film actor, we hear excerpts from previous podcast interviews where Jerry discusses performing both Dromios in A Noise Within's The Comedy of Errors, Sir Toby Belch, and Colonel Tom Parker in the jukebox musical Heartbreak Hotel. (Length 23:01)
Sara Holdren is not just one of the best theatre critics out there, she's a director as well whose production of As You Like It opens this week at Shakespeare at Notre Dame and plays through Labor Day. Sara reveals how she connected Shakespeare's 400-year-old play to the current moment; how we craft community; how she drew inspiration from Vermont’s Bread and Puppet Theatre; the challenge of being both textually and texturally surprising; how As You Like It requires an ensemble of clowns and the challenge of figuring out the comedy math; how “criticism is directing backwards;” the value of doing table work while standing up and moving around; formative memories of "butt-love;" and most importantly, what the world would look like if we really could express ourselves, love who we want, and build the spaces around us “as we like it”. (Length 28:50)