“Professional actors, like professional athletes, don’t whine about the aches and pains they endure on the field of battle. Well, we’re not professional actors. Featuring a litany of injuries, a raft of remedies, a special appearance by a brand-new fan, a podcast correction, and the dangers of performing a show that isn’t strenuous enough. (MP3. Length 19:53)
Podcast: Download (Duration: 19:53 — 18.3MB)
William Sutton has memorized all of Shakespeare’s sonnets so you don’t have to, and created ILoveShakespeare.com (above), an online collection and examination of all 154 of Shakespeare’s sonnets organized by themes of Love, Death, Nature, Pain, and Time. Will is an actor, educator, and alumnus of The Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon, and reveals the possibly real reason Shakespeare wrote exactly 154 sonnets; how he mastered Elizabethan English by learning and speaking the sonnets; how you too can join the pantheon of actors who’ve come before us; how Shakespeare's words are only the beginning; that time he was invited to recite a sonnet at Shakespeare's gravesite; how he was able to pluck from memory Sonnet 138; and the way in which a self-described ‘bear of very little brain’ has come to understand not only Shakespeare’s sonnets, but his plays. (Length 22:19)
The Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation, one of the UK’s oldest cultural education charities, hosts the annual Shakespeare Schools Festival, which gives young people the confidence and skills to succeed in life by using the unique power of Shakespeare to transform lives. Mike Tucker, the head of the Foundation, discusses how they demystify Shakespeare (for teachers and students alike) by removing him from his pedestal; how the process of creating theater creates essential life skills; the importance of failing and learning you are more than your mistakes; the necessity of understanding that the value is in the process, not the product; and how the rehearsal room is not a luxury, it’s a training-ground for democracy. (Length 22:18)
Professor Ronan Hatfull literally wrote the book on the Reduced Shakespeare Company. His new book from Bloomsbury/Arden – Shakespeare in the Theatre: Reduced Shakespeare Company – is the very first full-length study to be published about the RSC. Focusing specifically on our Shakespearean reduction and adaptation, Ronan's book examines the origins and evolution of the company through the creation of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), The Reduced Shakespeare Radio Show, William Shakespeare's Long Lost First Play (abridged), and The Comedy of Hamlet! (a prequel). Ronan shares his methodology; how he wanted to make his book accessible to the general reader; how he learned that the RSC carries on the 17th-century tradition of “drolls”; how the RSC injected a bit of danger and the unexpected into Shakespeare and influenced various folks like the Q Brothers and Potted Potter creator Daniel Clarkson; and how for a limited time, Arden Shakespeare is offering to RSC fans a 35% discount on the hardcover edition of the book! (Length 24:54)
2 Comments
admin · December 1, 2010 at 8:39 am
Thanks Greg! We LOVE Texas audiences… and will hopefully be back soon!
Greg · November 29, 2010 at 9:20 am
I was hoping the Dallas shows would be closer to sold out than they were. I am glad to hear that it sounds like you guys were happy with the crowds that did attend. I know my wife was vocal at the Saturday night performance during the rugby/football scene. Reed did his best to put her in her place, but I’ve been dealing with the woman for 20 years and haven’t had any such luck.
Hope you guys make a return trip sometime soon.