Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast

One of the Top Ten Podcasts for Theatre Fans, according to Broadway World. And The Telegraph (UK) called it “a bright, breezy, and entertaining affair, well stocked with interviews, features, and excerpts from the shows!” when it named the RSC Podcast one of its Best Comedy Podcasts. Backstage drama. Touring trauma. Famous Guests. Infamous quests. Literary analysis. No urinalysis. All this and less – on the Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast. Find old podcast episodes here. It’s “All Things Reduced” every Monday – and it’s free!

Episode 556. Abridged Too Far?

“We premiered our one-hour version of William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (abridged) at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe last week, and RSC UK cast members Joseph Maudsley, Matt Pearson, and James Percy discuss the ups and downs of further reduction. Featuring problems with pacing, riding over slumps, totally different experiences, 30-year anniversaries, Read more

Podcast: Download (Duration: 20:29 — 23.6MB)

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Episode 552. Director Christopher Edwards

Christoper V. Edwards is directing this summer’s non-RSC production of William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (abridged) at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, and he talks to us about how he got the job and how rehearsals are going (it opens July 29). He also talks about his new gig as Artistic Director of the Actors Shakespeare Project in Boston, and how he interprets LongLostShakes, doubling and tripling actors, the differences between LongLostShakes and The Complete Works…, mutual friends The Q Brothers, playing with language, shout-outs to Boston, opportunities to have conversations with Shakespeare, and, most importantly, the significant ways in which William Shakespeare is a rabid squirrel. (Length 25:16)

Podcast: Download (Duration: 25:16 — 29.1MB)

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Episode 545. Prague Shakespeare Company

Guy Roberts, the artistic director of Prague Shakespeare Company, talks about how the company was founded and how Shakespeare is bringing nations and peoples together. Featuring important Spinal Tap influences, the challenge of completing the canon, comparisons between LongLostShakes and The Complete Works…, revelations about the so-called “coast of Bohemia”, an excerpt from the Reduced Shakespeare Radio Show, echoes of Much Ado About Nothing, and the value of making people laugh. Recorded live at the Shakespeare Theatre Association. (Length 15:30) 

Podcast: Download (Duration: 15:30 — 14.4MB)

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Episode 532. Shakespeare & Trump

How should / would / will William Shakespeare respond to a character like President Trump? We talk with Shakespeare artists and administrators Kate Powers, Amy Wratchford, Mya Gosling, and Mac MacDaniel about productions they’d like to see during the next four years that can shed some light on the current administration. Featuring the value of leaning in and telling truth to power, cruel things to do to Midsummer’s Snout, finding surprising resonance in unexpected places, and most excellent suggestions of Richard III, Richard II, King Lear, Hamlet, Coriolanus, and…hang on a bit…King John?! Recorded live at the Shakespeare Theatre Association conference at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company in Baltimore, Maryland. UPDATE: New York’s Public Theatre at the Delacorte in Central Park took this to a whole ‘nother level in June 2017, with its production of Julius Caesar in which the Roman leader is costumed to look exactly like Donald Trump. (Length 15:02)

Podcast: Download (Duration: 15:02 — 13.9MB)

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Episode 509. ‘The Bugle’ Podcast

The definitive “Audio Newspaper for a Visual World™,” The Bugle Podcast is one of the seminal achievements in the annals of journalism and political satire. Comedian Andy Zaltzman (right) talks about The Bugle’s creation and his long-time partnership with co-creator John Oliver, how they put it together it on a weekly basis, and what form it might take in the future. Featuring the value of deadlines, a double-standard when it comes to puns, the art of stand-up, the pull of performance, the influence of ancient Greek comedy, the wonder of cricket, and satire’s ability to provide irony and perspective in troubled times. (Length 24:24)

Podcast: Download (Duration: 24:24 — 22.5MB)

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Episode 508. Tim’s Shakespearean Ancestors

Actor, singer, improviser, comedian, and radio personality Tim Fitzhigham talks about the connections between some of his ancestors and a young dramatic poet (and possible Catholic) named William Shakespeare. Featuring family connections to both Edward Alleyn and Anne Line, the making of a saint, possible inspirations for Cymbeline and “The Phoenix and the Turtle,” the noble art of Morris Dancing, the re-creation of a nine-days’ wonder called The Bard’s Fool, bewitched cows, scholarship both wondrous and reduced, a special appearance by Edinburgh Fringestitution™ Mervyn Stutter, and the comic possibilities of a dead dog.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 19:17 — 17.8MB)

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