Cincinnati Shakespeare

Meet Geoffrey Barnes

Veteran Shakespearean actor Geoffrey Barnes joins the Reduced Shakespeare Company to play Yorick and Ophelia’s mother in the regional theatre premiere of The Comedy of Hamlet! (a prequel). The RSC’s 11th stage show marks the company’s seventh appearance at Merrimack Repertory Theatre, as well as MRT’s 300th production, and Geoffrey discusses how his many years at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and Oregon Shakespeare Festival – as well as his background in musical theatre and experience performing RSC scripts at CSC – serve him well in this comic prequel to Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy. Geoffrey reveals the value of a comedian not thinking he’s funny; how he finds the rhythms and music of the language, whether it’s Shakespeare, vaudeville, or August Wilson; and the importance of letting the music and the jokes serve the characters and the story. (Length 21:05)

Podcast: Download (Duration: 21:05 — 24.2MB)

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By austin, ago

Revisiting ‘Lady Day’

Candice Handy, associate artistic director of Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, discusses her production of Lanie Robertson’s Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill at Merrimack Repertory Theatre, and reveals how she first connected to the material and how the play lands differently now. Candice shares her background as both an actor and musician; Billie Holiday’s connection to Lowell; how actors are doctors to the soul; the wonder of discovering things you didn’t know you knew; the danger of silencing artists; the value of art in troubled times; and the importance of giving a play the grit it requires to deliver the transcendence it deserves. (Length 24:05)

Podcast: Download (Duration: 24:05 — 27.6MB)

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By austin, ago

Gertrude And Ophelia

Perennially one of the most-produced playwrights in America, Lauren Gunderson returns to discuss A Room in the Castle, her new play based on the women of Hamlet now having its world premiere at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and Folger Theatre in Washington DC. Lauren talks about the evolution of her play and reveals how it became more focused on Gertrude, rather than Ophelia; an excellent reason why artists should lunch with other artists; how there is always another story going on; how young people in love are dumb; what her next play will focus on; the definitive answer to the question of Gertrude’s complicity in King Hamlet’s murder; and how the women of Denmark survive in a world (much like ours) where “patriarchy’s gonna patriarchy.” (Length 24:13) (PICTURED, above: Sabrina Lynne Sawyer and Oneika Phillips in the world-premiere of “A Room in the Castle” based on the women of “Hamlet,” by Lauren M. Gunderson, directed by Kaja Dunn, co-produced with Folger Theatre playing January 24-February 9, 2025 at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. Photo by Mikki Schaffner. Below, Lauren Gunderson and Austin Tichenor, San Francisco, 2025. Selfie by Austin Tichenor.)

Podcast: Download (Duration: 24:13 — 27.8MB)

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By austin, ago

Alice’s Kindred Spirits

Playwright Alice Scovell (The Rewards of Being Frank) discusses her new comedy Kindred Spirits, a sequel to Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit now having its world premiere at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company (and featuring our own Austin Tichenor as Charles Condomine, whose late wives Elvira and Ruth return once again to stir up trouble). Scovell talks about how she gave Oscar Wilde’s characters from The Importance of Being Earnest the seven-year-itch; how she’s played around in the STU – the Shakespeare Theatrical Universe – through her sequel to Love’s Labor’s Lost; the challenges and rewards of negotiating with an author’s estate; and how a life of theatergoing has led to a new life of theatre making. (Length 21:36)

Podcast: Download (Duration: 21:36 — 24.8MB)

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By austin, ago