”Playwright and director Aaron Posner (Stupid F*cking Bird) talks about his celebrated production of The Tempest at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, his upcoming production of Midsummer at the Folger Theatre, and his ongoing exploration of the classics using both reverence and irreverence. Featuring the importance of populism, the fun of making plays you want to see, the gift Read more…
Podcast: Download (22.2MB)
”Creating shows using improv is not something the RSC does, but Reed Martin has used the Second City model to devise with his students a new show called Improv Zombies From Hell at Napa Valley College. With one weekend left in the run, Reed talks about how the show came together, using Read more…
Podcast: Download (14.9MB)
”We have Shakespeare on the brain these days (perhaps workshopping the new script William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (abridged) has something to do with it), so Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor discuss their favorite Shakespeare plays, productions, and performances. Featuring favorite characters, underrated plays, overrated genres, horrible omissions, lifelong goals, and almost Read more…
Podcast: Download (18.0MB)
”No, not Cardenio. Not Double Falsehood. In a strangely treasure-filled car park in Leicester, we have stumbled upon the literary holy grail — William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (abridged). The RSC’s tenth stage show will premiere in April 2016 at the Folger Shakespeare Theatre in Washington DC, and this week Read more…
Podcast: Download (14.7MB)
”LIVE! from Salt Lake City Airport comes this very reduced episode of the Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast. Featuring teases about the new script, rookie mistakes, no editing, almost-zero music, and shout-outs to the magnificent folks who worked Delta’s gate B6 (but not their food truck drivers). (Length 7:10)
Podcast: Download (6.7MB)
”Emmy-nominated Casting Director Sandi Logan (Cristela, Monk, Boomtown, several tours for the Reduced Shakespeare Company) talks about the business of casting film and television, and the alleged ‘Crisis in American Acting’ (find the link to the essay that talks about this here). Featuring the differences between American and British actor training; the Read more…
Podcast: Download (19.3MB)
”RSC actor Jeff Marlow (who’s also a proud member of Actors Equity, the union representing stage actors and stage managers) helps walk us through the current controversy in LA involving 99-seat theatres. Jeff explains both sides of the issue, offers the beginnings of a proposed solution, and discusses the dangers of this Read more…
Podcast: Download (20.7MB)
”Have you ever wanted to analyze an artist’s work through random roles of a twenty-sided Dungeons & Dragons die? Of course not! But that’s exactly what Jamie Gower and Sean Mitchell do on their podcast The Artist Rolls. This week we hear excerpts and outtakes from their full interview with Read more…
Podcast: Download (23.1MB)
”Jasson Minadakis is the Artistic Director of one of our favorite hometown Bay Area theaters, the Marin Theatre Company, and he talks with us candidly about his work, our work, and MTC’s place in both the Bay Area and the national conversation. Featuring engaged audiences, issue-driven theatre, differences between Cincinnati and Read more…
Podcast: Download (21.2MB)
”After a long week of tech and a weekend of opening performances, our 81-city UK tour of The Complete History of Comedy (abridged) is finally underway. Actors Gary Fannin, Matt Pearson, Andrew Hodges, and Steven Rostance talk about the process that got us here, the things we learned, and the fears Read more…
Podcast: Download ()
”As is tradition, this week we come to you Live! from the Bedford, our rehearsal pub in Balham (“the Gateway to the South”), to meet and chat with the new cast of the 2015 UK tour of The Complete History of Comedy (abridged). Cast members Gary Fannin, Matthew Pearson, Andrew Read more…
Podcast: Download ()
”Steve Smith is the former dean of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus Clown College, director of the Big Apple Circus, and has forgotten more about comedy than we’ll ever know. In discussing his career and thoughts about comedy, Steve touches on his comic inspirations, impressive audio visual aids, the Read more…
Podcast: Download ()
” National Public Radio film critic Bob Mondello joined us onstage at the Reston Center Stage on the final night of our ten-day seven-show Complete Works of the Reduced Shakespeare Company (abridged) Extravaganza. Appropriately enough, our closing performance was Completely Hollywood (abridged), and Bob squandered some of his credibility by discussing Read more…
Podcast: Download (24.0MB)
”Last year, Kate Powers told us of her work doing Theatre In Prisons with Rehabilitation Through The Arts. This week Kate returns to tell us of her recent production of Death of a Salesman at Fishkill Correctional Facility, which restored much-needed urgency and vitality to that American “classic”. Featuring original titles, changing Read more…
Podcast: Download (18.8MB)
Ah, the fun and sometimes the necessity of doing it all! Andy White, artistic director of Lookingglass Theatre Company, and Cindy Gold, Professor of Theatre and Head of Acting at Northwestern University, are both successful and award-winning actors who talk about the other jobs they’ve held and continue to hold. Read more…
Podcast: Download (21.6MB)
”Jessica Thebus teaches Directing at Northwestern University and has directed classics and world premieres across the country at such theaters as Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Huntington Theatre in Boston, the Kennedy Center, Steppenwolf, the Goodman, and Lookingglass Theatre, so she’s the perfect person to explain just what it is a Read more…
Podcast: Download (13.1MB)
”It’s been too long, but we’re finally returning to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this August 2014 to perform the European premiere of The Complete History of Comedy (abridged). Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor talk about the changes they’ll have to make to adapt the script for European and international audiences, Read more…
Podcast: Download (15.8MB)
”Last week was a very big week for the Reduced Shakespeare Company and its (you’ll pardon the expression) members. We set a Guinness World Record for Highest Theatrical Performance, we previewed and opened The Complete History of Comedy (abridged) at Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Austin Tichenor opened in the Lookingglass Theatre Read more…
Podcast: Download (18.3MB)
”RSC alum and founding member of the Fiasco Theatre Noah Brody takes a break between shows at the New Victory Theatre to discuss his company’s extraordinary work and its (not coincidentally) extraordinary success. Featuring the origins of Fiasco (both the company and the name), the advantage of shared aesthetics, the Read more…
Podcast: Download (17.4MB)
”Blake Robison talks about the wonderful Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and his ongoing journey as its new(ish) Artistic Director. Featuring the challenges of directing and administrating, the differences between directing and acting, the benefits (for us) of performing here for the third time (the first two times were in Read more…
Podcast: Download (21.8MB)
”LIVE! from Stone’s Sports Bar & Lounge comes this lively conversation with actors Dodds Delzell, Dan Saski, and Chad Yarish, the cast of the workshop production of The Complete History of Comedy (abridged). Featuring rehearsal reports, the advantages of ongoing artistic relationships, sky-high expectations, an excerpt from the show, the challenges of day jobs, Read more…
Podcast: Download (17.6MB)
New York-based director Kate Powers talks about her recent production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town which she directed at the fabled maximum security Sing Sing Correctional Facility as part of her work with a program called Rehabilitation Through the Arts. Featuring themes of regret, artistic and practical challenges, how to stage a Read more…
Podcast: Download (13.4MB)
”The season three finale of Downton Abbey and last night’s Academy Awards prompt this conversation with NPR film critic Bob Mondello, with whom we have long wanted to discuss S&M. We discuss whether “sentimental” is an appropriate critical term, and look at tropes that affect even jaded hard-boiled critics, things that break Read more…
Podcast: Download (18.5MB)
”Ever have the feeling that the thing everyone says is so awesome you just don’t ‘get’? Join the club. This week, we share our blasphemous opinions about plays, musicals, lionized authors and composers we can’t believe we’re saying out loud. Featuring heretical dismissals, casual disregard, unsupportable claims, and a special Read more…
Podcast: Download (17.3MB)
”After every Thursday night performance, Merrimack Repertory Theatre invites the audience to stick around afterwards and talk to the actors or writers or directors. In the case of our performance of The Ultimate Christmas Show (abridged) last week, the audience got all three. Featuring information on costumes you’ll need to Read more…
Podcast: Download (20.5MB)
”RSC member Jerry Kernion talks about his recent performance as both Dromios (Dromiii?) in A Noise Within‘s hit production of Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors, and also takes us behind the scenes of Cirque du Soleil‘s ill-fated foray onto the proscenium stage, Banana Shpeel. Featuring specifics, precision, a special appearance by Read more…
Podcast: Download (21.9MB)
”Now in his third year as Artistic Director of San Jose Repertory Theatre, Rick Lombardo reflects on the institution he inherited, his evolution from grad student to free lancer to artistic director, and the cultural differences between New England and Silicon Valley. Featuring the cutoff point for being a wunderkind and Read more…
Podcast: Download (28.0MB)
The interview so long it took two years to complete! This week: the conclusion to last week’s conversation with Roy Conli, the producer of Tangled, Disney’s 50th animated feature. Featuring wisdom from the Nine Old Men, the value of seeing the windows to the soul, and the counter-intuitive notion that Read more…
Podcast: Download (19.9MB)
Oh, what a tangled weave…Take a rare peak behind the scenes at the Walt Disney Studios as producer Roy Conli describes the creation of Disney’s 50th animated feature Tangled. Featuring advice on the attributes of a great producer, the use of wine imagery to describe the return of John Lasseter, Read more…
Podcast: Download (19.9MB)
”Austin Tichenor and Reed Martin are writing The Complete World of Sports (abridged), which the Reduced Shakespeare Company will premiere in September 2010. But they’re in rehearsals now, directing a non-RSC production in California. They talk about this unusual process, and about the wisdom of playwrights directing their own work. Read more…
Podcast: Download (18.5MB)