Tools Not Rules

Actor, director, and educator Rob Myles, co-creator of The Show Must Go Online, talks about how adhering too strictly to the supposed ‘rules’ of speaking Shakespeare leads to lazy interrogation of the text and a lack of clarity for the audience. Rob reveals the dangers inherent in the flawed ideology of trying to get Shakespeare ‘right’; the value of being a magpie and using whatever works in a given moment; how Shakespeare didn’t know a rule he didn’t break; how the speech is meant to be said, not read; and how Rob’s “toolkit for actors,” The Shakespeare Deck, can give you even more useful tools for exploring and activating Shakespeare’s text. (Length 20:07)

Screwed-Up Teenagers

Scott Bailey’s new book Romeo, Juliet, and Other Screwed-Up Teenagers: An Irreverent Guide to Introducing the World’s Most Staggeringly Inappropriate Play to a Classroom Full of Confused Freshmen is a funny and frank look at Shakespeare’s arguably most popular play, and a great resource for educators, students, and even professional actors. Scott reveals his Shakespeare background, both onstage and for almost 30 years in the classroom; how his Renaissance Faire origin story coincides with the early days of the RSC; the surprise of taking a year off and discovering you have a book in you; and finally, the wonder of constantly discovering new things about a 400-year-old play. (Length 22:47)

Growing Up Nutcracker

A family affair this week as host Austin Tichenor is joined by his brother John Tichenor and sister Amy Tichenor Moorhead to discuss their early years performing The Nutcracker for the Metropolitan Ballet Company in Oakland, CA, in the 1970s. The siblings share memories of teacher, choreographer, and director Vern Nerden; discuss favorite Nutcrackers; celebrate the rewards of following in your sister’s footsteps; remember the exact craving tech rehearsals and the smell of greasepaint continue to trigger; how one is connected to Tchaikovsky’s music on almost a cellular level; how the Nutcracker is an almost religious experience; and how early exposure to ballet led to lifetimes in the performing arts. (Length 30:58) (PICTURED: Tom Larson’s poster for the Metropolitan Ballet’s Nutcracker, circa 1970. Courtesy of Amy Tichenor Moorhead.)

Star Trek Shakespeare

Elizabeth Dennehy discusses how teaching Shakespeare intersects with her experience playing Lt. Cmdr. Shelby on the classic Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes “The Best of Both Worlds, Parts 1 & 2”. Elizabeth shares behind-the-scenes stories about how she got the role and shot the episode; how her theatrical training (warp) factored into her ability to memorize sci-fi technobabble; how she and co-star Jonathan Frakes planted the seeds for any direction the narrative could take; how she prefers different kinds of costume fantasies; which Shakespeare characters and scenes resonate best with her students; how to measure photon torpedo hits; the further adventures of Sir Patrick Stewart: Matchmaker; and how she utilizes “The Price Is Right Guide to Shakespeare.” NOTE: This is edited from a longer conversation on The Shakespeareance. (Length 23:01)

Drawing On Shakespeare

Drawing on Shakespeare is a 16-episode webseries hosted by Austin Tichenor and the ridiculously talented Gary Andrews, where we talk about Shakespeare with witty, wonderful, and wise people while Gary draws what we’re talking about. As a possible second season/series gets closer, Gary and Austin remember how Drawing on Shakespeare began, discuss how different actors bring new meaning to a character; how every conversation leads to new insights about a play; how Puck from A Midsummer Night’s Dream can be like Keith Richards; and how audience figures are staggering into the several. (Length 17:40)

Teaching During Quarantine

Two Northwestern University professors — Cindy Gold (above, right) from the Theater department and Dee Ryan (above, bottom left) from the Radio, Film, and Television department — talk about how their classes and teaching methods changed and evolved over the fifteen months of the COVID pandemic. Featuring the reinvention of mask work; cancelled performances and career opportunities; being an adorable drunk; how many students got COVID (surprisingly few); being paralyzed by fear (not of COVID, but of technology); spectacular threshing metaphors; a mention of and appearance by Jill Talley (the voice of Karen from SpongeBob SquarePants); and the incredible value of Zoom’s Chat feature. (Length 20:58)

Doing. Teaching. Learning.

Director and outgoing chair of the Cornish College of the Arts Theatre Department Richard ET White returns to discuss the reciprocal nature of directing and educating: about how creating art leads to the ability to teach the art, and how both creating and teaching leads to much unexpectedly wonderful learning. Featuring the value of simple acts of necessary communication vs. mad conceptual skills; the sting of painfully truthful recommendations; the advantages of them paying you vs. you paying them; an historic season at the Eureka Theatre in San Francisco; how using theatre to teach English in Japan opens up whole new worlds; the pomposity of holding forth; and the incredible universality of Marowitzian deconstruction. (Length 14:29)

Introducing The Shakespeareance!

There’s a reason this week’s episode is shorter than usual, and it’s because Austin’s special guest is…himself! Austin talks about his new project — The Shakespeareance — a new monthly web series that talks about Shakespeare in our life and culture and features live Q&A conversations that you can be part of. He also shares how he offers private monologue coaching and play or novel manuscript review, and how you can become a Patreon supporter and get exclusive free content. If you’ve ever wanted to work with Austin, this is your chance! Join the Shakespeareance! (Length 13:39) (Shakespeareance Flag & Banner by Jennie Maizels.) 

Analyzing Shakespearean Biofiction

Dr Edel Semple (bottom right, above) from University College in Cork, Ireland, and Dr. Ronan Hatfull (bottom left) from the University of Warwick convened a seminar entitled “Shakespearean Biofiction on the Stage and Screen” for this year’s annual conference of the Shakespeare Association of America, where we discussed the how and why of, among other things, we made William Shakespeare a character in William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (abridged). Edel and Ronan discuss how the seminar went and talk about the similarities between academic seminars and RSC performances; how incredible planning goes into making things casual and relaxed; what red leather pants really signifies (in both their American or British meaning); how adaptation is also a form of biofiction; shout-outs to all the contributors; layers of irony; what our version of Shakespeare might look like as played by teenagers; how the Shakespeare in Ben Elton’s Upstart Crow is and isn’t like Homer Simpson; climbing up on high horses; and, as always — the importance of the craic! (Length 28:57)

That Shakespeare Voice

Samuel Taylor (author of My Life with the Shakespeare Cult, Blueprints for a Shakespeare Cult, and co-founder of the Back Room Shakespeare Project) and Jasmine Bracey (actor, teacher, and stakeholder in Back Room Shakes) talk about their new online class, “Spitting Out the ‘Shakespeare Voice'”, which breaks down the racist and colonizing ways in which speaking Shakespeare’s language is taught — and gives students and actors new ways of finding and utilizing their authentic voices. Featuring a breakdown (in every sense) of the teachings of Edith Skinner; delighting in Shakespeare’s language like jazz; the danger of asserting the dominance of a certain culture; the frustration of overcoming barriers to authenticity in a world of pretend; showing multiple facets of an actor’s diamond; possible textual evidence for the only two characters in the canon who can legitimately use a “mid-Atlantic” accent; the importance of not being complicit; the beauty of experiencing and speaking Shakespeare’s words authentically, especially if he’s the greatest playwright in the English-speaking western canon; the distinction of holding the mirror up to nature but not telling you what to see in it; and breaking down the idea that there’s only one correct way to speak the speech. Speak YOUR speech! (Length 33:46)

Using Shakespeare’s Violence

Heidi Schmidt, assistant director of outreach and resident dramaturg for Colorado Shakespeare Festival, talks about Colorado Shakes’ program (now sadly on hiatus until the end of the COVID pandemic) for bringing Shakespeare into schools and using his characters and storylines as teachable moments. Featuring the dangers (and value) of the escalating pranks in Twelfth Night; the challenge and power of interdepartmental collaborations; the difference between good behavior and powerful drama; how companies gain both empathy and credibility; training actors to be teaching artists; ways of reframing Romeo and Juliet; fantastic quotes; the importance of under-promising and over-delivering; and the responsibility of giving young people (of any age) tools for dealing with crisis. (Length 20:47)

Shakespeare And Plague

Dr. Katy Reedy, a Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Lake Forest College who’s working on a book-length study of contagion and performance in the early modern era, discusses her research and what we can learn (and take small hope) from the plagues that forced the theaters to close in Shakespeare’s day. Featuring the importance of recognizing that this is a marathon, not a sprint; how her examination of early modern revenge plays led to research into plague and pestilence; spatial lexicons; scant evidence; scholarly suppositions; shout-outs to James Shapiro’s The Year of Lear, Stephen Greenblatt’s Will In The World, and Folger Shakespeare Library director Michael Witmore; temporal changes and the elastic nature of time; how playwrights became pamphleteers; the invention of social-distancing; and the dangers of calling attention to the pestilential potential of a communal art. (Length 22:10) 

690. Alchemy Of Gender

Lisa Wolpe, currently playing Cassius in Julius Caesar at Playmakers Repertory Company, is an actress, director, teacher, playwright, and producer; the founder of the Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company; and the creator and performer of Shakespeare and the Alchemy of Gender, her solo show which explores the transformational power of empathy. Lisa, who’s “probably played more of Shakespeare’s male leading roles than any woman in history,”  talks about creating her show and exploring the masculine in Shakespeare’s plays; how this helped understand her father’s PTSD; reveals the true definition of ingenue; investigates a re-gendered Taming of the Shrew; and shares the urgency and importance of putting the quest in the question. (Length 23:59)

689. Seven Stages Shakespeare

Dan Beaulieu and Christine Penney are the co-founders and directors of the Seven Stages Shakespeare Company, New Hampshire’s only year-round dedicated to performing the works of Shakespeare or pieces that illuminate him. Seven Stages engages with Shakespeare in a variety of contexts, including performances, readings, workshops, and podcasts, and as Christine and Dan explain the company’s mission and objectives, they talk about swimming where the fish are, such as in in parks, bars, theaters (sometimes), barns, and warehouses; give shout-outs to influential professors; reveal how musical theatre performers are frequently excellent Shakespeareans; celebrate Shakespeare with a morning zoo/sports talk-radio energy; compare Brooklyn neighborhoods; and finally — beautifully — share what happens when you get to the sixth and seventh stages of Shakespeare. Recorded LIVE at the Shakespeare Theatre Association Conference in Dallas, January 2020. (Length 20:23)

Advice For Actors

For the last podcast of the decade, we answer the two biggest questions we’re regularly asked: What advice do you have for young actors; and when will you tour the UK again?! Featuring advice both practical and philosophical; tips for auditioning; advice from Mister Rogers; Top Ten Shakespeare Monologues; the value of learning by doing; a tiny Twitter Q&A; what kind of people you should surround yourself with; and finally, what you can do to make a UK tour happen. Special thanks to Instagram follower Zach Gillam, and Twitter followers Liz Marsden and Bob Linfors for the questions. Happy New Year! Happy New Decade!  (Length 18:36)

All About Ophelia

The RSC’s 11th stage show, Hamlet’s Big Adventure! (a prequel), is really all about Hamlet’s best friend Ophelia, at least according to Jessica Romero, who originated the role in the workshop production, and Austin Tichenor, who co-wrote the script and will be playing Ophelia this fall in California and Israel. Hear them chat about reconciling the many interpretations of Ophelia, and discuss professional memorization methods, weaponizing feelings, how one person’s comedy can be another’s tragedy, shared inspiration from Taming of the Shrew (both pirate- and commedia-themed), playing bucket-list roles, favorite Shakespeare characters, and the reality of the curse of saying the title of the Scottish Play. (Length 23:09) (Pictured: Jessica Romero as the King (with Peter Downey as Hamlet) and Ophelia (with Chad Yarish as Yorick) in the Shakespeare Napa Valley workshop of Hamlet’s Big Adventure (a prequel). Photos by Julie McClelland.)

High School Bard

“Friend of the pod” Daisy Tichenor talks about her wonderfully Shakespearean senior year in high school, where she played Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing on the Philips Exeter Academy MainStage and directed Twelfth Night for the PEA Dramat at the same time. We talk about incredible opportunities; how informal clubs can accommodate a more diverse group of students; how stage managing the Scottish play can inspire; the wonder of getting to play a dream role; being born of all mirth and no matter; keeping the timelines straight; and the ultimate tribute to theatre people. Pretention or Science? Discuss. (Length 19:54) (Daisy Tichenor as Beatrice and Cody Nunn as Don Pedro, Much Ado About Nothing, Philips Exeter Academy, directed by Sarah Ream, 2018.)

Mary Poppins Kerfuffle

Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, a professor of English at Linfield College and regular contributor to The New Yorker and Atlantic magazines, wrote an article for the New York Times in January 2019 about the problematic racist imagery in both the 1964 and 2018 Mary Poppins films from Disney. The article sparked a huge outcry and backlash, resulting in calls for Daniel’s dismissal and threats to him and his family, and this week Daniel talks about how the article came to be and how he’s been dealing with its unexpected response, how we confront (or don’t) the legacy of white supremacy in so much of our popular culture, an impertinent reference to J. Robert Oppenheimer, the badge of honor of being on an alt-right watchlist, prescient wives and why they should be heeded, the question of why Disney keeps returning to problematic racist tropes, the threat (promise?) of being spat on by Julie Andrews, and what’s next in the multi-part series “Daniel Ruins Everything”. (Length 25:15)

The Viola Project

The Viola Project is an organization in Chicago dedicated to training and empowering young women using the words and characters and plays of William Shakespeare. Program director Rebecca Dumain talks about about the history of the Project, how language can help you get what you need and advocate for yourselves and others, the difference between acting and teaching artists, a shout-out to Slings & Arrows, distinctions between process and product, the value of not glossing over things, advocating for STEAM (not just STEM), and whether any Viola Projects could be started up near where YOU live! (Length 18:11)

Episode 630. The Sonnet Man

Devon Glover travels around the globe as The Sonnet Man, working with students of all ages and keeping the world safe from dry, boring, vomitless, beat-and-rhythm-less Shakespeare. This week Devon reveals his origin story and how he spreads the gospel of Shakespeare through hip-hop, and shares student revelations and discoveries, valuable niches, the importance of friends and mentors, the differences between Shakespeare taught as performance and as literature, issuing creative challenges, and the incredible value of using the arts to teach non-artistic subjects. (Length 26:00) 

Episode 629. 2018’s Top Podcasts

Happy New Year! We kick off 2019 with excerpts of the Top Ten Most Downloaded Episodes of the RSC Podcast from 2018. Featuring novel excerpts from novelist Christopher Moore; testimonials regarding the efficacy of prison theatre programs; reviews of our favorite Broadway shows; the challenges of working on a new play about Mikhail Gorbachev; love for and from retired National Public Radio broadcaster Robert Siegel; actors from the Prague Shakespeare Festival; affection for Slings and Arrows; new plays inspired by Shakespeare’s plays and practices; confessions from an actual Lady Macbeth; and — finally! — an answer to the question, “What is Shakespeare’s greatest play?” Listen to the excerpts then click through to hear the entire episodes! (Length 23:03) 

Episode. 627. Doctor Of Reduction

Our friend Ronan Hatfull is now Doctor Ronan Hatfull, if you please, having successfully submitted and defended his dissertation, “The ‘Other RSC’: The History and Legacy of the Reduced Shakespeare Company,” as partial fulfillment of the requirements for his Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of Warwick. Ronan discusses the focus of his research; how his emphasis changed as his initial perceptions evolved; not having room to include everything he wanted to say; whether he’s actually finished writing about the RSC or merely on temporary hiatus; the difference between parody and homage and how it’s in the eye of the beholder; a special appearance by Adam Long and a shout-out to Chickspeare; and finally, the difficulty of thinking critically about your subject and thus having to actually, you know, criticize it. (Length 19:24)

Episode 625. Actor Turned Educator

Longtime RSC actor Mick Orfe talks about his new career path as a high school psychologist, and how he uses his arts training and background to give the next generation of kids better career options. Featuring long-time career aspirations, doing God’s work, getting the training just to get the gig, the tooting of horns, how his acting training and experience informs both work and his approach, finding fulfilling work, the importance of telling your story, and the joy of making a difference and helping kids find not just jobs but careers. (Length 20:39)

Episode 624. Shakespearean Youth Theatre

Logan Verdoorn and Lukas Brasherfons, the artistic director and resident dramaturg of Shakespearean Youth Theatre talk about how SYT provides “a world class education in Shakespeare for Twin Cities Teens”, and reveal how the company formed, how it works, how it seems like it could be an excellent model for other communities, the delight of coming to Shakespeare without excess baggage, a shout-out to Pop-Up Shakespeare’s exciting crowning action, the goal of ennobling and empowering young people through the power of theatre, and the inherent danger of ever underestimating Shakespeare. (And Fletcher.) (Length 19:09)

Episode 612. NewVic Usher Corps

Anthony Pound is the Associate Director of Education and Youth Engagement at the New Victory Theatre in New York City, and now that school is back in session Anthony tells us all about  NewVic’s award-winning Usher Corps theatre internship program. Featuring robust education departments, amazing lower lobbies, incredible online resources, briefing and debriefing, winning awards, post-show workshops, pursuing realistic careers in the arts, shout-outs to Sunset Cultural Center and Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, and finally, fabulous encounters with former first ladies. (Length 20:12)

Episode 580. Redeeming Time Project

“I’ll so offend to make offense a skill,
Redeeming Time when men think least I will.” — William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I
Kate Powers is the creator and artistic director of the Redeeming Time Project, a program which uses Shakespeare to effect positive change for the incarcerated and hopefully, eventually, the formerly incarcerated. Featuring opportunities to practice empathy, gateway drugs (in a good way!), overcoming language barriers, tools for self-reflection, dismantling preconceived ideas, a special appearance by the Q Brothers, and, as always, showing us what it means to be human. Recorded LIVE at the 2018 Shakespeare Theatre Association Conference. (Length 23:46)

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)

Episode 470. Theatre For Kids

A recent student matinee — typically something to be dreaded — was instead a delight thanks to the good folks at the Sunset Cultural Center in Carmel, CA, where we performed a 45-minute version of The Complete History of Comedy (abridged) and taught in-class workshops as part of their Classroom Connections program. We discuss our work with children, both onstage and in classrooms, and reveal our bias towards a certain kind of theatre, talk about the fun of doing children’s theatre for grownups, give a shout-out to the New Victory Theatre in New York (which also has amazing programs for children and families), enjoy a special appearance from Neon Joe Werewolf Hunter, and bask in the holiday cheer of seeing different generations enjoying the same show. (Length 16:16)

Episode 346. Theatre In Prison

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…