Skip to main content
All 84 posts by

Austin Tichenor

is the co-artistic director of the Reduced Shakespeare Company; a writing and acting coach at The Shakespeareance; the co-author of ten stage comedies, including William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (abridged) and The Comedy of Hamlet! (a prequel); the co-creator of the illustrated children’s books Pop-Up Shakespeare and Daisy, the Littlest Zombie; a contributor to The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Global Shakespeare and Shakespearean Biofiction on the Contemporary Stage and Screen (from Arden Shakespeare); and the host of the world’s oldest and longest-running theater podcast, the Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast.
“Comic sport”: Shakespeare’s depictions of governments in chaos
Shakespeare and Beyond

“Comic sport”: Shakespeare’s depictions of governments in chaos

Posted
Author
Austin Tichenor

Chaotic and ineffective government may be a problem in our current life, but it makes for excellent drama in the theater — and in William Shakespeare’s hands, excellent comedy as well.

“In the brave squares”: The Show Must Go Online
Shakespeare and Beyond

“In the brave squares”: The Show Must Go Online

Posted
Author
Austin Tichenor

One of the lasting achievements of the extended COVID quarantine will surely be an extraordinary archive of the complete works of William Shakespeare performed on Zoom by casts from around the world, under the umbrella title The Show Must Go…

And so they play their parts: Double-casting Shakespeare’s plays
Shakespeare and Beyond

And so they play their parts: Double-casting Shakespeare’s plays

Posted
Author
Austin Tichenor

Double-casting is a theater technique (as opposed to a literary one) that creates a meta-narrative, transforming a large-cast play into a present-tense adventure. Actors swapping costumes and changing roles (and sometimes genders) becomes part of the thrilling ride, and theater’s…

Mangled glory: Fact and (mostly) fiction in Shakespeare’s history plays
Shakespeare and Beyond

Mangled glory: Fact and (mostly) fiction in Shakespeare’s history plays

Posted
Author
Austin Tichenor

Austin Tichenor writes about theater’s limitations as a historical record, given its dramatic needs and narrative imperatives.

“Jumping o’er times:” Visiting great Shakespeare performances past
Shakespeare and Beyond

“Jumping o’er times:” Visiting great Shakespeare performances past

Posted
Author
Austin Tichenor

  Cyril Walter Hodges. The fire at the Globe, 1613 (illustration for: Shakespeare’s Theatre, 1964). Folger Shakespeare Library. While William Shakespeare never wrote what we might think of as a science-fiction play, he knew intuitively that the theatre — more…

Losing the name of action: Hamlet reconsidered
Shakespeare and Beyond

Losing the name of action: Hamlet reconsidered

Posted
Author
Austin Tichenor

Photograph by Lizzie Caswall Smith of Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson as Hamlet. Folger Shakespeare Library. During this global pandemic, when the whole world is quarantined to try to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Hamlet seems like a character perfectly suited to…

Sonnets & Chill: What did Shakespeare’s audiences do when the theaters were closed?
One person reading a letter to another person with a dog
Shakespeare and Beyond

Sonnets & Chill: What did Shakespeare’s audiences do when the theaters were closed?

Posted
Author
Austin Tichenor

Speed reading Launce’s letter : / J. Gilbert ; W. Thomas, sc. 19th century. Folger Shakespeare Library. ART File S528t7 no.10 (size XS)All right, enough. We’ve all heard how super-productive William Shakespeare was when the plague shut down his theaters:…

Beware the Ides of March — and confusing interpretations of 'Julius Caesar'
Julius Caesar
Shakespeare and Beyond

Beware the Ides of March — and confusing interpretations of 'Julius Caesar'

Posted
Author
Austin Tichenor

Brutus (Anthony Cochrane, left) and Julius Caesar (Michael Sharon, right), Julius Caesar, directed by Robert Richmond, Folger Theatre, 2014. Photo by Teresa Wood. In 1599, in the 40th year of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, when she had no heir or obvious…

"A goodly prize": Award-winning Shakespeare movies
Photograph from Laurence Olivier's movie of Henry V: Olivier as Henry V. United Artists Corp. Folger Shakespeare Library.
Shakespeare and Beyond

"A goodly prize": Award-winning Shakespeare movies

Posted
Author
Austin Tichenor

Since we’ve just completed the annual Hollywood marathon called “Awards Season” — several self-congratulatory months filled with the Independent Spirit Awards, the Golden Globe Awards, various guild awards from around the world, the British Film & Television Academy Awards (the…

"This wide and universal theater": Tricks of the theatrical trade in Shakespeare's plays
1 Henry IV at Folger Theatre
Shakespeare and Beyond

"This wide and universal theater": Tricks of the theatrical trade in Shakespeare's plays

Posted
Author
Austin Tichenor

“Write what you know” is the age-old wisdom young writers are always given, and though he never wrote a backstage comedy (or, for that matter, a backstage history, tragedy, or romance), William Shakespeare filled his plays with the tricks of…

Have yourself a merry Shakespeare Christmas
Shakespeare and Beyond

Have yourself a merry Shakespeare Christmas

Posted
Author
Austin Tichenor

It’s that time of year, when some of us have visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads, many are looking forward to (or dreading) gathering with family and friends, and a certain subset of us wonder, somewhat longingly and…

'Our humble author will continue the story': Shakespearean prequels and sequels
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Shakespeare and Beyond

'Our humble author will continue the story': Shakespearean prequels and sequels

Posted
Author
Austin Tichenor

Claudius (Craig Wallace, center), Rosencrantz (Romell Witherspoon, right), and Guildenstern (Adam Wesley Brown). Gertrude (Kimberly Schraf) pictured in background. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Folger Theatre, 2015. Photo by Jeff Malet. Maybe ’twas ever thus, but the current crop of…

1 3 4 5 6 7