Where can you find Shakespeare this month? Well… just about anywhere you look! Fans of Julius Caesar will find lots to love as the Ides of March approach, with a new radio drama version of the play from the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and a streaming film from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Hamlet stans can look forward to a variety of creative approaches to that play: a new podcast episode from Shakespeare Dallas; Meme García’s house of sueños and an English-and-Spanish radio production, both from Seattle Shakespeare; and a variety of programs from The Old Globe as the theater prepares for its April radio broadcast of the play with KBPS. Plus, a spattering of Macbeth from Chicago, Romeo and Juliet for the romantics, All’s Well for the cynics, modern drama from Quiara Alegría Hudes and Mary Kathryn Nagle, and much more.
Watch All’s Well That Ends Well from the Atlanta Shakespeare Company on-demand through March 28. “The magic and comedy of this play live in the insight Shakespeare gives us of characters living in the extremes,” writes director Chris Hecke, “2020 [when the Company filmed the production], for so many of us, has been a year lived in the extremes.”
Winter Words, American Players Theatre’s popular annual play-reading series, continues in March with a reading of Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue by Quiara Alegría Hudes on March 22.
Chicago Shakespeare Theater recently welcomed artists back in preparation for upcoming productions, captured live at Chicago Shakespeare and streaming on-demand for audiences at home via the new Chicago ShakesSTREAM platform. Following the strictest health and safety protocols, the Theater has been transformed into a soundstage with remote-operated cameras positioned throughout the set to capture the actors’ live performance from multiple perspectives. I, Banquo, directed by Marti Lyons as part of the I, Shakespeare series, is available on-demand starting March 22. The show, filmed this winter in a single uninterrupted take, reexamines Macbeth through the eyes of the title character’s murdered friend. Plus, a newly edited film of the Theater’s 2017 production of Love’s Labor’s Lost, recorded by multiple cameras in front of a live audience in the Courtyard Theater, will be available on the platform beginning March 15.
Sunday, March 14, at 7 pm ET—the evening before the fateful Ides of March—gather ’round your radio or speaker of choice for a special 1-hour audio drama adaptation of Julius Caesar presented by Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and WVXU. Julius Caesar airs in the Cincinnati area on the radio at 91.7 and 88.5 FM and around in the country online at wvxu.org. Or, simply say “Play WVXU” to your smart speaker.
The Folger’s newest Shakespeare Lightning Round goes live on Instagram Wednesday, March 10 at 5 pm ET. This month, African-American Shakespeare Company Artistic Director L. Peter Callender tackles our 30 lightning-fast Shakespeare questions (imagine awesome laser sound effects here, PEW-PEW-PEW). Plus, we’ll talk about how he’s stayed busy acting and directing through the pandemic and what’s next for his San Francisco company.
There’s plenty of new digital programming from The Old Globe, including Thinking Shakespeare Live: Infinite Book, the latest installment of Artistic Director Barry Edelstein’s smash-hit series. The series looks at how the Bard’s work made its way across four centuries to the scripts our actors rehearse today. New episodes are available every other Thursday at 6:30 pm PT on the Old Globe’s YouTube channel; the first episode is available now.
New episodes of the Globe’s beloved Vicki and Carl Zeiger Virtual Insights Seminars are coming to YouTube this month, providing an opportunity to connect with the artists working on the theater’s upcoming radio broadcast of Hamlet: On the Radio. This month, catch conversations with actor Grantham Coleman, who plays Hamlet, and sound designer Lindsay Jones. Plus, On Book, The Old Globe’s Shakespeare Reading Group, returns live on Facebook to focus on Hamlet, and the third season of Reflecting Shakespeare TV continues Mondays at noon PT on YouTube.
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s 2021 season, which will mix virtual and in-person performances, begins this month. A film of the Festival’s muscular 2017 production of Julius Caesar is streaming on the O! platform through March 27. Featuring the signature physical storytelling of director Shana Cooper and choreographer Erika Chong Shuch, this production of Shakespeare’s political thriller shows what happens to powerbrokers—honorable or otherwise—when their motives and means lead to unexpected consequences they cannot control. Check out the interview with Cooper above, where she reflects of Caesar’s “exquisite” structure and storytelling. Also this month: a film of 2018’s production of Mary Kathryn Nagle’s Manahatta begins streaming March 29.
All five episode of Seattle Shakespeare’s original limited-time podcast series house of sueños are available now from the company’s Rough Magic podcast. In playwright and actor Meme García’s multilingual adaptation of Hamlet, two sisters meet their papi’s ghost on the eve of their mother’s remarriage. This audio adaptation of García’s is available through March 17.
⇒ Related: Listen to our interview with house of sueños playwright Meme García.
Along with house of sueños, listen to a recording of Seattle Shakespeare’s brisk and engaging bilingual adaptation of Hamlet, also available through March 17.
Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum’s Theatricum Vignettes features company members performing scenes from Shakespeare (with an occasional twist!), singing classic Americana tunes, sharing the words of great poets, and transforming into some of history’s most compelling figures. Donors receive a new curated collection of Theatricum Vignettes monthly; March’s collection focuses on inspiring figures from history.
Shakespeare Dallas’s Quarto vs. Folio explores how Shakespeare’s work was compiled, printed, and distributed in the years following his death by mixing lecture and performance, comedy and tragedy. Originally presented at the 2020 Shakespeare Theatre Association conference and written by John S. Davies, the film is free to stream anywhere thanks to Humanities Texas. Be advised: the performance includes adult language.
Meanwhile, a new episode of Shakespeare Dallas’s podcast Shakespeare Decoded focuses on Hamlet and mental health.
Finally, a look ahead to Shakespeare’s birthday month! Starting in early April, catch two new films from the Nashville Shakespeare Festival: a five-actor Romeo and Juliet and a two-actor A Midsummer Night’s Dream, each with an original score by composer Rolin Mains and subtitles available in English and Spanish.
American Players Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, Nashville Shakespeare Festival, The Old Globe, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Shakespeare, Shakespeare Dallas, and Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum are members of the Folger’s Shakespeare Theater Partnership Program.
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