Shakespeare Unlimited podcast
William Shakespeare and his works are woven throughout our global culture, from theater, music, and films to new scholarship, education, amazing discoveries, and more. In our Shakespeare Unlimited podcast, Shakespeare opens a window into topics ranging from the American West, to the real history of Elizabethan street fighting, to interviews with Shakespearean stars. As you’ll hear, he turns up in surprising places, too—including outer space. Join us for a “no limits” tour of the connections between Shakespeare, his works, and our world.
Simon Mayo: "Mad Blood Stirring"
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 115 In a novel just released in the US, author and longtime BBC radio host Simon Mayo tells an amazing—but true—story: that England’s first all-black production of Romeo and Juliet was staged by Black American prisoners of…
The Actor and the Assassin: Edwin and John Wilkes Booth
The Booths’ story is like one of Shakespeare’s tragedies, with an unstable father, a rivalry between brothers, and an ending that changes the course of history.
Duke Ellington, Shakespeare, and Such Sweet Thunder, with Douglas Lanier
In 1956, Duke Ellington gave a series of concerts at Canada’s Stratford Festival. Afterward, festival staff asked if he’d consider writing a piece about Shakespeare. A year later, Ellington premiered and recorded Such Sweet Thunder, a suite of twelve tunes inspired by the Bard and his characters.
The ABCs of Performing Hamlet
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 111 Imagine getting the chance to interview Jude Law, Maxine Peake, Adrian Lester, David Tennant, Simon Russell Beale, and Nicholas Hytner about Shakespeare’s Hamlet. What would you ask? Would you want to hear about backstage hijinks? About…
Pop Culture Shakespeare and Teens with Stefanie Jochman
op culture representations of Shakespeare’s plays aren’t just fun: they can help kids—and adults—to take ownership of Shakespeare’s language, critically examine his plots, and connect to his themes. And from West Side Story to The Simpsons, there’s no shortage of options.
Julie Schumacher on The Shakespeare Requirement
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 109 Should college students be required to study Shakespeare? As American universities examine the role of the liberal arts and humanities in our society, what will—and what should—happen to the Bard’s place in English curricula? The Shakespeare…
How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 108 What’s a knave? How about a varlet? Did people in Shakespeare’s time really throw the contents of their chamber pots out of their windows? And was that, like… encouraged? If you’ve ever wondered about the naughty bits…
Shakespeare Uncovered
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 107 Shakespeare Uncovered has provided a crash course in Shakespeare’s best-known plays, presented in hour-long documentary form and guided by film and theater stars like Morgan Freeman, Kim Cattrall, Ethan Hawke, and Helen Hunt. In the third…
Understanding Peter Sellars
Shakespeare Unlimited : Episode 106 Director Peter Sellars once staged Antony and Cleopatra in a Harvard dormitory swimming pool. His King Lear owned a Lincoln Continental. His work is complex. But what confounds some audience members has also won him ardent…
Imagining Shakespeare's Wife
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 105 The family. The cottage. The age difference. The pregnancy. The children. The second best bed. The grave. We know so little about Anne Hathaway, but it hasn’t stopped us from speculating about her life for the…
Steven Berkoff: Shakespeare's Heroes and Villains
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 104 Since the 1990s, playwright and actor Steven Berkoff has been traveling the world performing a one-actor show called Shakespeare’s Villains. Berkoff promotes the show’s examination of Iago, Shylock, Richard III, the Macbeths, and others as “A Master…
Joe Papp and Shakespeare in the Park, with Kenneth Turan
Joe Papp was responsible for some of modern American theater’s most iconic institutions: New York City’s free Shakespeare in the Park. The Public Theater. The whole idea of “Off-Broadway.” We spoke with Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth…