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.
Akala and Hip-Hop Shakespeare
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 78 “Is it Shakespeare, or is it hip-hop?” British poet, rapper, and educator Kingslee James Daley, who goes by the stage name Akala, likes to recite a passage and then challenge his audience with this question. Even…
Creating TNT's 'Will'
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 77 Will, the new series on TNT, tells stories derived from what we often call Shakespeare’s “lost years”—the time before he made a name for himself as a writer. The series takes advantage of that gaping hole…
Phyllida Lloyd and All-Female Shakespeare
In 2012, the Donmar Warehouse opened an all-female production of Julius Caesar, directed by Tony Award-nominated director Phyllida Lloyd and starring Harriet Walter as Brutus. The production was set in a womens’ prison, and would be the first of a trilogy of all-female productions. Julius Caesar was followed by Henry IV (parts 1 and 2 combined) in 2014, and ending with The Tempest in 2016.
The Royal Shakespeare Company's Digital Tempest
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 75 Twenty-first-century wizardry meets the seventeenth-century kind in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of The Tempest with digital effects created by The Imaginarium, a performance-capture company that’s best known for movie and video game animations. This production…
Tracy Chevalier: New Boy
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 74 Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl With a Pearl Earring, takes on the tragedy of Othello in her latest novel, part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series. But in a twist, she moves the action to a public…
The Globe to Globe Hamlet Tour
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 73 In 2014, Shakespeare’s Globe in London sent a group of actors on a two-year tour to perform Hamlet all around the world. They finished on the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 2016, after having traveled…
Adapting Shakespeare
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 72 What exactly counts as a Shakespeare adaptation? And why bother in the first place? We talk with three writers who have wrestled with these questions. Craig Wright is a TV writer and showrunner whose play, Melissa…
Barbara Gaines on Celebrating 400 Years of Shakespeare in Chicago
To commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 2016, Chicago mobilized the city’s cultural and administrative resources in an unprecedented way. In this episode of the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast, Barbara Gaines, founder and Artistic Director…
The Book of Will – Lauren Gunderson
How did two members of Shakespeare’s acting company decide to create the First Folio? Lauren Gunderson brings Heminges and Condell to vivid life in her play, The Book of Will.
How 'King Lear' Inspired 'Empire'
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 69 You can find Shakespeare in all sorts of places, including the Fox TV series Empire. The story of an aging ruler – in this case the head of a hip-hop music dynasty – who sets his…
Something Rotten! The Broadway Musical
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 68 In 2015, a new musical called Something Rotten! opened on Broadway. The plot: Two brothers living in England in 1595 have had their playwriting careers upended by the arrival of a new guy from Stratford upon…
Shakespeare and Marlowe: Attributing 'Henry VI' Authorship
Oxford University Press recently drew attention for deciding that, in the New Oxford Shakespeare, the plays Henry VI, Parts 1, 2, and 3 would no longer be listed as having been written by Shakespeare alone.