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.
Recounting Shakespeare's Life
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 22 What do we know about Shakespeare’s life? The answer: Not as much as we would like to. As much or as little, in other words, as we would about any middle-class Englishman of his time. This…
Designing Shakespeare
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 21 There’s an old Broadway saying (sometimes attributed to Richard Rodgers) that “No one ever walked out of a theater humming the scenery.” Nevertheless, costume and scenery designers can be vital to the success of a play.…
African Americans and Shakespeare
African American engagement with Shakespeare goes back a long way—maybe even farther than you’d imagine. And like so much else surrounding American race relations, African American performance of Shakespeare is inextricably linked to the experiences of…
Shakespeare in Black and White
In the second of two episodes about Black Americans and Shakespeare, we talk with scholars Marvin MacAllister and Ayanna Thompson about the period between the end of the Civil War and the 1950s: from Reconstruction, through the period of Jim Crow segregation, and into the Civil Rights Era.
Rarely Performed Shakespeare
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 18 Every year, theaters across the United States and the world treat us to Shakespeare—which usually means such frequently produced plays as Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet. Some Shakespeare plays, however, are rarely performed today. Why…
A New First Folio Discovery
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 17 In the fall of 2014, the world learned of a remarkable discovery: An old book in a French library, acquired in the 1790s, was identified as an unknown copy of the 1623 First Folio of Shakespeare—the…
Pronouncing English as Shakespeare Did
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 16 When Shakespeare wrote his lines, and actors first spoke them, how did they say the words—and what does that tell us? Rebecca Sheir, host of the Shakespeare Unlimited series, talks original pronunciation (OP) with Shakespearean actor…
The Shakespearean Moons of Uranus
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 15 Sometimes it seems you can hear or see traces of Shakespeare just about anywhere on Earth. But how about around the planet Uranus, which had not even been discovered in Shakespeare’s time? In this celestial edition,…
Codes and Ciphers from the Renaissance to Today
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 14 It’s a striking comment that occurs late in this podcast—and by the time you hear it, you may well agree: “Without Bacon and Shakespeare, we might not have won the war in the Pacific,” says Bill…
Charlotte Cushman: When Romeo Was a Woman
Charlotte Cushman was a 19th-century theatrical icon, so famous and beloved that, like Beyoncé today, newspapers called her by just her first name. But her fame wasn’t for conventionally Victorian feminine portrayals.
Romeo and Juliet through the Ages
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 12 Though the tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet is a perennial favorite, the world around the play has changed in the four centuries since it was first performed. Shifting attitudes about taboo love and marriage,…
Music in Shakespeare
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 11 Our guest Ross W. Duffin, professor at Case Western University, discusses musical hints and references in Shakespeare that were familiar to audiences in his day, but may have been flying over the heads of most audiences and readers since then.