Shakespeare Unlimited
Top 5 Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episodes of 2020
Our top Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episodes from 2020 explore Shakespeare’s sources, his sonnets, and the solace we take in his work. Happy listening!
‘Julius Caesar’ and Shakespeare’s change in the American curriculum, from rhetoric to literature
Early 19th-century American students would study speeches from Shakespeare’s plays as examples of good public speaking, not as literature. How did Shakespeare’s place in the school curriculum change?
Romeo and Juliet: Is Shakespeare’s famous love story actually a play about violence?
Is Romeo and Juliet a play about love? Well yes, but it’s also about violence, argues Casey Kaleba, the fight director for many Folger Theatre productions and one of the Washington, DC, area’s most sought-after fight coaches for stage plays.
The madness of Hamlet and King Lear: When psychiatrists used Shakespeare to argue legal definitions of insanity in the courtroom
King Lear, III, 2. Johann Heinrich Ramberg. 19th century. Folger Shakespeare Library. Well-known Shakespeare characters such as King Lear and Hamlet suffer (or appear to suffer) from madness — and early American psychiatrists took note. Observations drawn from literature began…
10 acclaimed directors on Shakespeare and their work
A few of favorite quotes from some of the directors we’ve had on the Folger’s Shakespeare Unlimited podcast since 2014.
Top 10 Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episodes of 2019
Our top Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episodes from 2019 feature interviews with authors, directors, actors, and scholars. Happy listening! 1. Deborah Harkness: A Discovery of Witches In 1994, Deborah Harkness was doing research at Oxford University’s Bodleian Library when she stumbled…
Revisit the top five Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episodes of 2018
Revisit some of our most popular 2018 Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episodes, from Shakespeare’s wife Anne Hathaway to a conversation with actor Derek Jacobi to the tyrants in Shakespeare’s plays.
Excerpt - 'How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England' by Ruth Goodman
From rudeness to gross behavior, Ruth Goodman’s book “How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England” sheds some surprising light on what bad behavior really meant, including the reason that Shakespeare had Sampson threaten to “bite my thumb” at another character…
Shakespeare Uncovered debuts its third season
The TV series “Shakespeare Uncovered” returns this Friday, October 12, with richly visual episodes. Watch video previews of Helen Hunt on “Much Ado About Nothing” and F. Murray Abraham on “The Merchant of Venice.”
Excerpt - 'The Shakespeare Requirement' by Julie Schumacher
In her new novel “The Shakespeare Requirement,” Julie Schumacher continues her satirical commentary on the humanities in academia.
Mary Baker and the legacy of Anne Hathaway's Cottage
This excerpt from a new book by Katherine West Scheil explores the 19th-century transformation of the Anne Hathaway Cottage into a tourist destination.
Shakespeare Unlimited: Hearing the voices of discovery
In our Shakespeare Unlimited podcast, now celebrating its 100th episode, you can hear so many surprising and often first-person stories by scholars, musicians, authors, actors, and others on all manner of Shakespearean topics.