Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

What impact has Shakespeare’s writing had on Indian theater? And, how has Indian theater shaped and altered Shakespeare’s work? Shakespeare’s interaction with India came, of course, in the context of India’s experience with British colonization and colonialism. In 1600, Queen Elizabeth I gave a charter to the East India Company to trade with the Shahs, emperors and Maratha princes who’d ruled the subcontinent for the previous century. Over the 150 years that followed, the East India Company transitioned from being merchant traders into a kind of quasi-government. After Indians rebelled in 1857, Queen Victoria closed down the East India Company and ruled India directly as a British colony. During the run-up to the rebellion, English had become India’s language of instruction. Among the Indian elite, you needed to know Shakespeare in order to appear truly educated. In this podcast episode, Barbara Bogaev interviews Jyotsna Singh, Professor of English at Michigan State University, and Modhumita Roy, Associ

Laura Wayth, our guest for this episode of Shakespeare Unlimited, is Assistant Professor of Theatre at San Francisco State University and the author of a “how-to” book called "The Shakespeare Audition: How to Get Over Your Fear, Find the Right Piece, and Have a Great Audition." Wayth was interviewed by Neva Grant, and she was joined by actors Stephanie Ann Foster, Mike Ryan, and Bruce Avery. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. © January 12, 2016. Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. "A Poor Player That Struts and Frets His Hour Upon the Stage" was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster and Esther Ferington. We had help from Melissa Marquis at NPR in Washington and Darren Peck at the Sports By Line studios in San Francisco.

There’s no doubt you’ve seen images of Shakespeare – maybe in a book, a museum or an ad on the wall of a bus stop. So it’s safe to say: You imagine that you have a pretty good idea of what Shakespeare looked like. Oxford University professor Katherine Duncan-Jones has written a book that invites you to question your assumptions and – maybe – take a new look. As you’ll hear, there really are only a few likenesses of Shakespeare where we’re pretty sure we know that the face in the image is his. She offers her theories on why that might be and tells us what’s known about how these images came to be. Katherine Duncan-Jones is interviewed by Rebecca Sheir. Katherine Duncan-Jones is Professor Emerita of English Literature at Oxford and an honorary professor of English at University College, London. Her book, "Portraits of Shakespeare," was published by Oxford’s Bodleian Library in 2015. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. © December 15, 2015. Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. “N

Shakespeare adaptations are a proud tradition. Prokofiev turned ROMEO AND JULIET into a ballet. Verdi turned MACBETH and OTHELLO into operas, and THE TAMING OF THE SHREW and TWELFTH NIGHT have been converted by Hollywood into teen comedies. But there’s a different type of Shakespeare adaptation that’s a lot harder to get right – that’s when someone takes an existing piece of popular entertainment and reimagines it as if it might have been written by Shakespeare. As Ian Doescher can tell us, that can be hard to get right. He’s the author of six books under the series title, William Shakespeare’s Star Wars, based on the hit films featuring Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, and the rest. As you’ll hear, making this work has taken far more thinking and craftsmanship than you might imagine. Ian is interviewed by Stephanie Kaye. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. © December 1, 2015. Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. “I Feel Now The Future In The Instant” was produced by Richard Paul.

Henry Clay Folger paid a world record price for a book—not once, but twice—as he became the world's leading collector of Shakespeare First Folios. In this episode, economist and author Andrea Mays talks with Neva Grant about some of the fascinating financial and personal details of Folger's life, and in particular, how he went about collecting all these books. Folger, of course, did not limit himself to First Folios. He also, together with his wife Emily Jordan Folger, assembled the world’s largest Shakespeare collection—and founded the Folger Shakespeare Library. Mays's book "The Millionaire and the Bard" was published earlier this year. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. © November 18, 2015. Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. “Mine own library with volumes that I prize”was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster and Esther Ferington.

Shakespeare and his plays are woven deeply into the culture of the Caribbean, both white and black. Even after centuries of British colonial rule came to an end, Shakespeare endured, as we hear in this episode of Shakespeare Unlimited. There’s a long tradition in the British Caribbean of using Shakespeare quotations in competitions to demonstrate rhetorical skill, whether in the schoolyard or at rural village gatherings. After slavery was abolished in the British colonies, schools were established to steep the empire’s newest subjects in British literature, particularly Shakespeare, imparting British values along the way. But anti-colonialists have also claimed Shakespeare for their own, particularly THE TEMPEST and the character of Caliban. Our guests on this episode are Dr. Giselle Rampaul, a lecturer in Literatures in English at the University of the West Indies in St. Augustine, Trinidad, and Dr. Barrymore A. Bogues, Director of the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University. The

For the majority of audience members, Shakespeare is brought to life by the actors and actresses who speak his lines. Shakespeare scholar Stanley Wells considered all of the most outstanding Shakespeare performers, from past to present, and essentially created his own personal Hall of Fame. He’s written about these artists in a book called "Great Shakespeare Actors: Burbage to Branagh." Wells sifted through firsthand accounts from those who saw these great performers on stage to get a sense of what the actors brought to Shakespeare and why it was worth going to see them. Stanley Wells is interviewed by Stephanie Kaye. This podcast episode is called “O, there be players that I have seen play.” From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. © October 21, 2015. Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. Written and produced for the Folger Shakespeare Library by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is associate producer. Edited by Esther Ferington and Gail Kern Paster. We had help from Timothy Olmstead a

The majority of Shakespeare’s plays call for singing — sometimes it’s part of the action, sometimes it seems to spring out of nowhere. And while the lyrics to the songs appear to have always been a part of the text, the musical notes for those lyrics have been lost over the years. Over four centuries of staging Shakespeare, directors have explored different approaches to filling in these musical gaps. David Lindley, professor emeritus of literature and music at the University of Leeds, is our guest for this episode of Shakespeare Unlimited. His book, SHAKESPEARE AND MUSIC, appeared in 2006 in the Arden Critical Companions series. He is interviewed by Neva Grant. This episode is called “Ay, prithee, sing.” From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. © October 7, 2015. Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. Written and produced for the Folger Shakespeare Library by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is associate producer. Edited by Esther Ferington and Gail Kern Paster. We had help from Melissa M

1606 was a critical year for Shakespeare’s creative career. It was the year in which he wrote KING LEAR, MACBETH, and ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. It was also a time in which the king of England, James I, faced internal political challenges that threatened to tear the nation apart. James Shapiro is our guest for this episode of Shakespeare Unlimited. His new book, THE YEAR OF LEAR, examines how the events of 1606 touched Shakespeare’s life and whether they are reflected in his work. James Shapiro is a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. THE YEAR OF LEAR: SHAKESPEARE IN 1606, will be published October 6, 2015, by Simon & Schuster. James Shapiro is also a member of the Folger’s Board of Governors. He was interviewed by Neva Grant. This podcast episode is called “I Have Years On My Back.” “I have years on my back…” –KING LEAR (1.4.39) From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published September 23, 2015. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episod

Just what exactly does it mean to edit the works of Shakespeare, particularly since we have no surviving manuscript copies? Why is it that new editions of the plays continue to be published? In this episode of Shakespeare Unlimited, Rebecca Sheir interviews Paul Werstine and Suzanne Gossett about the how and why of editing Shakespeare. Since 1989, Paul Werstine has been the co-editor of the Folger Editions, along with Barbara Mowat. He’s also a professor of English at King’s University College in London, Ontario. Suzanne Gossett is co-general-textual editor of "The Norton Shakespeare, 3rd Edition" and professor emerita of English at Loyola University in Chicago. She has also edited the Arden Shakespeare edition of Pericles and is a past president of the Shakespeare Association of America. The title of this episode is "The Dedicated Words Which Writers Use." "The dedicated words which writers use / Of their fair subject, blessing every book." -SONNET 82 From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. P

"Shakespeare Not Stirred" is the creation of two English professors who combined their love of the cocktail hour and their love of Shakespeare to write a collection of Bard-inspired cocktail and hors d’oeuvre recipes. This thoroughly modern book (released September 1, 2015) contains instructions for concocting drinks like “Kate’s Shrew-driver” and “Othello’s Green-eyed Monster.” The images of Shakespeare characters that accompany the recipes are all taken from the Folger Shakespeare Library collection – with some clever Photoshop work done to insert glasses in the hands of the characters. In this episode of Shakespeare Unlimited, Rebecca Sheir interviews Caroline Bicks, a professor at Boston College, and Michelle Ephraim, a professor at Worcester Polytechnical Institute, about their inspiration for the book. This episode is called “Fetch Me A Stoup Of Liquor.” "Go, get thee in, and fetch me a stoup of liquor." (HAMLET, 5.1.61-62) This episode was produced by Richard Paul and Garland Scott. It was ed

If you were to make a list of the people who have left an enduring imprint on how the world interprets, understands, and receives Shakespeare, who would you choose? About a decade ago, Peter Holland, the McMeel Family Chair in Shakespeare Studies at Notre Dame, and Adrian Poole, the former Chair in English Literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, set out to create a compendium that summed up the work of these influential people. They chose performers, scholars, writers, critics, theater directors, and others. The final set of books in their opus, an 18-volume reference work called "Great Shakespeareans," was released in 2013. In this podcast episode, Peter Holland explains the rationale he and Adrian Poole used to decide just who got to be listed as the world’s great Shakespeareans. Peter Holland was interviewed by Rebecca Sheir. The title of this podcast episode is “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.” —TWELFTH NIGHT(2.5.149-150) From the Shakespeare Un

What if Shakespeare and his friends had gotten together and carved their names on the wall of an inn made famous by Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales? The intriguing possibility of such a link between these two great English writers stems from an anecdote found in a little-known manuscript. Unfortunately, The Tabard Inn burned down in the great Southwark fire of 1676, so there’s no way of knowing the truth for sure. But the Shakespeare graffiti story grabs our imagination even if it was only hear-say, and that tells us something about the intense hunger out there for more details about the playwright’s life. Our guest is Martha Carlin, professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She was interviewed by Rebecca Sheir. The title of this podcast is “Betwixt tavern and tavern.” "Thou hast saved me a thousand marks in links and torches, walking with thee in the night betwixt tavern and tavern… " —HENRY IV, PART 1 (3.3.43-45) From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published July 15, 2015.

"Last thing he did, dear queen, He kissed—the last of many doubled kisses— This orient pearl. His speech sticks in my heart." ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA (1.5.45-48) Hong Kong, a former British colony, has been staging and teaching Shakespeare plays for nearly 150 years. In this episode from our Shakespeare Unlimited podcast, we see how Shakespeare is stretched to tell a story of contemporary Hong Kong and colonialism in two important adaptations of ROMEO AND JULIET—"Crocodile River" and "Young Lovers". Then, in the 1980s, a local tradition of performing Shakespeare plays begins to merge with another art form—opera. Alexa Huang, Professor of English of George Washington University, is an expert on Sino-European cultural exchange and the globalization of Shakespeare. Adele Lee is a Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Greenwich in England and the author of numerous articles about Shakespeare on film in Hong Kong. Huang and Lee are interviewed by Neva Grant. From the Shakespeare Unlimited

For most of us, “seeing Shakespeare” means experiencing live actors in a theater. But for more than 100 years, Shakespeare’s words, plots, settings and characters have also been brought to life on film. Shakespeare on film has never been like Shakespeare on stage. In the earliest years of the medium, it simply couldn’t be. Then, as film matured, directors realized that the medium offered new ways to tells Shakespeare’s stories that were impossible to reproduce on stage. Along the way, trends, like multiplex theaters, the rise of independent films, and teen comedies, and directors from Orson Welles to Laurence Olivier to Julie Taymor and Joss Whedon have reshaped and reimagined Shakespeare. Our guest, Sam Crowl, is a professor of English at Ohio University. He’s also the author of "A Norton Guide to Shakespeare and Film," "Shakespeare at the Cineplex," and "Shakespeare Observed." He was interviewed by Rebecca Sheir. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published June 17, 2015. © Folger Sha

"Myself, a prince by fortune of my birth, . . . Have stooped my neck under your injuries And sighed my English breath in foreign clouds" —RICHARD II (3.1.16, 19–20) Shakespeare's plays are well stocked with merchants of Venice, gentlemen of Verona, lords and ladies of France, and other foreign characters. But what did he—and his audiences—really know about such distant places and people? In this episode of Shakespeare Unlimited, Rebecca Sheir poses that question about France and Italy—the two foreign lands that Shakespeare wrote about the most. Her guests are Deanne Williams, author of "The French Fetish from Chaucer to Shakespeare" (2004) and associate professor of English at York University in Toronto, and Graham Holderness, author of "Shakespeare and Venice" (2013) and professor of English at the University of Hertfordshire. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published May 20, 2015. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. Produced for the Folger Shakespeare Library by Richard

"Blood hath been shed ere now, i' th' olden time, Ere humane statute purged the gentle weal; Ay, and since too, murders have been performed Too terrible for the ear." —MACBETH(3.4.91–94) From the duels in ROMEO AND JULIET to a brutal mob in JULIUS CAESAR, street fighting transforms several of Shakespeare's plays. How much, though, does it reflect (or differ from) the mean streets of his day? Rebecca Sheir talks violence in Elizabethan times with Vanessa McMahon, author of "Murder in Shakespeare's England" (2004), and Casey Kaleba, an expert in Elizabethan street crime and one of the Washington, DC, area's most sought-after fight coaches for stage plays. ---------------------------- From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published May 6, 2015. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. Produced for the Folger Shakespeare Library by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. Edited by Gail Kern Paster and Esther Ferington. With help from Folger Magazine editor Karen Lyon, Julie

"It is not so. Thou hast misspoke, misheard. Be well advised; tell o'er thy tale again. It cannot be; thou dost but say 'tis so." —KING JOHN (3.1.5–7) Even if you’re not a Shakespeare scholar, there are things you have learned about Shakespeare and his plays throughout your life – that it’s bad luck to say the name of “the Scottish play” or that Shakespeare hated his wife. Are any of these stories true? And whether they are or not, what do they tell us about previous eras, and our own? Rebecca Sheir talks Shakespeare myths with Emma Smith, professor of English at the University of Oxford—and co-author, with Laurie Maguire, of "30 Great Myths About Shakespeare." From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published April 22, 2015. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. Produced for the Folger Shakespeare Library by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. Edited by Gail Kern Paster and Esther Ferington. With help from Nick Moorbath at Evolution Recording Studios in Oxford an

Her father loved me, oft invited me, Still questioned me the story of my life From year to year—the battles, sieges, fortunes That I have passed. —Othello (1.3.149–152) 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 episode of Shakespeare Unlimited considers not only that question, but two others: During the past four centuries, when and how did biographers learn about Shakespeare's life? And does knowing about any writer's biography, including Shakespeare's, make any difference in responding to their work? To tackle those big, and intriguing, questions, Rebecca Sheir talks with Brian Cummings, Anniversary Professor of English at the University of York. Cummings delivered the 2014 Shakespeare's Birthday Lecture on "Shakespeare, Biography, and Anti-Biography" at the Folger Shakespeare Library; the lecture also opened the Folger Institute's NEH-funded collaborative

"Our own voices with our own tongues" —CORIOLANUS (2.3.47) In one of two podcasts on Shakespeare and the African American experience, "Our Own Voices with Our Own Tongues" revisits the era when Jim Crow segregation was at its height, from a few years after the end of the Civil War to the 1940s and 1950s. Rebecca Sheir, host of the Shakespeare Unlimited series, talks about black Americans and Shakespeare in that time with two scholars of the period, Marvin MacAllister and Ayanna Thompson. The discussion ranges from landmark performances—Orson Welles's Depression-era all-black MACBETH and Paul Robeson's Othello— to powerful, though less familiar, stories from the Folger's hometown of Washington, DC. It also draws in later questions about African Americans and Shakespeare, including the role of race in casting choices to this day. Marvin MacAllister is an associate professor of African American Studies at the University of South Carolina. Ayanna Thompson is a professor of English at George Washington Univer