Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

"As jewels lose their glory if neglected, So princes their renowns if not respected." —PERICLES (2:2:12–13) 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 is that, was this always the case, and what is it like to stage those plays now? Rebecca Sheir, host of the Shakespeare Unlimited series, talks with historian Richard Schoch and two contemporary directors—Stephanie Coltrin, of California's Little Fish Theatre, who directed KING JOHN, and Noah Brody, co-artistic director of Fiasco Theater, which staged CYMBELINE. Taking its title from the words of another rarely seen drama, PERICLES, this podcast explores the changing fortunes of these plays over time—and the theatrical challenges and rewards of staging them for modern audiences. Noah Brody is co-artistic director of Fiasco Theater, which produced Cymbeline in 20

"As truth's authentic author to be cited, 'As true as Troilus' shall crown up the verse" —TROILUS AND CRESSIDA (3.2.182–183) Not long ago, 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 first collection of Shakespeare's plays. Before this find, there were 232 known First Folios in the entire world. Now, there are 233. Rebecca Sheir, host of the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series, talks with Eric Rasmussen, who authenticated the French discovery. An expert on the First Folio, Rasmussen gets the call when someone, anywhere in the world, thinks they may have found another copy. Along the way, he's amassed some fascinating stories and observations about one of the world's most iconic rare books. Join us for a conversation about the French First Folio, other distinctive copies, and the modern collectors, scholars, thieves, and Folio hunters who fall under the First Folio's spell.

"Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue." —HAMLET (3:2:1–2) 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 Ben Crystal and his father, linguist David Crystal, one of the world's foremost researchers on how English was spoken in Shakespeare's time. Filled with lively banter as well as familiar lines spoken in OP, the conversation offers a different perspective on the plays, from the puns and rhymes hidden by modern pronunciation to added meanings and the opportunity for quicker speech. Ben Crystal is a Shakespearean actor who has appeared through Great Britain and the United States. David Crystal, Ben Crystal's father, is a linguist, editor, lecturer, and author of more than 100 books, including "The Stories of English," "The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language," and "The Cambri

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, Rebecca Sheir, host of the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series, traces the quirky, fascinating, and little-known tale of the 27 known moons of Uranus—nearly all of which have Shakespearean names. Through the voices of historians, actors, and modern scientists, "Brave New Worlds" tells the story behind that curious fact, starting with the planet's discovery in 1781 and continuing through Voyager 2's flyby in 1986 and the discoveries of still more moons in recent years. From the Uranian moons Ariel, Oberon, Titania, and Miranda, to Ferdinand, Caliban, and Cordelia (to name only a few), join us on a literary-scientific trip to the outer solar system you won't soon forget. Michael Crowe is an emeritus professor of liberal arts at Notre Dame University. Brett Gladman is a professor at the Univers

"When sorrows come, they come not single spies, But in battalions..." —HAMLET (4.5.83) 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 Sherman, head of research at the Victoria and Albert Museum and professor of Renaissance studies at the University of York. Rebecca Sheir, host of our Shakespeare Unlimited series, talks with Sherman about the flowering of codes, ciphers, and secret message systems during the Renaissance—including a brilliant cipher devised by Francis Bacon—and their surprising influence on modern cryptography. As Sherman explains, William Friedman, the top US cryptographer whose team broke the Japanese diplomatic code before World War II, had once been a junior staffer on a team that sought to find Bacon's real-life cipher embedded in the plays of Shakespeare (a once-popular notion that he and his wife and fellow cryptographer Elizebeth later de

"I will assume thy part in some disguise And tell fair Hero I am Claudio" —MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING(1.1.316) The actress Charlotte Cushman was a theatrical icon in 19th century America, known to the press by her first name, like Beyonce today. Her fame was not, however, for conventionally Victorian feminine portrayals. Cushman specialized in playing male roles, principally Romeo and Hamlet, competing on equal terms with leading actors like Edwin Forrest and Edwin Booth. She was not the only actress of her time to attempt these parts, but Cushman’s style was uniquely assertive and athletic. When Queen Victoria saw Cushman as Romeo, she said she couldn’t believe it was a woman playing the part. Rebecca Sheir, host of the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series, interviews Lisa Merrill, professor in the Department of Performance Studies at Hofstra University and author of "When Romeo Was a Woman," about Cushman’s professional and personal life, including her off-stage romantic partnerships with women and her chang

"For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo." —ROMEO AND JULIET(5.3.320) 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, gender roles, and even guns and street violence inform the way we read or see the play today. Rebecca Sheir, host of our Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series, talks with theater scholars and artists about how ROMEO AND JULIET has been cut and molded to fit certain cultural expectations in different time periods. Among those featured in this podcast: - Libby Appel is the former director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. - Joe Calarco is the adaptor and original director of Shakespeare’s R&J. - Linda Charnes is professor of English at Indiana University, Bloomington. - Michael Kahn is artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC. - Peggy O'Brien is director of education

"Now, good Cesario, but that piece of song, That old and antique song we heard last night." —Twelfth Night (2.4.3) Rebecca Sheir, host of our Shakespeare Unlimited series, interviews Ross W. Duffin, professor at Case Western University, about musical hints in Shakespeare that have been flying over the heads of most audiences and readers for 400 years. Duffin is the author of the award-winning "Shakespeare's Songbook" (2004), a title that only suggests the book's broader story. Duffin includes the songs performed within Shakespeare's plays—but also those that are not sung, but simply alluded to. Familiar to audiences of the day, these songs' words or phrases added meaning to the plays—long-lost implications and suggestions that his book seeks to restore. ----------------- From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. © 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 a

"And by that destiny to perform an act / Whereof what’s past is prologue, what to come / In yours and my discharge." (The Tempest, 2.1.288) Shakespeare's words and stories may be timeless, but what does that mean when you stage his plays for a modern American audience? That's a challenge that artistic directors relish as they explore the plays' many possibilities. This podcast looks at some of the ingenious approaches they’ve come up with, as well as the thinking behind them. "What's Past Is Prologue" features the voices of artistic directors from Oregon to Minneapolis to Washington, DC. These interviews were first conducted for the Folger's NEH-funded radio documentary series, "Shakespeare in American Life," produced in 2007 to commemorate the Folger's 75th anniversary. ------------------- From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. Written and produced for the Folger Shakespeare Library by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is associate producer. Edited

"Though this be madness, yet there is method in ’t." (Hamlet, 2.2.223) Plenty of people today consider Shakespeare a literary genius, a pillar of theater history, a gifted writer of timeless love poems, and more. But even the most over-the-top contemporary admirer of Shakespeare is unlikely to consider him a pioneer of modern medical science... much less forensic psychiatry. Hard as it may be to believe, however, there was a strange period in American history when that's exactly how William Shakespeare was seen in both law and medicine. Rebecca Sheir, host of the Shakespeare Unlimited series, interviews Benjamin Reiss, a professor in the English department at Emory University and the author of a book called "Theaters of Madness: Insane Asylums and Nineteenth-Century American Culture." "From the mid-1840s through about the mid-1860s in the United States, during the first generation of American psychiatry, no figure was cited as an authority on insanity and mental functioning more frequently than William Sh

"I prithee speak to me as to thy thinkings," (Othello, 3.3.152) How do Shakespeare's works, written so long ago, still speak to us today? Just as actors and directors strive to work out this question on the stage, the academy continues to find new meaning in Shakespeare, too. Rebecca Sheir, host of our Shakespeare Unlimited series, talks with scholars Gail Kern Paster and Jeremy Lopez about why we continue to learn something new from Shakespeare's plays more than four hundred years after their first performance. Gail Kern Paster is director emerita of the Folger Shakespeare Library. Jeremy Lopez is an associate professor of English at the University of Toronto and former National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow at the Folger. ------------------ From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. © 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. We had help gathering

"I was born to speak all mirth and no matter." (Much Ado About Nothing, 2.1.323) Let's face it: Modern audiences sometimes go from roaring with laughter to scratching their heads when it comes to enjoying Shakespeare's jokes four hundred years later. How (and why) has "what's funny" changed over the years—and what's still a guaranteed belly laugh? Theater artists and scholars, along with narrator Rebecca Sheir, host of our Shakespeare Unlimited series, take an amusing, sometimes surprising, look at things that were funny in Shakespeare's time, but not so much now—as well as gems of Shakespearean comedy that still sparkle today. Among those featured in this podcast: - Michael Green is the author of The Art of Coarse Acting. - Robert Hornback is associate professor of English, comparative literatures, and theatre and chair of the Department of English and Comparative Literatures at Oglethorpe University. - Austin Tichenor is a writer, performer, and managing partner of the Reduced Shakespeare Company. He als

"Bless thee, Bottom, bless thee! Thou art translated!" (A Midsummer Night's Dream, 3.1.120-121) What happens when Shakespeare’s work is translated into foreign languages? Is it still Shakespeare? Or does something fundamental to the original evaporate in the process? Scholars and theater artists, with Rebecca Sheir, host of our Shakespeare Unlimited series, look at what constitutes the essence of Shakespeare. A translator can retain the story, characters, and ideas of a play, but the intricate wordplay proves much more difficult. For one thing, it’s impossible to translate Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter into a language like Korean, in which poetry is based on syllable counts, not stresses. And what is to be done with those well-crafted puns? However, translation also opens up possibilities for new depths of meaning, as the familiar recedes and a different perspective takes over. Among those featured in this podcast: - Joe Calarco is the adaptor and original director of Shakespeare’s R&J. - Rupert Chan i

"Here will we sit and let the sounds of music / Creep in our ears" (The Merchant of Venice, 5.1.63-64) How can young people connect with Shakespeare? It's a question that confronts each generation. Members of Taffety Punk, a Washington, DC, theater company, have taken to heart the mission of bringing Shakespeare into the 21st century. Rebecca Sheir, host of our Shakespeare Unlimited series, talks with Taffety Punk founding member and Artistic Director Marcus Kyd about how he and a group of classically trained actors—who are also ex-punk rockers—are giving new meaning to the term "band of players." From Bootleg performances of Shakespeare's plays—rehearsed and staged in a day—to Riot Grrrls all-female Shakespeare, recordings of punk versions of Shakespeare's Sonnet 71 and Mercutio's "Queen Mab" speech from ROMEO AND JULIET, and the Generator series of experimental works, Taffety Punk is defining Shakespeare for a new generation of theatergoers and theater makers. Marcus Kyd is a founding member and artist

"Under the greenwood tree / Who loves to lie with me / And turn his merry note / Unto the sweet bird’s throat, / Come hither, come hither, come hither. / Here shall he see / No enemy / But winter and rough weather." (As You Like It, 2.5.1-8) Pack the picnic basket. Grab a blanket. Don't forget the bug spray. Shakespeare under the stars is a long-standing tradition in America—and elsewhere in the English-speaking world and beyond. Rebecca Sheir, host of our Shakespeare Unlimited series, talks with scholars and theater artists about the social and cultural forces that came together to create outdoor Shakepeare festivals. (Hint: The tradition starts a lot sooner than you might think!) Among those featured in this podcast: - Libby Appel is former Artistic Director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. - Charlotte Canning is a professor in the theater and dance department of the University of Texas at Austin. - Michael Dobson is director of the Shakespeare Institute at the University of Birmingham in England. -

"I, that am rudely stamped..." (Richard III, 1.1.16) Shakespeare not only talked about his own times; he also wrote history plays that showed us the past—though it was a past filtered through the politics and prejudices of Shakespeare's present. Questions about this came up recently when a body was found in a Leicester, England, parking lot. That body is now widely believed to be that of King Richard III. Among the many issues raised, along with that body, are questions about who the real Richard III was, versus the dramatic character that we've all come to know from stage and film. In search of that answer, Rebecca Sheir, host of our Shakespeare Unlimited series, talks with an expert on the historic Richard III, David Baldwin, and an expert on Shakespeare's Richard III, Michael Dobson. Meanwhile, historian Retha Warnicke explains the practical challenges of any research into Richard's long-ago time. David Baldwin is a medieval historian who has taught at the Universities of Leicester and Nottingham. His

"All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players." (As You Like It, 2.7.146-147) In Shakespeare's time, only men appeared on stage, with teenage boys playing the women's parts. Today, women play women and sometimes men—and vice-versa. In this podcast we have gathered some of the best-known actresses in the Folger's home town, Washington, DC—Naomi Jacobsen, Cam Magee, Francelle Stewart Dorn, Victoria Reinsel, Charlene V Smith, and Holly Twyford—to talk about their experiences on stage with Shakespeare. The all-female staging of RICHARD III was produced for Brave Spirit Theater, with Jenna Berk as George, Duke of Clarence. First Murderer was Rachel Hynes; Second Murderer was Tina Renay Fulp. ---------------- From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. Produced for the Folger Shakespeare Library by Richard Paul; Garland Scott, associate producer. Edited by Gail Kern Paster and Esther Ferington. The music in the piece was composed and a

While Nelson Mandela was incarcerated on South Africa's Robben Island, one of the other political prisoners managed to retain a copy of Shakespeare's complete works, which was secretly circulated through the group. At that prisoner's request, many of the others—including Mandela—signed their names next to their favorite passages. As Shakespeare scholar David Schalkwyk, also a South African, explains to interviewer Rebecca Sheir, there is something special about "a book that had passed through the hands of the people who had saved my country." Schalkwyk shares some personal history and reveals what Shakespeare might have meant to the men who signed the Robben Island Shakespeare. David Schalkwyk is Professor of English at the University of Cape Town and, beginning in 2009, has served as Director of Research at the Folger Shakespeare Library and editor of "Shakespeare Quarterly." He is also the author of "Speech and Performance in Shakespeare’s Sonnets and Plays," "Literature and the Touch of the Real," and "

“And I hope here is a play fitted.” —A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (1.2.63) 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. In this episode of the Shakespeare Unlimited series, Steve Martin talks with Denise Walen about the sweeping changes in costumes, scenery, and other staging choices in the 400 years since Shakespeare's time. From elaborate settings and carefully researched costumes that were meant to educate audiences, to modernist stripped-down sets or fanciful reimaginings, Shakespeare productions have long responded to the theater choices of their day. As for the future, Walen is sure: whatever changes lie ahead, Shakespeare's plays will still take the stage. Denise Walen is an associate professor in the Department of Drama at Vassar College. She was the curator of "Here Is a Play Fitted," a Folger Shakespeare Library exhibition. -

"Freedom, high-day! High-day, freedom! Freedom, high-day, freedom!" —THE TEMPEST(2.2.192-193) In this second of two podcasts on Shakespeare and the African American experience, "Freedom, Hey-Day! Hey-Day, Freedom!" examines some of the many ways—including, but not limited to, performance—that black Americans have encountered, responded to, taken ownership of, and sometimes turned away from Shakespeare's words. Rebecca Sheir, host of the Shakespeare Unlimited series, narrates this expansive, interview-filled look at the intersection between African American life and Shakespeare, from stage productions to personal and academic encounters with the texts. Kim Hall is a professor of English at Barnard College. Caleen Sinnette Jennings is a professor of theater at American University in Washington, DC. Bernth Lindfors is professor emeritus of history at the University of Texas. Francesca Royster is a professor of English at DePaul University. Shane White is a professor of history at the University of Sydney