Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast

  • Autor: Vários
  • Narrador: Vários
  • Editor: Podcast
  • Duración: 73:27:45
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Sinopsis

~ Brevity is the soul of wit. ~

Episodios

  • Returning To MRT!

    17/02/2025 Duración: 18min

    RSC artistic directors Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor discuss their return to Merrimack Repertory Theatre with the company's 11th show, The Comedy of Hamlet! (a prequel) as MRT's 300th production. Reed and Austin reveal the RSC's deep connections to New England; how this will be the RSC's third show to premiere at MRT (after The Complete World of Sports (abridged) and The Ultimate Christmas Show (abridged) and seventh visit overall; and share insights into the creation of the show and why they changed the title; how the show's roll-out and script development got interrupted by the pandemic; what milestone anniversary will be celebrated by our first MRT performance; and how creating a prequel to Shakespeare's greatest play brought unexpected emotional connections to the characters. (LENGTH 18:24) The post Returning To MRT! appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

  • Revisiting ‘Lady Day’

    11/02/2025 Duración: 24min

    Candice Handy, associate artistic director of Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, discusses her production of Lanie Robertson's Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill at Merrimack Repertory Theatre, and reveals how she first connected to the material and how the play lands differently now. Candice shares her background as both an actor and musician; Billie Holiday’s connection to Lowell; how actors are doctors to the soul; the wonder of discovering things you didn’t know you knew; the danger of silencing artists; the value of art in troubled times; and the importance of giving a play the grit it requires to deliver the transcendence it deserves. (Length 24:05) The post Revisiting ‘Lady Day’ appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

  • Key West ‘Angel’s

    02/02/2025 Duración: 21min

    Successful playwrights and television writers (and married couple) Barbara Wallace and Tom Wolfe are playing successful playwrights (and married couple) Charlotte and Arthur Sanders in the Waterfront Playhouse production of Paul Slade Smith's The Angel Next Door through February 8, 2025. Friends of the pod Barb and Tom make their first joint appearance to talk about their return to the stage as “eccentric artists” playing eccentric artists; being directed by Waterfront Playhouse artistic director Patrick New; help from Chicago actor (and friend of the pod) Laura T. Fisher and the LineLearner app; the importance of reading a script’s “funny type;” a possible new play called Terror at Four Feet; finding out one’s musical chops are out of tune; and how much acting is actually involved for two successful writers playing two successful writers. (Length 21:06) The post Key West ‘Angel’s appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

  • Gertrude And Ophelia

    27/01/2025 Duración: 24min

    Perennially one of the most-produced playwrights in America, Lauren Gunderson returns to discuss A Room in the Castle, her new play based on the women of Hamlet now having its world premiere at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and Folger Theatre in Washington DC. Lauren talks about the evolution of her play and reveals how it became more focused on Gertrude, rather than Ophelia; an excellent reason why artists should lunch with other artists; how there is always another story going on; how young people in love are dumb; what her next play will focus on; the definitive answer to the question of Gertrude’s complicity in King Hamlet’s murder; and how the women of Denmark survive in a world (much like ours) where “patriarchy’s gonna patriarchy.” (Length 24:13) (PICTURED, above: Sabrina Lynne Sawyer and Oneika Phillips in the world-premiere of “A Room in the Castle” based on the women of “Hamlet,” by Lauren M. Gunderson, directed by Kaja Dunn, co-produced with Folger Theatre playing January 24-February 9, 2025 a

  • Devouring ‘Fat Ham’

    21/01/2025 Duración: 17min

    Tyrone Phillips is the founding artistic director of Chicago’s Definition Theatre and directing Definition’s co-production of James Ijames’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fat Ham at the Goodman Theatre through February 23, 2025. Phillips discusses the many Shakespearean connections of this “hilarious yet profound tragedy, smothered in comedy” (New York Times); his instinct to always look at plays as music; his realization that he gives every one of his productions “injections of joy;” how he brings a modern energy to classics (like his Twelfth Night at Chicago Shakespeare Theater), and vice-versa; how our past informs our future; how "coming of age" stories can happen to characters of any age; how Ijames “plays the changes” on Shakespeare’s Hamlet; and the challenge of always surprising the audience. PLUS! A special appearance by the newest member of the Reduced Shakespeare Company, Geoffrey Warren Barnes II! (Length 17:44) The post Devouring ‘Fat Ham’ appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

  • Sidney Berger Award

    14/01/2025 Duración: 19min

    At the closing night banquet of last weekend's Shakespeare Theatre Association conference in San Francisco, Reduced Shakespeare Company artistic directors Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor were awarded the Sandra and Sidney Berger Award "in recognition of their outstanding talent and dedication to the works of William Shakespeare." In a conversation recorded immediately afterward, Reed and Austin express their shock and gratitude; thank the many people who have kept the RSC going over the years; share an excerpt of their acceptance speech; and talk about their decades-long journey that brought them to this unlikely moment. (Length 19:30) The post Sidney Berger Award appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

  • Shakespeare’s Language Playfulness

    07/01/2025 Duración: 22min

    Anne Curzan – University of Michigan linguistics professor, podcast host, and author of Says Who? A Kinder Funner Usage Guide for Everyone Who Cares About Words – returns to the podcast to talk about how William Shakespeare is used as a source for the origins of hundreds of words, as well as inspiration for a playful approach to language. Anne discusses the unprecedented speed with which language travels and changes today; how slang is "the people's poetry;" an unconventional definition of the word expert; how “it’s even in Shakespeare!” can serve as classroom legitimization; the British and American distinctions between collective nouns; and how Shakespeare might have been the TikTok of his day. (Length 22:02) The post Shakespeare’s Language Playfulness appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

  • Threading The Needle

    02/01/2025 Duración: 38min

    For this first episode of 2025, RSC co-artistic directors Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor discuss how Austin plays the "Alternate Scrooge" in the Goodman Theatre production of A Christmas Carol for the third year in a row. Austin reveals how he threads the needle of honoring the Scrooges he alternates with (Larry Yando and Christopher Donahue) while still making the character his own; the difference between being an alternate and an understudy; how he inherited the role from previous alternate and now current Scrooge Allen Gilmore; the secrets to flying, including massive shout-outs to ZFX Flying, who makes the magic happen (not "VFX," as misidentified by Austin); what it's like to work with young performers; the danger of running out of mental bandwidth during the holidays; and the privilege of jumping from reduced productions to the Goodman's massive annual extravaganza. (Length 38:46) The post Threading The Needle appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

  • Special Christmas Encore!

    25/12/2024 Duración: 10min

    For this special encore podcast episode, we present – in its entirety – the complete and unabridged recording of A Little Dickens: The Complete Christmas Carol (abridged). (Dickens's story is abridged, not the recording. You'll work it out.) First heard on Public Radio International in 1995, this antic audio adaptation features Reed Martin as Jacob Marley, Matthew Croke as Tiny Tim, and Austin Tichenor as Ebenezer Scrooge (the role he's currently playing at Chicago's Goodman Theatre). May it warm your cockles! (Length 10:47) The post Special Christmas Encore! appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

  • Chekhov To Dickens

    18/12/2024 Duración: 20min

    Chicago actor Christopher Donahue (currently playing Ebenezer Scrooge in the Goodman Theatre's production of A Christmas Carol), discusses playing the role of Gayev in the Goodman's 2023 production of Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, directed by Robert Falls. Donahue reveals the challenges and rewards of discovering a character in rehearsal; how he finds humor alongside absurdity; how he takes inspiration from the original Dickens novel of A Christmas Carol; how people can be capable of change; his relationship with Tony-winning director (and friend of the pod) Mary Zimmerman; and finally, how the audience teaches you how to perform the play because the audience is the reason we do this. (Length 20:51) The post Chekhov To Dickens appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

  • Sondheim Life Lessons

    11/12/2024 Duración: 29min

    Richard Schoch returns to discuss How Sondheim Can Change Your Life, his latest book that offers new insights into the work of Stephen Sondheim, how it was created, how it’s affected audiences for over 60 years, and – yes – what life lessons can be gleaned from his shows. Richard reveals some fascinating inside publishing baseball; reasons for the addition of the song “Something Just Broke” in Assassins; academic backup from Mandy Patinkin; how he makes a close reading of the text so personal and readable; and a surprisingly cogent answer to the facile question of whether Sondheim is our modern Shakespeare. (Length 29:49) The post Sondheim Life Lessons appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

  • Mike McShane’s Scrooge

    04/12/2024 Duración: 21min

    Actor/comedian Mike McShane (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Whose Line Is It, Anyway?) is playing Ebenezer Scrooge in A Red Carol, a new adaptation of A Christmas Carol for the legendary San Francisco Mime Troupe. Mike discusses how this "activist adaptation" differs from other takes on the Dickens classic; how he’s able to combine serious dramatic acting with, in his words, "as cheap comedy as you can get this year” and how a clown can play Hamlet easier than a proper actor can play a clown; the disconnect between Christmas Carol audiences in the theater and the same people passing unhoused people on the street; how two veterans of West End Shakespeare are both playing Scrooge for American theater institutions in San Francisco and Chicago; how Alan Rickman came up with his great lines in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves; and the glory of creating politically activist theater that’s also ridiculously funny and entertaining. (Length 21:21) The post Mike McShane’s Scrooge appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Comp

  • PC Holiday Stories

    25/11/2024 Duración: 19min

    Humorist and novelist James Finn Garner returns to discuss his New York Times bestselling collection Politically Correct Holiday Stories and how the holidays represent a deeply personal literary tradition. Jim shares how challenging it was to walk that satirical line between poking fun at holiday cant while still embracing genuine sentiment; how a holiday story was his first published work; how bedtime stories were easier to satirize because everything’s so black and white; how play can be the best form of celebration; how he wants to shift holiday paradigms and sit down to a feast of mutual delusions; and the thing that made a hard-boiled humorist go all soft and squishy inside. (Length 19:22) The post PC Holiday Stories appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

  • Shakespeare’s Borrowed Feathers

    20/11/2024 Duración: 24min

    Darren Freebury-Jones's fascinating new book, Shakespeare’s Borrowed Feathers: How early modern playwrights shaped the world’s greatest writer, contextualizes Shakespeare’s writing and examines how it expands upon and diverges from the other plays being written at the time. In this fun conversation, Darren, a lecturer in Shakespeare Studies in Stratford-upon-Avon, considers alternate ways of identifying Shakespeare’s artistry; dispels the myth of Shakespeare as a solitary genius; likens this kind of early modern study to examining the output of a single band’s music without reference to other bands making music at the same time; and reveals how Shakespeare, as part of a thriving theatrical community, was less an upstart crow than a brilliant magpie. CONTENT WARNING: There will be math(s). (Length 24:28) The post Shakespeare’s Borrowed Feathers appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

  • Ring Reduced Remembered

    12/11/2024 Duración: 29min

    It's the Podcast's 18th birthday! Austin Tichenor, Reed Martin, and Adam Long celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Ring Reduced, the RSC's 1994 film for Britain's Channel 4 which compressed Wagner's epic opera Der Ring des Nibelungen into a brief and palatable 24 minutes. Adam, Austin, and Reed share their favorite fun facts about Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung; reveal their inspiration from Anna Russell; speculate on comic directions not taken; confirm that the Reduced Shakespeare Company is completely and utterly responsible for the success of Ted Lasso; disclose how they created the most expensive and complicated gag of the entire shoot; and marvel how for one brief shining moment, they were the Rhinemaidens of all media. (Length 29:09) The post Ring Reduced Remembered appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

  • Playing Bilbo Baggins

    05/11/2024 Duración: 20min

    Fresh off its successful run at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, The Lord of the Rings – A Musical Tale opens this week in Auckland, New Zealand, and Rick Hall discusses the challenges and pleasures of playing J.R.R. Tolkien's hobbit hero. Rick reveals the education he's received in Middle-earth and the pride he feels in no longer being a bit of an idiot; the struggle of getting your high school trombone lip back; the fun of jumping through traps and making eight-second costume changes; getting real-time notes from the audience; lengthy discussions about hobbit feet; and the emotional power of a small(ish) ensemble telling an epic tale. (Length 20:59) (PICTURED: Spencer Davis Milford (l) as Frodo and Rick Hall (r) as Bilbo in rehearsal for The Lord of the Rings – A Musical Tale, directed by Paul Hart. Photo by Liz Lauren, courtesy of Chicago Shakespeare Theater.) The post Playing Bilbo Baggins appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

  • The RSC’s ‘Pericles’

    28/10/2024 Duración: 18min

    Tamara Harvey, the new co-artistic director of the "other" RSC – the Royal Shakespeare Company – discusses her exquisite production of Pericles, and how it came to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater and speaks to our current moment on both side of the Atlantic. Tamara reveals how Shakespeare's characters navigate different kinds of leadership; how she and her co-artistic director Daniel Evans hope to reach across borders and collaborate with international artists; how the challenges of the play felts like a gift; her genius solution to the narrator; how she feels in collaboration with Shakespeare, and how his Pericles weaves a unique spell; and the vital importance of giving audiences badly-needed hope and joy. (Length 18:23) The post The RSC’s ‘Pericles’ appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

  • Directing ‘Primary Trust’

    21/10/2024 Duración: 18min

    Director Malkia Stampley, whose beautiful production of Eboni Booth's 2024 Pulitzer Prize-winning play Primary Trust runs at Chicago's Goodman Theatre through November 3, 2024, discusses how she embraced the play's delicate intimacy and transformed a literary script into a theatrical event. Malkia reveals the ways in which a live audience and actors playing multiple characters lift a potentially naturalistic play into a theatrical realm; how she eschewed melodrama and discovered the mystery and curiosity she was looking for; how clowns can find the funny and serious actors the gravitas; and the value of always looking for – and finding – the light. (Length 18:23) The post Directing ‘Primary Trust’ appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

  • Charlotte Booker’s ‘Alive!’

    14/10/2024 Duración: 20min

    Charlotte Booker discusses her show Elsa Lanchester: She's Alive!, which celebrates the great character actress who played the title role in The Bride of Frankenstein and runs Wednesdays and Thursdays this month at the Venus Cabaret in Chicago. Charlotte is joined both onstage and in this conversation by her husband and accompanist Mark Nutter, and shares some of the secrets and similarities between her and her subject, including youthful flings with onstage nudity; the glory of being the first female monster; how Elsa was raised to be a free spirit by artist-Bohemians and became the former It Girl of London; playing Katie Nanna in Mary Poppins and Miss Marbles in Murder by Death; being drawn to fellow redheads; the challenges of having an “absinthe father;” the perils of being institutionalized for “over-education;” and the posthumous joy of being a Goth icon. (Length 20:32) The post Charlotte Booker’s ‘Alive!’ appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

  • Scott Bakula’s Lincoln

    08/10/2024 Duración: 32min

    In this new edition of Great Moments with Mr. Bakula, the former captain of the Enterprise and famous Quantum Leap-er discusses playing America's 16th president in Mister Lincoln, Herbert Mitgang's one-man show now onstage at the storied Ford's Theatre in Washington DC. Scott reveals how the role came to him; his long association with this particular venue; his history of leaping into the bodies of other notable Americans, such as Dr. Ruth; how his whole career has been a lovely surprise; coming full circle in the musical Shenandoah!; fudging the rules of time travel; hesitation to do his own beard work; excellent direction from James Whitmore, Jr. (son of another fabled one-man show performer); gratitude for a hero’s return; Lincoln's deep familiarity with Shakespeare; and how the theatre is and always has been Bakula’s first love. (Length 32:24) The post Scott Bakula’s Lincoln appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

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