Bonus: Shakespeare and Social Media

In today's special bonus episode, we are joined by a panel of Shakespeare social media content creators in our first-ever panel episode to discuss the intersection between Shakespeare and social media. We discuss each guests’ work; the different social media platforms; how and why we create Shakespeare content; the benefits of educating through memes; and what makes Shakespeare so dang memeable!

Emily Jackoway is an actor, writer, and lifelong Shakespeare nerd. She earned her BFA in drama from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied Shakespeare at the Classical Studio. She is a former contributing writer and social media manager for Shakespeare and literary education website NoSweatShakespeare, which strives to make Shakespeare accessible for audiences and students. She also hosted their podcast, “Scurvy Companions,” which discusses Shakespeare in all his facets with actors, writers, directors, scholars, stage combat professionals and more. Favorite past roles include Juliet, Puck, and Iago.

Carson Brakke is a PhD candidate at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and is writing her dissertation on representations of hospitality in early modern English literature. In addition to hospitality, her research interests include domesticity, food studies, and women’s writing. To break up the solitary work of dissertating, Carson uses her TikTok platform to talk about early modern literature and the PhD experience. You can find her @glutenbergbible, where she’s always looking to chat with more people about research, academia, and the weird and surprising sides of early modern English literature!

Micaela Mannix considers herself a jack of all Shakespeare. She is the artistic director of Bowls with the Bard, Denver's stoned Shakespeare company, and she hosts their podcast. Micaela is also an actor and content creator. You can find her making memes and working toward 10,000 hours of Shakespeare practice @10kshakespeare on TikTok and Instagram. Project: Bowls with the Bard is producing Stoned Cymbeline in Denver at the Coffee Joint February 22 - 25, 2024.

Stephanie Crugnola has spent a very long time yelling about Shakespeare and how to start making it fun, accessible, responsible, and engaging for people who live in the 21st century. She has her MA in Early Modern English from King's College, London where she learned niche-ier words to yell with. Now, she hosts the Protest too Much podcast (@p2mpod): a Shakespeare showdown with a new guest each week and runs Walking Shadow Shakespeare Project (@wsshakes), a company focused on interactive educational performance opportunities and one-rehearsal pop-up productions. Her favorite Shakespeare play is Cymbeline because she thrives on chaos and being extra.

Mia Escott is an Assistant Professor of English, Rhetoric, and Writing at Berry College. She joined the faculty in 2022 after receiving her doctoral degree in English from Louisiana State University. An Alabama native, she graduated from Auburn University and the University of Montevallo. Her research and teaching interests include early modern British Literature, Renaissance Drama, Shakespeare, Early Modern Race Studies, Critical Race Theory, and Women’s and Gender Studies.

Trevor Boffone went viral in 2019 and hasn't looked back. His work using TikTok and Instagram with his students has been featured on Good Morning America, ABC News, Inside Edition, and Access Hollywood, among numerous national media platforms. His work as a social media expert has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Forbes, The Atlantic, and NPR. Trevor has published two books on social media and popular culture, and has two forthcoming books exploring theatre marketing on social media. Oh, and he does the Shakespeare thing, too. He is the co-editor of Shakespeare & Latinidad and is currently co-writing a book on Yassified Shakespeare.

Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.

Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.

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