Shakespeare Anyone?

In recognition of the National Day of Mourning/Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, we are examining how British colonialism impacted the depiction of people of color  in Shakespeare's work.  We also suggest listening to our episode on Shakespeare and the Colonial Imagination (Website | Apple Podcasts | Spotify) and the All My Relations podcast’s episode “ThanksTaking or ThanksGiving” (Website | Apple Podcasts | Spotify) Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp. Note: When this episode was recorded, Kourtney Smith was "Korey Leigh Smith". Episode written and researched by Kourtney Smith. Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander. Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com You can support the podcast at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone Works referenced: Barin, Filiz. “Othello: Turks as ‘the Other’ in the Early Modern Period.” The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association, vol. 43, no. 2, 2010, pp. 37–45. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41960526. Accessed 7 Sep. 2022. Singh, Jyotsna G. “Chapter Two: Historical Contexts 2: Shakespeare's World and Productions of Difference” Shakespeare and Postcolonial Theory, The Arden Shakespeare, Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2020, pp. 57-78

We’re changing things up a bit today and bringing you a preview of a new podcast we’re enjoying and think you will, too. Where There’s a Will searches for the surprising places Shakespeare shows up outside the theater. Host Barry Edelstein, artistic director at one of the country’s leading Shakespeare theaters, and co-host writer and director Em Weinstein, ask what is it about Shakespeare that’s given him a continuous afterlife in all sorts of unexpected ways? You’ll hear Shakespeare doing rehabilitative work in a maximum security prison, helping autistic kids to communicate, shaping religious observances, in the mouths of U.S. presidents, and even at the center of a deadly riot in New York City. Join Barry and Em as they uncover the ways Shakespeare endures in our modern society, and what that says about us. In this preview, Barry and Em explore one of The Bard’s most popular works: Hamlet. Hamlet is everywhere right now. But this isn't the same play you read in high school English. We meet the minds behind a singing Hamlet, The Northman's Amleth, and Pulitzer prizewinner Fat Ham's Juicy – and ponder what makes this Shakespearean tragedy speak directly to our time. Hear the full episode, and more from Where There’s a Will, at https://podcasts.pushkin.fm/wtaw?sid=anyone.

We've reached the end of our Hamlet series! As always, to wrap up our study of a play, we are looking at a handful of noteworthy adaptations and critiquing them. With Hamlet, there were so many great ones to choose from (ahem, The Lion King), but to keep this episode from being as long as the play we stuck to the following:  Grigori Kozinstev's 1964 Russian film adaptation Kenneth Branagh's 1996 Hamlet film adaptation Royal Shakespeare Company's 2016 production starring Paapa Essiedu Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp. Note: When this episode was recorded, Kourtney Smith was "Korey Leigh Smith". Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander. Sound effects obtained from https://www.zapsplat.com Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com You can support the podcast at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone Works referenced: Branagh, Kenneth, and David Barron. Hamlet: A Kenneth Branagh Film. Sony Pictures Releasing, 1996. Kozint︠s︡ev Grigoriĭ, et al. Hamlet. Kozinstev's Hamlet (1964), Sovexportfilm, 1963, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McKuFBAp_i8. Accessed 4 Nov. 2022. Shakespeare, William. Royal Shakespeare Company: Hamlet. Hamlet, Royal Shakespeare Company, 2016, https://video.broadwayhd.com/movies/hamlet?display=portrait. Accessed 4 Nov. 2022.

In our latest installment of our Shakespeare's Language Framework series, we are discussing the opposite of a discussion: soliloquies and asides!  In this episode, we look at Marcus Nordland's work with the Shakespearean Inside Database and what trends we can find in the solo speeches of Shakespeare when we look at them across the Complete Works.  Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp. Note: When this episode was recorded, Kourtney Smith was "Korey Leigh Smith". Episode written and researched by Elyse Sharp. Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander. Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com You can support the podcast at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone Works referenced: Nordlund, Marcus. The Shakespearean inside: A Study of the Complete Soliloquies and Solo Asides. Edinburgh University Press, 2017. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1g0519z.5. Accessed 25 Oct. 2022.

Have you ever wondered why Claudius becomes king over Hamlet? In today's episode, we are exploring the laws of succession that Shakespeare's audience would have understood and diving into how modern productions have highlighted the geopolitical themes within the play.  Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp. Note: When this episode was recorded, Kourtney Smith was "Korey Leigh Smith". Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander. Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com You can support the podcast at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone Works referenced: Assay, Michelle. “'Hamlet' in the Stalin Era and Beyond: Stage and Score.” Universite Paris-Sorbonne and University of Sheffield, Universite Paris-Sorbonne and University of Sheffield, 2017. LAKE, PETER. “Hamlet.” How Shakespeare Put Politics on the Stage: Power and Succession in the History Plays, Yale University Press, 2016, pp. 511–33. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1gxxpsd.28. Accessed 6 Sep. 2022. Stabler, A. P. “Elective Monarchy in the Sources of ‘Hamlet.’” Studies in Philology, vol. 62, no. 5, 1965, pp. 654–61. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4173509. Accessed 6 Sep. 2022.

In today's mini-episode, we'll be talking about the touring theatre companies of Shakespeare's time. Did companies like the Players in Hamlet actually exist (and is Shakespeare's depiction of them accurate)? What do we know about them? Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp. Note: When this episode was recorded, Kourtney Smith was "Korey Leigh Smith". Episode written and researched by Kourtney Smith. Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander. Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com You can support the podcast at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone Works referenced: Cash, Cassidy, host. “Ep 25: Sally Beth MacLean & 16th Century English Travelling Playing Companies.” That Shakespeare Life, episode 25, Publisher, 8 October 2018, https://html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/7137029/height/90/theme/custom/autoplay/no/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/cc0014/. The Medievalists. (2020). Medieval Drama. YouTube. YouTube. Retrieved September 7, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HExBbaIJWfw. 

In today's episode, we are expanding our research on Early Modern beliefs about ghosts. We'll looking be at how folk tales and ghost stories influenced the writing of Hamlet and the depiction of King Hamlet's ghost as much as (or possibly more than) Early Modern religious beliefs about the afterlife. We'll also discuss the details of how a ghost would appear onstage in Shakespeare's time and how early theatrical traditions influenced Shakespeare and his company.  Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp. Note: When this episode was recorded, Kourtney Smith was using the stage name "Korey Leigh Smith". Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander. Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com You can support the podcast at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone Works referenced: Belsey , Catherine. “Beyond Reason: Hamlet and Early Modern Stage Ghosts.” Gothic Renaissance - a Reassessment, edited by Beate Neumeier and Elisabeth Bronfen , Manchester University Press, Manchester, UK, 2017. Gordon, Bruce, and Peter Marshall, editors. The Place of the Dead: Death and Remembrance in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Cambridge University Press, 2000. McKeever, Amanda Jane (2011) The ghost in early modern Protestant culture: shifting perceptions of the afterlife, 1450-1700. Doctoral thesis (DPhil), University of Sussex. Phillippy, Patricia. Women, Death and Literature in Post-Reformation England. Cambridge University Press, 2010. Schreyer, Kurt A. “‘Then Is Doomsday Near’: Hamlet, the Last Judgment, and the Place of Purgatory Book.” Shakespeare's Medieval Craft Remnants of the Mysteries on the London Stage, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 2014, pp. 104–134.

Today's episode is brought to you by our Patreon Patrons at the Gentry, Noble, and Royal Patron levels! They voted on today's topic: Shakespearean Woodcuts!  Woodcuts were a popular Early Modern print-making method used to add illustrations to printed publications and were kind of like an Early Modern meme.  Check out some of our favorites below: Hans Holbein's The Dance of Death series Works by Albrecht Durer The Beggar's Delight (a Broadside Ballad) The English Broadside Ballad Archive Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp. Note: When this episode was recorded, Kourtney Smith was "Korey Leigh Smith". Episode written and researched by Kourtney Smith. Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander. Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com You can support the podcast at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone Works referenced: @bkadams (Brandi K. Adams) et al. “I'm going to ask you a question, twitter. Who invented printing?” Twitter, 24 Jul. 2022, https://twitter.com/bkadams/status/1551371019448815617   Cash, Cassidy, host. “Ep 79: James Knapp and Elizabethan Woodcuts.” That Shakespeare Life, episode 79, Publisher, 21 October 2019, https://www.cassidycash.com/ep-79-james-knapp-elizabethan-woodcuts/.   “Simone Chess : Broadside Ballad Woodcuts: Premodern Visual Culture, Popular Media, and Queer Coding.” YouTube, NY Comics & Picture-Story Symposium, 31 May 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7oG0GRhRhA&t=597s. From 2:25 to 9:20. Accessed 12 Aug. 2022. Toledo Museum of Art. (2020, July 27). The History of the Woodcut and Printmaking’s Collaborative Process [Video]. Youtube. From 1:30 to 17:30. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKyC4DcDu1E&t=254s

In today's episode, we are going to be discussing the female characters of Hamlet: Ophelia and Gertrude. We will be tackling some of the more difficult parts of the play for modern readers and theater-makers: the misogyny and seeming lack of female agency. In the first half, Korey will help us grapple with the seemingly inherent misogyny of the text (is the play misogynist just because the title character is? Or is there another possible reading?). Then, Elyse will lead us through what an Early Modern audience member would have understood about Ophelia's death and Gertrude's part in it. Specifically we will focus on a cultural knowledge that has largely been lost for the modern audience, and the agency granted to these characters through that understanding.  Content warning: we will be discussing abortion, reproductive health, misogyny, and include brief mentions of assault and violence. Please listen with care.  We do not recommend any early modern medical advice. We are not doctors now or in the early modern era.  Also, we may use women, feminine, and female interchangeably to discuss issues pertaining to non-cismale bodies. While we know that people of all genders can be affected by patriarchy as well as become pregnant and need to be able to make their own decisions about reproductive health, we are aligning our language for this episode with that of the early modern writers we are analyzing.  Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp. Note: When this episode was recorded, Kourtney Smith was using the stage name "Korey Leigh Smith". Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander. Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com You can support the podcast at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone Works referenced: Brustein, Robert. “Misogyny: THE HAMLET OBSESSION.” The Tainted Muse: Prejudice and Presumption in Shakespeare and His Time, Yale University Press, 2009, pp. 13–52. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5vktzf.4. Accessed 17 Aug. 2022.   Culpeper, Nicholas. The Complete Herbal: To Which Is Now Added, Upwards of One Hundred Additional Herbs, with a Display of Their Medicinal and Occult Qualities ; Physically Applied to the Cure of All Disorders Incident to Mankind ; to Which Are Now First Annexed, the English Physician Enlarged, and Key to Physic, with Rules for Compounding Medicine According to the True System of Nature Forming a Complete Family Dispensatory, and Natural System of Physic. Edited by Thomas Kelly, Thomas Kelly, 17, Paternoster Row, 1843.   Culpeper, Nicholas. The English Physitian, or, an Astrologo-Physical Discourse of the Vulgar Herbs of This Nation: Being a Compleat Method of Physick, Whereby a Man May Preserve His Body in Health ; or Cure Himself, Being Sick, for Three Pence Charge, with Such Things Only as Grow in England, They Being Most Fit for English Bodies ... Edited by Thomas Cross, Peter Cole, at the Sign of the Printing-Press in Cornhil, near the Royal Exchange, 1652, Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership, http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A35365.0001.001, Accessed 16 Aug. 2022. Leong, Elaine. “‘Herbals She Peruseth’: Reading Medicine in Early Modern England.” Renaissance Studies, vol. 28, no. 4, 5 Sept. 2014, pp. 556–578., https://doi.org/10.1111/rest.12079. Neville, Sarah.“Early Modern Herbals and the Book Trade: English Stationers and the Commodification of Botany”. Cambridge University Press, 6 Jan. 2022. Online. Internet. 26 Jul. 2022. Available: https://books.openmonographs.org/articles/book/Early_Modern_Herbals_and_the_Book_Trade_English_Stationers_and_the_Commodification_of_Botany/19189484/1 Riddle, John M. Eve's Herbs: A History of Contraception and Abortion in the West. Harvard University Press, 1999.

In today's mini-episode, we are joined by independent author Carly Stevens to discuss her recently released novel, Laertes, and the process and inspiration behind writing a piece of modern narrative fiction based on Shakespeare's characters.  Carly Stevens lives in Colorado Springs, where she has taught high school English (and Hamlet!) for over ten years. Writing Laertes is the fulfilment of a long-time dream. She also writes immersive YA fantasy novels set in the dark but beautiful world of the Tanyuin Academy. Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp. Note: When this episode was recorded, Kourtney Smith was "Korey Leigh Smith". Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander. Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com You can support the podcast at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone Works referenced: Stevens, Carly. Laertes. Carly Stevens, 2022.