Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

In a novel just released in the US, author and longtime BBC radio host Simon Mayo tells an amazing—but true—story: that England’s first all-black production of Romeo and Juliet was staged by Black American prisoners of war in a British prison called Dartmoor, during the War of 1812. Like its setting, the novel, Mad Blood Stirring, is bleak. But it also contains flashes of friendship and creativity that emerge from the Shakespeare plays staged under the order of a larger-than-life—but also real—character: African-American POW “King Dick,” who ran the prison’s segregated block. We invited Simon Mayo to join us on Shakespeare Unlimited to tell us about the history behind his novel and its characters. Simon Mayo currently co-hosts the popular Film Review show on BBC Radio 5 Live. The American edition of Mad Blood Stirring was published by Pegasus Books in 2019. Mayo is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published February 19, 2019. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This podcast episode, “To Prison, Eyes; Ne'er Look On Liberty” was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. We had technical help from Andrew Feliciano at VoiceTrax West in Studio City, California, and Sharon Bowe and John Hemingway at the BBC in London.

Actor Edwin Booth was one of the 19th century’s biggest stars. One of the illegitimate sons of equally-famous actor Junius Brutus Booth, he made thousands of dollars touring America’s grandest theaters and playing Shakespeare’s greatest roles. But today, relatively few people have heard of Edwin Booth. Instead, they remember his brother—also an actor—John Wilkes Booth. That’s because on April 14, 1865, John Wilkes assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. The Booths’ story is like one of Shakespeare’s tragedies, with an unstable father, a rivalry between brothers, and an ending that changes the course of history. To learn more about the Booth brothers and their tumultuous lives, we talked to Nora Titone, resident dramaturg at Chicago’s Court Theatre and author of 2010’s My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry Between Edwin and John Wilkes Booth That Led to an American Tragedy. Nora Titone is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. From our Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published February 5, 2019. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This podcast episode, “My Brother, My Competitor,” was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. We had technical help from Andrew Feliciano at VoiceTrax West in Studio City, California, and Shelly Steffens at WBEZ Public Radio in Chicago.

Olivia Hussey was just fifteen when she was cast in Franco Zeffirelli’s "Romeo and Juliet." When the film was released in October 1968, it catapulted Hussey and her Romeo, Leonard Whiting, to global stardom. Fifty years after the movie’s release, Hussey’s new memoir, "The Girl on the Balcony: Olivia Hussey Finds Life After 'Romeo and Juliet,'" tells the story of the actress’s life before, during, and after Romeo and Juliet. We talked with Hussey and asked her how she felt about Shakespeare before making the movie (“very boring”), filming the balcony scene (“I’d bump my teeth into his chin”), the endless press tour, and whether she’d do it all again. Olivia Hussey is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. From our Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published January 22, 2019. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This podcast episode, “Speak Again, Bright Angel” was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the Associate Producer.  It was edited by Gail Kern Paster.  Ben Lauer is the web producer. We had technical help from Andrew Feliciano and Paul Luke at VoiceTrax West in Studio City, California.

In 1956, Duke Ellington gave a series of concerts at Ontario, Canada’s Stratford Festival. Afterward, festival staff asked the legendary composer—at that point, one of jazz’s elder statesmen—if he’d consider writing a piece about Shakespeare. A year later, Duke Ellington premiered and recorded Such Sweet Thunder, a suite of twelve tunes inspired by the Bard and his characters. We talked with University of New Hampshire Professor of English Douglas Lanier about the suite, the second chapter of Ellington’s career, and how they reflect shifting cultural perceptions of jazz. Lanier, who is also a musician, has written widely about Shakespeare and modern popular culture (in fact, that’s the name of his 2002 book: Shakespeare and Modern Popular Culture), and is an expert on pop adaptations of Shakespeare’s works. He wrote about Ellington’s Such Sweet Thunder for our 2007 exhibition, Shakespeare in American Life. Lanier is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev.   From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published January 8, 2019. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode, “I Never Heard So Musical A Discord,” was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. We had technical help from Jennifer Swiatek and Phil Richards at KCRW public radio in Santa Monica, California. Actors Morgan Duncan and Craig Wallace recreate the minstrel performance in this episode. They were originally recorded for the Shakespeare In American Life public radio documentary.

Imagine getting the chance to interview Jude Law, Maxine Peake, Adrian Lester, David Tennant, Simon Russell Beale, and Nicholas Hytner about Shakespeare’s Hamlet. What would you ask? Would you want to hear about backstage hijinks? About Hamlet’s motivations? About what they would change about their performances?   Biographer and theatre historian Jonathan Croall interviewed those Shakespeareans and more for his new book, Performing Hamlet: Actors in the Modern Age. In it, Croall looks at 43 of the highest-profile Hamlet productions in England over the last 50 years, exploring how Laurence Olivier, Alec Guinness, Michael Redgrave, Jonathan Slinger, Richard Burton, and many others have portrayed one of Shakespeare’s most memorable and mercurial characters. Croall came into the studio recently to tell us what he’s learned. He is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published December 11, 2018. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This podcast episode, “What A Piece Of Work,” was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster and Esther Ferington. Ben Lauer is the web producer. We had technical help from Andrew Feliciano and Paul Luke at VoiceTrax West in Studio City, California and Gareth Wood at The Sound Company in London.

Do you remember what sparked your interest in Shakespeare? Was it a great performance, a magic moment in a high school English class, or a clever adaptation? When did you realize you were hooked? Across today’s pop culture landscape, there are more ways than ever to introduce young people to Shakespeare. Pop culture representations of Shakespeare’s plays aren’t just fun: they can help kids—and adults—to take ownership of Shakespeare’s language, critically examine his plots, and connect to his themes. And from West Side Story to The Simpsons, there’s no shortage of options. So we called up our friend Stefanie Jochman to give us a run-down on some of her favorite bits of pop Shakespeare. As a high school English teacher, Jochman is about as close as you can get to young people on the cusp of Bardolatry. We asked her how she takes advantage of pop culture in her classroom to deepen students’ understanding and appreciation of the Bard. Stefanie Jochman is a high school English teacher in Richmond, Virginia, and a 2014 alumna of the Folger’s Teaching Shakespeare Institute, to which she returned in 2016 as a Master Teacher. Jochman is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published November 27, 2018. ©Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This podcast episode, “Strong Passion is Impressed in Youth” was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. We had technical help from Andrew Feliciano and Paul Luke at Voice Trax West in Studio City, California, and Steve Clark at WCVE Public Radio in Richmond.

Should college students be required to study Shakespeare? As American universities examine the role of the liberal arts and humanities in our society, what will—and what should—happen to the Bard’s place in English curricula? The Shakespeare Requirement, novelist (and creative writing professor) Julie Schumacher’s new academic satire, asks just that. Jason Fitger, hero of Julie Schumacher’s 2014 novel Dear Committee Members, returns in her new book. The tactless and ineffective Fitger is now chair of the fictional Payne University’s English department, and he’s been tasked with marshaling the department’s faculty to approve a new Statement of Vision. One obstacle is Dennis Cassovan, the department’s elderly Shakespeare scholar, who insists that the Statement include a required semester of Shakespeare. Hanging in the balance? The English department’s annual budget and its home in Willard Hall’s crumbling basement. Julie Schumacher is a professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Minnesota. Her novel Dear Committee Members, won the Thurber Prize for American Humor. The New Yorker called it “a comic aria of crankiness, disillusionment, and futility.” Her new novel, The Shakespeare Requirement, was published by Doubleday in 2018. She is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. From the Folger’s Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published November 13, 2018. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This podcast episode, ““Mark the Manner of His Teaching,” was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. We had technical help from Andrew Feliciano and Paul Luke at Voice Trax West in Studio City, California, and Randy Johnson and Steve Griffith at Minnesota Public Radio in St. Paul.

What is a knave? How about a varlet? Did people in Shakespeare’s time really throw the contents of their chamber pots out of their windows? And was that, like. . . encouraged? If you’ve ever wondered about the naughty bits of early modern history and culture, Ruth Goodman’s book is for you. How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England: A Guide for Knaves, Fools, Harlots, Cuckolds, Drunkards, Liars, Thieves, and Braggarts covers all the things we don’t talk about in polite company, including dirty words, bad manners, criminal conduct, and sex. We talked with Goodman about what bad behavior can tell us about Shakespeare’s world and about our society today. Ruth Goodman is an author, historian of British social and domestic life, host of a BBC TV series, and an advisor to the Royal Shakespeare Company. She is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published October 30, 2018. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This podcast episode, “My Speech Of Insultment Ended On His Dead Body,” was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster and Esther Ferington. Ben Lauer is the web producer. We had technical help from Andrew Feliciano and Paul Luke at Voice Trax West in Studio City, California and Aidan Lyons at the Sound Company in London.

For three years, Shakespeare Uncovered has provided a crash course in Shakespeare’s best-known plays, presented in hour-long documentary form and guided by film and theater stars like Morgan Freeman, Kim Cattrall, Ethan Hawke, and Helen Hunt. On the third (and likely final) season of Shakespeare Uncovered, which premiered on PBS on October 12, Brian Cox and Romola Garai make timely investigations of Julius Caesar and Measure for Measure, Helen Hunt looks at the rom-com legacy of Much Ado About Nothing, and Sir Antony Sher probes Richard III's dangerous charms. The people behind the series are TV producers Richard Denton and Nicola Stockley. As the series was gearing up for its third season, the two of them came by the studio to talk about how they create these in-depth episodes and some moments from the series have really knocked their socks off. Richard and Nicola were interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. From our Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published October 16, 2018. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This podcast episode, “Makes The Hour Full Complete,” was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. We had technical help from Andrew Feliciano and Paul Luke at VoiceTrax West in Studio City, California and Gareth Wood at The Sound Company in London.

Director Peter Sellars once staged "Antony and Cleopatra" in a Harvard dormitory swimming pool. His King Lear owned a Lincoln Continental. His work is complex. But what confounds some audience members has also won him ardent fans. One of them is Ayanna Thompson, a scholar of Shakespeare and performance studies who is now director of the Arizona Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies at Arizona State University. Thompson’s new book, the latest in Bloomsbury’s "Shakespeare in the Theatre" series, explores Sellars’s influences and tracks the predominant theme of his work: a laser-like focus on race in America. We talked with Thompson and Sellars himself about what can be gained from striving to understand the impenetrable. Thompson and Sellars are interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. From the "Shakespeare Unlimited" podcast series. Published October 2, 2018. ©Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This podcast episode, “I Understand Thee Well,” was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster and Esther Ferington. Ben Lauer is the web producer. We had technical help from Andrew Feliciano and Evan Marquart at Voice Trax West in Studio City, California and Brian Mendez at public radio station KJZZ in Phoenix. Special thanks to Julia Carnahan, Peter Sellars’s assistant, for her help in making this interview possible.