Oct 062017
 

Oregon Shakespeare Festival Play On! Project
Measure for Measure
October 6, 2017

Just in time for Halloween… How do you make a 400-year-old laugh?  (Tickle his funny bone.)  Aditi Kapil and Liz Engelman are digging up ways to breathe life into some of Shakespeare’s (ahem) “mustier” laugh lines for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s “Play On! 36 playwrights translate Shakespeare” project.  Aditi and Liz talk about teaming up on Measure for Measure,  and the problem with Pompey’s posthumous punch-lines.

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Aug 282017
 

Oregon Shakespeare Festival Play On! Project
The Merchant of Venice
August 28, 2017

Play On! Playwright Elise Thoron and Dramaturg Julie Dubiner have teamed up to take on the tricky business of “translating” The Merchant of Venice for The Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Play On Project.  Find out how Thoron and Dubiner are tackling one of the most ambitious, talked-about, and controversial projects in the world of contemporary Shakespeare performance – and get a taste of what a modern translation of The Merchant of Venice might sound like.

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Jul 272017
 

Utah Shakespeare Festival
July 26, 2017

What is the future of Shakespeare?  Brian Vaughn, the Artistic Director of the Utah Shakespeare Festival talks to us about the new developments at the USF, how current events might affect Shakespeare Festivals and what he looks for in an actor.  With Mr. Vaughn at the helm, the future looks bright.

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Jun 202017
 

Illinois Shakespeare Festival
I Heart Juliet
June 20, 2017

Kevin Rich is on the move.  As the Artistic Director of The Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Kevin’s commitment to Applied Shakespeare has inspired him to seek out new and bold voices, including the Q Brothers Collective.  The Q’s will be premiering I Heart Juliet at the ISF this summer.  What surprises are in store?  Kevin has the answers.

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May 242017
 

Richard II; Act 5, Scene 5
Richard II
May 24, 2017

Is there a message of hope in the words that King Richard II speaks to us from his prison cell in the Tower of London?  Our guest, Curt Tofteland, is the Founder of the internationally acclaimed Shakespeare Behind Bars program.  In 22 years at the helm of SBB, Curt has discovered three noble truths:  Humans need a Tribe, Humans need a Story and Humans need to Reflect.  Using Shakespeare, Curt teaches the prisoners these truths and the question arises: did Shakespeare do any time?

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original drawing by Michael Arthur

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Mar 312017
 

Unearthing Shakespeare
March 31, 2017

Dig it.  Valerie Clayman Pye discovered the Globe as a student in London.  Years later, she has unearthed a way of playing Shakespeare that is fit for the ages.  From the stage to the audience and back again in her elliptical training and direct address techniques.

Valerie Clayman Pye will be holding a discussion and signing at the Drama Book Shop in New York City on Wednesday, May 17th at 5pm.

Her book is available at Amazon.

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Feb 082017
 

Timon of Athens; Act 4, Scene 3
Apemantus
February 8, 2017

Claim it.  It’s yours.  If Timon of Athens is a perfect play for these frighteningly uncertain times, who would you cast to play Apemantus?  In a world where cynics and flatterers seem to rule the day, Vilma Silva sends a message of hope.

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Contributing Editor:  Andres Montejo

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Dec 232016
 

Macbeth; Act 5, Scene 5
Macbeth
December 23, 2016

James Shapiro had no interest in Shakespeare in high school and never took a Shakespeare course at college.  Today, the author of 1606: William Shakespeare in the Year of Lear, has a legitimate claim to be recognized as one of world’s foremost Shakespeare scholars.

Shakespeare’s heroes almost always get a last great speech.  Not so with Macbeth.  When Equivocation rules the land, nothing is as it seems.  In our interview, Professor Shapiro explores the details of Macbeth, the world in which it was written and we discover how Mr. Shapiro came to devote his life to helping people understand Shakespeare’s plays – and why they matter today.

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Nov 292016
 

Macbeth: Act 1, Scene 7
Macbeth
November 11, 2016

“Unsexy” and “middle-class” are not words you would naturally associate with Ty Jones, the actor and Producing Artistic Director of the Classical Theatre of Harlem.   But when it comes to his vision for the future of the American Theatre, Mr. Jones makes no bones about what it will take for both actors and theatre companies to survive and thrive.   We get a taste of his critically-acclaimed turn as the lead in CTH’s record-breaking production of Macbeth, and learn why our foreign policy leaders should listen carefully to Shakespeare.

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Click here for a First Folio version of the text.

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Contributing Editor: Andres Montejo

Oct 072016
 

License to Quill
Novel
October 6, 2016

Shaken, not Stirred.  Was Shakespeare involved in a treasonous conspiracy to bring down the British monarch?  Our guest, author and historian Jacopo Della Quercia, spins a fantastical yarn that places Shakespeare at the center of the real-life Gunpowder Plot of 1605.  Della Quercia’s latest novel, License to Quill, is a James Bond-esque Spy thriller set in a Elizabethan England where the truth may indeed be stranger than fiction.

Click here to see more from Jacopo and how to get the book!

Contributing Editor: Andres Montejo