Austin Tichenor
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"Merry sport": The Olympic Games are afoot!
Inspired by the Olympics, Austin Tichenor explores how Shakespeare uses sports in his plays, including as a way to show tensions between England and France.
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“Speak what terrible language you will”: Shakespeare and TikTok
Austin Tichenor on whether TikTok, like Shakespeare, is adding new words and phrases.
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“Without much shame retold”: Shakespeare’s sources transformed
Austin Tichenor on how Shakespeare drew from the classics, history texts, folk tales, contemporary politics, and more.
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Worthy scaffold: The epic intimacy of William Shakespeare
Austin Tichenor writes about movies that feel like plays and theater that feels cinematic.
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“Murder most foul”: How Shakespeare connects Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth
Austin Tichenor explores the deep connections the president and his murderer share with William Shakespeare.
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“Cast in darkness": Who should play Richard III?
Austin Tichenor argues for the importance of casting disabled actors as Richard III, spotlighting Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s production with Katy Sullivan in the title role.
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Re-thinking "Honest Iago"
Austin Tichenor grapples with the larger question of whether Iago deserves the sympathetic re-evaluation found in Iago: The Green Eyed Monster.
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How William Shakespeare invented the holiday romcom
Austin Tichenor argues that today’s holiday romantic comedies are full of recognizably Shakespearean motifs.
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“What the Dickens": How Shakespeare haunts "A Christmas Carol"
Austin Tichenor unpacks Shakespeare’s influence on Charles Dickens in the beloved holiday classic A Christmas Carol.
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A witty Fool and foolish wit: Christopher Moore’s Pocket Chronicles
Austin Tichenor writes about Christopher Moore’s trio of comic novels, which follow the fool from King Lear as he interacts with other Shakespeare characters.
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“Haunt me still”: Shakespeare’s ghosts
Austin Tichenor explores the powerful theatricality of Shakespeare’s ghosts, among whom the most famous is probably Hamlet’s father.
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The Shakespearean parts of “Barbenheimer”
Austin Tichenor explores how Barbie and Oppenheimer wrestle with Shakespearean themes of identity, hubris, and redemption.