Shakespeare Unlimited podcast
William Shakespeare and his works are woven throughout our global culture, from theater, music, and films to new scholarship, education, amazing discoveries, and more. In our Shakespeare Unlimited podcast, Shakespeare opens a window into topics ranging from the American West, to the real history of Elizabethan street fighting, to interviews with Shakespearean stars. As you’ll hear, he turns up in surprising places, too—including outer space. Join us for a “no limits” tour of the connections between Shakespeare, his works, and our world.
Mike Lew on Teenage Dick
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 174 In Mike Lew’s play Teenage Dick, Richard, a high-school senior with cerebral palsy, is determined to become class president by any means necessary. Commissioned by theater artist Gregg Mozgala and Apothetae, the company Mozgala started to talk about…
Mona Awad on All's Well
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 173 In her new novel, All’s Well, author Mona Awad combines elements of All’s Well That Ends Well, Macbeth, and the 1999 movie Election to tell the story of Miranda Fitch, a theater professor with a mutinous…
How We Hear Shakespeare's Plays, with Carla Della Gatta
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 172 In Shakespeare’s time, people talked about going to hear a play and going to see one in equal measure. So what exactly do we hear when we hear one of Shakespeare’s plays? What information do we…
The Restoration Reinvention of Shakespeare
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 171 The next time someone complains about a director changing or tampering with Shakespeare… we’ve got an answer for them. The first generation of theater artists after Shakespeare weren’t particularly concerned about performing Shakespeare’s plays the way…
Geoffrey Marsh on Shakespeare's Neighbors
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 169 What would we find out about you if we got to know your neighbors? What if we took a walk around the neighborhood where you live? That’s the way that Geoffrey Marsh hopes to learn more…
Madeline Sayet on Where We Belong
We talk with Madeline Sayet about growing up Mohegan in Connecticut, her evolving relationship with Shakespeare today, and what it means to belong in a complicated world.
Race and Blackness in Elizabethan England, with Ambereen Dadabhoy
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 168 When did the concept of race develop? How far should we look back to find the attitudes that bolster white supremacy? We ask Dr. Ambereen Dadabhoy, an assistant professor of literature at Harvey Mudd College, and…
All the Sonnets of Shakespeare, with Paul Edmondson
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 167 Over 400 years after Shakespeare’s sonnets were first published in 1609, what is left to learn? All the Sonnets of Shakespeare, a new edition of the sonnets published in 2020, takes some bold steps to help…
Richard III in Prison
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 166 Frannie Shepherd-Bates founded Shakespeare in Prison in 2012. Nine years later, SIP is the signature community program of the Detroit Public Theatre and has worked on a total of eight plays with a women’s ensemble at…
Simon Godwin on Romeo & Juliet
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 165 The National Theatre’s new production of Romeo & Juliet was meant to premiere in the summer of 2020. But when the COVID-19 pandemic began, Simon Godwin, the production’s director, was tasked with turning it into a…
Shakespeare and Lost Plays
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 164 Today, the texts of roughly three thousand plays from the great age of Elizabethan theater are lost to us. The plays that remain constitute only a sixth of all of the drama produced during that period.…
Stephen Hopkins and Stephano
Shakespeare Unlimited: Epsiode 163 He was in a shipwreck. He was at Jamestown. He was on the Mayflower. And maybe, just maybe, he’s in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Stephen Hopkins was the only passenger on the Mayflower who had previously been…