Bowls with the Bard

This week we talk about the other women of Windsor, Mistress Quickly and Anne Page, with 2024 Colorado Shakespeare Festival actors, Noelia Antweiler and Ilana DeAngelo!

Noelia Antweiler (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist born and raised in Denver! As an actor, she has worked extensively in New York City and around the country. She is also a fine art model and a circus performer, specializing in aerial silks and dance trapeze. ...

This week we chat with Lizzie Conrad Hughes and Valentina Vinci about their cue based Shakespeare company, Shake-Scene Shakespeare. We dive into zoom theatre, working with actors from around the world, and what it's like to work at a female led Shakespeare company.

LIZZIE CONRAD HUGHES (she/her)

A lifetime theatre professional (actor, writer, director, producer and teacher), Lizzie is the founder and Artistic Director of Shake-Scen...

This week we chat with Charlene V. Smith about one of Shakespeare's most badass broads: Margaret of Anjou.

Charlene V. Smith (she, her, hers) is a director, actor, and scholar with an MLitt and MFA in Shakespeare and Performance from Mary Baldwin University. Formerly the artistic director of Brave Spirits Theatre, her directing credits include Antony and Cleopatra, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, Coriolanus, The Two Noble Kinsmen, and the ...

This week we chat with Fawzia Istrabadi about the challenges and rewards of translating Romeo and Juliet into Arabic.

Fawzia Istrabadi (She/They) is a Shakespeare actor and the creator of Arabic Shakespeare. A half-Iraqi actor who has a passion for creating representation for Arab/SWANA theatre artists. This passion is what led her to team up with Prague Shakespeare Company's Guy Roberts and ShakeSphere's Adham Sayed to create Rome...

Members of our company of Cymbeline give their thoughts on the leading lady who makes our play tick! In order of appearance, Cakes chats with Alison Talvacchio (she/they), Natalie Edwards (she/they), Steph House (she/they), Paige Flores-Medrano (they/them), and Linda Swanson-Brown (she/her).

In the episode, Cakes references a past guest who mentioned that Imogen is the only woman in Shakespeare who cross dresses but does not come up...

How could we possibly talk about problem plays without mentioning Titus Andronicus? In this week’s bonus episode, Megan Skye Hale and Myrrh Larsen take a look at Shakespeare’s most violent play and talk about what it was like to produce it in 2023!

Myrrh Larsen (they/them) is a stage director, musician, songwriter and sound designer based out of Portland, Oregon. As a founding member of Speculative Drama, Myrrh has directed multiple...

Is all’s well that ends well? This week Karen Shantz and Jackie Madejski try to untangle the tricky web that is All’s Well That Ends Well.

Karen Shantz (she/her) is a writer and performer in Los Angeles. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Musical Theatre from The Benjamin T. Rome School of Music at The Catholic University of America, and has also studied at the Second City Chicago Conservatory and Sketch Programs, and at The London D...

The Merchant of Venice is officially categorized as a problem play… and boy does it present problems. This week we go down the habit hole that is the Merchant of Venice with Terry Burnsed and Stephen Reinstein.

Terry Burnsed (He/Him/His) has been acting in Denver and environs for over four decades. He has a Masters and a PhD from CU Boulder, and served as Dramaturg for (the now defunct) CityStage ["CityStage" is one word here] Ensem...

The Tempest is one of Shakespeare's most popular plays... It's also one of his most problematic. This week Renea Brown and Aloha Rasmussen explore what it means to safely and responsibly produce The Tempest in 2023.

Renea Brown (she/her) used to hate Shakespeare, so it’s a bit ironic this little black girl from Kentucky, turned into a broadsword-wielding-elizabethan-dancing-classical-actor. She also twerks and uses Megan The Stallio...

Never heard of Troilus and Cressida? You’re probably not alone! This week Stephanie Crugnola and B talk up this lesser known Shakespeare gem.

Stephanie Crugnola (she/her) is a Jack of all trades and Master of Early Modern English Literature. Shakespeare is her passion, her boyfriend, her degree credentials, and her main podcast - Protest too Much, but there is so much more in the world of wholesome niche nerd chaos content that she...

Sometimes the Winter's Tale can feel more like two tales... This week we explore all the weird and wild the Winter's Tale has to offer with Brendan Edward Kennedy and Regine Vital.

Brendan Edward Kennedy (He/Him) is an actor, singer, and VO artist based out of Silver Spring, MD. He holds a double degree in Vocal Performance and English from the University of Maryland College Park. He is a company member of Chesapeake Shakespeare Com...

Twelfth Night isn't technically a problem play, but it is a melancholic comedy... and we think that's close enough.This week we untangle the more challenging aspects of producing Twelfth Night with new friends of the podcast Emily Sucher and Kai Tawil-Morsink!

Emily Sucher (they/she) is a multidisciplinary theatre artist and educator. A Helen Hayes Award nominated intimacy director, they have had 30+ intimacy choreography and consul...

Join Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp as we explore the many possibilities of producing the Taming of the Shrew and decide whether we still need to produce it at all.

Kourtney Smith (she/her) is an actor, educator and amateur Shakespeare scholar living in Los Angeles. Due to covid-19, she's taken a little break from performance. While she hopes to return to the stage soon, she's happily nerding out over Shakespeare and early modern s...

Othello isn't technically a problem play, but it certainly fits the bill. Join Shaq Stewart and Navi as we grapple with whether we still need a play like Othello in 2023.

Shaq Stewart (he/his) is a DMV local actor, musician, and playwright. Previous credits include Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged (CSC) Macbeth(Banquo, PG Shakespeare in the Park) Do You Feel Anger(Howie, Theatre Alliance) Mlima's Tale(1st Stage). Creator by n...

Measure for Measure is the textbook definition of a problem play: too sad to really be a comedy, but too many funny moments to be fully tragic. Join Dillon Greenberg and Joan Raube-Wilson as we explore how to tackle this play without giving an audience whiplash.

Dillon Greenberg (she/her) is an actress and content creator living in NYC. She is known for her Latina comedy, MARIAS: The Web Series, on Youtube which won at many film fe...

What the heck is a Timon of Athens? Join friends of the podcast, Jeff Miller (He/They) and Elizabeth Ung (She/They) as they crack open this lesser known problem play and explain why we should produce it more!

Elizabeth “Liz” Ung (she/they) is a mixed-race queer Chinese American actor and theatre artist, born in the cultural hubs of what was once the Cienega, now southern California; originally from the Piscataway Conoy & Susqueh...

Kick off season 2 with an introduction to your host and the problem plays!

Your host for today is Liz Colandene:

Liz Colandene or Lizzy Pasta (They/She) is a multidisciplinary artist in the DMV. They have worked as an actor, singer, director, producer, choreographer, set painter, and designer in over 50 shows. Some of their favorite moments of working in the field have been playing Janet Weiss in the Rocky Horror Show, learning puppe...