Where There's a Will: Finding Shakespeare
Where There’s a Will searches for the surprising places Shakespeare shows up outside the theater. Host Barry Edelstein, artistic director at one of the country’s leading Shakespeare theaters, and co-host writer and director Em Weinstein, ask what is it about Shakespeare that’s given him a continuous afterlife in all sorts of unexpected ways? You’ll hear Shakespeare doing rehabilitative work in a maximum security prison, helping autistic kids to communicate, shaping religious observances, in the mouths of U.S. presidents, and even at the center of a deadly riot in New York City. Join Barry and Em as they uncover the ways Shakespeare endures in our modern society, and what that says about us. From Pushkin Industries and The Old Globe.
Episodes
Countless decisions, large and small, aided The Beatles’ ascent to the top of popular culture. The release of their debut single, “Love Me Do,” in the UK in the fall of 1962 was one of those decisions. Their debut on American television was another. In this episode from McCartney: A Life in Lyrics, Paul McCartney and Paul Muldoon discuss the early evolution of The Beatles. Listen to the new season now.
“McCartney: A Life in Lyrics...
What happens when William Shakespeare walks into a Yom Kippur service? We take a deep dive into how Shakespeare informs contemporary religious practices and faith traditions, and explore one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays—host Barry Edelstein's favorite—The Winter's Tale. Its focus on the idea of wonder ties all of the Bard's plays, and this season of Where There’s a Will, together.
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What happens when a regular person has to publicly speak Shakespeare for a wedding or funeral or bat mitzvah? Barry coaches two listeners through their moments in the spotlight, and along the way illuminates how Shakespeare’s language works. Also, we check out Shakespeare in the mouths of the baseball announcers for the San Diego Padres.
Take Me Out to the Ballgame - Military Band Edition courtesy of US Air Force Band ...
Is a Shakespeare-obsessed 15 year-old geeky, or totally cool? We meet a group of teens who’ve immersed themselves in Shakespeare to hear why they believe this writer speaks to them more clearly than any other. And we also hear about even younger kids with a very special relationship to the Bard: autistic children, who discover ways to express themselves through a writer from 400 years ago.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy inf...
To be, or not to be President? Shakespeare is a longtime ally of America’s Commanders-in-Chief, and for good reason: there's plenty to be found in his plays about leadership and how it works. We eavesdrop in the Oval Office to hear how Shakespeare shapes the thinking and feeling of political leaders, and how they draw on him for wisdom and solace. Just don't forget to keep an eye out for Brutus.
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Where men are women, women are men, and gender is As You Like It. Co-host Em Weinstein leads an exploration of how Shakespeare bent gender on the stage and in his writing, and how that inspired Em—and others—to step into their own truth.
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Today, we want to share a preview of another Shakespeare podcast we think you will enjoy, Play On Podcasts, which reimagines Shakespeare's timeless tales into epic audio adventures. Each episode explores plays from Macbeth to A Midsummer Night's Dream, created specifically for the podcast form by some of America's most exciting playwrights, directors, and composers and performed by stage and screen's best. This clip is from the fif...
Hamlet is everywhere right now. But this isn't the same play you read in high school English. We meet the minds behind a singing Hamlet, The Northman's Amleth, and Pulitzer prizewinner Fat Ham's Juicy – and ponder what makes this Shakespearean tragedy speak directly to our time.
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Host Barry Edelstein takes us into California’s Centinela State Prison for a one-of-a-kind production of Shakespeare’s English history plays performed by incarcerated individuals. What makes Shakespeare a force of transformation and transcendence behind bars?
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The year is 1849, and a riot at a Shakespearean theater has left dozens of people dead. But as it always is with the Bard, there's more here than meets the eye. Why did some people think Shakespeare was important enough to die for? How did the work of one man writing in Victorian England capture the tensions brewing in a newly independent America? And who, if anyone, is Shakespeare really for?
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy...
Where There’s a Will searches for the surprising places Shakespeare shows up beyond the theater. Barry Edelstein, artistic director at The Old Globe, one of the country’s leading Shakespeare theaters, and co-host Em Weinstein ask what is it about Shakespeare that’s given him a continuous afterlife in all sorts of unexpected ways. You’ll hear Shakespeare doing rehabilitative work in a maximum security prison, helping kids on the aut...
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