Where There's a Will: Finding Shakespeare

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 autism spectrum to communicate, shaping religious observances, in the Oval Office, 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 him, and about us. From Pushkin Industries and The Old Globe.

President Obama audio excerpt courtesy of UN Climate Change.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Pushkin. What oh thou hast infected the sweetness of friendship?
What wound, he writes, did ever heal but buy degrease? Lord,

(00:36):
would fools these mortals be view? We had few? Those
are the words of William Shakespeare. He died over four
hundred years ago, but his presence is very much alive.
When you put a lot of work, in effort and
genius into everything that he did, I think he just
did it first. I can't see yourself in Shakespeare. Something's

(00:58):
wrong with you. I'm Barry Edelstein and I run the
Old Globe in San Diego, one of the countries leading
Shakespeare theaters. This is where there's a will finding Shakespeare
from the Globe and Pushkin industries. Our show discovers Shakespeare
in all sorts of unexpected places and asks what he's
doing there and what his presence means about him and

(01:18):
about us. My companion on this search for old William
is m Weinstein. I'm a director and writer working on
television and on stage, and Shakespeare has played a huge
role in my life. Barry and I have spoken to
some amazing people and ask them what Shakespeare means to them.
I was like fortunate enough really to get cast as

(01:39):
Francis Flute. That was an image of being a transwoman
that I had never had before em And I wondered
why we seem to be in the middle of a
huge Hamlet moment. The question shifted from to be or
not to be? Do I be this way or do
I be that way? And we wanted to know why
Shakespeare's been so important to America. What I always do

(02:02):
for the younger generation is I say, find your story
in it and fight for it because it does belong
to us. Help what change being in Shakespeare? There's no
way that you can be the same person. It's impossible.
It's it literally impossible. What is it about Shakespeare that
keeps him showing up in surprising corners of our world?

(02:25):
And how is it that he was once at the
center of a debate about American identity and now he's
doing rehabilitative work in correctional facilities and showing up in
the mouths of presidents and politicians and helping autistic children
to communicate. And what does it say about us that
we keep putting him in these places? All this is
what we want to get at with where there's a

(02:45):
will Shakespeare belongs to us. He's not your property because
you have money. He's not your property because of your
class and education. He's our property. Where there's a will
from the Old Globe and Pushkin Industries coming November tenth,
you can listen to add free by subscribing to Pushkin Plus,
sign up on the where there's a will show page

(03:06):
in Apple Podcasts, or at pushkin dot fms lash plus