The State of Shakespeare
Great Interviews with Great Artists. We’re talking Shakespeare.
Episodes
July 15, 2026 • 34 mins
Prague Shakespeare Festival
Coriolanus: Act 3, Scene 3July 15, 2026
“There is a world elsewhere.” Guy Roberts came to the Czech Republic, a country literally ‘born in theatre', with the dream of creating an English language theatre company in the heart of Europe. After nearly two decades of experience living and working in a city with over eight centuries of theatre history, the founder and Artistic Di...
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June 24, 2026 • 23 mins
Macbeth; Act 5, Scene 5
MacbethJune 24, 2026
For a poor player, strutting and fretting on the stage, sometimes words and verse can spell the difference between life and death. Jacob Ming-Trent stars in his original, multimedia, one-person play, How Shakespeare Saved My Life, the autobiographical story of how a troubled youth found salvation in poetry. Playing through July 5 at the Folger Theatre in ...
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June 16, 2026 • 33 mins
Othello; Act 2, Scene 1
IagoJune 17, 2026
Who says, "I have to bring my truth to the part I'm playing": Ben Turner or Iago? In the Shakespeare Theatre of DC’s new production of Othello, Ben Turner reveals the humanity and heart beneath Iago’s machinations, transforming Shakespeare’s most overtly “evil” creation into something much more recognizably (and terrifyingly) human. The pr...
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May 19, 2026 • 34 mins
Othello
May 19, 2026
“What’s he, then, that says I play the villain?” Few questions more clearly reveal where each of us stands in today’s deeply polarized society. Recorded on the eve of a profoundly tense moment in global geopolitics, we speak with Eric Tucker and Bedlam discussing their critically acclaimed four-person production of Othello, running through May 31 in New Yor...
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April 29, 2026 • 40 mins
Titus Andronicus; Act 5, Scene 1
AaronApril 29, 2026
“I have done a thousand dreadful thingsAs willingly as one would kill a fly,And nothing grieves me heartily indeedBut that I cannot do ten thousand more.”
Director Jesse Berger and actor McKinley Belcher III dish up their critically acclaimed Titus Andronicus, now in an extended run with Red Bull Theater in...
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April 20, 2026 • 34 mins
As You Like It
Folger TheatreApril 20, 2026
How should an actor approach Shakespeare’s language? Is the focus on rehearsing delivery, or on cultivating presence in the moment? Director Timothy Douglas credits the teachings of Tina Packer and Kristin Linklater for shaping his approach to helping actors “own” Shakespeare. His latest collaboration, As You Like It, at the ...
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April 2, 2026 • 26 mins
The Merry Wives of Windsor; Act 2 Scene 2 Mistress QuicklyApril 2, 2026
Which female character became such a fan favorite that Shakespeare featured her in four different plays? Award-winning actor Nancy Voigts brings this famously bawdy mischief-maker and mistress of misinformation to life in a vibrant new production of The Merry Wives of Windsor at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre.
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March 5, 2026 • 26 mins
A Truant Dispostion: Hamlet and HoratioMarch 4, 2025
Is Horatio the villain? A literary stand-in for the murderously opportunistic “friends” who stalked the halls of power in Elizabethan England? Carol Grieb imagines a Hamlet in which Hamlet’s so-called best friend is anything but.
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November 10, 2025 • 50 mins
The Merchant of Venice; Act 3, Scene 1 ShylockNovember 10, 2025
The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.” Actor and storyteller Saul Rubinek takes us inside his one-man show Playing Shylock, now on stage at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center in New York City. Rubinek explores Shylock’s confounding genesis and reveals why one of Shakespeare’s s...
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October 22, 2025 • 40 mins
Measure for Measure; Act 2, Scene 4 AngeloOctober 20, 2025
If the goal is to be a working actor, is training optional? Terry Knickerbocker offers his perspective on the purpose of actor training. And in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, we confront a timeless dilemma: is it better to perish for the sake of principle, or debase yourself and survive?
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September 2, 2025 • 34 mins
Romeo & Juliet; Act 1, Scene 4 RomeoSeptember 3, 2025
From forth the fatal loins of civil strife springs a bold new Romeo and Juliet. The Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey presents this re-envisioned classic, starring Isaac Hickox-Young and directed by Bonnie J. Monte. Is it love, lust, or something more sinister that propels the star-crossed lovers to their untimely end?
Romeo and Juliet runs from September 10th...
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August 5, 2025 • 35 mins
King John; Act 3, Scene 1 ConstanceAugust 5, 2025
Words, words, words. A love of words makes Tracy Michelle Arnold the perfect candidate to run the Language Project at American Player's Theater. With the focus on language, words, syntax, punctuation, Arnold is the perfect guest for the State of Shakespeare. The Language Project is the latest innovation that this gem of theater in Spring Green, Wisconsin has brought us.
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June 18, 2025 • 35 mins
Twelfth Night Folger TheaterJune 18, 2025
“Most wonderful!” Olivia’s (ahem) climactic outburst isn’t just a line, it’s the line that catches the spirit of director Mei Ann Teo’s current production of Twelfth Night at the Folger Theatre. Teo, who also serves as Artistic Leader at Ping Chong and Company, teases how to treat Shakespeare’s classic as if it’s a new love (er&helli...
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May 29, 2025 • 33 mins
Shakespeare, Appreciated Hamlet; Act 5, Scene 2May 29, 2025
Gideon Rappaport, author of Appreciating Shakespeare, has released a newly annotated edition of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Can modern readers and actors truly grasp Shakespeare’s work as he intended? Rappaport believes they not only can, but they must.
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March 31, 2025 • 22 mins
Anonymous Agnostic Antichrists
March 31, 2025
The Authorship Question may ebb and flow in popularity, but the mystery behind the origins of the Bard’s works remains endlessly intriguing. What better way to explore the rich world of Shakespeare’s contemporaries than by investigating who might have truly penned the plays? Our guest, author Derek Hunter, has spent over thirty years pursuing the possibilities. Hi...
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February 24, 2025 • 41 mins
Shakespeare in the U.S.February 24, 2025
As the Artistic Producer and Dramaturg at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., Drew Lichtenberg has a front-row seat to the unfolding drama at one of the globe's most powerful artistic and political nexuses. In a recent essay for The New York Times, he shared hard truths about the state of Shakespeare in contemporary America. Over the past half-decade, the number...
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February 8, 2025 • 19 mins
Falstaff; Act 4, Scene 2 Henry IV, Part 2January 10, 2025
Falstaff is Shakespeare’s greatest comic creation. John Ahlin is the greatest ‘Simon Says’ player in the world. Discover how this talent helped launch a career that has seen him play the role sixteen times… and counting. Just don't call it a bit!
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September 20, 2024 • 19 mins
Macbeth; Act 3, Scene 1 MacbethSeptember 20, 2024
From Whiffenpoof to Macbeth. Graham Stevens has worn many hats in his career, none of which fits as comfortably as Macbeth's crown. How does he bring all of his diversity of skills to bear in the role of the Scottish King? And it isn't just the kilt...
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July 31, 2024 • 19 mins
The American Shakespeare Center July 30, 2024
Vanessa Morosco likes asking the big questions. As Executive Director of the American Shakespeare Center, she is perfectly positioned to do just that. Using Original Practices, Vanessa and ASC are re-centering the focus on Shakespeare for the 21st Century.
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June 28, 2024 • 19 mins
Henry IV, Part I; Act 5, Scene 1 WorcesterJune 30, 2024
Inside-out or outside-in? Accomplished stage actor and teacher Jasmine Bracey gives Stanislvaski his due, but argues for a more visceral approach to crafting character. Either way, her objective is all about change.
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