Scurvy Companions NoSweatShakespeare

Today we’ll be speaking with Korey Smith and Elyse Sharp of the "Shakespeare Anyone?" podcast. You may remember Korey and Elyse from when they joined us last season to discuss Macbeth and Demonology during King James’s reign. Both professional actors themselves, Korey and Elyse dive into Shakespeare scholarship, breaking down his plays into incredibly researched detail without, as they say, the "bardolotry." Their episodes have covered topics such as "King Lear" and Shakespeare’s influence on early psychiatry, gender and queer theory in Twelfth Night, and more. They also have mini-episodes devoted to scholarship outside specific plays, including episodes on Shakespeare's folios and quartos, and food and cooking in early modern England.

Today they join us to discuss how Shakespeare’s plays were performed at court, meaning before the monarch and the nobles. We’ll discuss the mechanics of court performances, how performances changed when they were inside at court rather than outside at the Globe Theatre for the public, and how playing before the nobility allowed a chance for otherwise scandalous political commentary. Says Korey, "I wish there was more scholarship on plays of the court and the influence that individual members of Shakespeare’s society had on these characters, because that can greatly change how you cast and the choices you make when you set the play."

Korey and Elyse are interviewed by host Emily Jackoway. To learn more about NoSweatShakespeare, you can visit us online at nosweatshakespeare.com, or on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. 

How can you keep Shakespeare’s plays relevant? “Play them.”

That’s what Sioned Jones, director of Shakespeare in the Squares’ recent production of The Tempest, believes. Sioned is an actress and theatre maker with credits in the West End, at the National Theatre, on television and in film. She’s here today to discuss her version of "The Tempest," which premiered in London last month. Shakespeare in the Squares is a non-profit touring theatre company that stages a Shakespeare play in garden squares across London. The company works with local organizations to make the play specific to each location and celebrate the community. One of their patrons, the esteemed Dame Judi Dench, says about the company that, “To take William Shakespeare, whose timeless plays always have something important to say about the human condition, into idyllic gardens and other iconic spaces, offers a great opportunity to engage new and non-traditional audiences of all ages.”

Today, Sioned will talk with us about how The Tempest fosters community coming out of lockdown, the themes that continue to be relevant to modern audiences, and the challenge of chairs, helicopters and more in a touring garden performance space.

Sioned is interviewed by host Emily Jackoway. NoSweatShakespeare is a literary education website devoted to making Shakespeare more accessible. Visit us online at nosweatshakespeare.com to read play summaries, monologue and character analyses, Shakespeare history, and more, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. If you enjoyed this podcast, be sure to follow or subscribe and leave a five-star rating. Thanks for listening!

Coriolanus: an under-studied, under-performed Shakespearean masterpiece in class struggle and war. Let's talk about it!

Today we’ll be joined by Katharine Maness (she/they) and Beth Dinkova (she/her) of Shakespeare in the Woods, an unconventional outdoor classical theater festival in the heart of Southern Vermont. New York City actor Katharine started Shakespeare in the Woods in 2019, with the mission to, in their words, provide exceptional quality theatre that celebrates the text through exploration of relevant social issues and themes and to make art that is accessible to all audiences regardless of socioeconomic or geographical standing. 

This season focuses on the theme of war, and it's only fitting that the season starts out with Coriolanus. Beth Dinkova directs this production. She is a Bulgarian-born director, adapter, and creator who explores alternative realities at the intersection of theater, film, and music in pursuit of social justice. She is a graduate of the MFA Directing program at the Yale School of Drama.

Today, they’ll discuss with us how the themes of Coriolanus are echoed in modern political strife, in the US and across the world, how themes of toxic masculinity and patriarchy can be unpacked by a largely female and nonbinary cast, how the play awakens class consciousness and urges the audience to examine their own behaviors in their communities and sociopolitical dynamics.

Katharine and Beth are interviewed by host Emily Jackoway. NoSweatShakespeare is a literary education website devoted to making Shakespeare more accessible. Visit us online at nosweatshakespeare.com to read play summaries, monologue and character analyses, Shakespeare history, and more, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. If you enjoyed this podcast, be sure to follow or subscribe and leave a five-star rating. Thanks for listening in!

Today we'll be joined by London actor Ailsa Joy (she/her), who speaks with us about her role as Puck in Iris Theatre Company’s production of "A Midsummer Night’s Dream."

Ailsa is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and has previously appeared in "The Three Musketeers" with Iris Theatre. Her other notable credits include "Love and other Acts of Violence at Donmar Warehouse," the West End and UK tour of "Bad Jews," "Not Quite Jerusalem" at Finborough Theatre, and the "Two Gentlemen of Verona" and another production of "Midsummer" with Guildford Shakespeare.

Ailsa discusses how Iris Theatre’s production of "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" updates Shakespeare to make his stories more fun and accessible to a modern audience. Ailsa will also discuss her journey with theatre, advice for those new to watching or performing Shakespeare, and what she thinks brings audiences back to Shakespeare again and again.

You can see Iris Theatre's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at The Actor's Church in Covent Garden through August 13th. Tickets can be found here.

Ailsa is interviewed by host Emily Jackoway. To learn more about NoSweatShakespeare, check out our site at nosweatshakespeare.com and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. If you enjoyed this podcast, be sure to follow or subscribe and leave a five-star rating. Thanks for listening in!

When actors Korey Leigh Smith and Elyse Sharp started their own Shakespeare podcast, “Shakespeare Anyone?”, they wanted to do deep dives into the history, themes, and scholarly analysis of all the plays — without, as Korey says, going into the crippling debt of grad school. And they did just that — their series on Macbeth alone has ten episodes, with a total of seven hours of Macbeth content. They’re now moving onto Twelfth Night and, from the looks of things, they’ll be devoting the same amount of time there. 

Today, Korey and Elyse join us to discuss one of the major aspects of Macbeth they discuss – the history behind King James’s obsession with witchcraft and how it feeds into the play. We’ll be discussing Shakespeare’s historical sources for the play, what the political climate was like in England at the time, how England’s king became so obsessed with witches and the supernatural, and what Shakespeare’s goal might have been in writing a play steeped in treason and sorcery.  

Korey and Elyse are interviewed by host Emily Jackoway. To learn more about NoSweatShakespeare, check out our site at nosweatshakespeare.com and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. If you enjoyed this podcast, be sure to follow or subscribe and give us a five-star rating. Thanks for listening in!

Imagine if, for a total of 11 years of your life, you completely disappeared from record. No leases on any apartments, no phone records, no credit card transactions. Just totally as if you didn't exist. It seems impossible to imagine now, but hundreds of years ago, records were pretty thin -- even if you were a famous poet, playwright, and actor like one William Shakespeare, who totally disappears from public record from the years of 1578-1582 and 1585-1592. Theories abound about what Shakespeare was up to during that time. Was he on the run from the law? Secretly visiting the Vatican? Or perhaps traveling with a band of actors? The only thing we know for sure is that he suddenly emerges around 1585 as one of the most famous playwrights in London -- but we have no idea how he got there.

Here to speculate on what happened is NoSweatShakespeare's founder and resident scholar, Ralph Goldswain. Ralph joined us a couple months ago to talk about Shakespeare's life in Stratford, but he has plenty of knowledge about Shakespeare's life in London and beyond, as well -- even when the facts are a little scarce. An English teacher for four decades, a member of the National Shakespeare and Schools Project, and a frequent lecturer on Shakespeare's life and works, Ralph has a pretty solid idea of what may have happened during Shakespeare's famed "Lost Years."

Ralph is interviewed by host Emily Jackoway. To learn more about NoSweatShakespeare, check out our site at nosweatshakespeare.com and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. If you enjoyed this podcast, be sure to follow or subscribe and give us a five-star rating. Thanks for listening in!