Lend Me Your Earbuds Sam Bardwell

In this episode artistic director Sam Bardwell and the actors invite you into their process for approaching and performing a Shakespeare play. For this episode on Macbeth the major characters that leapt off the page for the actors were the Weird Sisters, aka the three witches. The major theme that emerged was bullying. And the major tension we identified is something we like to call “binary explosion.” Listen in to hear how these characters, tensions, and themes play out as the actors perform and discuss major scenes from Macbeth.

“Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your earbuds!” BREAKING NEWS: Julius Caesar has just been killed in the Capitol and his funeral orations will begin shortly. Romnius Brutus, the leader of the conservative senators who carried out this violent termination of Julius Caesar’s tenure, has promised to put forward his rationale for the extreme actions taken by the coalition of senators. Rudy Antony, a close ally of Caesar’s and a political outsider, will follow with his own heartfelt remarks about his friend, Caesar. Will a peaceful transition of power be achieved or will a riot break out? Stay tuned for live coverage from Octavia Naomius, the popular correspondent for the conservative news service: “The Republic of Rome Forum”. Listeners are advised to stay away from the grounds of the Capitol as tensions are running high and it only takes one misstep for mischief to be afoot!

Denmark has been conquered by Fortinbras of Norway. The coroner reported 9 Danish deaths, four within the royal family, the other five intimately connected to the family. Fortinbras has established a totalitarian regime and sought to suppress all Danish opposition—and especially the truth behind the nine Danish deaths. (Fortinbras ridiculously claims that as part of his takeover he single-handedly defeated the nine in hand-to-hand combat using poisoned fencing equipment). In this truth-suppressed society, the only outlet for the truth is Resistance Radio, an underground radio show hosted by “The Great Dane,” a sleuthing citizen committed to the truth. In this episode The Great Dane shares with his audience the epic discovery of “The Polonius Tapes.” Polonius, a former adviser to the Danish King, had long touted a “To thine own self be true” policy in the castle of Elsinore, encouraging external processing among its inhabitants. However, Polonius secretly recorded everyone’s private soliloquizing in order to spy on the speakers. The Great Dane shares highlights from these tapes, enlisting a troupe of actors to give voice to these hitherto unknown texts (most of which were originally spoken by Prince Hamlet). With the sharing of these speeches the truth begins to emerge surrounding the Tragedy of Hamlet, prince of Denmark. Finally, The Great Dane has a star witness in Hamlet’s best friend, Horatio, the only known survivor with direct knowledge of the deeds (and misdeeds) of the last days of independent Denmark.