This week we chat with Charlene V. Smith about one of Shakespeare's most badass broads: Margaret of Anjou.

Charlene V. Smith (she, her, hers) is a director, actor, and scholar with an MLitt and MFA in Shakespeare and Performance from Mary Baldwin University. Formerly the artistic director of Brave Spirits Theatre, her directing credits include Antony and Cleopatra, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, Coriolanus, The Two Noble Kinsmen, and the first modern professional production of The Bloody Banquet. She is one of the few women in the world to have directed a full cycle of Shakespeare’s Henriad. Brave Spirits Theatre’s project to become the first professional American company to stage the eight English histories in repertory was interrupted by the pandemic, but over the past two years, they have been reimagining this project into audio. The resulting twenty-four episodes will be released later this year. She has essays published in The Palgrave Handbook of Shakespeare’s Queens, Arden Shakespeare’s The Changeling: The State of Play, and the forthcoming The Theatrical Legacy of Thomas Middleton.

Follow Charlene on all social media @charlenevsmith

Visit her website at www.charlenevsmith.com

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Art by Lizzy Colandene

Music by Constantino Fernandez

Sound by Jonathan Miot

Podcast by Micaela Mannix