Today’s guest knows better than most that when you study Shakespeare, you almost synonymously study 17th century theater. Ben Crystal is an actor, writer, producer, adventurer & explorer of original practices in Shakespeare, and was the Artistic Director at Passion in Practice, an original practice based theatre company specializing in performances that rework the speech, rehearsal techniques, and performance methods of Shakespeare’s theatre.

He joins us today to discuss original practice, and what the real role of understanding Shakespeare's perspective on theater does, and should, have on our modern performances today. PLUS: he tells us honestly that he, too, was one of those students who hated Shakespeare until the stage opened up a new perspective for him.

In this episode, I'll be asking Ben about: 

• What Shakespeare's theater would have been like when he was performing his own plays
• If his plays were performed using these conventions originally, why do you think we lost touch with that format somewhere along the way? 
• What is a cue script? Why did Shakespeare use them?
• Since Ben pays close attention to the silent stage directions when producing plays in original practice, I also ask him to settle a mystery and share with us: How does George Plantagenet REALLY die in Richard III?