F*ckShakespeare

Many characters are simply called "Clown" in Shakespeare's scripts, but they're not those creepy red-nosed jobs that scare the fuck out of children from storm drains. They are welcome comic relief after much tragedy or before something epic is going to happen to the main characters.

The gravediggers in Act 5: Sc 1 are there for both reasons. We just had to hear about the death of the one true innocent, poor Ophelia, and in the final scene of the play pretty much everyone else is gonna go (come on! you knew that, right?) so we desperately NEED some clowning to get us through that final bloodbath.

And there's a third clown who gets a very famous mention. Listen for him.

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And if you are inclined to be a patron like Queen Elizabeth, you can support this podcast for as little as 99¢/month. Click the link below! Think of it like throwing money in the virtual hat while we crazy players do our little song and dance here. We thank you! (imagine us bowing now)

After Hamlet we will lighten it up and SPICE it up with a spectacularly raunchy Midsummer Night's Dream!! Have a particular question?? DM us or email us: [email protected]

Is Ophelia pregnant? Why was Jesus mean to the baker's daughter? Was that very Christian of him? And what does that have to do with Hamlet, for fuck's sake?? Ophelia tells all if you just know how to listen. Truth in madness.

Want to know more? Connect with us on our website: https://fckshakespeare.com

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Tweet at us if you must: @fckshakespod

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And if you are inclined to be a patron like Queen Elizabeth, you can support this podcast for as little as 99¢/month. Click the link below! Think of it like throwing money in the virtual hat while we crazy players do our little song and dance here. We thank you! (imagine us bowing now)

After Hamlet we will lighten it up and SPICE it up with a spectacularly raunchy Midsummer Night's Dream!! Have a particular question?? DM us or email us: [email protected]

Act 4 of Hamlet is a messy jumble of scene-lets that seem to be about tying up loose ends... and also Claudius wanting to tie Hamlet up to a scaffold.  But never fear! Hamlet will be off to England and some nasty trickery of his own soon enough. First, a few darkly veiled threats about Claudius being digested by beggars... 😳

Want to know more? Connect with us on our website: https://fckshakespeare.com

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fckshakespeare/

Tweet at us if you must: @fckshakespod

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And if you are inclined to be a patron like Queen Elizabeth, you can support this podcast for as little as 99¢/month. Click the link below! Think of it like throwing money in the virtual hat while we crazy players do our little song and dance here. We thank you! (imagine us bowing now)

After Hamlet we will lighten it up and SPICE it up with a spectacularly raunchy Midsummer Night's Dream!! Have a particular question?? DM us or email us: [email protected]

The "Closet Scene" is that awkward, Oedipal moment where Hamlet confronts his mom about her possible involvement in his father's murder. He goes to meet her in her closet. No, not where she hangs her dresses! Closet was the Elizabethan word for a person's most intimate private chambers. Men did not go into a woman's closet unless invited, and usually not for a screaming showdown full of accusations...

In this episode you will also meet Julia! She just came off of playing Gertrude in a recent production of Hamlet and she has many wonderful things to say about the character and Shakespeare's work in general.

Want to know more? Connect with us on our website: https://fckshakespeare.com

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fckshakespeare/

Tweet at us if you must: @fckshakespod

Join our Facebook group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/fshakespeare

And if you are inclined to be a patron like Queen Elizabeth, you can support this podcast for as little as 99¢/month. Click the link below! Think of it like throwing money in the virtual hat while we crazy players do our little song and dance here. We thank you! (imagine us bowing now)

After Hamlet we will lighten it up and SPICE it up with a spectacularly raunchy Midsummer Night's Dream!! Have a particular question?? DM us or email us: [email protected]

What else is there?? That's Willy's whole reason for being, right?? So OF COURSE it should be the key to Hamlet finally making up his muthaf**in' mind about that murder thing! 

Just in case there are any doubts, we also get to hear Claudius confess. Poor guy. Ya kinda feel bad for him... for a second.

Want to know more? Connect with us on our website: https://fckshakespeare.com

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fckshakespeare/

Tweet at us if you must: @fckshakespod

Join our Facebook group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/fshakespeare

And if you are inclined to be a patron like Queen Elizabeth, you can support this podcast for as little as 99¢/month. Click the link below! Think of it like throwing money in the virtual hat while we crazy players do our little song and dance here. We thank you! (imagine us bowing now)

After Hamlet we will lighten it up and SPICE it up with a spectacularly raunchy Midsummer Night's Dream!! Have a particular question?? DM us or email us: [email protected]

What was it like to be married to Willy Shakes?? No one can know because there are no words that come directly from Anne Shakespeare. But Yvonne Hudson has spent half a lifetime researching and embodying this enigmatical woman for her solo show, Mrs. Shakespeare. 

In this episode we got a chance to ask her about the life of a woman in the 1600s and many other interesting things that anyone who's learning about Shakespeare might want to know.

You can follow her on Facebook at Mrs. Shakespeare, or find here here:  

Website: tiny url.com/ mrs shakespeare

or

https://yhudson0.wixsite.com/mrsshakespeare

Email: [email protected]

And more about her show:

Mrs Shakespeare, Will's first & last love

Written, compiled and performed by YVONNE HUDSON

Directed by HELEN M. MEADE

About Yvonne Hudson as Mrs Shakespeare

With some help from the works of William Shakespeare (1564-1616), playwright and actress Yvonne Hudson introduces the mother of Shakespeare's children and the woman who bravely waited for him in the longest-running solo show about Anne Hathaway Shakespeare (c.1556-1623). It's likely Will and Anne's families knew one another. The couple married in 1582 and had three children--Susanna and twins Hamnet and Judith. His success as a playwright and theatre entrepreneur in London led to 23 years mostly living apart from his family who remained in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

Sonnets, songs, and soliloquies--with references from some 20 plays--are woven into Yvonne's imaginative script developed through ongoing research including work in Stratford-Upon-Avon and London. Mrs Shakespeare had several Off-off Broadway runs and was staged by Rod Kaats in 2002 at Tribeca Playhouse in lower Manhattan. The show has been seen in diverse venues from Pitt's Nationality Rooms (some 30 performances), and Prime Stage's studio in Pittsburgh to the Tower of London and a restored music hall in a South Dakota prairie town. Most recently she performed the show in the historic Rivers of Steel Pump House on the site of the Battle of Homestead, April 2019.

Ms. Hudson's solo appearances have included Emily Dickinson in The Belle of Amherst as well as Mrs Shakespeare (both with PA Partners in the Arts grants) at her Poets Corner Arts series at the historic Calvary United Methodist Church in Allegheny West.There she has directed and produced literary and theater events including the first staged reading of Ireland's Shakespeare by Michael McGovern. A co-founder of the annual Handel's Messiah Sing-Along Concert, she was among Calvary choir members who sang the works at New York's Carnegie Hall in November 2018. She mostly recently appeared as Juliet's Nurse with Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks.

Yes, it's THAT speech. Might as well dive right in there. No avoiding it now!

If it means anything to you, we will also discuss the f*cking authorship question here.  Again, no avoiding it since Will puts his name right into the most famous speech in the entire world.

And then there's Cooper - brilliant young actor who will be playing Hamlet soon. He talks about that and his other amazing roles like Shylock and Touchstone. He knows some shit, so listen up!

Want to know more? Connect with us on our website: https://fckshakespeare.com

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fckshakespeare/

Tweet at us if you must: @fckshakespod

Join our Facebook group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/fshakespeare

And if you are inclined to be a patron like Queen Elizabeth, you can support this podcast for as little as 99¢/month. Click the link below! Think of it like throwing money in the virtual hat while we crazy players do our little song and dance here. We thank you! (imagine us bowing now)

After Romeo & Juliet we will tackle Hamlet! Have a particular question?? DM us or email us: [email protected]

Oh, Willy Shakes, you canny bastard, you figured out a way to plug your own troupe in the middle of the play! Get ready to welcome the Tragedians of the City! The greatest actors in the world!! (drumroll, please...)

Then Hamlet gets inspired and has to try a speech... like he doesn't speak enough for God's sake! But he can't make 'em cry like that Player King, boy... 

Want to know more? Connect with us on our website: https://fckshakespeare.com

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fckshakespeare/

Tweet at us if you must: @fckshakespod

Join our Facebook group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/fshakespeare

And if you are inclined to be a patron like Queen Elizabeth, you can support this podcast for as little as 99¢/month. Click the link below! Think of it like throwing money in the virtual hat while we crazy players do our little song and dance here. We thank you! (imagine us bowing now)

After Romeo & Juliet we will tackle Hamlet! Have a particular question?? DM us or email us: [email protected]

"Mom, what's a fishmonger?"

"It's a pimp. Now, go do your homework and stop bothering me!"

Act TWO! (Bless you!) We meet those two childhood friends of Hamlet's who turn around and stab him in the back. Nice. What's up with those guys? And why are they interchangeable? And what do they know of military strategy?? 

And then, in the middle of his madness, Hamlet delivers the second of his gorgeous long speeches about how he hates people. It's nuts!

Want to know more? Connect with us on our website: https://fckshakespeare.com

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fckshakespeare/

Tweet at us if you must: @fckshakespod

Join our Facebook group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/fshakespeare

And if you are inclined to be a patron like Queen Elizabeth, you can support this podcast for as little as 99¢/month. Click the link below! Think of it like throwing money in the virtual hat while we crazy players do our little song and dance here. We thank you! (imagine us bowing now)

After Romeo & Juliet we will tackle Hamlet! Have a particular question?? DM us or email us: [email protected]

Sometimes there are weird scenes that happen somewhere else and we only hear about them from another character. This is one of those times. Because, let's face it, Hamlet sucks at pretending to be crazy, so he's gotta try it out first on the person he loves most. ???  Hey, we didn't write the news, we only report it...

You will also meet Jenna Wecht, long-time Shakespeare lover who discovered the joy of it at the tender age of 10. Now she teaches 10 years olds. Let's hope she's passing some bard-earned wisdom on to them. Heh heh...

Want to know more? Connect with us on our website: https://fckshakespeare.com

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fckshakespeare/

Tweet at us if you must: @fckshakespod

Join our Facebook group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/fshakespeare

And if you are inclined to be a patron like Queen Elizabeth, you can support this podcast for as little as 99¢/month. Click the link below! Think of it like throwing money in the virtual hat while we crazy players do our little song and dance here. We thank you! (imagine us bowing now)

After Romeo & Juliet we will tackle Hamlet! Have a particular question?? DM us or email us: [email protected]