Play On! Podcast

A few months ago, we had the chance to speak with Melinda Pfundstein, director of “The Book of Will,” and Lauren Gunderson, the playwright of “The Book of Will.” We spoke about the legacy of Shakespeare, the unique challenges of adapting a real-life story to the stage, and the stories of incredible women, both in this play and in Shakespeare’s works.

“The Book of Will” plays in the Engelstad Theatre through September 5. Get your tickets now at bard.org.

In this episode, we talk to Curt Tofteland, founder and producing director of Shakespeare Behind Bars, an organization which serves incarcerated adults and youth using exclusively the works of William Shakespeare, and TJ Penrod, a founding member of Off the Cuff Comedy Improvisation and a Juvenile Justice Program Facilitator here in Utah.

A few resources to get you started:

https://www.shakespearebehindbars.org/links/

https://www.npr.org/2013/04/22/178411754/teaching-shakespeare-in-a-maximum-security-prison

https://www.folger.edu/shakespeare-unlimited/solitary-prison

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/712889.Shakespeare_Inside

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/12643731

http://www.cc.com/video-clips/agw4nc/the-colbert-report-the-word---bard

https://www.marinshakespeare.org/shakespeare-in-prison/

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In this episode, we talk to Tim Sailer and Stefanie Resnick, who recently finished a four-month run playing Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in our Shakespeare-in-the-Schools educational tour of Macbeth, about tour life, love, and the experience of playing this iconic Shakespearean couple.

In this episode, we talk to Dr. Travis Curtright and Mary Curtright, founders of Shakespeare In Performance at Ave Maria University in Florida, to discuss love, both in Shakespeare’s plays and the lives of those that perform his works, their production research process, and what they lovingly call “troupe life.” We also get a visit from Queen Elizabeth I herself—you’ll have to listen to find out what she has to say!

In this episode, we talk to Fred Adams, founder of the Utah Shakespeare Festival, and Sam White, founder of Shakespeare in Detroit and director of “Twelfth Night” in our upcoming 2019 season, about the joys, challenges, and similarities of starting Shakespeare companies in 1961 and 2013, what they're looking forward to in 2019, and what, exactly, ought to be done with the character Fabian in "Twelfth Night."

Elizabeth Marquis, Devery North, and Miriam Michaels, our Technician, Company Manager, and Stage Manager discuss the impact the Shakespeare-in-the-School's tour of A Midsummer Night's Dream has had on themselves and the students they visited.