Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast

Theater artist and church elder Seth Willis conducts post-show talkback services at the Family of Christ Presbyterian Church in Greeley, CO, home of the Greeley Garage Sale Theater, connecting the art of the theater to the mission of the congregation in both profound and emotional ways. Willis, whose production of Christopher Trumbo's Red, White, and Blacklisted runs October 23-24 & 30-31, 2026, discusses how the particular ritual came to be, his own background with both theology and the arts; the beauty of unanticipated depth and connection; and the brilliant and generous understanding that “wisdom literature” comes in many forms. (Length 21:52) 

Playwright Sara Farrington, whose terrific two-hander "Look Out" has just dropped from Broadway Play Publishing, also writes the most excellent Substack "Theater Is Hard," wherein she writes entertainingly and usefully about not only the difficulties of the artistic process but the business process as well. Sara shares the blessing and curse of playwrights not having bosses; how theater's limitations are what make it an amazing art form; the way in which the audience is always complicit in the theater’s art of “collective imagination;” how there needs to be an “injection of inevitability” in everything; being inspired by both Eugene O’Neill and the Wooster Group; the dangers of explaining everything and related critiques of Stephen Sondheim; and how we're both big fans of those Aristotelian unities, baby. (Length 22:35)

Veteran TV & film actor (Man on the Inside, Mr. Show with Bob and David) and VoiceOver artist (SpongeBob SquarePants) Jill Talley returns to the legitimate stage this month in Bill Odenkirk's new play We Interrupt This Program, about an alien invasion that coincides with the broadcast of Orson Welles's War of the Worlds. Jill talks about the challenges of voice acting vs. full-body acting; the minor difficulties of playing a crotchety old Chicago lady; how fans of SpongeBob Squarepants are the nicest fans in the world; how she's returning to acting with longtime friend Bob Odenkirk; whether it’d be fun to be recognized more than she is already; how everybody thinks comedy is easy and drama is hard; and how appearing in a very cool Smashing Pumpkins video led to one of Jill’s more obscure – though award-winning – performances. (Length 20:53)

Director Phillip Breen discusses his Chicago Shakespeare Theater production of The Merry Wives of Windsor and his contention that this less-produced play is in fact Shakespeare's Greatest Comedy. Phillip explores why Merry Wives is not just Shakespeare's funniest play but his most transgressive; how it dares to imagine female sexuality; how it resembles Midsummer except the lovers are in their 40s and 50s; how he's a Darwinist in the rehearsal room; how tired we are of the “largely rubbish” idea that Shakespeare’s text gives us absolutely everything we need; the sad truth that there aren’t enough theatre folks who are properly bilingual in the language of sports; the question of whether Falstaff’s punishment (like Malvolio’s) fits the crime; and the great power of extra-textual fart jokes that remain grounded in character and situation. (Length 22:15) (Pictured above, l to r: Olivia Pryor, Issy van Randwyck, Ora Jones, and Nancy Voigts as The Merry Wives of Windsor, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, directed by Phillip Breen, 2026.)

The Reduced Shakespeare Company joins those fighting to save Washington DC's Kennedy Center from those who would destroy it. RSC artistic directors Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor share their favorite memories of the eight summers they performed in the KenCen's Terrace Theater; the celebrities whose paths they crossed; the many opportunities that came their way as a result of performing in our nation's capital; how we ended up performing both on National Public Radio and at the White House; the identities of the Reduced Shakespeare Company Dancers; jokes and bits we weren’t allowed to do; encounters with amazing seeing-eye dogs; the definitive demonstration of the phenomenon known as "Second-Night Letdown;" a rare award nomination for Best New Play; preserving the true legacy of the Kennedy Center's artistry over at @OurKennedyCenter; and the extraordinary artists whose company the RSC is proud to share. (Length 25:41)

The Greeley (CO) Garage Sale Theatre hosted a talkback during the closing weekend of Austin Tichenor's play Puritans, and the cast, director Daniel Mothershed, and playwright took questions from an audience that included over a dozen theatre students from Frontier Academy. Austin and the cast share how the play combines autobiographical with fictional elements; how hard it is to pretend characters from other time periods aren't there; how hard it is to understand our past; how multiple generations can be in conversation with each other; how the playwright's a sucker for epic multi-generational family epics; how Puritans evolved from a novel into a play; how characters in a play – even ones based on real people – become automatically fictional with their own narrative imperatives; and how a play about multiple generations appeals to multiple generations. (Length 25:26)

Longtime full-time teacher and longtime part-time improviser Kate Wiersema talks about her very fun and incredibly helpful book Playing to Learn: Using Improv in the K-8 Classroom, which creates suggestions and games that provide a "structure for fun" in the classroom. Kate shares how these games and tools can be used for curriculum as well as emotional learning; how these tools require no extra supplies and help build a sense of community; how learning can be collaborative rather than adversarial; how they can help get out of the rote of everything becoming "standardized;" the importance of combating ‘boy syndrome;’ the value of someone stepping up and being the “And;” and further examples – if more were needed – that illustrate why Improv Is Magic. Lives are being changed! (Length 20:17)

Shelby Bond's Dungeons & Shakespeare is a hilarious and interactive blend of two seemingly disparate elements of pop culture that share more qualities than you might think. Bond reveals the shows Renaissance Faire origins and how early triumphs like Testaclese and Ye Sack of Rome led to its creation; how one survives the challenges of small theaters with no dressing rooms; how the show depends on chaos and if you plan your adventure, they inevitably crash and burn; how improv differs from magic; what Edinburgh offers that Ren Faires and other festivals don’t; how getting audiences is the work but doing the show is the reward; the power of transforming from a sad mountebank into wandering Troubador; and how Shakespeare – perhaps surprisingly – meets Dungeons & Dragons where it lives. (Length 21:31)

John Ahlin and Christopher Patrick Mullen are the creators and stars of Chip & Gus: A Comedy with Balls, an amazing two hander in which the two title characters resolve the crisis in their relationship while playing ping-pong at the same time. John and Chris discuss how their shared expertise in table tennis and experience as actors led them to create this unique theatrical event; how the play both is and isn’t autobiographical; how they navigate “the Wild West of entertainment” that is the Edinburgh Fringe; how, like Harpo Marx playing the harp on screen, the playing of ping pong onstage also requires no acting; what has to happen when you introduce “Chekhov’s Balls;” how the characters of a drowning man and the person least qualified to save him became the subject of their play; multiple sport, game, and Sondheim references; comparisons to the RSC's The Complete World of Sports (abridged); and how, in all the years they’ve volleyed together – both onstage and at table tennis – they’ve never played a competitive game to win. (Length 23:00)

Playwright John Kolvenbach has directed his own play Stand Up If You're Here Tonight in productions in Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Paris, and now the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and he discusses how putting the play on its feet on the stage helps complete his work of writing it on the page. John shares how directing your own play isn’t for everyone; how much of it is simply being a control freak; how much directing the script helps the writing process; how, to quote Edward Albee, one’s play is never as good as one’s idea of the play; how this play is fascinatingly (and maddeningly) hard to describe; how one must embrace the quality of madness in one’s writing; how your audience will tell you what your play is; and whether it’s possible to write like a director or direct like an actor. ALSO: an unexpected – and perfectly timed – crash of recycled bottles! (Length 19:53)