Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast

The Q Brothers Collective (Othello: The Remix; Funk It Up About Nothing) have created Rome Sweet Rome, a wild and satirical new “add-rap-tation” of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar now running at Chicago Shakespeare Theater through October 19, 2025. Bri Sudia and Danielle Davis are stand-out members of a glorious ensemble, and they discuss how they've gotten comfortable with rapping and the “Q Vibe”; how having a percussion background really helps; how joy and satire are sometimes the only tools we have in troubled times; and how a comedy about the unintended consequences of political violence feels more necessary than ever. (Length 13:40)

RSC artistic directors Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor are directing college productions of their comedies William Shakespeare's Long Lost First Play (abridged) and The Comedy of Hamlet! (a prequel), and they discuss the differences they discover in their scripts when other actors are performing them. Reed and Austin share how different actors bring different energies; the difference between a vaudeville and a play; how directing these young actors is like looking in a mirror; and how certain things just aren't necessary when you cast more than three actors. (Length 19:37)

RSC artistic directors and co-authors Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor discuss how they've updated All the Great Books (abridged), which embarks on a US tour this fall. Reed and Austin share what changes they've made to this script (and all the RSC scripts) and how our scripts, like all plays, develop new meanings depending on the personnel performing them and the times in which they’re being performed. (Length 15:04) (PICTURED: Tré Tyler (Coach), Michael Faulkner (Professor), and Doug Harvey (Doug) in the Reduced Shakespeare Company production of All the Great Books (abridged), written and directed by Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor.)

Our conversation with Nina Ruscio, the production designer of The Pitt, continues this week with further details of how unprecedented her design for HBO's Emmy-winning Best Drama really is. Nina compares her work on this show with other large projects she's designed; reveals the incredible amount of interior and exterior detail she puts into her designs, and how shooting The Pitt is very much like filming a play that’s happening live; gives props to fellow Cal alum Cathy Sandrich Gelfond on her Emmy win for casting The Pitt; shares the pleasure of working with star and executive producer Noah Wyle; and revels at how highly regarded The Pitt is by the medical community they’re depicting. (Length 15:14)

Nina Ruscio, the Emmy-nominated (for The Flight Attendant) production designer of The Pitt on HBO, discusses how her design helped create this enormous – and enormously popular – show. Nina reveals how producer John Wells (The West Wing; E.R.) tasked her with creating a ground plan before the writers even started writing episodes; the joy of living a freelance, project-based lifestyle; how her background as an English major allows her designs to express literature visually; how memories from the musical she designed in college remain in her sedimentary layer; and the remarkable privilege of creating the world in which stories are invented. PART ONE OF A TWO-PART CONVERSATION. (Length 18:11) (Photo of Nina on her set for The Pitt by cinematographer Johanna Coelho.)

Playwright James Sherman (Chagall in School) returns to discuss his new play The First Lady of Television, now having its world premiere at Chicago's Northlight Theatre. Jim shares his inspiration for the play; how his subject Gertrude Berg, creator of The Goldbergs (1949-1957) on both radio and television, was the second most famous woman in America (after Eleanor Roosevelt); his gratitude for his amazing cast, and how they've helped shape the script's development through several readings and workshops; and how in rehearsals, he considers himself the head of the script department and lets the best suggestion win. (Length 20:44). (PICTURED: Cindy Gold as Gertrude Berg in the Northlight Theater production of The First Lady of Television, directed by BJ Jones. Photo by Greg Inda. Used by permission.)

Actors and now playwrights Michael Doherty and Will Mobley have written the wonderful new comedy Dogberry and Verges Are Scared, which is having its world premiere at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival from September 5-14, 2025. Mike and Will took time out from rehearsal to discuss the play's inspirations and origins; how clowns do table work in rehearsal; how they pitched each other ideas and realized they wanted to write a play instead of a clown show; how not all laughs are created equal; the value of believable characters driving even the silliest comedy; and the importance of finding a director who’s as heart-forward as they are comically fine-tuned. (Length 20:28)

Joe Liss (Curb Your Enthusiasm, Strangers With Candy; Home Alone 2) and Dee Ryan (The Office, 10 Items Or Less, United States of Tara) are bringing their improvised horror parody Misery Loves Company to the Rochester Fringe Festival this September 12 & 14, and they discuss the wine-soaked origins of this "cockadoodie" good time. These two improv gurus share why this is the first time they've worked together; how you improvise a fight scene; the importance of age-appropriate casting; the value of not planning what you’re going to do; how and where they'll be teaching workshops in Rochester; and the glory of performing with a home-field advantage. (Length 21:49)

James Shapiro wears many hats – author, scholar, cultural historian, consultant to New York's Public Theatre – discusses his work with actors and students, as well as his invaluable books A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599, The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606, and Shakespeare in a Divided America. Shapiro also shares experiences of working on this summer's Twelfth Night in New York's Central Park; working with Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal on Broadway in Othello; how he first discovered Shakespeare; what he learns from working with actors; the power of knowing whether a thou is a formal thou or an eff-you thou; being scolded (rightly!) by F. Murray Abraham; whether he prefers to be known as a historian, a mensch, or the Shakespeare Guy; how his thoughts about America have evolved since he wrote Shakespeare in a Divided America; how his correspondence with a Supreme Court justice was the Shakespeare in the coal mine; and how we look at the news for what’s happening today but turn to Shakespeare to find out what’s at stake. (Length 26:51)

Tiffany Keane Schaefer is the writer and director of Twihard! A Twilight Musical Parody, now running at Chicago’s Apollo Theatre for a limited time. Tiffany discusses the origins of her musical at the Otherworld Theatre Company, which is dedicated exclusively to science-fiction and fantasy programming (and which she runs with her husband – and friend of the pod – Dylan Schaefer); how Twilight represents a time of hope; the metaphorical power of sparkly vampires and bare-chested werewolves; and how the parody musical genre was the only way to properly express her affection for the source material. (Length 22:31) (Photos from Twihard! A Twilight Musical Parody by Nadir Waxali.)