Sanaz Toossi’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play English, a powerful, warm-hearted, and surprisingly funny play about four adult students in Iran studying for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), is getting an extraordinary production from director Hamid Dehghani that runs this summer at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis. Hamid discusses how amazingly personal Toossi's play is and the extraordinary theatrical conceit at the heart of it; how both the play and the production embrace questions of identity through humor; the difficulty of being as funny in English as you are in Persian; how the incredibly specific becomes wonderfully universal; and how working on this script with these actors allowed Hamid to clarify his truest artistic self. (Length 19:16) (PICTURED: Shadee Vossoughi and Nikki Massoud in the Goodman Theatre and Guthrie Theatre co-production of Sanaz Toossi's English, directed by Hamid Dehghani. Photo by Liz Lauren.)

Daniel Breaker (Billions, Girls5eva) is appearing in Judgment Day in its world premiere at Chicago Shakespeare Theater in a production starring Jason Alexander. Daniel (above left, opposite Alexander) talks about discovering the fun and function of the role in the room, and how he loves experimenting in the science lab of comedy; then shares his love for the next great American play; his surprising inspiration for Donkey, the role he originated in Shrek The Musical; the important distinction of being raised Baptist rather than Catholic; how and why he found so much humor playing Aaron Burr in Hamilton on tour and Broadway; and the relaxed pleasure of sitting in “the Adirondack chair of acting”. (Length 17:54) (Photos by Liz Lauren)

Improviser, improv coach, and "ensemble whisperer" Liz Allen discusses her one-person show Tonight, I Am My Mother, her darkly comic exploration of her mother’s alcoholism, in which Liz plays multiple roles (seamlessly). Liz talks about moments of discovery in her childhood; reveals her script's inspiration; shares stories of working with comedian Mike Birbiglia on his film, Don't Think Twice; marvels over her show's Shakespearean levels; confesses the importance of taking creative license; and celebrates the rewards of bringing a complicated family member back to life. (Length 24:39)

Scott Silberstein, the co-founder and executive producer of HMS Media, talks about filming Lookingglass Alice, the signature work of Chicago’s Tony-winning Lookingglass Theatre Company, and so beautifully capturing the circus-like energy of the live theatre experience. Scott reveals the importance of responding accurately and honestly to the story being told onstage; how his team are not only great technicians but also great improvisers; the inevitability of filming a concert on your phone and missing the experience not once but twice; how to keep the live element and not spoil the surprise; how you can stream Lookingglass Alice via the PBS Passport and Digital Theatre Plus streaming services; and the definitive answer to the question of whether it's more difficult to film live theatre or live sports. (Length 17:44) (PICTURED: Molly Hernandez as Alice in the Lookingglass Theatre production of Lookingglass Alice, directed by David Catlin.)

Scott Bailey’s new book Romeo, Juliet, and Other Screwed-Up Teenagers: An Irreverent Guide to Introducing the World’s Most Staggeringly Inappropriate Play to a Classroom Full of Confused Freshmen is a funny and frank look at Shakespeare’s arguably most popular play, and a great resource for educators, students, and even professional actors. Scott reveals his Shakespeare background, both onstage and for almost 30 years in the classroom; how his Renaissance Faire origin story coincides with the early days of the RSC; the surprise of taking a year off and discovering you have a book in you; and finally, the wonder of constantly discovering new things about a 400-year-old play. (Length 22:47)

He's fooled Penn & Teller three times, and now Ondřej Pšenička is fooling audiences every week at the Chicago Magic Lounge in his new show 52 Lovers. Ondřej reveals surprising secrets (but not all of them!) about how he builds his tricks; the difference between being a manipulator and being a conductor; how comedy can enhance the magic when it doesn’t accidentally ruin it; how his theatre background made him a better magician; the crucial importance of audience management; and magic’s inherent promise to bring audiences back to a place of wonder. (Photo by Martin Vecera.) (Length 21:24)

For his final production as thirty-year artistic director of Chicago's Tony-winning Court Theatre, Charles Newell transforms Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead into an unexpectedly joyful celebration of legacy and theater. Newell reveals his lengthy relationship with not only Stoppard's plays but with the man himself, and shares how he cast two halves of a whole; how he chose to respond instinctively to what was happening in rehearsal rather than adhere to an intricate plan; and how he embraced the counterintuitive and seemingly-oxymoronic phrase “joyful requiem.” (PICTURED: Erik Hellman and Nate Burger as Guildenstern and Rosencrantz in the Court Theatre production of Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, directed by Charles Newell. Photo by Michael Brosilow.) (Length 20:20)

Michelle Ephraim – a Professor of English and (with Caroline Bicks), the cohost of the Everyday Shakespeare podcast and the co-author of Shakespeare, Not Stirred: Cocktails for Your Everyday Dramas – joins us this week to talk about her frank and funny new book, Green World: A Tragicomic Memoir of Love & Shakespeare. Michelle reveals she discovered Shakespeare surprisingly late; how “fun” is a a perfectly fine description of her sometimes fraught memoir; the shared curse of meeting hero Stephens; how Shakespeare became a source of both pain and solace in the wake of a parent’s death; how her relatively cushy job became surprisingly hazardous; and, finally, how Shakespeare – a dead European white man – became a very relatable force for inclusion. (Length 19:31)

Richard Schoch discusses Shakespeare’s House: A Window Onto His Life and Legacy, his wonderful new history of not only the building in Stratford-upon-Avon that William Shakespeare was born in, but how that building survived and became ground zero in the Shakespeare tourism industry. Schoch reveals how he discovered the dual focus of his book; how it took almost 200 years for people to realize the treasure that still stood in their midst; the shenanigans played by people who first depicted Shakespeare’s birthplace; the important distinctions between restoring a house and remaking it; the trick of hitting that sweet spot between writing an academic history and a popular one; and how the most important person in Shakespeare’s birthplace is not Shakespeare but the visitor. (Length 18:52)

Joel H. Morris discusses his debut novel All Our Yesterdays – no, not the penultimate episode of Star Trek: The Original Series – which tells the compellingly plausible story of the events that lead up to William Shakespeare's Macbeth. Morris reveals his multiple inspirations, both literary and personal; how investigations into the actual historical couple Shakespeare based his play on informed his novel; the ways in which writing is a process of discovery; how he balanced the political and the personal, the natural and supernatural; how he summoned the courage to explore one of literature's most famous characters; and the wonderful inability to let go of characters that won’t let you go. (Length 22:56)