By Kourtney Smith & Elyse Sharp
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The podcast currently has 111 episodes available.
In today's episode, we are joined by Shakespeare scholar, Darren Freebury-Jones, to discuss his soon-to-be-released book, Shakespeare's Borrowed Feathers, which explores how Shakespeare was influenced by his fellow contemporary dramatists like John Lyly, Ben Johnson, and Christopher Marlowe, and how he also influenced their work.
We'll discuss Darren's research process and the methods he used to analyze the works of Shakespeare and Shakespeare's contemporaries. We will also learn from Darren what this research reveals about the playwrighting and theatrical community of early modern London, and what readers and theatre-makers can learn from having a broader knowledge of early modern drama beyond Shakespeare.
About Darren Freebury-Jones
Dr Darren Freebury-Jones is author of the monographs: Reading Robert Greene: Recovering Shakespeare’s Rival (Routledge), Shakespeare’s Tutor: The Influence of Thomas Kyd (Manchester University Press), and Shakespeare’s Borrowed Feathers (Manchester University Press). He is Associate Editor for the first critical edition of The Collected Works of Thomas Kyd since 1901 (Boydell and Brewer). He has also investigated the boundaries of John Marston’s dramatic corpus as part of the Oxford Marston project and is General Editor for The Collected Plays of Robert Greene (Edinburgh University Press). His findings on the works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries have been discussed in national newspapers such as The Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Observer, and The Independent as well as BBC Radio. His debut poetry collection, Rambling (Broken Sleep Books), was published in 2024. In 2023 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in recognition of his contributions to historical scholarship.
About Shakespeare's Borrowed Feathers
A fascinating book exploring the early modern authors who helped to shape Shakespeare's beloved plays.
Shakespeare's plays have influenced generations of writers, but who were the early modern playwrights who influenced him? Using the latest techniques in textual analysis Shakespeare's borrowed feathers offers a fresh look at William Shakespeare and reveals the influence of a community of playwrights that shaped his work. This compelling book argues that we need to see early modern drama as a communal enterprise, with playwrights borrowing from and adapting one another's work.
From John Lyly's wit to the collaborative genius of John Fletcher, to Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson, Shakespeare's borrowed feathers offers fresh insights into Shakespeare's artistic development and shows us new ways of looking at the masterpieces that have enchanted audiences for centuries.
Order Shakespeare's Borrowed Feathers through bookshop.org (Note: this is an affiliate link, which means by clicking and ordering, you'll get a great book and support the podcast and local bookshops)
Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.
Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.
Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com
You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone, sending us a virtual tip via our tipjar, or by shopping our bookshelves at bookshop.org/shop/shakespeareanyonepod.
Works referenced:
Freebury-Jones, Darren. Shakespeare’s Borrowed Feathers. Manchester University Press, 2024.
In today's episode, we are exploring how Shakespeare was influenced by The Book of the Courtier by Baldassare Castiglione as he was writing Much Ado About Nothing. We'll discuss how close reading of both Shakespeare's play and Castiglione's Renaissance etiquette book uncovers layers of intertextuality and references to The Courtier in Shakespeare's writing.
First, we'll discuss some parallels between The Courtier and Much Ado About Nothing. Then we will dig deeper into Book 3 of The Courtier and how its messages on joking, jesting, and laughter can be read in Much Ado About Nothing. We will also briefly discuss how Hero and Beatrice reflect The Courtier's ideal for Renaissance women.
Finally, we will closely examine the courtiers in Much Ado About Nothing and how the characters of Benedick, Claudio, Don Pedro, and Don John can be read through the lens of good (and bad) courtier behavior as outlined in The Courtier. We will also discuss which of these courtiers comes the closest to Castiglione's ideal courtier, and what early modern English behaviors Shakespeare may have been commenting on through this play.
Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.
Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.
Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com
You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone, sending us a virtual tip via our tipjar, or by shopping our bookshelves at bookshop.org/shop/shakespeareanyonepod.
Works referenced:
Collington, Philip D. “‘Stuffed with All Honourable Virtues’: ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ and ‘The Book of the Courtier.’” Studies in Philology, vol. 103, no. 3, 2006, pp. 281–312, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4174852.
Ghose, Indira. “Courtliness and Laughter.” Shakespeare and Laughter: A Cultural History, Manchester University Press, 2008, pp. 15–51. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt155jd06.5. Accessed 30 Aug. 2024.
Today’s episode is another part of our series on Shakespeare’s Language Framework, or how Shakespeare’s use of language can inform our understanding of his works. In today’s episode, we are going to explore a device Shakespeare uses throughout his plays (but very notably in the comedies and histories): malapropisms.
We will start by defining the term malapropism, then we will explore a linguistic study on malapropisms to determine how Shakespeare's malapropisms are linguistically constructed. We will also discuss whether or not early modern audiences would have understood these malapropisms as intentional wordplay, and how scholars know that they are intentional, instead of a printing or editing error.
Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.
This episode was written by Elyse Sharp.
Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.
Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com
You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone, sending us a virtual tip via our tipjar, or by shopping our bookshelves at bookshop.org/shop/shakespeareanyonepod.
Works referenced:
“Acyrology, N.” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, June 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/4304815537.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "malapropism". Encyclopedia Britannica, 12 Jul. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/topic/malapropism. Accessed 20 August 2024.
"Dogberryism." Oxford Reference. . . Date of access 21 Aug. 2024, https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095724827
Keller, M. (2017). “Saying Thus or to the Same Defect”: A Linguistic Analysis of Shakespeare’s Malapropisms. English Studies, 98(3), 244–261. https://doi.org/10.1080/0013838X.2017.1283119
Livingstone, David. (2024). "If We Offend, It Is With Our Good Will”: Malapropisms, Mispronunciation and Garbling of Language in Shakespeare's Plays. FOLIUM. 4. 160-166. 10.32782/folium/2024.4.23.
In today's episode, we are investigating Shakespeare's comic constable in Much Ado About Nothing, Dogberry, and why this character is portrayed as a clown. We'll look at a survey of historical records from Shakespeare's time to determine if early modern constables were truly as ineffective as Dogberry appears to be and if there is a contextual reason that Shakespeare's audience would want to see them depicted as foolish on stage.
We will also discuss what the job of the early modern constable entailed, how it developed, and who the "real-life Dogberry" would have been in their communites. Finally, we will discuss how this context can shift our understanding of the character Shakespeare wrote.
Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.
Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.
Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com
You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone, sending us a virtual tip via our tipjar, or by shopping our bookshelves at bookshop.org/shop/shakespeareanyonepod.
Works referenced:
Kent, Joan. “The English Village Constable, 1580-1642: The Nature and Dilemmas of the Office.” Journal of British Studies, vol. 20, no. 2, 1981, pp. 26–49. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/175635. Accessed 4 Aug. 2024.
Spinrad, Phoebe S. “Dogberry Hero: Shakespeare’s Comic Constables in Their Communal Context.” Studies in Philology, vol. 89, no. 2, 1992, pp. 161–78. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4174417. Accessed 4 Aug. 2024.
In today's episode, we are joined by friend-of-the-pod, Dr. Danielle Rosvally to discuss her new book, Theatres of Value: Buying and Selling Shakespeare in Nineteenth-Century New York City, and how Shakespeare had value for New Yorkers in the 1800s, and how Shakespeare came to be so prominent in American culture.
About Danielle Rosvally:
Danielle Rosvally is an assistant professor of theatre at the University at Buffalo. Her work examines Shakespeare as cultural capital, particularly iterations that intersect with performance and theatrical labor. Her book Theatres of Value: Buying and Selling Shakespeare in Nineteenth-Century New York City explores how nineteenth-century New York theatre makers bought and sold the commodity of Shakespeare, and how these performances of value intersect with American nation building and national identity. Her next project, Yassified Shakespeare, is a multimedia exploration of how iterations of Shakespearean performance and Shakespeare’s cultural capital critically intersect with drag and drag aesthetics. Danielle is a fight director, director, actor, and dramaturge. Her work has been published in Theatre Topics, Studies in Musical Theatre, Borrowers and Lenders, Early Modern Studies Journal, several edited collections, and Shakespeare Bulletin, as well as on TikTok: @YassifiedShax
About Theatres of Value:
Theatres of Value explores the idea that buying and selling are performative acts and offers a paradigm for deeper study of these acts—"the dramaturgy of value." Modeling this multifaceted approach, the book explores six case studies to show how and why Shakespeare had value for nineteenth-century New Yorkers. In considering William Brown's African Theater, P. T. Barnum's American Museum and Lecture Hall, Fanny Kemble's American reading career, the Booth family brand, the memorial statue of Shakespeare in Central Park, and an 1888 benefit performance of Hamlet to theatrical impresario Lester Wallack, Theatres of Value traces a history of audience engagement with Shakespearean cultural capital and the myriad ways this engagement was leveraged by theatrical businesspeople.
Want to read Theatres of Value?
Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.
Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.
Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com
You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone, sending us a virtual tip via our tipjar, or by shopping our bookshelves at bookshop.org/shop/shakespeareanyonepod.
In our first deep dive episode into the world of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, we are examining early modern gender norms and how they influence the world of Messina and Leonato's household in Shakespeare's play.
Join us as we discuss the spectrum of womanhood represented by Hero and Beatrice and examine the early modern anxieties that fuelled representations of cuckoldry on stage (and where did the idea of horns come from?). We'll also explore the early modern ideal of the silent wife and the trope of women at windows before talking about how modern theatremakers can choose to address these themes.
Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.
Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.
Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com
You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone, sending us a virtual tip via our tipjar, or by shopping our bookshelves at bookshop.org/shop/shakespeareanyonepod.
Works referenced:
Berger, Harry. “Against the Sink-a-Pace: Sexual and Family Politics In Much Ado About Nothing.” Shakespeare Quarterly, vol. 33, no. 3, 1982, pp. 302–13. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2869734. Accessed 9 July 2024.
Cohen, Stephen. “‘No Assembly but Horn-Beast’: The Politics of Cuckoldry in Shakespeare’s Romantic Comedies.” Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, vol. 4, no. 2, 2004, pp. 5–34. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40339529. Accessed 16 July 2024.Friedman, Michael D. “‘Hush’d on Purpose to Grace Harmony’: Wives and Silence in ‘Much Ado about Nothing.’” Theatre Journal, vol. 42, no. 3, 1990, pp. 350–363, https://doi.org/10.2307/3208080.
Lewis, Cynthia. “‘You Were an Actor with Your Handkerchief’: Women, Windows, and Moral Agency.” Comparative Drama, vol. 43, no. 4, 2009, pp. 473–96. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23038006. Accessed 9 July 2024.
McEachern, Claire. “Why Do Cuckolds Have Horns?” Huntington Library Quarterly, vol. 71, no. 4, 2008, pp. 607–31. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.1525/hlq.2008.71.4.607. Accessed 16 July 2024.THOMSON, LESLIE. “Window Scenes in Renaissance Plays: A Survey and Some Conclusions.” Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England, vol. 5, 1991, pp. 225–43. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24322098. Accessed 9 July 2024.
To kick off our series on Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, we are (as always) starting with an overview of basic facts about the play and an introduction to the major themes and motifs of the play.
Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.
Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.
Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com
You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone or by shopping our bookshelves at bookshop.org/shop/shakespeareanyonepod
Works referenced:
Shakespeare, William. Much Ado About Nothing: Revised Edition. Edited by Claire McEachern, 2nd ed., Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.
SparkNotes Editors. “Much Ado About Nothing.” SparkNotes.com, SparkNotes LLC, 2005, https://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/muchado/section1/.
It's time for our next play, and we are so excited to dive into the world of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. As always, we will start off with a detailed plot summary, breaking down the action of the play scene by scene. Let's dive in!
Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.
Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.
Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com
You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone or by shopping our bookshelves at bookshop.org/shop/shakespeareanyonepod
Works referenced:
Shakespeare, William. Much Ado About Nothing: Revised Edition. Edited by Claire McEachern, 2nd ed., Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.
In today's episode, we are joined by Ricky Dukes, Artistic Director of the Lazarus Theatre Company, to discuss the work of the Lazarus Theatre Company, why classical plays, including Shakespeare, are still relevant for audiences today, and the upcoming (and timely) Lazarus Theatre Company production of Julius Caesar.
About Ricky Dukes
Ricky is a working-class, award-winning Director, Practitioner and Teacher based in the West Midlands and London. In 2007 he founded Lazarus Theatre Company and is the company’s current Artistic Director for which he won Best Artistic Director in the 2012 Fringe Report Awards.
His work is ensemble led with actor detail at its heart creating large scale visual, visceral, and vibrant theatrical experiences. Founded in 2007 Ricky has gone on to direct over 40 productions for Lazarus Theatre Company. He is currently working on a new production of Shakespeare’s Rowley’s Julius Caesar which will open at Southwark Playhouse in Sept 2024.
Notable productions include: The Changeling, Middleton & Rowley, Southwark Playhouse, 2023. Hamlet, Shakespeare, Southwark Playhouse, 2023. Doctor Faustus, Marlowe, Southwark Playhouse, 2022. Salomé, Oscar Wilde, Southwark Playhouse, 2021. Macbeth, Shakespeare, Greenwich Theatre, 2020. Edward II, Christopher Marlowe, Tristan Bates Theatre / Greenwich Theatre, 2017 /2018. Caucasian Chalk Circle, Brecht, Jack Studio Theatre / Greenwich Theatre, 2016 /2017. Tis Pity She’s A Whore, John Ford, Tristan Bates Theatre, 2016. Dido, Queen of Carthage, Christopher Marlowe, Greenwich Theatre, 2013.
About Lazarus Theatre Company
Lazarus Theatre Company is an award-winning ensemble, reimagining and revitalising classic plays in visual, visceral and vibrant productions. Follow them on Instagram and Twitter at @LazarusTheatre
About Lazarus Theatre Company's 2024 production of Julius Caesar
Lazarus Theatre Company will return to Southwark Playhouse Borough with a glimpse into the behind the scenes of government politics in a multimedia reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Set within a government spin room, this uncanny insight into the inner workings of politics and media engages with what we are fed and how we consume news. In what is set to be a hotly contested electoral year in the UK, US and across Europe, Julius Caesar’s investigation into what we can trust in the media and through our screens presents a crucial look at the current landscape of media, AI and public opinion.
A striking reimagining, which exposes the plots and betrayal at the forefront of the classic story, this political thriller will use an innovative blend of technology and staging to present both sides of the political coin. Expect dramatic and striking theatrics as Lazarus’s ensemble present a raucous and bloody production that sees The Thick of It meets West Wing.
Julius Caesar will run Friday September 6th – Saturday October 5th, 2024 at Southwark Playhouse Borough, The Large, 77-84 Newington Causeway, London SE1 6BD.
Captioned Performance Saturday 21st September 2024 Relaxed Performance Saturday 28th September 2024, 3pm, 7.30pm Streamed Performance Thursday 17th October 2024
Tickets are available online at https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/productions/julius-caesar/
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Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.
Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.
Additional sound effects from https://www.zapsplat.com/
Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com
You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone or by shopping our bookshelves at bookshop.org/shop/shakespeareanyonepod
It's hard to believe it is finally here, but we are wrapping up our Romeo and Juliet series this week by watching and discussing two productions.
First, we will discuss Baz Luhrmann's 1996 film William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the title roles. Then, we will move into the National Theatre at Home production of Romeo and Juliet directed by Simon Godwin and starring Jessie Buckley and Josh O'Connor.
Not enough Romeo and Juliet? Paid Patreon members can access our bonus episodes on Gnomeo & Juliet and the 2022 film Rosaline and suggest other adaptations we should watch for future Patreon bonus episodes!
Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.
Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.
Additional sound effects from https://www.zapsplat.com
Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com
You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone or by shopping our bookshelves at bookshop.org/shop/shakespeareanyonepod
Works referenced:
Godwin, Simon, director. Romeo and Juliet. National Theatre at Home, National Theatre, 2021, https://www.ntathome.com/romeo-juliet. Accessed 2024.
Luhrmann, Baz, director. William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, 1996.
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