Speaking of Shakespeare

Podcast at https://speakingofshakespeare.buzzsprout.com. Thomas Dabbs talks with Lucy Munro, King’s College, London, mainly about her recent book entitled ‘Shakespeare in the Theatre: The King’s Men’. Also Lucy gives her perspectives on London playhouses during Shakespeare’s time and beyond, with a particular focus on Blackfriars. This talk also covers elements of lost culture in Shakespeare’s time and the initiative to produce a lost play based on historical records entitled ‘Keep the Widow Waking’. There is also commentary on Lucy’s work in theatre architecture with regards to current-day reproductions of old theatres. 

Thomas Dabbs talks with Mark Thornton Burnett of Queen’s University, Belfast, about Shakespearean adaptations, particularly in film and across the globe.

Thomas Dabbs speaks with Stephen Greenblatt of Harvard University about Greenblatt’s recent work on Shakespeare, the Bible, and Lucretius.

This is a talk with Alec Ryrie, FBA, of Durham University about the relationship between Reformation religion and Shakespeare and Marlowe. In this talk Alec reflects on drama and emotion in Protestantism during the 16th and 17th centuries in England and on purgatory, ghosts, souls, atheism, and church ritual. 

Alec is a historian of Protestant  Christianity in general and of religion in early modern England and Scotland in particular. He has written extensively on the English Reformation and the history and impact of Protestantism in England and Scotland and across the globe. His most recent book is ‘Unbelievers: An Emotional History of Doubt.’ 

He has spoken on the cultural, social, political and emotional history of religion and on other subjects, including faith and doubt;  martyrdom, violence and religious warfare; magic and deception; moderation and radicalism; childhood religious experience; and liturgy and prayer. Alec is also a reader (lay minister) in the Church of England and serves as a Gresham College Professor of Divinity.

Thomas Dabbs speaks with Sarah Olive of the University of Bangor about global Shakespearean education and about her work on young adult and children’s fiction (where things Shakespearean make many appearances). Sarah is currently on research leave (2022) and is a visiting professor at Kobe Women’s College in Japan.

Thomas Dabbs speaks with Edward Wilson-Lee of Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge. Wilson-Lee is the author of “Shakespeare in Swahililand,” a study of how Shakespearean plays made their way into East Africa. He is also the author of “The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books,” which examines the life of Columbus’s son, Hernando Colón, and Hernando’s dream of a library that held universal knowledge. This work is supplemented with another book on Colón’s catalogue, a collaboration with José María Pérez Fernández entitled “Hernando Colón’s New World of Books: Towards a Cartography of Knowledge.” Wilson-Lee also has another book that will appear in August 2022, entitled “A History of Water, being an account of a murder, an epic, and two vision of global history.”

00:00:00 - Intro

00:03:41 - Formative years, East Africa, books and adventure

00:07:04 - A History of Water

00:16:15 - Shakespeare in Swahililand

00:32:10 - The travels of translation

00:39:50 - Shakespeare for the people, Shakespearean adaptation

00:45:30 - Hernando Colón and preserving knowledge

00:56:20 - The found book and ordering knowledge

01:19:28 - Scholarship in narrative form; the wandering scholar

01:15:50 - Japanese translation and closing remarks

Peggy O’Brien, Director of Education at the Folger Shakespeare Library, about the Folger Method for teaching Shakespeare (see link below). This talk also covers the Folger’s educational offerings online and on-site, including lesson plans and and other offerings for those who teach Shakespeare. 

The Folger Method: https://www.folger.edu/the-folger-method

Folger Shakespeare Library (homepage): https://www.folger.edu

00:00:00 - Intro
00:02:40 - The Folger Method and its origins
00:08:15 - NEH, Professional development, The Wide World, Folger Teaching 
00:14:15 - Global literary education, bridging the language and dialect gap
00:21:00 - Why so much Shakespeare? The sweep of literature. Race and Gender.
00:27:10 - Recent troubles in American schools. Political polarization
00:37:15 - Humanities under attack. Public demand for the humanities.
00:44-38 - Outreach, Michael Witmore
00:51:34 - Shakespeare, theory, history, and student-centered interpretations
01:58:40 - Shakespearean adaptation in Japan and across the globe
01:03:00 - Peggy’s career in education
01:08:40 - Covid and adapting to change in teaching
01:10:54 - A welcome from the Folger and closing remarks

This series is funded with institutional support from Aoyama Gakuin University (AGU) in Tokyo and with a generous grant from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

Thomas Dabbs speaks with Holger Schott Syme of the University of Toronto about his revisionist understanding of the London theatre during Shakespeare’s time. The talk also covers Holger’s views on acting companies and theatre going in the Elizabethan period, and also his editorial work, specifically on ‘The Spanish Tragedy’. 

Thomas Dabbs speaks with Lena Cowen Orlin about her new book, ‘The Private Life of William Shakespeare’ and about about other areas of her research, including her findings on Tudor homes and her detailed recovery of quotidian life during Shakespeare’s time. 

00:00:00 - Intro
00:03:24 - ‘The Private Life of William Shakespeare’: Overview
00:09:20 - Shakespeare’s education in Stratford: Ovid and Cicero
00:12:40 - Shakespeare’s returns to Stratford from London: Oxford, monuments
00:15:02 - Shakespeare’s monument
00:17:58 - Problems in the history of Shakespearean biography
00:20:00 - Biographical research, evidence clusters: misrepresentations and obsessions
00:27:48 - Misrepresentations of Shakespeare’s marriage: 2nd best bed
00:33:08 - Shakespeare’s will, early modern wills
00:35:04 - Lena’s research on private life and Tudor houses
00:38:49 - Hagler Institute: the Shakespeare Variorum
00:45:45 - The Folger and Lena’s work at the Folger, training at Chapel Hill, Hinman collator
00:50:21 - Benefits of digital resources
00:52:47 - Shakespeare Birthplace Trust: Stratford and fires
00:58:55 - Lena and the Shakespeare Assoc. of America, and the International Shakespeare Assoc.
01:03:01 - Lena’s background: Washington, D.C., and London, research on houses
01:06:55 - More on Lena’s future work, private papers in Shakespeare
01:08:55 - Research travel during a pandemic: in-person conferencing and field research
01:15:08 - Closing remarks

The Speaking of Shakespeare series is funded with institutional support from Aoyama Gakuin University (AGU) and with a generous grant from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).

Thomas Dabbs speaks with David Sterling Brown of Binghamton University. David is currently an ACLS/Mellon Scholars and Society Fellow in residence with The Racial Imaginary Institute, founded by Claudia Rankine, and in July 2022 he will join the faculty at Trinity College (USA), his undergraduate alma mater.

This conversation includes a look at recent initiatives that explore whiteness and modern racial conflict through the performance and study of Shakespeare. It also focuses on such recent initiatives as The Racial Imaginary Institute, spearheaded by Claudia Rankine, and also on the progress of 'Untitled Othello,' an ensemble led by Keith Hamilton Cobb. 

LINKS
David Sterling Brown Online (Other Presentations)
https://www.davidsterlingbrown.com/presentations

[SEGMENTS]
00:00:00 - Intro
00:02:00 - The Racial Imaginary Institute (TRII), Claudia Rankine
00:08:20 - American Moor, Untitled Othello, Keith Hamilton Cobb
00:28:50 - Cleopatra
00:33:10 - Whiteness and Color, the segregated South, Racialized Whiteness
00:39:40 - James Baldwin, African-American Lit and Shakespeare
00:44:50 - Challenging Shakespeare, ‘Titus Andronicus’
00:47:08 - Tragedy vs Comedy, racial perspectives, dark comedy
00:52:24 - bell hooks’ passing and her contributions, reflections
00:59:03 - Redemption, mediating change, confronting the now
01:13:38 - Guys, folks, drag, and drag queen
01:15:40 - David’s editorial positions with journals. 
01:16:26 - Social Justice in Contemporary Performance
01:19:28 - Shakespeare's Other Race Plays
01:21:00 - The Folger and Teaching Race Every Place, The First Folio
01:22:39 - Forthcoming books, Racialized Whiteness and Pedagogy/Scholarship
01:24:20 - The Sonic Color Line, Black Klansman, Sorry to Bother You
01:27:50 - Hood Feminism
01:30:55 - The Household and Mental Health
01:37:40 - Closing remarks