That Shakespeare Life

We are celebrating Shakespeare's birthday this week by taking a look at how Shakespeare became a gentleman. One of the ways William Shakespeare achieved the status of a gentleman was in the procurement of the family Coat of Arms. This process was something of a mystery because history shows us that Shakespeare's father had been eligible for a coat of arms, but never received it. Later, his son William would successfully acquire the arms for the family, presumably a source of pride for his father, as well as a firm establishment of respect and status in the community. This week we are happy to welcome back to the show for his second time as a guest here at That Shakespeare Life, the distinguished Dr. Paul Edmondson, Head of Research and Knowledge at Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, who joins us to be our guide into the history of Shakespeare's coat of arms, heraldry, and the Shakespeare family.

Several of Shakespeare's history plays, and even some of his comedies mention or refer to characters as a knight. Sometimes knights are good, other times they are bad, and sometimes we aren't quite sure what they are as is often the case with characters like Falstaff. However, what's true is that an armored knight defending the honor of the monarchy were real people in Shakespeare's lifetime, and the portrayal of them on stage reflects what was going on around the real 16th century audience. Here to help us sort out the legend from the fact surrounding knights in early modern England is our guest, Scott Farrell.

For William Shakespeare, the Globe theater itself represented a place that brought together a mix of classes. People from high society, all the way down the poorest of the poor observed Shakespeare's plays, but how much of the bard's work acknowledged the poor and what was the reality of charitable giving going on around William Shakespeare as he was penning some of his famous scenes about beggars? That's the question we'll be asking today as we chat with our guest, Robert Henke. Rob is a professor Professor of Drama and Comparative Literature at UC Berkeley, and the author of several works on Shakespeare and theater. He joins us today to discuss one book in particular, Poverty and Charity in Early Modern Theater and Performance.

When William Shakespeare was writing The Tempest was he considering the light bouncing off the walls of his playhouse? When he directed Feste to be fond of singing in Twelfth Night, did Shakespeare know the people in the back would be able to hear him?

We don't often think about Shakespeare's plays in context of where they were originally performed, but this week our guest Sarah Dustagheer has written an entire book exploring that very question. Turns out, many of Shakespeare's lines were written for the location where they were first to be performed. Sarah is a Senior Lecturer in Early Modern Literature at The University of Kent, and author of her latest book, Shakespeare's Playhouses: Repertory and Theatre Space at the Globe and the Blackfriars, 1599-1613

When William Shakespeare was writing The Tempest was he considering the light bouncing off the walls of his playhouse? When he directed Feste to be fond of singing in Twelfth Night, did Shakespeare know the people in the back would be able to hear him?

We don’t often think about Shakespeare’s plays in context of where they were originally performed, but this week our guest Sarah Dustagheer has written an entire book exploring that very question. Turns out, many of Shakespeare’s lines were written for the location where they were first to be performed.

Sarah is a Senior Lecturer in Early Modern Literature at The University of Kent, and author of her latest book, Shakespeare’s Playhouses: Repertory and Theatre Space at the Globe and the Blackfriars, 1599-1613

Shakespeare's hometown of Stratford Upon Avon sits just outside the famous Cotswolds Hills, where wool was the primary industry. It's even thought that shepherds in the area taking care of their sheep are responsible for the first discovery of graphite that would go on to be used in pencils. In Shakespeare's plays, there are references to sheep, lambs, fleeces, wool, and shepherds in almost all of his works, leading us to wonder how personally connected to sheep and the wool industry William Shakespeare might have been.

Here as our guest this week to help us explore Shakespeare's history with sheep is the person in charge of the actual living sheep kept in Shakespeare's name, and a representative part of his history at Mary Arden's Farm in Stratford Upon Avon, is Lizzy Dobbin [Assistant Farm Manager at Mary Arden's Farm], at Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.