Fred Wilson on his New, Othello-Inspired Work for the Folger

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

#Shakespeare #Storytelling #Books and Writing #Authors #FolgerShakespeareLibrary #Folger Shakespeare Library #Arts

30:20

Eli Beer is a pioneer, social entrepreneur, President and Founder of United Hatzalah of Israel. In thirty years, the organization has grown to more than 6,500 volunteers who unite together to provide immediate, life-saving care to anyone in need - regardless of race or religion. This community EMS force network treats over 730,000 incidents per year, in Israel, as they wait for ambulances and medical attention. Eli’s vision is to bring this life-saving model across the world. In 2015, Beer expanded internationally with the establishment of branches in South America and other countries, including “United Rescue” in Jersey City, USA, where the response time was reduced to just two minutes and thirty-five seconds. Episode Chapters (0:00) intro (1:04) Hatzalah’s reputation for speed (4:48) Hatzalah’s volunteer EMTs and ambucycles (5:50) Entrepreneurism at Hatzalah (8:09) Chutzpah (14:15) Hatzalah’s recruitment (18:31) Volunteers from all walks of life (22:51) Having COVID changed Eli’s perspective (26:00) operating around the world amid antisemitism (28:06) goodbye For video episodes, watch on www.youtube.com/@therudermanfamilyfoundation Stay in touch: X: @JayRuderman | @RudermanFdn LinkedIn: Jay Ruderman | Ruderman Family Foundation Instagram: All About Change Podcast | Ruderman Family Foundation To learn more about the podcast, visit https://allaboutchangepodcast.com/ Looking for more insights into the world of activism? Be sure to check out Jay’s brand new book, Find Your Fight , in which Jay teaches the next generation of activists and advocates how to step up and bring about lasting change. You can find Find Your Fight wherever you buy your books, and you can learn more about it at www.jayruderman.com .…

about a year ago 33:45

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Fred Wilson’s artistic output includes painting, sculpture, photography, and collage, among other media. But his 1992 work “Mining the Museum” at the Maryland Historical Society used the museum’s own collection as its material, radically reframing how American institutions present their art. Wilson went on to represent the United States at the 2003 Venice Biennale. For that exhibition, Wilson commissioned a black glass chandelier from the famed Venice glassmakers on the island of Murano. Wilson titled the piece “Speak of me as I am,” after the line from Shakespeare’s tragic Venetian, Othello. In the years since then, Wilson has made several other pieces that engage with Othello, many of them made from the same evocative black Murano glass. In a new installation piece commissioned by the Folger, Wilson brings together two sides of his artistic practice: institutional critique and glass sculpture. It’s titled “God me such uses send, Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend”—another line from Othello, this one spoken by Desdemona. The installation includes a massive black-glass mirror, ornately etched and filigreed. Visitors see themselves reflected in the mirror, along with a portrait of Queen Elizabeth that hangs opposite the mirror in the gallery. On another wall hangs an engraving of the actor Ira Aldridge in the role of Othello, alongside lines from the play written out in Aldridge’s own hand. The piece brings together questions of identity, belonging, erasure, and representation—and lets those facets reflect and refract one another, without easy answers. On this episode, Wilson discusses the piece with host Barbara Bogaev. Fred Wilson’s installation, “God me such uses send, Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend,” will welcome visitors to the Shakespeare Exhibition Hall when the Folger reopens on June 21. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published June 4, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. We had technical help from Digital Island Studios in New York and Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.

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Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

Fred Wilson on his New, Othello-Inspired Work for the Folger

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

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published about a year ago

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274 episodes

#Shakespeare #Storytelling #Books and Writing #Authors #FolgerShakespeareLibrary #Folger Shakespeare Library #Arts

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Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

1
Top Pop Songs of the 1600s 39:52

6 days ago39:52

39:52

What were the top musical hits of Shakespeare’s England? What lyrics were stuck in people’s heads? What stories did they sing on repeat? The 100 Ballads project is a deep dive into the hits of early modern England—a kind of 17th-century Billboard Hot 100. Drawing from thousands of surviving printed ballads, researchers Angela McShane and Christopher Marsh have ranked the most popular songs of the period. These broadsides—cheaply printed sheets sold for a penny—offer surprising insight into the period’s interests, humor, and even news headlines. McShane and Marsh discuss what these ballads tell us about moral norms, sensationalism, and everyday life. Some are instructive, some are bawdy, and some are unexpectedly feminist. This episode brings to life the soundscape of Shakespeare’s world with clips from newly recorded versions of the most popular ballads and a look at how the team developed their ranking system. >> Explore the project and hear the songs yourself at www.100ballads.org Christopher Marsh is Professor of Cultural History at Queen’s University, Belfast. He has published extensively on various aspects of society and culture in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. His most relevant book in relation to the 100 Ballads project is Music and society in early modern England (Cambridge, 2010). This is an overview of music-making in the 16th and 17th centuries, and it includes chapters on musicians, dancing, bell-ringing, psalm-singing and, of course, ballads. Angela McShane is an Honorary Reader in History at the University of Warwick. She is a social and cultural historian, researching the political world of the broadside ballad and the political and material histories of intoxicants and the everyday. She has published widely on political balladry, including numerous book chapters, and journal articles in Past and Present, Renaissance Studies, Journal of British Studies, Journal of Early Modern History, Popular Music Journal and Media History. She is also the author of a reference work, Political Broadside Ballads in Seventeenth Century England: A Critical Bibliography (2011). A monograph on the broadside ballad trade and its politics in seventeenth-century Britain is forthcoming with Boydell and Brewer. She is also a Co-Investigator for a related website and book project: “Our Subversive Voice: The history and politics of protest music 1600-2020.” From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published May 6, 2025. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production from Paola García Acuña. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services are provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.…

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

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The Yorkist Pretender, with Jo Harkin 35:39

20 days ago35:39

35:39

Who was Lambert Simnel—the boy who nearly claimed the Tudor throne? In late 15th-century England, identity wasn’t just a matter of birth—it could be a political weapon, a tool for rebellion, and sometimes, an outright performance. The story of Simnel, a boy plucked from obscurity and passed off as the York heir, reveals how precarious the Tudor dynasty really was—and how easily the lines between truth and fiction could blur. Author Jo Harkin joins us to explore the strange life of Simnel, the so-called Yorkist “pretender” who nearly toppled Henry VII. In her new novel The Pretender, Harkin imagines Simnel’s life beyond the history books, from his childhood on a farm to his years at court. Along the way, she unpacks what it meant to be groomed for kingship, what royal power struggles looked like from a child’s point of view, and how historical fiction can fill in the gaps of the past. Though Shakespeare never wrote a play about Henry VII, his portrayal of Richard III helped shape how we remember the Wars of the Roses—and how we understand power, myth, and legacy. Harkin reflects on those cultural inheritances, showing how writing about this era means grappling with historical facts and the fictions we’ve come to accept. Simnel’s story reminds us that what endures isn’t always what’s real, but what people are ready to believe. Jo Harkin’s debut speculative fiction novel, Tell Me An Ending, was a New York Times Book of the Year. Her first historical novel, The Pretender, was published in April 2025 in the U.K. and the U.S. She lives in Berkshire, England. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published April 22, 2025. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production from Paola García Acuña. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services are provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.…

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

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Surekha Davies on the Making of Monsters 33:22

5 weeks ago33:22

33:22

Historian Surekha Davies joins us to explore how ideas of wonder, race, and the monstrous shaped European thought in the age of empire. These weren’t just abstract concepts—they were embedded in scientific discourse, travel writing, and the visual culture of the time. Shakespeare’s plays reflect these cultural currents. In The Tempest, the character of Caliban—described as savage, deformed, and barely human—embodies the fears and fantasies that haunted early modern encounters with the so-called “New World.” Davies unpacks how Caliban’s portrayal draws on the same ways of thinking that labeled certain people monstrous and how Shakespeare’s work offers a lens into the period’s views on race, colonialism, and imagination. As we confront new technologies like artificial intelligence, Davies helps us consider what today’s “monstrous others” might be and how early modern ways of thinking linger in our discussions of what it means to be human. Dr. Surekha Davies is a British author, speaker, and historian of science, art, and ideas. Her first book, Renaissance Ethnography and the Invention of the Human, won the Morris D. Forkosch Prize for the best first book in intellectual history from the Journal of the History of Ideas and the Roland H. Bainton Prize in History and Theology. She has published essays and book reviews about the histories of biology, anthropology, and monsters in the Times Literary Supplement, Nature, Science, and Aeon. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published April 8, 2025. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production from Paola García Acuña. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services are provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.…

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

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Reimagining Judith Shakespeare with Grace Tiffany 35:08

7 weeks ago35:08

35:08

Judith Shakespeare’s life is a mystery. While history records her as the younger daughter of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, much of her story remains untold. In her new novel, The Owl Was a Baker’s Daughter, author and Shakespeare scholar Grace Tiffany brings Judith to life—filling in the gaps with adventure, resilience, and rebellion. A sequel to My Father Had a Daughter, this novel follows Judith into later adulthood. No longer the headstrong girl who once fled to London in disguise to challenge her father, she is now a skilled healer and midwife. However, when she is accused of witchcraft, she must escape Stratford and navigate a world where Puritans have closed playhouses, civil war splits England, and even her father’s legacy is at risk. Tiffany explores how she merged fact and fiction to reimagine Judith’s life. From the real-life scandal that shook her marriage to the theatrical and political disturbances of her time, the author examines what it means to write historical fiction—and how Shakespeare’s life and legacy continue to inspire new stories. Grace Tiffany is a professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama at Western Michigan University. She has also taught Shakespeare at Fordham University, the University of New Orleans, and the University of Notre Dame, where she obtained her doctorate. She is also the author of My Father Had a Daughter and The Turquoise Ring. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published March 25, 2025. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production from Paola García Acuña. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services are provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.…

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

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Julia Armfield Reimagines King Lear in a Drowning World 29:32

9 weeks ago29:32

29:32

How does Shakespeare’s King Lear resonate in a world facing climate catastrophe? Novelist Julia Armfield explores this question in Private Rites, a novel set in a near-future London reshaped by rising sea levels. Following three sisters grappling with their father’s death, Private Rites weaves together themes of inheritance, power, and familial wounds—echoing Shakespeare’s tragic monarch while carving out a distinctly modern, queer perspective. Armfield, author of Our Wives Under the Sea, discusses her fascination with disaster narratives, the inescapable dynamics of sibling relationships, and how Shakespeare’s work inspires her storytelling. From the storm in King Lear to the watery depths of her fiction, she reflects on how queerness, horror, and the climate crisis intersect in literature. Julia Armfield is a fiction writer living in London with her wife and cat. Her work has been published in Granta, The White Review, and Best British Short Stories in 2019 and 2021. In 2019, she was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. She was longlisted for the Deborah Rogers Award in 2018 and won the White Review Short Story Prize in 2018 and a Pushcart Prize in 2020. She is the author of salt slow, a collection of short stories, which was longlisted for the Polari Prize in 2020 and the Edge Hill Prize in 2020. Her debut novel, Our Wives Under The Sea, was shortlisted for the Foyles Fiction Book of the Year Award in 2022 and won the Polari Prize in 2023. Her second novel, Private Rites, was longlisted for the inaugural Climate Fiction Prize in 2024. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published March 11, 2025. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production from Paola García Acuña. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services are provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.…

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

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Lauren Gunderson on the Women of Hamlet 34:49

11 weeks ago34:49

34:49

What if Gertrude had more power than we thought? What if Ophelia’s fate wasn’t sealed from the start? And what does it really mean to mother a prince who might be losing his mind? Playwright Lauren Gunderson, one of the most produced living playwrights in America, takes on Hamlet in her latest play, A Room in the Castle. This sharp, feminist reimagining follows Ophelia, her handmaid, and Queen Gertrude as they navigate the dangers of Elsinore, wrestling with the weight of survival, duty, and defiant hope in the face of chaos. Gunderson, known for her witty and powerful storytelling in The Book of Will and The Half-Life of Marie Curie, discusses how she reclaims the voices of Hamlet‘s women, why Gertrude’s famous speech about Ophelia’s drowning might not be as simple as it seems, and how she crafted new ending that brings new light to Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy. >> Get your tickets to Folger Theatre’s A Room in the Castle, a co-production with Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, on stage March 4 – April 6…

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

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Shakespeare’s Narrative Poems 33:10

14 weeks ago33:10

33:10

How did early modern England understand race and how has that influenced our thinking? Race is often considered a recent construct, but Shakespeare’s works—both his plays and poetry—reveal a diverse world already aware of race, identity, and difference. In this episode, Patricia Akhimie, editor of The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Race, discusses the growing field of study and what we can learn from it. She is joined by two of the scholars contributing essays to the guide, Dennis Britton and Kirsten Mendoza, who are exploring the ways race, gender, and power intersect in Shakespeare’s long narrative poems. Britton examines Venus and Adonis, investigating how Shakespeare’s portrayal of beauty, fairness, and desire upends traditional thinking about sexuality and race. Mendoza focuses on human rights in The Rape of Lucrece, revealing how Shakespeare’s use of color symbolism exposes early modern ideas about race, gender, and bodily autonomy. Both scholars illuminate how Shakespeare’s works have encoded ideas about race, which continue to resonate today. The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Race is an essential resource for scholars, teachers, students, and readers interested in this important area of Shakespeare research. Patricia Akhimie is Director of the Folger Institute at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Director of the RaceB4Race Mentorship Network, and Associate Professor of English at Rutgers University-Newark. She is editor of the Arden Othello (4th series), author of Shakespeare and the Cultivation of Difference: Race and Conduct in the Early Modern World and, with Bernadette Andrea, co-editor of Travel and Travail: Early Modern Women, English Drama, and the Wider World. Dennis Austin Britton is an Associate Professor of English at the University of British Columbia. His research interests include early modern English literature, Protestant theology, premodern critical race studies, and the history of emotion. He is the author of Becoming Christian: Race, Reformation, and Early Modern English Romance (2014), coeditor with Melissa Walter of Rethinking Shakespeare Source Study: Audiences, Authors, and Digital Technologies (2018), and co-editor with Kimberly Anne Coles of ‘Spenser and Race’, a special issue of Spenser Studies (2021). He is currently working on a new edition of Othello for Cambridge University Press and a monograph, ‘Shakespeare and Pity: A Literary History of Race and Feeling.’ Kirsten N. Mendoza is an Associate Professor of English and Human Rights at the University of Dayton. Her first book project, ‘A Politics of Touch: The Racialization of Consent in Early Modern English Literature’, examines the conceptual ties that link shifting sixteenth- and seventeenth-century discourses on self-possession and sexual consent with England’s colonial endeavors, involvement in the slave trade, and global mercantile pursuits. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Renaissance Drama, Shakespeare Bulletin, The Norton Critical Edition of Doctor Faustus, Race and Affect in Early Modern English Literature, and Teaching Social Justice Through Shakespeare: Why Renaissance Literature Matters Now. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published February 10, 2025. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production from Paola García Acuña. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services are provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.…

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

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Nisha Sharma on Adapting Shakespeare for Modern Romances 31:10

16 weeks ago31:10

31:10

How do Shakespeare’s timeless themes translate to the South Asian diaspora? Could the man from Stratford himself be reimagined as a meddling auntie? Novelist Nisha Sharma’s If Shakespeare Were an Auntie trilogy takes on this challenge, taking inspiration from The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, and Twelfth Night to create contemporary romance novels set in the vibrant, close-knit world of the South Asian community. Sharma’s books explore love, identity, and social norms through characters navigating family expectations and community dynamics. These playful and poignant adaptations highlight Shakespeare’s enduring relevance while addressing modern issues like gender expectations and cultural identity. This episode explores Sharma’s creative process, her lifelong love for Shakespeare, and her approach to blending the playwright’s timeless themes with modern romance. From chaotic weddings to sharp banter, her novels reflect the humor and humanity of Shakespeare’s work while offering fresh perspectives for today’s readers. Nisha Sharma is the critically acclaimed author of YA and adult contemporary romances including My So-Called Bollywood Life, Radha and Jai’s Recipe for Romance, The Singh Family Trilogy, and the If Shakespeare was an Auntie series. Her books have been included in best-of lists by the New York Times, the Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, Entertainment Weekly, and more. She lives in Pennsylvania with her Alaskan husband, her cat Lizzie Bennett, and her dogs Nancey Drew and Madeline. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published January 28, 2025. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the Executive Producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production from Paola García Acuña. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services are provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.…

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

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Olivia Hussey: The Girl on the Balcony (Rebroadcast) 33:41

18 weeks ago33:41

33:41

Olivia Hussey, whose spirited portrayal of Juliet when she was just a teenager herself became iconic for generations of people watching the 1968 film adaptation of Shakespeare’s play, died on December 27, 2024. In 2019, we were lucky enough to record an interview with Hussey. To honor her life and work, we’re bringing it to you again. Olivia Hussey was just fifteen when Franco Zeffirelli cast her in Romeo and Juliet. When the film was released in October 1968, it catapulted her and Leonard Whiting, the young actor playing Romeo, to global stardom. For many Shakespeare lovers, Zeffirelli’s film is still the definitive film adaptation of the play. Fifty years after the movie’s release, Hussey’s memoir, The Girl on the Balcony: Olivia Hussey Finds Life After Romeo and Juliet, told the story of the actress’s life before, during, and after Romeo and Juliet. We talked with Hussey and asked her how she felt about Shakespeare before making the movie (“very boring”), filming the balcony scene (“I’d bump my teeth into his chin”), the endless press tour, and whether she’d do it all again. Barbara Bogaev interviews Olivia Hussey. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Originally published on January 22, 2019, and rebroadcast on January 13, 2025 © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This podcast episode, “Speak Again, Bright Angel,” was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the Associate Producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer; updated by Paola García Acuña. We had technical help from Andrew Feliciano and Paul Luke at VoiceTrax West in Studio City, California.…

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

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Shakespeare and his contemporaries, with Darren Freebury-Jones 33:43

21 weeks ago33:43

33:43

What does it mean to be called an “upstart crow”? In 1592, a pamphlet titled Greene’s groats-worth of witte described William Shakespeare, in the first allusion to him as a playwright, with this phrase, calling him “an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers.” This phrase sparked centuries of speculation. As Darren Freebury-Jones explores in his book, Shakespeare’s borrowed feathers: How early modern playwrights shaped the world’s greatest writer, Shakespeare’s so-called borrowing was neither unusual for the time nor a weakness—it was ultimately a testament to his genius. Exploring how Shakespeare navigated a competitive theatrical scene in early modern England, Freebury-Jones reveals the ways in which Shakespeare reshaped the works of contemporaries like John Lyly, Thomas Kyd, and Christopher Marlowe into something distinctly his own. By combining traditional literary analysis with cutting-edge digital tools, he uncovers echoes of Lyly’s witty comedies and gender-bending heroines, Kyd’s tragic revenge dramas, and Marlowe’s powerful verse in Shakespeare’s early plays. This episode sheds light on Shakespeare’s role as a responsive and innovative playwright deeply embedded in the early modern theatrical community. Listen in to learn more about the influences on the “upstart crow” as he created a canon of timeless works. 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.…

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

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Directing Romeo and Juliet, with Sam Gold 35:22

21 weeks ago35:22

35:22

2024 has been the year of the iconic lovers Romeo and Juliet, and director Sam Gold has brought a bold new production of the timeless tragedy to Broadway. With a fresh, contemporary approach, Gold transforms Shakespeare’s classic love story into an immersive experience that features a dynamic young cast led by Rachel Zegler (West Side Story) and Kit Connor (Heartstopper) and an innovative score by Grammy-winning musician Jack Antonoff, blending live music seamlessly into the action. Gold discusses how he re-envisioned the play for today’s world, capturing the urgency and intensity of youth while staying true to the emotional heart of the original. He reflects on the challenges and joys of reinterpreting a well-known story and shares the creative process behind staging a Romeo and Juliet that feels relevant to a whole new generation of theatergoers, many of whom may be seeing their first Broadway. Sam Gold is a Tony Award-winning director with an extensive Broadway and theater resume. His Broadway credits include An Enemy of the People (this season) with Jeremy Strong and Michael Imperioli, Macbeth with Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga, King Lear with Glenda Jackson, A Doll’s House, Part 2 (Tony Award Nomination), The Glass Menagerie, Fun Home (Tony Award), The Real Thing, The Realistic Joneses, and Seminar. Recent credits include Hamlet at The Public Theater, Othello at New York Theatre Workshop, The Flick (Lucille Lortel Award nomination) at Playwrights Horizons, Barrow Street Theatre, and the National Theatre, The Glass Menagerie (Toneelgroep, Amsterdam), John (Signature Theatre; Obie Award, Lortel and Drama Desk Award nominations), The Village Bike (MCC Theatre), and Uncle Vanya (Soho Repertory Theatre; Drama Desk nomination), among many others. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published December 16, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production from Paola García Acuña. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services are provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.…

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

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The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV, with Helen Castor 44:56

24 weeks ago44:56

44:56

What happens when a king believes he rules by divine right yet loses the trust of his people through his tyrannical actions? In this episode, acclaimed historian Helen Castor brings us into the world that inspired Shakespeare’s most celebrated history plays. Castor’s latest book, The Eagle and the Heart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV, peels back the layers of history to reveal the human drama behind a deadly royal rivalry. From Richard’s glittering but ill-fated reign to Henry’s reluctant haunted rule, this engaging discussion uncovers the timeless lessons behind the rise and fall of two kings. Packed with historical insight and fresh perspectives, this episode is a must-listen for history buffs, Shakespeare enthusiasts, and anyone curious about the delicate balance between power and duty. Helen Castor is an acclaimed medieval and Tudor historian. Her first book, Blood and Roses: The Paston Family in the Wars of the Roses, was longlisted for what is now known as the Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction and won the English Association’s Beatrice White Prize. Her next two books, She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth and Joan of Arc: A History were both on numerous Best Books of the Year lists and made into documentaries for BBC television, and Joan of Arc was longlisted for the PEN America/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography. She has one son and lives in London. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published December 3, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production from Paola García Acuña. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services are provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.…

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

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Studying Shakespeare Now 36:35

25 weeks ago36:35

36:35

Forget dusty textbooks and silent classrooms—the Folger Shakespeare Library has released new teaching guides designed to make the Bard’s works more engaging, accessible, and inclusive than ever before. In this episode, Peggy O’Brien, the editor behind these guides, and teachers Deborah Gascon and Mark Miazga, co-authors of the lesson plans for Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth respectively, explore how the Folger Method transforms student understanding by focusing on performance, collaboration, and creative engagement with Shakespeare’s language. The discussion also addresses how the guides tackle important topics like race and gender and how to adapt to today’s technological and social challenges, offering fresh strategies to connect with students in meaningful ways about Shakespeare and all kinds of literature. Whether you’re a teacher, a student, or simply a Shakespeare lover, this episode sheds light on innovative methods for bringing the classics to life and ensuring they remain relevant for future generations. About the Folger Guides to Teaching Shakespeare The Folger Guides to Teaching Shakespeare series offers educators fresh insights, innovative tools, and detailed lesson plans for teaching Shakespeare’s most frequently taught plays. Rooted in the proven Folger Method and informed by the experiences of classroom teachers across the United States, the guides are designed to make Shakespeare accessible, engaging, and relevant for today’s students. > > The new teaching guides are available for purchase online at the Folger Shop. Peggy O’Brien is a classroom teacher and the founder of the Folger Shakespeare Library’s Education Department. Since 1981, she has championed K–12 Shakespeare education, establishing the Teaching Shakespeare Institute and serving as the instigator and general editor of the Shakespeare Set Free series. From 2013 to 2024, Peggy returned to the Folger to serve as Director of Education, during which she oversaw the creation of the Folger Guides to Teaching Shakespeare. Deborah Gascon is a National Board-Certified teacher of English and Journalism in Columbia, South Carolina, and a Fulbright Teacher Exchange alum who taught English in Romania. A graduate of the 2012 Teaching Shakespeare Institute, she has served as a mentor teacher for the Folger Summer Academy. Deborah holds a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of South Carolina, with a dissertation on using Shakespeare to enhance student comprehension, empathy, and awareness of gender and race. She co-wrote the lesson plans for The Folger Guide to Teaching Romeo and Juliet. Mark Miazga teaches English at Baltimore City College High School, one of the nation’s oldest public schools, where he works within the International Baccalaureate Diploma and Middle Years Programs. A recipient of the Milken Educator Award in 2014, Mark is a 2008 Teaching Shakespeare Institute scholar and a 2013 Steinbeck Institute Scholar. He holds a BA in English and Education from Michigan State University and a Master’s in Secondary Education from Towson University. Mark co-wrote the lesson plans for The Folger Guide to Teaching Macbeth. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published November 18, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production from Paola García Acuña. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services are provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.…

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

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Farah Karim-Cooper on The Great White Bard (Rebroadcast) 32:03

27 weeks ago32:03

32:03

Can you love Shakespeare and be an antiracist? Farah Karim-Cooper’s book The Great White Bard explores the language of race and difference in Shakespeare’s plays. Dr. Karim-Cooper also looks at the ways Shakespeare’s work became integral to Britain’s imperial project and its sense of cultural superiority. But, for all this, Karim-Cooper is an unapologetic Shakespeare fan. It’s right there in the subtitle of her book: “How to Love Shakespeare While Talking about Race.” Far from casting Shakespeare out of the classroom or playhouse, Karim-Cooper shows new ways to appreciate him. By drawing connections between the plays and current events, she offers an eyes-wide-open tour of Shakespeare’s continued relevance. Karim-Cooper talks with Barbara Bogaev about the role of race in Titus Andronicus, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, and more. Farah Karim-Cooper, is the new Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library, was previously a Professor of Shakespeare Studies at King’s College London and Director of Education at Shakespeare’s Globe. The Great White Bard is available now from Viking Press. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Originally published August 15, 2023, updated and rebroadcast November 5, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Paola García Acuña is the web producer and edited this transcript. We had technical help from Mark Dezzani in Surrey and Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc…

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

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How Shakespeare Revolutionized Tragedy, with Rhodri Lewis 33:16

29 weeks ago33:16