Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast

On this special 20th anniversary episode, Chicago Shakespeare Theater artistic director Edward Hall discusses his productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Winter's Tale, which are running in rep this holiday season. Ed shares how repertory fuses the range and talent of the Chicago acting community with the mutability of Shakespeare's language; how he grew up in the Shakespeare family business (his father, Sir Peter Hall, founded the Royal Shakespeare Company); the desire to do something special for CST’s 40th anniversary, and to create a celebratory and untraditional pair of holiday productions; how Dream and Winter’s Tale complement each other; the success of certain promotional schemes; how Shakespeare is a living, breathing thing that demands to be spoken and heard; and how running a Shakespeare company on Lake Michigan continues a surprising family tradition. (Length 20:00) The post Shakespeare In Rep appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

In honor of this week's Blue Wave, we talk to author Casey Caldwell about his new book (from Arden Shakespeare), Urban Citizenship in Early Modern Drama: Politics, Commerce, and the City, which has surprising and intense resonance with our world today. Casey shares his constant attempt to look at Shakespeare clear-eyed; how Shakespeare’s use of antithesis tells us about what kind of man he might have been; enduring quotes from The Wizard of Oz; how the term "citizen" has a very specific meaning; how – and possibly why – Shakespeare never wrote a so-called “city comedy” (one of the most popular genres of his day) but did write what Casey calls a “city tragedy;” how the subject of Casey’s dissertation evolved into the subject of his new book; and how the citizens of Rome became a metaphor for the citizens of Shakespeare’s London. (Click through to understand Austin's reference to a "Bondian supervillain.") (Length 22:32) The post Early Modern Citizens appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

RSC actor Joseph Maudsley (William Shakespeare's Long Lost First Play (abridged)) talks about his solo show Biff to the Future, which celebrates the epic Back to the Future trilogy from the point of view of Biff Tannen, the bully in all three movies. Joe shares how Biff came to life through his experience performing with Oddsocks, Potted Potter, and the RSC; how he made new discoveries in the sacred texts; how he honors the craving to make rehearsed text sound spontaneous every single time; the power of creating your own work; leveling up from reduced production values to more elaborate stage magic; how his Biff characterization was equally inspired by original Biff actor Tom Wilson; and how you absolutely can’t hide when performing a one-person show. (Length 23:15) The post Joe’s Biff Riff appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

Theater artist and church elder Seth Willis conducts post-show talkback services at the Family of Christ Presbyterian Church in Greeley, CO, home of the Greeley Garage Sale Theater, connecting the art of the theater to the mission of the congregation in both profound and emotional ways. Willis, whose production of Christopher Trumbo's Red, White, and Blacklisted runs October 23-24 & 30-31, 2026, discusses how the particular ritual came to be, his own background with both theology and the arts; the beauty of unanticipated depth and connection; and the brilliant and generous understanding that “wisdom literature” comes in many forms. (Length 21:52)  The post Theater Church Services appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

Playwright Sara Farrington, whose terrific two-hander "Look Out" has just dropped from Broadway Play Publishing, also writes the most excellent Substack "Theater Is Hard," wherein she writes entertainingly and usefully about not only the difficulties of the artistic process but the business process as well. Sara shares the blessing and curse of playwrights not having bosses; how theater's limitations are what make it an amazing art form; the way in which the audience is always complicit in the theater’s art of “collective imagination;” how there needs to be an “injection of inevitability” in everything; being inspired by both Eugene O’Neill and the Wooster Group; the dangers of explaining everything and related critiques of Stephen Sondheim; and how we're both big fans of those Aristotelian unities, baby. (Length 22:35) The post Theater Is Hard appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

Veteran TV & film actor (Man on the Inside, Mr. Show with Bob and David) and VoiceOver artist (SpongeBob SquarePants) Jill Talley returns to the legitimate stage this month in Bill Odenkirk's new play We Interrupt This Program, about an alien invasion that coincides with the broadcast of Orson Welles's War of the Worlds. Jill talks about the challenges of voice acting vs. full-body acting; the minor difficulties of playing a crotchety old Chicago lady; how fans of SpongeBob Squarepants are the nicest fans in the world; how she's returning to acting with longtime friend Bob Odenkirk; whether it’d be fun to be recognized more than she is already; how everybody thinks comedy is easy and drama is hard; and how appearing in a very cool Smashing Pumpkins video led to one of Jill’s more obscure – though award-winning – performances. (Length 20:53) The post Jill Talley’s Voice appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

Director Phillip Breen discusses his Chicago Shakespeare Theater production of The Merry Wives of Windsor and his contention that this less-produced play is in fact Shakespeare's Greatest Comedy. Phillip explores why Merry Wives is not just Shakespeare's funniest play but his most transgressive; how it dares to imagine female sexuality; how it resembles Midsummer except the lovers are in their 40s and 50s; how he's a Darwinist in the rehearsal room; how tired we are of the “largely rubbish” idea that Shakespeare’s text gives us absolutely everything we need; the sad truth that there aren’t enough theatre folks who are properly bilingual in the language of sports; the question of whether Falstaff’s punishment (like Malvolio’s) fits the crime; and the great power of extra-textual fart jokes that remain grounded in character and situation. (Length 22:15) (Pictured above, l to r: Olivia Pryor, Issy van Randwyck, Ora Jones, and Nancy Voigts as The Merry Wives of Windsor, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, directed by Phillip Breen, 2026.) The post Shakespeare’s Greatest Comedy? appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

The Reduced Shakespeare Company joins those fighting to save Washington DC's Kennedy Center from those who would destroy it. RSC artistic directors Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor share their favorite memories of the eight summers they performed in the KenCen's Terrace Theater; the celebrities whose paths they crossed; the many opportunities that came their way as a result of performing in our nation's capital; how we ended up performing both on National Public Radio and at the White House; the identities of the Reduced Shakespeare Company Dancers; jokes and bits we weren’t allowed to do; encounters with amazing seeing-eye dogs; the definitive demonstration of the phenomenon known as "Second-Night Letdown;" a rare award nomination for Best New Play; preserving the true legacy of the Kennedy Center's artistry over at @OurKennedyCenter; and the extraordinary artists whose company the RSC is proud to share. (Length 25:41) The post Kennedy Center Memories appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

The Greeley (CO) Garage Sale Theatre hosted a talkback during the closing weekend of Austin Tichenor's play Puritans, and the cast, director Daniel Mothershed, and playwright took questions from an audience that included over a dozen theatre students from Frontier Academy. Austin and the cast share how the play combines autobiographical with fictional elements; how hard it is to pretend characters from other time periods aren't there; how hard it is to understand our past; how multiple generations can be in conversation with each other; how the playwright's a sucker for epic multi-generational family epics; how Puritans evolved from a novel into a play; how characters in a play – even ones based on real people – become automatically fictional with their own narrative imperatives; and how a play about multiple generations appeals to multiple generations. (Length 25:26) The post Austin’s ‘Puritans’ Talkback appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

Longtime full-time teacher and longtime part-time improviser Kate Wiersema talks about her very fun and incredibly helpful book Playing to Learn: Using Improv in the K-8 Classroom, which creates suggestions and games that provide a "structure for fun" in the classroom. Kate shares how these games and tools can be used for curriculum as well as emotional learning; how these tools require no extra supplies and help build a sense of community; how learning can be collaborative rather than adversarial; how they can help get out of the rote of everything becoming "standardized;" the importance of combating ‘boy syndrome;’ the value of someone stepping up and being the “And;” and further examples – if more were needed – that illustrate why Improv Is Magic. Lives are being changed! (Length 20:17) The post Playing To Learn appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.