Karen Ann Daniels

Karen Ann Daniels, Director Of Programming and Artistic Director of Washington DC’s Folger Theatre, discusses her journey with Shakespeare and her goal of making the resources of the Folger Shakespeare Library open and available to more people. Karen Ann shares her love of site-specific theatre; how the Folger is renovating and improving not just its physical space, but its metaphysical space; expanding the kinds of people who get called “emerging artists;” how her early training as a musician led to a life of Shakespeare; how Bugs Bunny and Duck Tales are part of many Shakespearean origin stories; how the Folger picked the perfect time to plan its multi-million dollar renovation; and how exposure to Shakespeare can help you find your voice. (Length 17:53)

Shakespeare Lightning Round

Austin Tichenor was a guest on the Folger Shakespeare Library’s Instagram Live series Shakespeare Lightning Round, a hugely fun format where guests from all corners of the Shakespeare world answer rapid-fire questions about all aspects of Shakespeare. Host Ben Lauer, the Folger’s Social Media and Communications Manager, hurls thirty rapid-fire questions at Austin, who reveals his favorite prop, his favorite Midsummer mechanical, and his favorite Shakespeare ghost; which Shakespeare moments have made him cry; how the RSC set a Guinness World’s Record; his favorite Shakespeare play he’s never got to work on; and how not getting #SnakesOnAPlane trending is such a missed opportunity. In the words of Shakespeare himself, strap in. (Length 23:14)

Episode 602. Broadway’s Fight Guy

Friend of the podcast Tom Schall talks about how he’s become Broadway’s Fight Guy (or, truthfully, one of them), the go-to person to design fight choreography and tell a story using actors’ physical language. Featuring how to develop and agree on physical vocabulary; how work leads to work; switching between the past and present tense; nuts and bolts; torn rotator cuffs; working with directors; a great description of working at the Folger Theatre; tales of working on Hamlet with Oscar Isaac and Keegan-Michael Key; and the joys and dangers of teaching James Bond and Martin Luther King, Jr. how to fight. (Length 20:17) Photograph of David Oyelowo as Othello and Daniel Craig as Iago by Charlie Gray for Vanity Fair.

Episode 452. Beyond The Stage

Reed Martin, Austin Tichenor, and Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival workshop cast members Chad Yarish, Dan Saski, and Teddy Spencer discuss the development of the new script William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (abridged) as part of NDSF’s “Beyond The Stage” series. Featuring questions from NDSF Artistic Director Grant Mudge and members of the audience, and discussion about the power of story, outrageous tales of audience participation, the challenges of working with two directors, the tricks of telling the truth and interacting with the public, inevitable comparisons, and the wonder of Shakespearean inspiration. (Length 22:18)

Episode 256. We Review ‘Anonymous’

During a break from our successful run of The Complete World of Sports (abridged) at the New Victory Theatre in New York City, we aim our satirical guns at the much-debated film “Anonymous” and the theories that underlie it. Joined by theatrical pundit and raconteur Howard Sherman, the members of the RSC (Reed Martin, Matt Rippy, Austin Tichenor, and office manager Alli Bostedt) improvised their review and analysis in the offices of the New Victory Theater immediately after the film. Featuring differing opinions, much benefit of the doubt, unabridged wig appreciation, a perfect critical response from NPR’s Bob Mondello — and zero convincing. For a definitive rebuttal to the so-called Authorship Question, download the entirely free PDF “Shakespeare Bites Back: Not So Anonymous,” by Rev. Dr. Paul Edmondson and Prof. Stanley Wells, CBE of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. (Length 26:53)

Take a Private Tour of the FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY!

The Folger Shakespeare Library is the largest collection of Shakespeare Folios and Shakespeareana in the world, and we were given a private tour by none other than Folger Director Gail Paster and Head of Reference Georgianna Ziegler themselves.

We recorded the whole thing for the Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast, which you can listen to here.

And the Folger put up a fantastic slideshow of all the things we looked at, which you can see here(more…)