Love's Labour's Lost 201

It only took us 4 years, but we have finally circled back to Love’s Labour’s Lost for a deep dive into what some fussy Victorians - Hazlitt and Tennyson - had to say about the play, plus a little bit about the moral implications of the ladies’ “homework” for the boys at the play’s conclusion. There also may or may not be some extensive bird walking into a little-known whodunit called The Moonstone #sorrynotsorry. We gossip a little and also deliver A Big Announcement About the Podcast.

Here’s what we featured in our Happy Hour segment:

• Aubrey’s rec: Black Shakespeare: Reading and Misreading Race by Ian Smith

• Jess’s rec: Anti-Racist Shakespeare edited by Ambereen Dadabhoy and Nedda Mehdizadeh

Here’s what we talked about in our ShakesBubble Gossip segment:

• That dumb tweet about pronoun use in Shakespeare eye roll

• Southwest Shakespeare’s LLL production runs March 24 & 30

• LLL plays at the Stratford Festival from August 23- October 1

• Asolo Rep’s LLL production runs April 4-23

Henry VIII 201

Our winter break is officially over and we hope you did your homework because Dr. Yasmine Hachimi joins us to talk about Henry VIII (the man, and sometimes Shakespeare’s play) and his most infamous wife, Anne Boleyn. In this longer-than-usual conversation we focus on the Netflix miniseries Blood, Sex, and Royalty, but also several other TV series and books that feature Anne and other Tudor queens. We examine why Anne in particular is the subject of this type of historical hyper-focus (spoiler alert: it mostly boils down to sexism…) and why we feel the need to sexualize historical queens at all. Yasmine also graces us with a fantastic reading list and tons of other recommendations if you’re interested in learning more. Thanks for joining us, Yasmine!

Here’s what we featured in our Happy Hour segment:

• Aubrey’s rec: Wednesday on Netflix

• Jess’s rec: Using museum collections in your classes

• Yasmine’s rec: Beverly Jenkins novels like Forbidden

Here’s what we talked about in our ShakesBubble Gossip segment:

• Yasmine’s Must-Read list:

  • Read Yasmine’s article and then watch the show referenced in it!

  • The Final Year of Anne Boleyn by Natalie Grueninger

  • Blood, Fire, and Gold by Estelle Paranque

  • The House of Dudley by Joanne Paul

  • Dig podcast’s episode about Amy Robsart’s mysterious death

  • The Boleyns of Hever Castle by Claire Ridgway and Owen Emmerson

  • The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn by Eric Ives

  • The Creation of Anne Boleyn by Susan Bordo

Troilus & Cressida 201

Well, we hope you like feminist rants, because that’s what most of this episode devolved into. In this 201 we go off on Troilus and the rest of the men of Troilus and Cressida to interrogate why the Greeks and Trojans hinged all of their masculinity and self worth on Helen and Cressida’s status as chaste virgins. We also take a brief birdwalk to examine the folio text of this play to check an odd prose-to-verse switch in act 3 scene 2. Finally, we dust the cobwebs off of a favorite game, Line Roulette, and find out why a line about Achilles’ Mermidons cries encapsulates this entire play full of whiny boys.

Here’s what we featured in our Happy Hour segment:

• Aubrey’s rec: A-A-R-F animal rescue organization

• Jess’s rec: Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

Here’s what we talked about in our ShakesBubble Gossip segment:

• Ummm…Jess got a Shakespeare tattoo?

Taming of the Shrew 201

Today’s episode tackles one issue and one issue only, and that is to refute the assertion that The Taming of the Shrew is about “romance” (whatever the F that means). We examine a variation in the text between First Folio printing and several modern editions that seem to either soften or double down on Petruchio’s “domination” of Katherine, and eventually come to the conclusion that no matter which way you slice it, the entire charade is unnecessary. We unpack the term “romantic” and why our mothers’ opinions on romantic love might not have aged well, as well as quite possibly the only interpretation of Shrew that could make its protagonists journey actually romantic. No spoilers. #consentissexy

Here’s what we featured in our Happy Hour segment:

• Aubrey’s rec: Shout outs to AFSP and MHA for being incredible mental health resources!

• Jess’s rec: Isaac Fellman’s Dead Collections

Here’s what we featured in our ShakesBubble Gossip segments:

• Check out Romeo & Juliet starring Meg Rodgers and Friend-of-the-Pod Brandon Carter at ASC

Spanish Tragedy 201

Today we put on our teacher hats and model the kind of thinking we ask our students to do. After a four-year hiatus, we return to Thomas Kyd’s ur-revenge tragedy that started them all, The Spanish Tragedy, to discuss how the F*ck we’re supposed to unpack it for 21st century learners. Jess starts with examining the difference between revenge and justice which, though nebulous, proved an easier topic to broach with her students than the concept of dumb shows and masques. Um…they don’t talk? There are masks and sometimes dancing? (There’s more to it than that, but you’ll need to listen to catch it all!)

Here’s what we featured in our Happy Hour segment:

• Aubrey’s rec: WFA (Women’s Football Alliance- professional tackle football!) look up your nearest team! PLAY SOME FOOTBALL.

• Jess’s rec: Detransition Baby by Torrey Peters and the wholesome joy that is Ted Lasso

Here’s what we featured in our ShakesBubble Gossip segments:

• RSC’s first-ever disabled actor playing R3

• RSC’s 37 plays initiative 

• White People in Shakespeare book out this fall

• Fatal Throne novellas

• Theatre J’s Expanding the Canon project

• Also that nonsense in American Conservative, but we refuse to link to it.