As You Like It 301

Why As You Like It now? We cover many possible answers to this question, but also take some long, healthy bird walks into other topics both relevant and irrelevant as we make our way through those thoughts. We also dive deep into the New Oxford edition’s notes on AYLI (because it gets real sexist real quick) and attempt to unravel the printing mystery of why there is no quarto edition of this play. We gossip a little bit about the ethics of book reviews in Shakespeare journals and how Jon Snow…err…Kit Harrington is playing Henry V right now, once again disproving Aubrey’s claim that “no one’s doing the Henrys right now.” This episode is our season 5 finale; watch out for extras released during our hiatus, but otherwise we will see you for season 6 this fall. Go find your Green World!

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

• Aubrey’s rec: Get you a snuggly onesie! Try the fun prints at TomboyX

• Jess’s rec: the wonders of an epilator! Also the Up and Vanished podcast

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

• Henry V at the Donmar Warehouse and coming to a theatre near you with NT Live!

Tempest 301

Sometimes when you think you have nothing to say about a play, it turns out you still have a sh*t-ton to say. Today’s 301 episode revisits The Tempest, and we ask the question - what is its genre, really, and also why this play now? Jess posits that maybe The Tempest would feel a little more cathartic at the end if it were staged more like a revenge tragedy at the beginning; Aubrey speculates a bit about why so many regional theaters have added this title to their 2022 lineup. Oh, and we take not one but TWO birdwalks down Marie de France lane because Jess just can’t shut up about this medieval author. Lesbian weasels! Fun times!

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

• Aubrey’s rec: @decolonizeyourclassroom and @amplify.RJ communities on Insta are offering weekly asynchronous video lessons and live zoom discussions about “History of Black Abolitionist Politics and Action” starting Feb 5, going every saturday all month. You can learn more and sign up at tiny.cc/abolition

• Jess’s rec: Marie de France. Know her. Read her. Love her.

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

• This Washington Post article about the recent STA conference

• Nataki Garrett’s op ed in The Hill

• The Globe’s continuing series on Anti-racist Shakespeare webinars - next one is Feb. 10

• American Moor is coming to Pittsburg, PA Feb 17-20!!

• Awesome letter from ACMRS and RaceB4Race Executive Board on medium.com

Midsummer 301

It’s not enough to talk to one Bottom about being Nick Bottom, we needed at least 2: utter delights and all-around good humans (and actors) Topher Embry and Gregory Jon Phelps join us to talk about what they love (and hate) about A Midsummer Night’s Dream, playing Bottom and other characters, and so much more. It’s a shenanigan roller coaster for this 301-level episode, so buckle up!

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

• Here are the anticipated early modern (and EM-adjacent) titles of North American theatres for 2022 (next time we’ll cover across the pond):

  1. Old Globe: Taming and Midsummer

  2. OSF: The Tempest, King John, and The Cymbeline Project

  3. Colorado Shakes: 2 Gents, All’s Well, Coriolanus, and The Alchemist

  4. Utah Shakes: All’s Well, Lear, Tempest

  5. STC in DC: Merchant and Much Ado

  6. Stratford Fest: Hamlet, All’s Well, Richard 3, Hamlet-911

• Jess’s latest publication is out now - check it out!

Lear 301

In this episode we give you a run down of all the other versions of the King Lear (or Leir) story that have existed before and after Shakespeare wrote his own version. The Queen’s Men had one, Nahum Tate adapted one, as did William Charles Macready. We also list some Shakespeare-themed gift ideas for your holiday shopping list, gossip a little, and address a few important corrections from past episodes. You heard it here first, folx, we’re human and we sometimes make mistakes, but we also try to grow and do better. Unlike King Lear (regardless of which version you prefer).

Here’s what we recommended in this week’s Happy Hour feature:

• Fat Rascals: Dining at Shakespeare’s Table by OSF legend John Tufts

• Give the gift of an experience by buying a gift certificate to your local theatre to be cashed in for tickets when this pandemic is finally over!

• Whatever and however you gift, we hope you consider sustainability and zero-waste options, like this plantable wrapping paper that not only wraps your lovely gifts, but then grows into wildflowers in the spring

• Arden editions of a play are great! So is a Norton-edition Folio Facsimile!

• A cute (and meta) Shakespeare mask on Etsy

• Also this Lady M inspired bookmark for the bibliophiles on your list

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

• Sign up for the FREE RaceB4 Symposium here

• Keep an eye out for Dr. Vanessa Corredera’s talk on December 9: “What’s Wrong with Critical Race Theory”

Winter's Tale 301

In this in-depth 301 episode, we dive right into the strange little mind of David Garrick, the famous 18th century Shakespeare actor and super-fan, and his adaptation of The Winter’s Tale: “Florizel and Perdita.” We read a few scenes side-by-side for you from Shakespeare and Garrick so you can judge for yourself who did it better. Equally important, Jess sings a song (written by Garrick for Perdita), and we gossip a little bit about some personal and ShakesBubble happenings. Don’t start this episode if you can’t finish it… ;)

Here are the gossip items:

1. Lyn Gardner has an answer for the Telegraph article we talked about last week.

2. Fred C. Adams (Utah Shakes founder) passed away on Feb. 6.

3. SHAKESPEARE GYM LOLZ

“The Garrick Start” (David Garrick in Richard III) painted by William Hogarth, 1745.

“The Garrick Start” (David Garrick in Richard III) painted by William Hogarth, 1745.

“The Garrick Start” (David Garrick in Richard III) painted by William Hogarth, 1745.

“The Garrick Start” (David Garrick in Richard III) painted by William Hogarth, 1745.

“The Garrick Start” (David Garrick in Richard III) painted by William Hogarth, 1745.

“The Garrick Start” (David Garrick in Richard III) painted by William Hogarth, 1745.