House of Desires 101
For our final 101 episode, we take you back to the Spanish Golden Age with House of Desires and its proto-Mexican, female playwright Sor Juana (a nun!). We tell you a little about this Metal AF nun in Meet the Contemporary, and we summarize the play and read a very silly cross-dressing scene from the second act for A Taste of Text. We compare translations of the scene a little bit, and then gossip a lot about yet another Oxfraudian, anti-Stratfordian overture made by the Shakespeare Authorship Coalition (aka SAC - which, like, LOL at your dumb acronym, bros). Listener beware: if the authorship “debate” fills you with white-hot rage, you may just want to skip the last 15 minutes of the episode. That aside, someone please produce House of Desires so we can go see it. We think it’s a delight and we hope you agree.
Here’s what we featured in our Happy Hour segment:
Aubrey’s rec: Himalayan yak cheese dog chews for the adorable extreme chewers in your life
Jess’s rec: this is so dumb, but changing your highlight color on your computer/phone :)
Here’s what we talked about in our ShakesBubble Gossip segment:
That dumb survey Jess and a bunch of other Shakespeare scholars got from the anti-Strats of SAC. (We’re not going to dignify their nonsense with a link to their site. You’re smart. You can find it if you want to.)
A King and No King 101
CW: Today’s episode involves one of our classic tangents, this time into the topic of incest and incest porn.
That said, today’s episode is a 101 all about dynamic playwriting duo Beaumont and Fletcher’s “tragicomedy” A King and No King. We summarize this bonkers play for you - spoilers: it’s only a fake incest plot to lure you in - and ready a portion of act 3 for a Taste of Text. We talk a little about why incest tropes are so popular in modern media, particularly in pornography but also in early modern drama, we gossip a little about the still-unraveling Cleveland Playhouse debacle, and call it a day. Also, there’s a minor character in the play whose name sounds like BI-CURIOUS, so start the fan fictions engines NOW.
Here’s what we featured in our Happy Hour segment:
Aubrey’s rec: Ancient History FanGirl podcast
Jess’s rec: Louise Erdrich, The Future Home of the Living God and Grace D. Li, Portrait of a Thief
Here’s what we talked about in our ShakesBubble Gossip segment:
Cleveland Playhouse debacle
City Nightcap 101
This week we’re talking about The City Nightcap by Robert Davenport, a bewildering play by an even more bewildering (read: mysterious) author. We try to help you Meet the Contemporary, but Bobby Davs left us very little to go on; our Taste of Text is sure to amuse (and confuse) you; we talk a LOT about all the kicking happening in this play, as well as why it - among other things - is so problematic (read: sexist AF). If you have the chance to see this play, awesome, but if you don’t you’re not really missing much aside from a unique barnyard-themed masque and the most hilarious not-a-bed-trick bed trick of all time. Have a great holiday season and we’ll see you in January!
Here’s what we featured in our Happy Hour segment:
Aubrey’s rec: get your stir crazy dog a Flirt Pole!
Jess’s rec: Take yourself out for something nice - treat yo’self!
Here’s what we talked about in our ShakesBubble Gossip segment:
Fuenteovejuna 101
It’s our first ever 101 for a Spanish Golden Age play! Today we’re talking about Lope de Vega’s Fuenteovejuna and all the wild, wonderful customs and traditions of the early modern Spanish theatre. Our Meet the Playwright segment takes you through de Vega’s impressive (and horny) biography; Jess delights with her multitude of voices in A Taste of Text; we take you through the real event that this play is based on - true crime, again, huzzah! - and Aubrey compares the structure and culture of Spanish playhouses to the English ones we usually talk about, plus the added layer of textual instability that comes with second-language translation. The differences may surprise you! Not only that, but this play gives you the perfect excuse for your mistakes and/or crimes: just say “Fuenteovejuna did it!”
Here’s what we featured in our Happy Hour segment:
Aubrey’s rec: follow the @teachingwithcorazon instagram account!
Jess’s rec: Patronize your local massage school for some self-care on a budget!
Here’s what we talked about in our ShakesBubble Gossip segment:
Birth of Merlin 101
Sooooooo William Rowley’s The Birth of Merlin actually has very little to do with Merlin or any other part of the Arthurian legend, and it’s more of a history play than its title would suggest. We re-introduce you to playwright William Rowley, who apparently loved to write himself into all of his plays as a “fat clown;” we give you A Taste of Text from Act IV involving a little antic spirit; we talk about how this play doesn’t fit neatly into any particular genre because it is doing The Literal Most at all times, but for all that it’s not even that great; then we gossip a bit and that’s that. Don’t believe anyone that tells you this play was written by Shakespeare, and definitely don’t believe them if they say it’s their favorite play.
Here’s what we featured in our Happy Hour segment:
Aubrey’s rec: Queen City Mischief and Magic Festival
Jess’s rec: Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
Here’s what we talked about in our ShakesBubble Gossip segment:
Lazarus Theatre UK’s live-streamed performance of Dr. Faustus coming on Oct. 6
Fall Season opens at ASC
Roaring Girl 101
Season 6 begins with a ROAR(ing Girl) courtesy of Thomases Dekker and Middleton. The famous city comedy features real-life legend Mary Frith, aka Moll Cutpurse, but not with nearly the stage time such a character deserves; we give you a brief introduction to the lesser-known Thomas of this collab team, Dekker, and also a Taste of Text where Moll’s voice really shines. Jess gives you a refresher on the city comedy genre, as well as the real life Moll and we deliver a little personal gossip. We hope you enjoy our roaring return. It’s good to be back!
Here’s what we featured in our Happy Hour segment:
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.
Hamlet 202: Interred With Their Bones
In our second ever 202 episode (reserved for a Shakespeare adaptation or adjacent work), we take you through the suspenseful and sometimes bemusing and frustrating plot of Jennifer Lee Carrell’s mystery thriller Interred With Their Bones. We give you a plot and character synopsis as well as all the Shakespearean easter eggs you can handle, with just a sprinkle of “authorship question” (because the book forced us to) and some early modern true crime to boot. Looking for a fun read for your holiday break? Read this book (and listen to our episode before you do)!
Here’s what we featured in our Happy Hour segment:
Olivia Dade’s Spoiler Alert and All The Feels
Here’s what we featured in our ShakesBubble Gossip segments:
ACMRS first and second book fellowships
ACMRS poetics symposium
Guardian article about a forthcoming book by Molly Yarn from Cambridge Press about history of Shakespearean “lady editors”
Scholar Haley Bachrach making headlines!
Knight of the Burning Pestle 101
This week we bring you not one but TWO guest experts to tell us why our tepid feelings about Beaumont's Knight of the Burning Pestle are just plain wrong, Emily Lathrop and Sawyer Kemp. Emily and Sawyer jump right in and not only deliver hot takes about Pestle, they also give us the goods in our Happy Hour and Gossip segments, and grace us with their high theatricality in A Taste of Text. Think a play within a play within a play is just too complicated to produce? Think again!
Here’s what we recommended in our Happy Hour segment:
Dug Days on Disney+
Bitch Magazine’s access series https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/access-issue-intro
Midnight Mass on Netflix
Red re-record
Gender Reveal podcast
Final Fantasy 14
Here’s what we featured in our ShakesBubble Gossip segments:
Check out the awesome things happening at Woolly Mammoth Theatre in DC (aka Emily’s day job)
Watch out for Sawyer’s upcoming piece in The Shakespeare Bulletin!
Atheist's Tragedy 101
You’re definitely not ready for Cyril Tourneur’s tour de force, The Atheist’s Tragedy: a tragicomedy (?) about the machinations of a dastardly atheist and his terrible family. We bring back all our beloved 101 features for this episode: Meet the Contemporary (spoiler: ol’ Cyril’s kinda boring…); A (sexy and ghoulish) Taste of Text; we summarize the play for you and play a new(ish) game, Lost Plays Roulette. No real gossip this week, not because things weren’t happening but because we weren’t paying attention, but to make up for it we do teach you the difference between a milliner and a haberdasher, so there’s that.
Here’s what we recommended in our Happy Hour segment:
Follow these Insta accounts: @decolonizemyself and @seedingsovereignty
Check out this fab YA novel: Like Other Girls by Britta Lundin
Here’s what we featured in our ShakesBubble Gossip segments:
SAA has an Insta account now…yeah, that’s all we got this week