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”

1 Henry VI 201

We return to the War of the Roses with this 201 dive into 1 Henry VI, a history play that even Jess likes. We learn all about the real St. Joan of Arc and how her story and image got twisted to conform to English propaganda and the patriarchy (eye roll), and Aubrey illuminates the moment between Margaret and Suffolk in act 5 that demands to be delivered to no one but the audience. We also Keep Up with the Queen’s Men and give you a quick and dirty summary of George Peele’s The Old Wife’s Tale (which may or may not be the most underrated comedy of its time). Slight microphone issues aside, we hope you enjoy the episode.

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

• Games for Actors and Non-Actors by Augusto Boal

• Brandy C. Williams’s #ShakeRace syllabus

• Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory

• Help flip the senate! Go to warnockforgeorgia.com and electjon.com to learn more about the runoff elections in Georgia this coming January!

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

• Here are some ways to get your digital 1 Henry VI fix:

  • The Show Must Go Online from earlier this year

  • 2013 Globe version available to rent on the Globe Player

  • 1983 production available on Amaz*n

  • Digital Theatre + (check with your local public library)

• Macbeth Folger BTS

• We Acknowledge Ours Roundtable

The White Devil 101

In our first 101 episode in…a while…we take a minute to remind you of who the F* John Webster even is (spoiler: he’s the creepy, dirty, mouse torturer from “The Documentary” Shakespeare In Love); we give you a good old-fashioned short-is summary; we bring you A Taste of Text (and some dumbshows) from The White Devil; Jess and Aubrey each pose some lingering quandaries we have about the play; we launch our new feature, Keeping Up With the Queen’s Men, to tell you all about Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay from the Queen’s Men’s repertory; we gossip some and we laugh a lot. All this and more, so get ready! We’re diving into Webster’s The White Devil like there’s no tomorrow!

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

• The Body is Not An Apology - website, book, social media presence, and all-around radical self-love movement spearheaded by Sonya Renee Taylor

• This simple-yet-scrummy crumpet recipe

• Folger CRC with Jenn Park and Gitanjali Shahani: We Are What You Eat, Conversations on Food and Race

• Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

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

• HedgePig Ensemble’s Expand the Canon project

• The Donmar Trilogy which will be streaming for free all of October 2020

A Queen's Men Romp!

This episode is a little different from the norm - come with us as we explore the wild world of early modern playing companies! What were they? Why were they? Who were they? And other W words as well. Our look at the Queen’s Men (aka the all-star troupe of actors commanded by Her Majesty) will set us up for the rest of the season, throughout which we will closely examine some of the big headliner titles from the Queen’s Men’s repertory and ask you to VOTE on which one we should feature as a 101 episode at the end of this season. We introduce a new game - The Lost Plays Game! - and also take a few short trips down tangential creeks into the origins of the vacuum cleaner and a memorially reconstructed version of “The Documentary” Shakespeare in Love. It’s a romp. A Queen’s Men romp.

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

• Fearing the Black Body by Sabrina Strings

• Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison

• The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

• American Royals by Katherine McGee

• Kim F Hall’s 2016 Shakespeare Birth lecture

**The links for the above books are NOT affiliate links, but we did take care to send you to non-Am@z0n booksellers #supportindiebookstores #citescholarsofcolor

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

• Lost Plays Database

• The Public’s Richard II radio play now available in a 4-part podcast

• The Donmar Trilogy which will be streaming for free all of October 2020

Cymbeline 201

IN A WORLD full of pandemic podcasts…Whamlet makes our triumphant return with our Season 4 premiere: CYMBELINE 201! We introduce a new feature: Happy Hour; we talk about the evil queen trope and the Cymbeline’s Celtic “roots” in pre-Roman king Cunobelin; we shamelessly self-promote our other current projects and generally revel in reuniting for what is sure to be a killer season. Want to know what’s in store this year? Gotta listen up!

From today’s NEW Happy Hour feature:

• Ayanna Thompson’s Othello presentation that everyone needs to watch IMMEDIATELY.

• You can download the entire issue of Shakespeare Quarterly for FREE and read up on premodern critical race studies!

• Also this super Queer reading of the Twilight series.

From our ShakesBubble Gossip segment:

• Listen to Aubrey play Lady M on The Horned Moon Presents podcast

• Jess will charm your pants off on this episode of A Bit Lit

• Jess gushes about Pericles for the Shakespeare 2020 project

• Wanna hear about The Hudson Strode program? Tune in here on Oct. 14, 2020!