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PODCAST

Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast

Reduced Shakespeare Company

The world’s longest-running theatre podcast, which Broadway World calls “one of the Top 10 Podcasts for Theatre Fans!” HEAR HERE!

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All Episodes

22:15

Shakespeare’s Greatest Comedy?

Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast ·

2026/09/30

Director Phillip Breen discusses his Chicago Shakespeare Theater production of The Merry Wives of Windsor and his contention that this less-produced play is in fact Shakespeare's Greatest Comedy. Phillip explores why Merry Wives is not just Shakespeare's funniest play but his most transgressive; how it dares to imagine female sexuality; how it resembles Midsummer except the lovers are in their 40s and 50s; how he's a Darwinist in the rehearsal room; how tired we are of the “largely rubbish” idea

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25:41

Kennedy Center Memories

Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast ·

2026/09/22

The Reduced Shakespeare Company joins those fighting to save Washington DC's Kennedy Center from those who would destroy it. RSC artistic directors Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor share their favorite memories of the eight summers they performed in the KenCen's Terrace Theater; the celebrities whose paths they crossed; the many opportunities that came their way as a result of performing in our nation's capital; how we ended up performing both on National Public Radio and at the White House; the

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Austin’s ‘Puritans’ Talkback

Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast ·

2026/09/17

The Greeley (CO) Garage Sale Theatre hosted a talkback during the closing weekend of Austin Tichenor's play Puritans, and the cast, director Daniel Mothershed, and playwright took questions from an audience that included over a dozen theatre students from Frontier Academy. Austin and the cast share how the play combines autobiographical with fictional elements; how hard it is to pretend characters from other time periods aren't there; how hard it is to understand our past; how multiple generations

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20:17

Playing To Learn

Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast ·

2026/09/08

Longtime full-time teacher and longtime part-time improviser Kate Wiersema talks about her very fun and incredibly helpful book Playing to Learn: Using Improv in the K-8 Classroom, which creates suggestions and games that provide a "structure for fun" in the classroom. Kate shares how these games and tools can be used for curriculum as well as emotional learning; how these tools require no extra supplies and help build a sense of community; how learning can be collaborative rather than adversarial;

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21:31

Dungeons & Shakespeare

Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast ·

2026/09/05

Shelby Bond's Dungeons & Shakespeare is a hilarious and interactive blend of two seemingly disparate elements of pop culture that share more qualities than you might think. Bond reveals the shows Renaissance Faire origins and how early triumphs like Testaclese and Ye Sack of Rome led to its creation; how one survives the challenges of small theaters with no dressing rooms; how the show depends on chaos and if you plan your adventure, they inevitably crash and burn; how improv differs from magic;

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23:01

Comedies With Balls

Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast ·

2026/08/24

John Ahlin and Christopher Patrick Mullen are the creators and stars of Chip & Gus: A Comedy with Balls, an amazing two hander in which the two title characters resolve the crisis in their relationship while playing ping-pong at the same time. John and Chris discuss how their shared expertise in table tennis and experience as actors led them to create this unique theatrical event; how the play both is and isn’t autobiographical; how they navigate “the Wild West of entertainment” that is the

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19:53

Playwrights Who Direct

Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast ·

2026/08/18

Playwright John Kolvenbach has directed his own play Stand Up If You're Here Tonight in productions in Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Paris, and now the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and he discusses how putting the play on its feet on the stage helps complete his work of writing it on the page. John shares how directing your own play isn’t for everyone; how much of it is simply being a control freak; how much directing the script helps the writing process; how, to quote Edward Albee, one’s play is

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22:10

Out, Darn Spot!

Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast ·

2026/08/11

Tyler Anthony Smith’s Out, Darn Spot! is a hilarious hour-long fever dream that imagines Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth as the host of a 60’s daytime chat show (pictured above). Smith talks about the play's evolution and how they share the character's desire to be "unsex'd"; how Smith plays fair with Shakespeare's plot and characters; how we need to rethink how we introduce young people to Shakespeare; and how Smith's work brings Shakespearean figures into the modern world, as in their latest show Queen

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22:20

RSC 45th Anniversary

Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast ·

2026/08/11

August 8, 2026 is the 45th anniversary of the Reduced Shakespeare Company's first performance at the Northern California Renaissance Faire in 1981, and co-artistic directors Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor discuss the RSC's legacy from their respective locations in California and Edinburgh, Scotland. Reed and Austin share the subtle nuances between being a pack-rat and an "archivist;" how it's nearly impossible (or at least too time-consuming to bother) to count the number of performances the RSC

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23:08

Describing The Play

Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast ·

2026/07/29

A ghost story...but not. A time-travel tale...but not. Describing Austin Tichenor's new play Puritans accurately and intriguingly reveals that writing the play and describing the play are two completely different skillsets. Austin talks with Daniel Mothershed, the director of Puritans's world premiere in Greeley, CO and shares the challenges of marketing a kind of play that's never been seen before; how the play “tesseracts through time” and what association that phrase conjures up; how Puritans

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17:53

‘Broadguess’ In Edinburgh

Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast ·

2026/07/21

RSC alum Dee Ryan returns to the 2026 Edinburgh Festival Fringe to perform the European premiere of Broadguess, her interactive comic Shakespeare solo show. Dee discusses the evolution of her show's script, and its roots in both Shakespeare and improvisation; how she finds the balance between the deep cuts and the funny; her favorite things to do in Edinburgh and where to find the best cream tea; how long it's been since she last performed at the Fringe (in The Complete Millennium Musical

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22:23

‘Scared’ In Edinburgh

Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast ·

2026/07/14

Michael Doherty and Will Mobley return to talk about the continuing adventures of their very funny buddy comedy Dogberry & Verges Are Scared, which runs at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company through July 25, 2026, and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from August 5-30, 2026 (with the RSC's own Austin Tichenor as Verges). Doherty and Mobley share how the play just keeps getting sharper and tighter; how the clowning manages to also provide insight into Shakespeare’s characters and the plays from which they

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20:20

Michigan Shakes Returns

Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast ·

2026/07/09

Michigan Shakespeare Festival artistic director Janice L. Blixt returns to discuss MSF’s new season, their first in several years, and their new home at Wayne State University in Detroit. Blixt reveals how MSF, like so many arts organizations, not only endured but survived “death by a thousand cuts;” the importance of having a supportive board of directors; putting their best foot forward in a new venue; how they embrace being a fully professional company as well as Shakespeare’s sheer epic-ness;

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20:34

Louisa At Fruitlands

Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast ·

2026/07/01

Reduced Shakespeare Company founder Daniel Rover Singer returns to talk about his new play Louisa At Fruitlands, about the intersection of Louisa May Alcott, the author of Little Women, when she was a little ten-year-old herself, and the Fruitlands transcendentalist community. Daniel talks about the origins of the RSC and how the landmark work The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) burst the bonds of "the perfect context" of the Northern California Renaissance Faire; how he balances

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21:17

Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival

Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast ·

2026/06/23

Jason King Jones, artistic director of the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, shares details about PSF's current season, their plans to host the 2027 Shakespeare Theatre Association conference, and how he's retained his ability to laugh and his capacity for joy. Jason shares how he threads the needle of programming work that reaches his diverse audience; how the entire western canon of theatrical literature is descended from Shakespeare; how theatre is important to the health of the community; the

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19:10

Directing Stoppard’s “Leopoldstadt”

Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast ·

2026/06/17

Carey Perloff (Pinter and Stoppard: A Director's View) discusses how she worked with Tom Stoppard to bring his last and most personal play Leopoldstadt to Chicago's Writers Theatre and shape it into a form American theaters will be able to produce more easily. Perloff, the former artistic director of San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatrewhere she directed the U.S. premieres of several of Stoppard's plays, reveals how she brings her personal history into this production; how much she enjoys

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32:02

Stephen King Archives

Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast ·

2026/06/11

Caroline Bicks, the inaugural Stephen E. King Chair of Literature at the University of Maine, returns to continue our conversation about her new book, Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King. Caroline reveals her own terrifying fears and shares the kind of book she did not want to write; how she dared to infuse her academic writing with (gasp!) personality; her desire to become a bridge that connects King to the Renaissance to academia and back again; why anyone would want to

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20:42

Always…Molly Hernández

Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast ·

2026/06/01

In the glorious American Blues Theater production of Always...Patsy Cline, Molly Hernández discusses how her character of Louise brings a lively theatricality to what could be "just" a well-produced jukebox musical. Molly shares how she was encouraged to bring her authentic "chaos gremlin" self to the role; how this show differs from other shows she's done in Chicago (including Lookingglass Theater's Lookingglass Alice); the privilege of playing in theaters ranging from giant auditoriums to tiny

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24:40

Lear AND Fool???

Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast ·

2026/05/25

In his own personal Year of Lear, Daniel Mothershed (above) is playing both King Lear and the Fool in the Bowls With The Bard production of King Lear, immediately after directing the second production of Austin Tichenor's adaptation of Christopher Moore's novel Fool. Daniel discusses this experiment with theatrical duality; how the RSC Podcast interview with famous Fool Adrian Scarborough unlocked Daniel’s interpretation (plus appreciation for the even deeper cut of this "Drawing on Shakespeare"

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21:30

Scaramouche The Musical

Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast ·

2026/05/19

Chicago's City Lit Theater presents the world premiere of Kingsley Day's and James Grossman's Scaramouche: The Swashbuckling Musical! and City Lit's executive artistic director Brian Pastor and the show's director Beth Wolf discuss how this ambitious musical came to be. Brian and Beth reveal the secrets to being a good producer (spoiler: it’s creative problem solving) and directing new works; leaning into a show's style and heightened language; balancing a season both artistically and financially;

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437 results

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