Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast

Our own Jerry Kernion is playing Colonel Tom Parker in the new jukebox musical Heartbreak Hotel, currently playing in Chicago and possibly soon on its way to a theatre near you. Jerry talks about playing this controversial person, the creation of the role, the history of the actual guy, the evolution of the production, and its possible future. Featuring Elvis’s talented lineage, interesting historical what-ifs, the challenges of playing not-necessarily-good guys, fabulously appropriate background music, charming personal conflict, and the adventure of living in Chicago and leaving Los Angeles — possibly for good! Recorded live in Pippin’s Tavern in Chicago. (Length 20:07)

How do you get to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival? What's involved with producing yourself at the largest theatre festival in the world? Jamie Gower, the creator and star (sorry, operator) of Denny O'Hare: I Feel Fuzzy, takes us step by step through the process of creating a show, picking a venue, developing a budget, making peace with the idea that this will most likely be a money-losing operation, and most importantly, understanding the danger of not going. Featuring nuts and bolts, waived visas, the value of pre-planning and starting early, the advantage of not being a good puppeteer, learning how to create good press releases and posters and flyers, the importance of location location location, and the supreme importance of not waiting for permission. (Length 24:53)

Composer and arranger Michael Roth has had a big summer, scoring not only the Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles production of Henry IV starring Tom Hanks, and Pamplona, the one-man play about Ernest Hemingway, starring Stacy Keach, currently having its world premiere production at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Michael has worked with such notable theatre artists as directors Robert Falls, Des McAnuff, and Daniel Sullivan, actors Christopher Plummer and Brian Dennehy, and songwriter Randy Newman, and he joins us to talk about with working with all these artists in a variety of media. Featuring the importance of first rehearsals, making sure Shakespeare’s songs are not perfunctory; small worlds; the challenges of writing a musical; and Shakespeare’s weird ability to be early-modern and post-modern at the same time. (Length 22:21)

Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi is the artistic director and co-founder of The Actors Gymnasium, a physical theatre school with a huge emphasis on circus and telling stories through movement. A longtime collaborator with Chicago's Tony-winning Lookingglass Theatre, Sylvia created the underwater choreography for Lookingglass' current production of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and talks about how she creates her work and the value of her collaborators, the invaluable nature of literally growing up in the circus, questioning the value of not taking a risk, learning the language of physicality, getting actors to a different level, and the joy of watching a performer discover new skills and manners of expression. (Length 19:20)

Friend of the podcast, novelist Nicole Galland (I, Iago), has co-authored (with Neal Stephenson) a wonderful sci-fi time-travel thriller-comedy called The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., which the San Francisco Chronicle calls "a high-stakes techno-farce with brains and heart!" D.O.D.O. is now out in paperback so Nicole returns to talk about the book's creation, the difficulties of describing your characters, how she met Neal Stephenson, the burden of having too many interests in too many places, the rarity of authorial rebranding, rewriting during the editing stage, how the authors' writing partnership informed the relationship between the two main characters, some tantalizing clues about the sequel, and how one transitions from an historical to a sci-fi novelist. (Length 18:53)

Our long-time friends and colleagues Alli Bostedt and Davey Naylor were married last Friday, May the 4th (Be With You), 2018, in the Sebastiani Theatre in Sonoma, CA (where we filmed The Complete History of America (abridged)) and, just days before the ceremony, they took time to talk about how their romance overcame early tour awkwardness and problematic venues (thank you, Rhyl!). Featuring knockout predictions, comments from Best Man Matt Rippy, origin stories, canal canoodling, romantic Berkhamsted opportunities, memories of our UK tour of The Complete World of Sports (abridged) and New Zealand tour of Completely Hollywood (abridged), and the inspiring story of how romance can blossom even during a theatrical tour. (Length 19:01). 

We've talked on this podcast about theatre and Shakespeare in prisons, but we've never heard about theatre created by the incarcerated or formerly incarcerated outside prisons. Director and teaching artist Jerrell L. Henderson directs the world premiere of Caged at Passage Theatre in New Jersey, and discusses the challenge of finding the narrative, radical love, predatory systems, the trick of navigating the demands of thirty living playwrights, mourning alone, and how to avoid the dangers of directorial slather and getting art on you. (Length 18:52)

The We Got This! Podcast, created and hosted by Hal Lublin and Mark Gagliardi, settles such important and earth-shattering cultural debates as what is the Best Donut, the Best Toilet Paper, and Best Muppet. But recently, with the help of the RSC's own Austin Tichenor, they settled something truly important: What is, actually, Shakespeare's greatest play. This week we present to you the abridged version of Episode 113 of the We Got This! Podcast, featuring truly lively banter, questionable priorities, varying definitions of ‘expert,’ Shakespearean references to both Scooby-Doo and Freddy Krueger, living with mistakes, the legacy of Henry V’s St. Crispin’s Day speech, adherence to the Aristotelian unities, the challenge of appreciating Shakespeare’s greatness without acknowledging his flaws, suggested new opening lines for Twelfth Night, and ultimately a shocking (or maybe not-so-shocking) result. (Leave your comments below.) (Length 30:10)

Christopher Moore, the author of such wonderful comic novels as Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal; Fool; The Serpent of Venice; The Stupidest Angel; Bloodsucking Fiends; Practical Demonkeeping; Sacre Bleu, and many others, has a new novel out called Noir, and it’s wonderfully comic, weird, and surprisingly poignant, all of which are hallmarks of a Chris Moore novel. Chris talks about this new novel's inspirations which, it turns out, are varied and many. Featuring San Francisco history, film and literary precedent, surprisingly Shakespearean inspirations, weird connections to Roswell, loving language, shout-out to Damon Runyon, the joys of touring (and how to train for it), teasing future novels, and the Top Secret First Thing They Teach You at Famous Author School. (Length 21:18)

Dennis Abrams has written the new YA novel I Was Cleopatra, the fictional memoir of John Rice, a boy actor in the King’s Men, Shakespeare’s acting company, who played many of Shakespeare’s signature female roles, including Lady Macbeth, Cordelia, and Cleopatra. I Was Cleopatra was just published last week and its author discusses the creation of his novel, the amount of research he did, the wonder of being surprised by your main character, the supplemental reading he recommends, how we know when Shakespeare wrote his plays, the fun of deconstructing Shakespeare's texts, and the ultimate joy of all: annoying Oxfordians! (Length 21:18)

Philip Earl Johnson stars in Enemy of the People at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and talks about the creation of his role in this new adaptation, and how he divides his time between theatre work and his other life as the RenFaire clown MooNiE. Featuring the fundamental virtues of conviction and truth, brushes with rockstar greatness, travels with Angels in America, the value of getting through 200 shows, the art of combining Ibsen with Charlie Chaplin, the magic of whistling, the inspiration of junkyard dogs, and the glory of scoring a leading role the old-fashioned way — by auditioning. (Length 24:17)

Artistic Director BJ Jones (left) talks about Northlight Theatre, the fourth largest theatre in the Chicagoland area and producer of an extraordinary body of new work. BJ discusses the importance of understanding one’s audience while raving (positively!) about student matinees, commissioning new work, remembering John Mahoney, challenging the current generation while training the next generation of theatergoers and theatre makers, and, most importantly, encouraging compassion and improving one’s perspective through theatre and art. (Length 17:07)

We resurrected The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged) for its first American performance in almost four years and this cast's first performance in more than eight. After the raucous standing ovation, Dominic Conti (center), Reed Martin, and Austin Tichenor talk about what it's like returning to a show after such a long absence, and what it means, personally, to perform this particular show. Featuring testaments old and new, civilized rehearsing, born-again favorites, missing trunks, Catholic raves, recreating a fourth dummy, consoling the ignorant, remembering kerfuffles, begging Michael Faulkner (right), and happiest of all, celebrating the Bible through joy and laughter. (Length 17:47) (Also pictured: Tiger Reel. Photo by Eric Vizents)

With the premieres of both Rise (on NBC) and Barry (on HBO), it's the perfect time to satisfy listeners who've asked us many times to delve into the seminal TV show Slings & Arrows, the Canadian production that lovingly sends up and celebrates the business and art of theatre, and is the definitive depiction of our business on television. Howard Sherman returns to talk about what makes this show so great (and occasionally painful and eye-rolling) and offers a defense of theatre administrators; a recognition of fantastic actors such as Rachel McAdams, Stephen Ouimette, and Paul Gross; detailed explorations of theatrical art; surprisingly complex and nuanced interpretations of Shakespeare; the importance of -- yet again -- representation, and -- coolest of all! -- where you can currently see the show online for free right now.

During our two-week run of William Shakespeare's Long Lost First Play (abridged) at the New Victory Theatre in New York City we had the opportunity to see many fantastic shows, both on and off-Broadway, and between our final two performances we chatted about what we saw, what we liked, what we were disappointed in, what surprised us, what challenged us, and what completely blew us away. Featuring thoughts, opinions, critiques, and appreciations of Lobby Hero, School of Rock, Farinelli and the King, In & Of Itself, Chicago, A Bronx Tale, The Low Road, SpongeBob Squarepants, Three Tall Women, John Lithgow, Hamilton, and The Band’s Visit -- plus tales of personal John Lithgow connections, out-of-the-ordinary shows, accidental benefits of snow days, excellent direction and not-so excellent direction, and wonderful moments of deeply moving exquisite joy. (Length 27:12)