Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

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Acting, with Sophie Fiennes and Cheek by Jowl Oct 20, 2026

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Who can explain the alchemical transformation that is rehearsal? Actors begin with words on a page and emerge with a fully formed theater production. In her documentary, Acting, director Sophie Fiennes captures the magic of actors connecting with their text and characters during a workshop with the world-renowned Cheek by Jowl theater company. Eight actors haunt the halls of Twyford Abbey, a crumbling derelict mansion on the outskirts of London as they explore scenes and monologues from Macbeth. Cheek by Jowl founders and co-artistic directors Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod lead the cast through their unique rehearsal process, uncovering surprising truths not just about Macbeth but about the craft of acting itself. Since 1981, Cheek by Jowl has staged critically acclaimed productions in over 50 countries and multiple languages, with a special emphasis on Shakespeare. Donnellan has directed and Ormerod has designed over 45 productions with Cheek by Jowl. In this episode, Fiennes, Donnellan, and Ormerod share about their collaborative journey, the keys to unlocking a scene, and why “life isn’t realistic.”

Brian Cox and Nicole Ansari-Cox Oct 06, 2026

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Long before his iconic portrayal of Logan Roy in Succession, Brian Cox trod the boards as a Shakespearean actor. For over 50 years, Cox has made his mark on both stage and screen, collecting Olivier Awards, a Primetime Emmy, a Golden Globe, and countless other accolades. He’s best known for roles in Super Troopers, The Bourne Identity, Braveheart, Rushmore, and, of course, Succession, but he’s also played Orlando in As You Like It, Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew, Titus in Titus Andronicus, and the title role in King Lear at age 44. Cox is currently in Washington, DC to portray Johann Sebastian Bach in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of The Score. His real-life wife, Nicole Ansari-Cox, plays the powerhouse role of Anna Magdalena Bach. An internationally acclaimed actor who began her career in Germany, Ansari-Cox has acted on Broadway, the West End, the Public Theatre Vienna, and the Thèâtre du Soleil in Paris as well as on film and television. In this episode, they discuss portraying the Bachs, revisiting Lear, finding the “flow” of a scene, and why Logan Roy is “one of the most misunderstood characters in drama.” From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published October 6, 2026. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Technical support was provided by Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Web production was handled by Megan Fraedrich. Transcripts are edited by Leonor Fernandez. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.

The Complete Life of William Shakespeare, with Paul Menzer Sep 22, 2026

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How do you write a “complete” life of Shakespeare when very little complete information about his life exists? Four centuries after Shakespeare’s death, the legends that have grown up around him have taken on a cultural significance of their own. As Inaugural Folger Chair in Shakespeare Studies Paul Menzer puts it, “the verifiable facts of his life would fit on the back of a postcard. But the stories that we have told about them would fill a dozen phone books.” Menzer’s book, The Complete Life of William Shakespeare, dives into the life story of one of history’s most editorialized yet most enigmatic figures, navigating the space between fact and fancy. Did Shakespeare embark on a lone hero’s journey, or was his move to London more of a family road trip? Could such a great poet have also been a shrewd businessman? And why aren’t there more Shakespeares out there? In this episode, Menzer lays out the known facts of the Bard’s biography and posits how we might connect the dots on what’s missing—while throwing some “wobbles into the orbit” of well-trenched folk wisdom. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published September 22, 2026. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Technical support was provided by Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Web production was handled by Megan Fraedrich. Transcripts are edited by Leonor Fernandez. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.

The Bard in the Borderlands Sep 08, 2026

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In 1597, the first published edition of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet rolled off the printing press. Only a year later, the Spanish colony of Santa Fe was established. While you might not immediately think Shakespeare had much to do with the Latinx experience, Shakespeare’s career and the Spanish conquest of the Americas fit into a similar timeline. The Bard in the Borderlands, a three-volume anthology of plays by Chicanx and Indigenous playwrights, explores the possibilities of retelling Shakespeare through the culture, language, and traditions of “la frontera,” or “the borderlands.” Simply defined by co-editor Katherine Gillen as “land that was once Mexico, but… became part of the United States” after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, there is very little “simple” about the history of this region. Its complex blend of identities and experiences are expressed in fantastic transformations of Shakespeare’s work, from a re-imagining of The Tempest set in a Houston school gymnasium to Macbeth's Weird Sisters practicing brujería. In this episode, editors Kathryn Vomero Santos and Katherine Gillen and contributing playwright Andrew Siañez-De La O discuss how these works speak to Mexican American and Indigenous traditions—and what it means to create “a stranger Shakespeare.” From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published September 8, 2026. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Technical support was provided by Harter Music in San Antonio, Gideon Brower in Baltimore, and Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Web production was handled by Megan Fraedrich. Transcripts are edited by Leonor Fernandez. Production support was provided by Steven Jackson. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, In

Shakespeare and the Law, with Len Niehoff Aug 25, 2026

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If you were Hamlet’s lawyer, would you advise he plead not guilty by reason of insanity? Would you consider his accidental slaying of Polonius to be murder or manslaughter? These are the kinds of questions that University of Michigan Law professor Len Niehoff asks his students to consider. But why is it so important for lawyers to brush up their Shakespeare? According to Niehoff, Shakespeare and lawyers both think about everything. Some of his plays illustrate the consequences of a lawless society. Others show how people respond to the miscarriage of justice or being excluded from the legal protection of human rights. And some others, like the case of Hamlet, can help students practice thinking like lawyers. Niehoff’s book, Meeting Shakespeare at the Bar: Reading the Bard Through the Lens of the Law grew out of those classroom discussions. In this episode, Niehoff discusses his book, how his teaching practices have evolved, and what Shakespeare can teach lawyers about looking at problems from every possible angle. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published August 25, 2026. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Technical support was provided by Daniel Wanschura in Michigan and Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Web production was handled by Megan Fraedrich. Transcripts are edited by Leonor Fernandez. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.

Stratford Festival's Antoni Cimolino Aug 11, 2026

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Near the end of The Tempest, Prospero vows to retire from practicing the “rough magic” he has mastered, to break his magical staff and drown his spellbooks. After 14 seasons as Artistic Director of Canada's Stratford Festival, Antoni Cimolino has chosen to direct The Tempest as part of his final season before he, too, enters retirement. As possibly the final play Shakespeare wrote alone, The Tempest has often represented a goodbye, or at least a sea change. For Cimolino, who started his career in Stratford nearly 40 years ago, it’s a big change indeed. The documentary This Above All, premiering later this month, follows his tenure leading North America’s largest classical repertory company through a historic expansion, a pandemic, and dozens of powerful productions. In this episode, Cimolino discusses revisiting a play, the power of forgiveness, the show that sparked his love for theater, the surprising role toaster ovens played in his early career, and the “rough magic” that makes theater possible.

Shakespeare and Stephen King, with Caroline Bicks Jul 28, 2026

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Imagine being able to dig through Shakespeare’s manuscripts and ask him about his writing process. Did King Lear survive in the first draft? What if Hamlet originally said, “To live or not to live?” While we can only dream about that opportunity, scholar and Everyday Shakespeare host Caroline Bicks experienced something close to it when she gained unprecedented access to the archives of another famous author: Stephen King. The Bard of Avon and the King of Horror have more in common than you might think. Both are popular and prolific authors who have been praised and derided for writing for the masses. But both also pay close attention to the sounds of words, the flow of names, and the rhythms of sentences. And sometimes, King’s work even takes inspiration from Shakespeare himself. In this episode, Bicks draws fascinating parallels between Shakespeare and King and shares how she became the first scholar permitted to explore King’s personal papers. Her book, Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King recounts her chance to live every scholar’s dream—while surrounded by the stuff of nightmares. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published July 28, 2026. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Technical support was provided by Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Web production was handled by Megan Fraedrich. Transcripts are edited by Leonor Fernandez. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.

Shakespeare's Margaret, with Charles O'Malley and Scott W. Stern Jul 14, 2026

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It’s been more than 400 years since she first appeared on stage, and she’s still controversial. Margaret of Anjou appears in not one, not two, but four of Shakespeare’s plays—Henry VI Parts 1, 2, and 3 as well as Richard III—maturing from a young bride-to-be to a vengeful widow. She also speaks the most lines of any of Shakespeare’s female characters. Although her historical counterpart never saw battle, Shakespeare’s Margaret leads armies. And while the real Margaret was permanently exiled to France, the Shakespearean version returns to England to confront her old foes. Charles O’Malley and Scott W. Stern, co-authors of Shakespeare’s Margaret: The Dramatic Life of a Warrior Queen, share how Margaret exists as an avatar for anxieties about women in power throughout the ages. Shakespeare’s depiction may have been influenced by Elizabeth I, but Margaret has been portrayed on stage as a witch, a seductress, an anti-fascist resistance fighter, and even an analogue for Margaret Thatcher. In this episode, O’Malley and Stern shine the spotlight on Shakespeare’s most deliciously complex anti-heroine. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published July 14, 2026. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Technical support was provided by Pat Mesiti-Miller in Oakland and Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Web production was handled by Megan Fraedrich. Transcripts are edited by Leonor Fernandez. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.

Scholars in Shakespeare, with Sean Keilen Jun 30, 2026

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Shakespeare famously never attended university. But not only has his work inspired generations of scholarship, his plays, too, are filled with scholarly characters. Shakespeare, it seems, took an interest in learning. Perhaps that’s why so many people come to Shakespeare for wisdom that they can apply to their own lives. While leading the University of California, Santa Cruz’s Shakespeare Workshop, professor and dramaturg Sean Keilen noticed that people look to Shakespeare and the humanities to answer questions like “Who am I? Why am I here? And how should I live?” Keilen’s book, Shakespeare’s Scholars: Three Lessons from the Liberal Arts, illustrates how learned characters from Hamlet, Love’s Labor’s Lost, and The Tempest more can guide us to those answers —some through their wisdom, and others through their own flawed judgment. In this episode, Keilen shares vital lessons from Shakespeare’s fictional scholars in humility, self-knowledge, and perhaps most importantly, forging connection with others. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published June 30, 2026. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Technical support was provided by Sarah Lai Stirland in Santa Cruz and Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Web production was handled by Megan Fraedrich. Transcripts are edited by Leonor Fernandez. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.

The Six Loves of James I, with Gareth Russell Jun 16, 2026

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“Elizabeth was king, now James is queen.” So went the joke circulating around London in the 17th century. While Elizabeth I became an icon for transgressing traditional gender roles, her successor is all too often overlooked or even mocked for the same reasons. Yet James I was a multifaceted ruler who led a fascinating life—and his personal relationships only add to that complexity. For generations, historians avoided labeling the intimate relationships between James and his “favorites” as romantic. But after combing through James’s personal correspondence, historian and author Gareth Russell has uncovered compelling evidence of five significant love affairs with men. His award-winning book, The Six Loves of James I, reveals how these relationships—and his marriage to Queen Anne of Denmark—guided the course of his life and reign. James I’s story is a turbulent one, filled with assassination attempts, kidnapping, and witch hunts. It’s also a story of a man who loved “indiscreetly and obstinately,” for better or for worse. In this episode, Gareth Russell explores the untold history of a complicated king through the lens of the great loves of his life. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published June 16, 2026. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Technical support was provided by Pavel Barter in Belfast and Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Web production was handled by Megan Fraedrich. Transcripts are edited by Leonor Fernandez. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.

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