Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast

The Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation, one of the UK’s oldest cultural education charities, hosts the annual Shakespeare Schools Festival, which gives young people the confidence and skills to succeed in life by using the unique power of Shakespeare to transform lives. Mike Tucker, the head of the Foundation, discusses how they demystify Shakespeare (for teachers and students alike) by removing him from his pedestal; how the process of creating theater creates essential life skills; the importance of failing and learning you are more than your mistakes; the necessity of understanding that the value is in the process, not the product; and how the rehearsal room is not a luxury, it’s a training-ground for democracy. (Length 22:18) The post Shakespeare Schools Festival appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

Professor Ronan Hatfull literally wrote the book on the Reduced Shakespeare Company. His new book from Bloomsbury/Arden – Shakespeare in the Theatre: Reduced Shakespeare Company – is the very first full-length study to be published about the RSC. Focusing specifically on our Shakespearean reduction and adaptation, Ronan's book examines the origins and evolution of the company through the creation of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), The Reduced Shakespeare Radio Show, William Shakespeare's Long Lost First Play (abridged), and The Comedy of Hamlet! (a prequel). Ronan shares his methodology; how he wanted to make his book accessible to the general reader; how he learned that the RSC carries on the 17th-century tradition of “drolls”; how the RSC injected a bit of danger and the unexpected into Shakespeare and influenced various folks like the Q Brothers and Potted Potter creator Daniel Clarkson; and how for a limited time, Arden Shakespeare is offering to RSC fans a 35% discount on the hardcover edition of the book! (Length 24:54) The post Reduced Shakespeare Book appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

Say hello to the newest UK incarnation of the Reduced Shakespeare Company! Efé Agwele, Woogie Jung, Kiran Raywilliams, and Tom Pavey join director and RSC founder Adam Long to discuss our brand-new tour of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) that's hitting at least 29 cities across the UK in this first half of 2026. The gang talks about how they were cast; their origins both humble and impressive; incorporating micro Shakespeare moments; experience with something called the Jesus College Shakespeare Project; our first live conversation from the back of the bus to Oxford University; and the key importance for touring actors to be "pre-loved-up"! (Length 27:44) (PICTURED, above l-r: Kiran Raywilliams, Efé Agwele, Tom Pavey (seated), and Woogie Jung. Photo by Michael Wharley.) The post New RSCUK Actors appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

Our live celebration of 1000 weeks of podcasting onstage at Chicago's Annoyance Theater continues this week as Annoyance founder and directors Mick Napier and Jennifer Estlin discuss the evolution of their mentalism and closeup magic double-act. Mick and Jen share their early inspiration; a special appearance from telephone psychic Vanessa Sawyer from the Kenny Kingston Psychic Hotline; shout-out Chicago’s Magic Lounge, where Napier and Estlin have played before; and how the danger of knowing too much or overthinking a thing can sometimes destroy the magic of that thing; a fantastic definition of magic; how the value of most institutions is the generations of artists who’ve contributed to its legacy; and a partial answer to the question “Are magicians born or made?” (Length 26:17) The post Napier And Estlin appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

It's our 1000th episode! And we celebrated in high-style with a live recording onstage at Chicago's Annoyance Theatrewith Annoyance's founder and artistic director Mick Napier (Paradigm Lost, Exit 57) and its executive director Jennifer Estlin. Mick and Jen discuss the theatre's origins; how Mick wanted to set the Annoyance apart from what Second Citywas doing (but ended up returning to the mothership to direct a landmark production that changed the culture there forever); how Jen kept the Annoyance going during the pandemic; and how they both have made the Annoyance an artistic home for generations of multi-talented actors and improvisers. PART TWO OF OUR CONVERSATION WILL BE AVAILABLE NEXT WEEK, OR YOU CAN WATCH THE WHOLE THING ON YOUTUBE RIGHT NOW! (Length 22:44) The post The Annoyance Theatre (Episode #1000!) appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

Author James Finn Garner (Politically Correct Bedtime Stories) returns to discuss his latest satire, Politically Correct Peter Pan, and the difficulties of staying ahead of contemporary sensibilities. Garner reveals how his background as an actor informs his writing; how he gets to do what he loves; how he prefers editing what he's written to actually writing; the fun of playing in sandboxes other authors have created; the opportunities of his glorious Substack; and finally, the phenomenon of "Pansplaining." (Cover art by Lia Garner.) (Length 21:24) The post PC Peter Pan appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

What happens when you’re a five-person theatre company whose stage manager is too sick to fly and the shipping company won’t deliver your props and costumes? Reed Martin explains what happened last month when those hiccups affected our performances of The Ultimate Christmas Show (abridged) in Oregon and Washington. It’s a tale of improvisation; scrambling and calling on reserves; promoting from within; early mornings and late nights; the beauty of muscle memory; all hands being on deck all across the country; getting the chance to admire beautiful scenery; not panicking; the show going on; and the whole thing turning into a Christmas (ultimate) miracle. (Length 19:47) The post Joys Of Touring appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

Cathy Sandrich is the Emmy-winning casting director of The Pitt, HBO's Emmy-winning outstanding drama beginning its second season this week. A veteran of various "big boy movies," Cathy reveals how she sees thousands of actors for hundreds of roles; the supreme importance of lists; how one starts over with every project; the importance of strong and truthful choices; how casting directors have to audition just like actors and, also like actors, don't like to be pegged; how good is always good but sometimes not quite right; and, most encouragingly, how great auditions are never wasted. (Length 22:09) The post 996. Casting The Pitt appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

On its 30th anniversary, we present the complete audio of The Reduced Shakespeare Company Christmas, which walked so The Ultimate Christmas Show (abridged) could run, and was first recorded and broadcast on Public Radio International in 1995. Featuring conversations with both the crew of Yule-Sat and Charles Dickens; festive (and occasionally dated) partying at the RSC HQ in Northern California; the ten-minute "The Complete Christmas Carol (abridged);" and the original in-context version of that would-be holiday classic "Mrs. Santa Claus." (Length 47:35) The post The RSC Christmas appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

Jon Hudson Odom and Helen Jon Lee (above) reveal how they bring surprising joy to their portrayals of the iconic Mr. and Mrs. Cratchit in this year's Goodman Theatre production of A Christmas Carol. Jon and Helen share the various productions that have inspired them; how they keep the performances fresh; how their own families shape their instincts; how the Cratchits code-switch; the moving and very personal interactions they've had with audience members; the value of avoiding "toxic positivity;" the Shakespearean nature of this classic text; and the importance of scorning the kind of modern-day Scrooges who would find this kind of diversity too "woke." Also: a special appearance by Erin Allen, producer and host of the WBEZ podcast Curious City. (Length 22:52) The post Meet The Cratchits appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

Gregory Hirte (above, with violin) reflects on the twenty-five years (!) he's been in the Goodman Theatre's annual production of A Christmas Carol, and how both he and the show have changed in that time. Hirte reveals the benefits of being both an actor and a musician; the challenge of going where the work is; how he got started with Chicago's famed Piven Theatre Workshop; tales of onstage mishaps; his vote for, not the best, but the fastest Scrooge; and finally, how the beauty of the story keeps bringing back actors – and audiences – year after year. (Length 18:35) (PICTURED: Brian Goodwin, Chris Khoshaba, Bethany Thomas, Gregory Hirte, Austin Tichenor, Benjamin Heppner, Jalbelly Guzmán, and Christiana Clark in the 2025 Goodman Theatre production of A Christmas Carol, directed by Malkia Stampley. Photo by Brett Beiner.) The post Quarter Century Caroler appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

Matt Croke, Reed Martin, and Austin Tichenor remember the creation of the RSC's second radio show The Reduced Shakespeare Company Christmas in 1995, and how it paved the way for the RSC's eighth stage show The Ultimate Christmas Show (abridged). Matt, Reed, and Austin reveal their audio inspirations (like Firesign Theatre and 'Weird Al' Yankovic); how the new golden age of radio is called podcasts; how we failed to achieve novelty hit status with "Mrs. Santa Claus;" how we incorporated inside-baseball Ringling Brothers jokes and personal holiday memories; and how the heart the recording is its ten-minute reduction A Little Dickens: The Complete Christmas Carol (abridged); and how Austin went from playing parody Scrooge to playing the real guy for Chicago's Goodman Theatre. (Length 15:02) The post Remembering ‘Little Dickens’ appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

Friend of the pod Katherine Scheil is the author of Imagining Shakespeare’s Wife: The Afterlife of Anne Hathaway and the co-editor of the upcoming Palgrave Handbook of Shakespearean Biofiction, is the perfect person to talk about Chloé Zhao's film version of Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel. Scheil highlights some of the differences between the novel and the film; some head-scratching marketing choices; how the novel and (especially) Jessie Buckley's performance, empower Shakespeare's wife in a way we've never seen before; and a curious similarity between Paul Mescal in Hamnet and Tim Allen in Galaxy Quest. (Length 23:21) The post Hamnet, The Movie appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

Folger Shakespeare Library director Farah Karim-Cooper's new book All the World's Your Stage explores for readers of all ages the life and times of William Shakespeare through eight of his most popular plays. Dr. Karim-Cooper discusses how this was one of her hardest books to write and reveals the surprising title of her favorite Shakespeare play; the relationship between profanity and a love of language; Shakespearean mythbusting; the confessions of a Texan sailor’s daughter; the value of Shakespeare – as well as museums, arts, and humanities – beyond their “relevance;” ; how Shakespeare wrote what may be the first Black power speech; and the importance of studying Shakespeare on the stage as well as on the page. (Length 27:37) (Photo of Farah Karim-Cooper above by Henri T.) The post Farah Karim-Cooper appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

Malkia Stampley (above) is directing the Goodman Theatre's 48th annual production of A Christmas Carol (in previews now, opening Sunday, and running through New Year's Eve), and reflects how her experience in other productions, as well as her background as both a performer and a person, informs her approach to Dickens's classic tale. Malkia reveals how she's amplifying the diversity the production has had for decades by allowing characters to sound like what they look like; how the story of Ebenezer Scrooge's redemption is perhaps more important than ever; how she's shaping the show around the talents the actors bring; how the story changes because of the way the world has changed; and how the timeless story of A Christmas Carol belongs to everyone. (Length 23:45) The post Malkia’s Christmas Carol appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

To celebrate the start of the podcast's 20th Season, playwright and author Andrew Moorhead returns to talk about his play This Purple F***ing Pot, a new office comedy now getting a limited site-specific run off-Broadway. Andrew reveals the ah-ha moment when the play's title first came to him; how he loves the sound of characters speaking; the various inspirations that helped inform his voice (including a certain three-person vaudeville theatre company); what made him become a playwright; the dramaturgical value of archetypes; and how a day job in marketing enables you to write not only great plays, but great descriptions of your plays. (Length 22:09) The post Purple F***ing Pot appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

Chicago's Improvised Shakespeare Company celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2025, and founder/director Blaine Swendiscusses the company's humble origins and how it now performs regularly in Chicago and Los Angeles and tours all across America. Blaine shares performing secrets; the nature of the high-wire act of improvising in iambic pentameter; how this stuff can be learned; how several of every performance's signature moments began as an attempt to solve a technical problem; and how the audience is the key ingredient to the alchemical magic that makes each performance work. (Length 19:39) The post Improvised Shakespeare Company appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged), an irreverent celebration of “the greatest story ever accepted as fact” that was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play, celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, and Matthew Croke, Reed Martin, and Austin Tichenor reminisce about its creation and how much the world has changed since it premiered at the Kennedy Center in 1995. The original cast members reveal how they bent over backwards to make an entertaining innoffensive comedy; the genius of Steve Smith, the former director of Ringling Brothers Clown College; rave reviews from a Virginia nun and a minister from the Church of Scotland; and how, perhaps paradoxically, some of the show's biggest fans are the most religiously devout. (Length 19:24) The post Celebrating The Bible appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

Stage actor Shannon Cochran (August: Osage County) brings her horror movie bona fides (The Ring; The Hand That Rocks The Cradle) to the phenomenal new stage play Paranormal Activity, an original new story based on the successful film franchise now running at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre (followed by the Ahmanson Theatre in LA, American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, and the Shakespeare Theater Company in Washington DC). Shannon discusses the precision with which playwright Levi Holloway and director Felix Barrett ratchet up the tension; how everyone has demonic qualities they struggle to suppress (or, as actors, tap into); how to not play the ending; the importance of keeping audiences literally and metaphorically in the dark; and how making audiences laugh in a theatre is not even as great as making audiences jump, scream, and then laugh in a theatre! (Length 20:13) The post Shannon Cochran’s ‘Paranormal’ appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

A hundred years on from the Harlem Renaissance, Gerrad Alex Taylor has adapted Langston Hughes’s Shakespeare in Harlem, which is having its world premiere this month at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, running from October 30 to November 9, 2025. Taylor shares how he's collaborating with both Hughes and Shakespeare to canonize the Black experience; how we call upon our ancestors, both personal and literary;  the power of the written word, from dramatic poetry to a letter written to your city council; how Shakespeare takes us, in his "Seven ages of man" speech through a man's life, while Hughes takes us through a man's blues; and finally, Taylor’s mission to turn Shakespeare into a verb! (Length 21:48) The post Shakespeare In Harlem appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.