Speaking of Shakespeare

This is a talk with Varsha Panjwani, host of the podcast, Women and Shakespeare. She also discusses her recent work on A Midsummer Night's Dream and on Indian and diasporic Shakespeare.00:00:00 - Intro00:02:05 - Women and Shakespeare podcast00:07:41 - Podcasts/Feminist Shakespeare Pedagogy00:17:26 - Varsha's intro to Oxford “Midsummer”00:32:14 - Indian Shakespeare in India00:37:40 - Bollywood and Shakespeare in film00:43:20 - Indian Shakespeare adapted in the West00:52:28 - Indian culture, personal rebellion, and Shakespeare01:05:18 - Future plans, diaspora Shakespeare

Thomas Dabbs speaks with Darren Freebury-Jones about his recent book, Shakespeare's Borrowed Feathers: How Early Modern Playwrights Shaped the World's Greatest Writer. This is Darren's second appearance on the series. Early he has spoken about two more recent books, the first entitled ‘Reading Robert Green: Recovering Shakespeare's Rival' and the second is entitled 'Shakespeare's Rival: The Influence of Thomas Kyd.' The talk is at: https://youtu.be/tX59cYTUCgE?si=cs2Ac3d8w5-Eqeyg 00:00:00 - Intro00:01:54 - ‘Shakespeare's Borrowed Feathers'00;04:20 - Digital attribution and reckoning00:08:31 - The ethics of borrowing00:16:08 - Shakespeare as solitary genius?00:18:10 - Collaboration in Shakespeare's time00:22:02 - Shakespeare's with contemporaries 00:36:26 - Ben Jonson00:39:26 - Memory, the skill of remembering00:43:57 - How is Shakespeare different from other playwrights?00:51:26 - Darren's current and future work00:59:20 - The public face of an editor

This is a talk with Tanya Pollard of Brooklyn College, City University of New York about Ben Jonson and about her other work on women in Shakespeare and early modern drama.00:00:00 - Intro00:01:34 - Ben Jonson's ‘The Alchemist'.00:15:12 - Greek tragic women, drama, research methods00:40:15 - Work with theaters in New York City00:52:27 - What brought Tanya to NYC, CUNY00:57:27 - Tanya's aerial work, the silks01:08:17 - Closing remarks

Video broadcast here or at https://youtu.be/uVmVZxW2Pu8 Thomas Dabbs speaks with Agnès Lafont of Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 and Lindsay Reid of the University of Galway about their research and recent collaborations in early modern editing and performance. Lots of Ovid, for Ovid lovers: [LINKS]- The Edward's Boys, 'The Maydes Metamorphosis':Trailer, 2024 © Esme CornishKing Edward VI School (KES), Stratford-upon-Avonhttps://nakala.fr/10.34847/nkl.935bd7zg- Edward's Boys at https://www.edwardsboys.org.uk- Artists in residency, IRCL: https://ircl.cnrs.fr/en/recherche/residences-dartistes-en-laboratoire-scientifique/- "The Maid's Metamorphosis or The Metamorphoses of the Maid?": https://researchrepository.universityofgalway.ie/entities/publication/e20d661b-fae7-44f3-b062-38d0b2a2094c[SEGMENTS]00:00:00 - Intro00:02:35 - ‘The Maydes Metamorphosis' and Ovid00:21:27 - Summer School in Sardinia: ‘The Tempest'00:28:53 - Ovid in the air, cross-cultural influences00:47:04 - Remediating the Early Book: Past and Futures00:50:34 - Polyglot Encounters in Early Modern Britain00:53:34 - Scholar adventurers, outreach, beautiful places

This is a talk with David Kastan of Yale University about his career and about what Shakespeare has to do with art and color. It features his forthcoming book on Shakespeare and Rembrandt.00:00:00 - Intro00:02:42 - Accident, chance, adventure, and scholarship00:12:45 - Shakespeare and Rembrandt 00:31:25 - Art that makes you stop00:44:37 - What is beauty in art and poetry? Paying attention00:56:35 - Shakespeare and religion, translations01:08:32 - On Color01:20:15 - Closing: The prospect of beauty

Thomas Dabbs again speaks with James Shapiro of Columbia University, this time about his recent book entitled: ‘The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War.'[SEGMENTS]00:00:00 - Intro00:01:20 - ‘The Playbook' and Shakespeare in America00:04:17 - The Federal Theater (1935-39)00:07:22 - Hallie Flanagan and the Federal Theater00:13:02 - Martin Dies and the conservative playbook00:18:50 - The American culture war00:20:05 - Beginnings of the Federal Theater00:23:50 - A lost and found research archive00:25:10 - Is Christopher Marlowe a communist?00:31:35 - Race and Macbeth 00:36:50 - Criticism from the left of the left00:39:25 - The death of innovation, the playbook redux00:47:40 - The life of Othello in America

This is a public lecture by Christopher Highley of the Ohio State University on his book, 'Blackfriars in Early Modern London'  (Oxford UP, 2022). Highley specializes in Early Modern literature, culture, and history. Along with his many publications, honors, grants, and awards, he is the author of Shakespeare, Spenser, and the Crisis in Ireland (Cambridge UP, 1997), Catholics Writing the Nation in Early Modern Britain and Ireland (Oxford UP, 2008).  His well-received and most recent book is entitled Blackfriars in Early Modern London: Theater, Church, and Neighborhood.  He is currently continuing his work on early modern London during the English Reformation period, as well as on the posthumous image of Henry VIII.

Video version at: https://youtu.be/I_kDph02QcI?si=Z2jXDMPwrm3XQi0h. Stephen Wittek speaks at Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo, on his book, 'The Cultural Politics of Conversion in Early Modern England' on Tuesday, June 6th, 2023. Wittek's work lies at the intersection between early modern drama, cultural studies, and digital humanities. His most recent book is a close examination of Shakespeare's engagement with the flurry of controversy and activity surrounding the concept of conversion in post-Reformation England. He is also the author of 'The MediaPlayers: Shakespeare, Middleton, Jonson, and the Idea of News' and co-editor of two collections: 'Performing Conversion: Cities, Theatre and Early Modern Transformations' and 'Shakespeare and Virtual Reality'.

Thomas Dabbs speaks with Diana Henderson of MIT about her recent work in Shakespearean pedagogy and Shakespearean adaptation in particular, but also about her influential contributions to literary study during her career as a Shakespeare scholar.00:00:00 - Intro00:02:18 - Balliol College sabbatical, current research00:06:12 - Why humanities, arts, and social science at MIT00:12:50 - Shakespeare and digital pedagogy 00:22:33 - Shakespeare and adaptation00:40:09 - Shakespeare in film, Shakespeare/Sense00:48:21 - Preserving theatre with recordings and records00:58:30 - Diana's work as a dramaturg01:03:10 - Passions Made Public/ made feminism in academia 01:11:11 - Genealogies of literary criticism01:14:33 - Closing remarks

Stephen Wittek sits in as co-host and speaks with Thomas Dabbs about his career, both as a Shakespearean and as a Bible teacher in Japan.00:00:00 - Intro00:01:00 - The Speaking of Shakespeare Series00:06:40 - Aoyama Gakuin, Tokyo, and how Dabbs got to Japan00:16:45 - “Genesis in Japan: the Bible beyond Christianity”00:34:14 - St Paul's, Paul's Cross and Shakespearean drama00:47:03 - Digital Humanities, AI, AGU Digital Project, Archives, Meisei00:56:17 - “Waiting for Will,” avant-garde drama in Japan, prison01:04:02 - “Playing with Shakespeare in Japan”01:14:27 - “A Midsummer's Night Dream” and the Office of the Revels01:18:12 - Closing remarks

Thomas Dabbs speaks with David Sterling Brown of Trinity College, Connecticut, about his recent book, entitled 'Shakespeare's White Others', and also about other work that David has done in the field of critical race studies.[LINKS]David Sterling Brown (Website): https://www.davidsterlingbrown.comDavid Sterling Brown VR Gallery: https://hubs.mozilla.com/p963Ga4/david-sterling-gallery-vrvThe Republic of Yarnia: https://www.republicofyarnia.com[SEGMENTS]00:00:00 - Intro00:01:55 - ‘Shakespeare's White Others'00:30:07 - Personal elements in David's writing00:31:25 - Trinity College and teaching00:42:32 - White Others VR Art Gallery00:51:44 - Hood Pedagogy00:56:48 - Claudia Rankine: The Racial Imaginary Inst. (TRII)01:07:45 - Promotion and mini-book tour01:15:16 - Upcoming panel: In Plain Sight01:18:07 - Stopped by the police, generational racism01:32:45 - Rest and mental health01:39:11 - Southern grandmothers: race relations 01:45:18 - Closing remarks

Thomas Dabbs talks with Tiffany Stern of the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, about her recent perspectives on ballads in early modern drama, on Edmond Malone's 18th-century scholarship, and on her editorial work in Shakespeare and 16th-century literature

Thomas Dabbs speaks with Jean-Christophe Mayer about his recent book, Shakespeare's Early Readers and about his work with the French National Center for Scientific Research and his other research and administrative activities.00:00:00 - Introduction00:01:30 - CNRS and IRCL: Roles in research00:08:58 - Human beings in history: materialism and theory00:21:48 - Trans-disciplinary research00:26:00 - Shakespeare in Japan00:27:24 - Montpellier00:28:48 - First Folio in Japan: Meisei, Used Books00:42:32 - Early readers: Finding yourself in a book00:51:03 - Elizabeth Montague and Voltaire00:57:10 - Popular theatre: Shakespeare, Molière01:09:07 - The early modern print industry 01;14:35 - Reception theory and appropriation01:18:04 - The Tempest: Here and There01:21:34 - English drama and the French01:27:25 - Cahiers Élisabéthains and literary journals01:35:00 - Closing remarks

This is a talk with Peter Herman of the University of California, San Diego about his new book, Early Modern Others and other elements of his research that focus on the relationship between literature and culture.

This is a talk with Eric Rasmussen of the University of Nevada, Reno, about his work in locating and cataloguing full descriptions of over 200 copies of the Shakespearean First Folio, the large book that made Shakespeare, Shakespeare. This year is the 400th anniversary of the publication of this edition, entitled Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies and published in 1623.

This is a talk with Heidi Craig of the University of Toronto about her recent book on drama during the English Civil War period: 00:00:00 - Intro00:00:00 - Drama during the English Civil Wars00:05:46 - Old drama/new drama, when Shakespeare wasn't first00:08:45 - Periodization of drama00:13:10 - Secret or underground performance00:17:01 - Plays becoming literary and commercial products00:21:50 - The effort to kill off drama and theatre and fun00:27:28 - Elevating/ destroying drama politics/ pandemic00:33:12 - Historic preservation and the digital age00:36:45 - Early Modern Dramatic Paratexts (EMDP)00:42:18 - Linked Early Modern Drama Online (LEMDO)00:51:00 - The value of preservation00:52:20 - The Last Age and Old Plays00:56:26 - The value of the archive, Folger et al.00:58:46 - Heidi's current position/ the scholarly community01:05:00 - Upcoming projects/ rags and paper01:11:10 - Closing remarks

This is a talk with Darren Freebury-Jones, Lecturer in Shakespeare Studies, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, about his two recent books: ‘Reading Robert Greene' and 'Shakespeare's Tutor: The Influence of Thomas Kyd'. Along with providing a fresh view of two playwrights that deserve much more of our attention, both books explore new ways to understand creative collaboration among young, aspiring playwrights, particularly during Shakespeare's early years as a dramatist in London.00:00:00 - Intro00:02:10 - ‘Reading Robert Greene'00:07:27 - Thomas Kyd, 'Shakespeare's Tutor'00:14:20 - Authorial attribution—digital vs critical00:22:50 - Collaboration—Shakespeare, Kyd, and others00:28:40 - The art of adapting known narratives00:31:48 - Thomas Kyd, and the Ur Hamlet00:36:32 - Influences on Shakespeare—Kyd, Greene, others00:43:00 - Elizabethan playwrights and educational backgrounds00:49:30 - Darren's as creative writer and actor00:56:10 - The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, and Darren's role01:07:15 - Next--Shakespearean influences and the other dramatists01:16:00 - Closing remarks, Wales and rugby

Thomas Dabbs speaks with Emma Smith of Hertford College, Oxford, about Shakespeare's First Folio. The year 2023 is the 400th anniversary year of this monumental edition. This conversation covers the re-release of two of Emma's books, one on the making of the First Folio and one on the history of its reception over the following centuries. 

Thomas Dabbs speaks with Ian Smith, current president of the Shakespeare Association of America, about his new book, ‘Black Shakespeare: Reading and Misreading Race' (Cambridge UP)

Thomas Dabbs speaks with Gayle Greene about her new book, ‘Immeasurable Outcomes: Teaching Shakespeare in the Age of the Algorithm' (Johns Hopkins). This book covers the history of coordinated attacks on humanities education and also examines the administrative obstacles placed on teachers in general in the modern classroom. She pushes back on these forces by using the responses of real students in an actual college Shakespeare class.

Thomas Dabbs speaks with Jane Hwang Degenhardt of the U Mass, Amherst about her recent book, Globalizing Fortune on the Early Modern Stage: They also discussed features of Jane's research on religious conversion in the early modern period and her approaches to teaching Shakespeare and early modern drama.00:00:00 - Intro00:01:11 - Globalizing Fortune on the Early Modern Stage00:27:20 - Shakespearean Horizons: The Worlding of Shakespeare00:34:06 - Arthur Kinney00:35:68 - Jane's background, and fortune and chance00:43:48 - Conversion, and fictional Islamic conversation00:49:00 - Jane's teaching, gender and women's studies00:53:30 - Shakespeare and the left, Pericles01:00:04 - Closing remarks

Thomas Dabbs speaks with Alexa Alice Joubin of George Washington University about her recent book, 'Shakespeare and East Asia'. Alexa also reviewed her recent research in race and gender studies, with regard to Shakespeare, and presented on her examinations of Shakespearean adaptation across the globe in small and in large ways.[SEGMENTS]00:00:00 - Intro00:01:11 - Shakespeare and East Asia00:08:52 - Constructed “foreignness”, invisible and visible00:28:58 - Critical race studies and racial identity00:27:41 - Reparative transgender Shakespeare00:34:04 - Stage Beauty, inspired by Othello00:38:45 - Transgender theory and Stage Beauty00:47:50 - The King and the Clown, inspired by Hamlet, 12th Night, and Shrew00:54:13 - Adapting Shakespeare for reparative purposes, vocal disability00:57:05 - The King's Speech, reparative adaptations01:03:09 - Onscreen Allusions to Shakespeare01:10:04 - Teaching Shakespeare in a time of hate, inclusive pedagogies01:15:49 - Screening Shakespeare, an open-access textbook01:17:43 - Closing remarks[KEYWORDS AND PHRASES]Shakespeare and East AsiaHow perception of “foreignness” is constructed in intercultural workCritical race studies and racial identityBeing invisible and visibleReparative transgender ShakespeareStage Beauty, inspired by OthelloThe King and the Clown, inspired by Hamlet. Twelfth Night, and Taming of the ShrewAdapting Shakespeare for reparative purposesDepictions of vocal disabilityThe King's Speech, recitation of “to be or not to be” in a sceneTeaching Shakespeare in a time of hateInclusive pedagogiesStrategies to de-colonize ShakespeareOpen-access interactive textbook on Shakespeare and film studies

Thomas Dabbs speaks with Richard Strier of the University of Chicago about his recent book, Shakespearean Issues: Agency, Skepticism, and Other Puzzles.

Thomas Dabbs speaks with William Carroll of Boston University about Bill's recent book, ‘Adapting Macbeth: A Cultural History'.

Thomas Dabbs speaks with Peter Holland of the University of Notre Dame about Peter's recent book, ‘Shakespeare and Forgetting'. 

This is a talk with Michael Dobson, Director of the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, located in Stratford-upon-Avon. Here we talk about the Shakespeare Institute's programs and mission and also about Michael's recent work on Shakespeare in national repertories across the globe.

Thomas Dabbs speaks with Stephen Wittek of Carnegie Mellon University about conversion, religious and otherwise,  during the early modern period and also about recent developments in Shakespeare and virtual reality. 

Thomas Dabbs speaks with Laura Mandell of Texas A&M University and director of the university's Center of Digital Humanities Research or CoDHR. The CoDHR is  the publisher of the New Variorum Shakespeare, a project that is working to provide open Internet access to the full history of Shakespearean editions and annotations, and much, much more:The CoDHR supports a dazzling array of DH projects in the areas of digital development and in multidisciplinary research and publication. Among Laura's many contributions to scholarship, is her monograph, or better, manifesto, entitled “Breaking the Book,” which works to reveal why there remains a resistance to the digital humanities in traditional humanities disciplines.[LINKS]New Variorum Shakespeare: https://newvariorumshakespeare.orgJullia Flanders TEI-c.org: https://tei-c.orgIATH: http://www.iath.virginia.eduThe Poetess Archive: https://poetess.dh.tamu.edu/index.htmlBlake Archive: http://www.blakearchive.orgARC: https://arc.dh.tamu.edu[SEGMENTS]00:00:00 - Intro00:02:36 - The New Variorum Shakespeare (online)00:13:38 - The advantages of TEI00:17:24 - Encoding challenges and solutions00:27:32 - 18th-century, The Poetess Archive00:30:26 - Searchable databases in literary study00:32:00 - Shakespeare in the 18th century00:34:45 - Women in 18th-century literature00:37:22 - Visualizing digitized literature, William Blake00:40:22 - IIIF compliance and sharing images00:43:47 - Keeping women in the digital canon, gender marking00:51:33 - The value of building digital resources, ARC01:03:44 - Evaluating digital contributions in the profession01:08:09 - Closing remarks

Christopher Highley of Ohio State University speaks with Thomas Dabbs about his recent book on the Blackfriars district in early modern London and also the Blackfriars complex from which the district got its name. Formed as a religious house for Dominican friars, the Blackfriars complex was repurposed during the Henrican Reformation and became the home for several notable theatre initiatives. In the early 17th century the Blackfriars theatre became a venue for Shakespeare and the King's Men. Highley's work provides a detailed view of the entire district, including a fresh understanding of the unique and intriguing religious and social features of the Blackfriars neighborhood during the early modern period. 

Thomas Dabbs speaks with Fiona Ritchie of McGill University about her forthcoming book on 18th-century theatre entitled Shakespeare in the Theatre: Sarah Siddons and John Philip Kemble:  Dabbs and Ritchie also discuss the role of women in the theatre and other elements of London and regional theatre during the 'long' 18th century, a period that dates from 1660 to 1830.

Podcast at https://speakingofshakespeare.buzzsprout.com. Thomas Dabbs talks with Lucy Munro, King's College, London, mainly about her recent book entitled ‘Shakespeare in the Theatre: The King's Men'. Also Lucy gives her perspectives on London playhouses during Shakespeare's time and beyond, with a particular focus on Blackfriars. This talk also covers elements of lost culture in Shakespeare's time and the initiative to produce a lost play based on historical records entitled ‘Keep the Widow Waking'. There is also commentary on Lucy's work in theatre architecture with regards to current-day reproductions of old theatres. 

Thomas Dabbs talks with Mark Thornton Burnett of Queen's University, Belfast, about Shakespearean adaptations, particularly in film and across the globe.

Thomas Dabbs speaks with Stephen Greenblatt of Harvard University about Greenblatt's recent work on Shakespeare, the Bible, and Lucretius.

This is a talk with Alec Ryrie, FBA, of Durham University about the relationship between Reformation religion and Shakespeare and Marlowe. In this talk Alec reflects on drama and emotion in Protestantism during the 16th and 17th centuries in England and on purgatory, ghosts, souls, atheism, and church ritual. Alec is a historian of Protestant  Christianity in general and of religion in early modern England and Scotland in particular. He has written extensively on the English Reformation and the history and impact of Protestantism in England and Scotland and across the globe. His most recent book is ‘Unbelievers: An Emotional History of Doubt.' He has spoken on the cultural, social, political and emotional history of religion and on other subjects, including faith and doubt;  martyrdom, violence and religious warfare; magic and deception; moderation and radicalism; childhood religious experience; and liturgy and prayer. Alec is also a reader (lay minister) in the Church of England and serves as a Gresham College Professor of Divinity.

Thomas Dabbs speaks with Sarah Olive of the University of Bangor about global Shakespearean education and about her work on young adult and children's fiction (where things Shakespearean make many appearances). Sarah is currently on research leave (2022) and is a visiting professor at Kobe Women's College in Japan.

Thomas Dabbs speaks with Edward Wilson-Lee of Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge. Wilson-Lee is the author of “Shakespeare in Swahililand,” a study of how Shakespearean plays made their way into East Africa. He is also the author of “The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books,” which examines the life of Columbus's son, Hernando Colón, and Hernando's dream of a library that held universal knowledge. This work is supplemented with another book on Colón's catalogue, a collaboration with José María Pérez Fernández entitled “Hernando Colón's New World of Books: Towards a Cartography of Knowledge.” Wilson-Lee also has another book that will appear in August 2022, entitled “A History of Water, being an account of a murder, an epic, and two vision of global history.”00:00:00 - Intro00:03:41 - Formative years, East Africa, books and adventure00:07:04 - A History of Water00:16:15 - Shakespeare in Swahililand00:32:10 - The travels of translation00:39:50 - Shakespeare for the people, Shakespearean adaptation00:45:30 - Hernando Colón and preserving knowledge00:56:20 - The found book and ordering knowledge01:19:28 - Scholarship in narrative form; the wandering scholar01:15:50 - Japanese translation and closing remarks

Peggy O'Brien, Director of Education at the Folger Shakespeare Library, about the Folger Method for teaching Shakespeare (see link below). This talk also covers the Folger's educational offerings online and on-site, including lesson plans and and other offerings for those who teach Shakespeare. The Folger Method: https://www.folger.edu/the-folger-methodFolger Shakespeare Library (homepage): https://www.folger.edu00:00:00 - Intro00:02:40 - The Folger Method and its origins00:08:15 - NEH, Professional development, The Wide World, Folger Teaching 00:14:15 - Global literary education, bridging the language and dialect gap00:21:00 - Why so much Shakespeare? The sweep of literature. Race and Gender.00:27:10 - Recent troubles in American schools. Political polarization00:37:15 - Humanities under attack. Public demand for the humanities.00:44-38 - Outreach, Michael Witmore00:51:34 - Shakespeare, theory, history, and student-centered interpretations01:58:40 - Shakespearean adaptation in Japan and across the globe01:03:00 - Peggy's career in education01:08:40 - Covid and adapting to change in teaching01:10:54 - A welcome from the Folger and closing remarksThis series is funded with institutional support from Aoyama Gakuin University (AGU) in Tokyo and with a generous grant from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

Thomas Dabbs speaks with Holger Schott Syme of the University of Toronto about his revisionist understanding of the London theatre during Shakespeare's time. The talk also covers Holger's views on acting companies and theatre going in the Elizabethan period, and also his editorial work, specifically on ‘The Spanish Tragedy'. 

Thomas Dabbs speaks with Lena Cowen Orlin about her new book, ‘The Private Life of William Shakespeare' and about about other areas of her research, including her findings on Tudor homes and her detailed recovery of quotidian life during Shakespeare's time. 00:00:00 - Intro00:03:24 - ‘The Private Life of William Shakespeare': Overview00:09:20 - Shakespeare's education in Stratford: Ovid and Cicero00:12:40 - Shakespeare's returns to Stratford from London: Oxford, monuments00:15:02 - Shakespeare's monument00:17:58 - Problems in the history of Shakespearean biography00:20:00 - Biographical research, evidence clusters: misrepresentations and obsessions00:27:48 - Misrepresentations of Shakespeare's marriage: 2nd best bed00:33:08 - Shakespeare's will, early modern wills00:35:04 - Lena's research on private life and Tudor houses00:38:49 - Hagler Institute: the Shakespeare Variorum00:45:45 - The Folger and Lena's work at the Folger, training at Chapel Hill, Hinman collator00:50:21 - Benefits of digital resources00:52:47 - Shakespeare Birthplace Trust: Stratford and fires00:58:55 - Lena and the Shakespeare Assoc. of America, and the International Shakespeare Assoc.01:03:01 - Lena's background: Washington, D.C., and London, research on houses01:06:55 - More on Lena's future work, private papers in Shakespeare01:08:55 - Research travel during a pandemic: in-person conferencing and field research01:15:08 - Closing remarksThe Speaking of Shakespeare series is funded with institutional support from Aoyama Gakuin University (AGU) and with a generous grant from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).

Thomas Dabbs speaks with David Sterling Brown of Binghamton University. David is currently an ACLS/Mellon Scholars and Society Fellow in residence with The Racial Imaginary Institute, founded by Claudia Rankine, and in July 2022 he will join the faculty at Trinity College (USA), his undergraduate alma mater.This conversation includes a look at recent initiatives that explore whiteness and modern racial conflict through the performance and study of Shakespeare. It also focuses on such recent initiatives as The Racial Imaginary Institute, spearheaded by Claudia Rankine, and also on the progress of 'Untitled Othello,' an ensemble led by Keith Hamilton Cobb. LINKSDavid Sterling Brown Online (Other Presentations)https://www.davidsterlingbrown.com/presentations[SEGMENTS]00:00:00 - Intro00:02:00 - The Racial Imaginary Institute (TRII), Claudia Rankine00:08:20 - American Moor, Untitled Othello, Keith Hamilton Cobb00:28:50 - Cleopatra00:33:10 - Whiteness and Color, the segregated South, Racialized Whiteness00:39:40 - James Baldwin, African-American Lit and Shakespeare00:44:50 - Challenging Shakespeare, ‘Titus Andronicus'00:47:08 - Tragedy vs Comedy, racial perspectives, dark comedy00:52:24 - bell hooks' passing and her contributions, reflections00:59:03 - Redemption, mediating change, confronting the now01:13:38 - Guys, folks, drag, and drag queen01:15:40 - David's editorial positions with journals. 01:16:26 - Social Justice in Contemporary Performance01:19:28 - Shakespeare's Other Race Plays01:21:00 - The Folger and Teaching Race Every Place, The First Folio01:22:39 - Forthcoming books, Racialized Whiteness and Pedagogy/Scholarship01:24:20 - The Sonic Color Line, Black Klansman, Sorry to Bother You01:27:50 - Hood Feminism01:30:55 - The Household and Mental Health01:37:40 - Closing remarks

This is talk with James Shapiro of Columbia University on his recent book, ‘Shakespeare in a Divided America'. This conversation covers highlights of Shapiro's book on the influence of Shakespeare in American thought and on the minds of such American leaders as John Quincy Adams, Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, and Henry Cabot Lodge. The book also examines how Shakespeare appears in American history and how Shakespearean material weighs in on such matters as race, immigration, and gender. From the Astor Place riots in the 19th century to the hullabaloo over the portrayal of a Trump look alike at the Delacorte theatre, this book also shows how Shakespearean performance exposes a range of divisive conflicts in the American consciousness. This talk also cover Shapiro's prior work on Shakespeare's life, antisemitism in Shakespeare, and the question of Shakespearean authorship.00:00:00 - Intro00:02:47 - Overview of ‘Shakespeare in a Divided America'00:06:57 - John Quincy Adams, Ulysses S. Grant, and ‘Othello'00:11:08 - Why Shakespeare in America?00:13:56 - Astor Place Riots, Shakespeare competition, unruly behavior00:21:30 - Shakespeare in prison00:26:39 - Henry Cabot Lodge, ‘The Tempest', and immigration00:32:47 - Kiss Me Kate, post war American and marriage00:34:59 - LGBTQ and ‘Shakespeare in Love'00:38:39 - Joel Coen's ‘Macbeth', using film in pedagogy00:40:23 - Trump as Caesar at the Delacorte00:43:33 - James Shapiro's history as a Shakespearean, theatre goer00:46:22 - The transformation experience of theatre going00:48:30 - The Shakespearean authorship question and the Supreme Court00:54:58 - Following one's own path in Shakespeare studies00:56:58 - Future research, African-American Shylock, multicultural Shakespeare01:01:25 - Theatre in Ireland01:04:49 - Closing remarks

Thomas Dabbs speaks with John Wall about the completion of the Virtual St Paul's Cathedral Project. This project is a digital reconstruction of St Pauls Cathedral before Christopher Wren and during the time of John Donne and Shakespeare. It provides architectural and acoustic models for Christian worship in the early decades of the Church of England and also a view of the nave and and bookshops of Paul's Cross Churchyard, where Londoners came to hear the news and to shop.[LINKS]Virtual John Donne Project: https://virtualdonne.chass.ncsu.eduVirtual St Paul's Cathedral Project: https://vpcathedral.chass.ncsu.eduVirtual Paul's Cross Project: https://vpcross.chass.ncsu.edu[SEGMENTS]00:00:00 - Intro00:03:04 - Panoramic views of St Paul's00:06:38 - Virtual St Pauls, architecture00:13:44 - John Donne and cathedral spaces00:18:38 - Cross-disciplinary team, visual/acoustic models00:25:50 - Materializing the ephemeral, the people, project history00:30:09 - Seeing and hearing cathedral worship00:34:05 - John Schofield's contribution as architectural historian00:39:03 - Paul's Cross churchyard, transatlantic connections00:47:50 - Paul's Cross sermons, Donne, Gunpowder Plot, Old Pronunciation00:53:00 - Auditory technology, the churchyard from bone to book01:01:03 - Literacy and hearing01:04:00 - Sounds of worship, the anechoic chamber, the choir and recording 01:15:55 - The nave of the cathedral, space and noise01:27:18 - The ‘Book of Common Prayer' - daily and Easter service01:39:27 - Trinity Chapel and John Donne01:45:00 - Closing remarks, ‘Is there sand enough in the glass?'

Thomas Dabbs speaks with Sonia Massai about her recent book, 'Shakespeare's Accents', and about her work as an expert in early modern drama editing and in the theatre arts.00:00:00 - Intro00:02:19 - Shakespeare's Accents00:09:38 - Mary Hope Baldwin, Studies in Diversity, accent and dialect00:18:05 - Acoustic diversity00:20:37 - Wartime Shakespeare00:34:40 - Textual transmission and reception, Thomas Berger00:38:50 - ‘Shakespeare and the Rise of the Editor'00:31:45 - Mentorship in the profession00:46:45 - Diversifying textual studies and Shakespearean editing00:54:22 - Paratexts and digital development, bibliography01:06:40 - Ivo van Hove and avant garde theatre01:19:00 - 'Tis Pity She's a Whore01:34:30 - ClosingTOPICS:#shakespeare#shakespeareantheatre#shakespeareanperformance#shakespearescontemporaries#editingshakespeare#renaissancedrama#earlymoderndrama#digitalhumanities#teachingshakespeare​

[See SEGMENTS below]. Audio podcast at: https://speakingofshakespeare.buzzsprout.com. Thomas Dabbs speaks with Emma Smith of Hertford College, Oxford, speaks about her book, 'This is Shakespeare', and her work as a scholar and theatre consultant.00:00:00 - Intro00:01:20 - Emma's book: ‘This is Shakespeare'00:13:06 - The humanities and public outreach00:15:34 - Why the humanities?00:19:35 - Upcoming projects: Nashe, Merry Wives, Books as Portable Magic00:27:05 - Book history and the future of the book.00:31:09 - The Elizabethan Top Ten00:34:00 - First Folio of Shakespeare00:43:22 - Approaching Shakespeare: Outreach and RSC theatre work00:47:28 - Christopher Marlowe00:52:45 - ‘Twelfth Night'00:57:36 - Background: love of literature vs professional literary studies 01:02:32 - Closing remarks

This a talk by Andy Kesson about bearbaiting in Shakespeare's London. This talk was given to students and scholars primarily in Japan and hosted by the English Literary Society of Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo.

Also available on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/c/SpeakingofShakespeare.[See SEGMENTS below] Thomas Dabbs speaks with Shoichiro Kawai of the University of Tokyo about his role as a director, playwright, translator, and scholar. Professor Kawai directs The Kawai Project, a multi-volume series that has staged productions of 'Much Ado about Nothing,'  'The Comedy of Errors,' and other Shakespearean plays and adaptations. Kawai has also adapted Samuel Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot' for the Japanese stage and has produced a Beckett-esque drama drawing from Shakespeare and echoing Beckett entitled 'Waiting for Will.' LINKS:Kawai Project (in Japanese): https://www.kawaiproject.comSEGMENTS:00:00:00 - Intro00:02:08 - The Holy Trinity of being a Shakespearean00:02:40 - Kawai Project: Waiting for Will and Samuel Beckett, Jean Jean Theatre00:11:45 - Kawai Project: Translating ‘Waiting for Godot' and ‘Waiting for Will'00:14:13 - Kawai Project: Much Ado about Nothing': Immersive theatre00:15:05 - Kawai Project: Comedy of Errors' and ‘As You Like It'00:17:35 - Translating and writing plays in Japanese00:18:45 - Kawai's and translation theory: ‘To Be or Not To Be'00:35:20 - Shakespeare: ‘Master of the Theatre of Life' 00:40:30 - Cultural adaptation: Bunraku and (mostly) Kyōgen00:49:20 - Critical theory vs doing and mimicry00:52:16 - Coming work: Maugham, Poe, The Tempest, Henry IV00:56:40 - The need for more Shakespearean drama00:59:30 - Other Shakespearean activities in Japan, King Lear (again)01:01:03 - Young Kawai and turning to theatre and Shakespeare01:13:10 - Closing remarks, Hamlet is Fat

Also available on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/c/SpeakingofShakespeare.[See SEGMENTS below] Thomas Dabbs speaks with Roze Hentschell of Colorado State University about her recent book: 'St Paul's Cathedral Precinct in Early Modern Literature and Culture: Spatial Practices'.LINKS:The Virtual St Pauls Cathedral Project: https://vpcathedral.chass.ncsu.edu.The Virtual Pauls Cross Project: https://vpcp.chass.ncsu.edu.SEGMENTS:00:00:00 - Intro00:02:20 - St Paul's Precinct in the Early Modern Period00:09:52 - Virtual St Paul's Project00:16:22 - Relationships between pulpits, stages, and bookshops00:17:09 - Going low with sermons and secular writing00:19:38 - Non-discreet space within and without00:22:33 - Going low with commercial aspects of the Cathedral00:25:15 - Shopping bookshops, public responses, anxiety00:30:55 - Masculinity and vice, in place out of place00:39:00 - Shakespeare, more vice, and St Paul's00:43:37 - Roze's book, Virtual St Paul's, spawning more research00:45:14 - Cloth and tapestry00:50:15 - Roze's work in administration: disciplinary boundaries00:59:58 - Roze, motherhood, exercise, good habits01:00:05 - The Mexican connection, educational background01:02:12 - Return to the cathedral and changing spaces01:05:00 - Paul's Cross churchyard, bones and bookshops01:11:35 - Roze's future work, grounds for further research01:17:30 - Closing remarks, Old St Paul's and Culture

Thomas Dabbs speaks with Andy Kesson of the University of Roehampton. Featured in this talk is new research into Bear Baiting and also a shout out to Andy's new program, 'A Bit Lit.' Andy's research covers a host of topics on theatre history and particularly the under-studied but rich period of English drama in the decades before Shakespeare.LINKS:A Bit Lit: https://abitlit.coBox Office Bears: https://boxofficebears.comMore Box Office Bears: https://beforeshakespeare.com/2020/08/03/box-office-bears-a-new-research-project-on-animal-baiting/Box Office Bears on YouTube: https://youtu.be/vZsYjhzaD8sBefore Shakespeare: https://beforeshakespeare.comBears: Lyle Lovett: https://youtu.be/_T4SaNuxZO8SEGMENTS:00:00:00 - Intro00:02:18 - A Bit Lit00:05:45 - Andy's research,00:11:10 - Before Shakespeare, Trans Theatre, Gallathea,00:18:45 - Elizabethan Top Ten00:24:56 - Box Office Bears00:38:53 - Theatre Before Shakespeare: 1560-159000:49:32 - Digital Humanities00:55:30 - Andy's educational background and future01:05:00 - Bears in the future01:10:31 - Closing remarks

This podcast is also available on YouTube at 'Speaking of Shakespeare'. This is a conversation with Professor Bryan Reynolds of the University of California, Irvine. In this talk Bryan covers his personal background to show his path from truant student and motocross aficionado to the study of Shakespeare and critical theory at Berkeley and Harvard. Bryan now travels to conflict zones across the globe to direct plays that he composes and even acts in. 

Thomas Dabbs speaks with Tiffany Stern of the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham. The Shakespeare Institute is located in Stratford-upon-Avon and has become a beacon of scholarship in studies of Shakespearean performance and texts. In this talk, Professor Stern's work on Shakespearean performance and documents are discussed along with how Shakespearean drama related to the common person in Elizabethan London and in England during Shakespeare's time. Stern also talks about her forthcoming work on fairgrounds during the Shakespearean period and on broadside ballads and how popular songs appear throughout Shakespeare's plays. Stern also describes her work as a general editor of plays in the Arden Shakespeare series.SEGMENTS:0:00:00 - Intro and greetings0:02:54 - Summary of Tiffany Stern's research0:14:23 - The Shakespeare Institute0:19:06 - Fairgrounds and Shakespeare0:30:50 - Broadside Ballads0:36:54 - The art of insult, the 4th wall audience response0:45:25 - Shakespeare beyond Performance0:54:58 - Textual Editing, Arden, Hard Copy vs Digital1:04:29 - Shakespearean adaption: Novels, Manga, Anime1:07:12 - Beyond performance. beyond text, clowns1:13:50 - Closing remarks, recent scholarship, chronologyTOPICS:#shakespeare#shakespeareantheatre#shakespeareanperformance#shakespearescontemporaries#editingshakespeare#renaissancedrama#earlymoderndrama#digitalhumanities#teachingshakespeare​

[See SEGMENTS below] Thomas Dabbs speaks with Jenelle Jenstad about the future of digital humanities, specifically in early modern research. Janelle is General Editor and Director of The Map of Early Modern London (MoEML) and a Coordinating Editor of the Internet Shakespeare Editions (ISE). She is also director of LEMDO (Linked Early Modern Drama Online), a TEI encoding, editing, and anthology-building platform for Early Modern Drama. She is a team member for The Endings Project, which seeks to develop strategies for concluding and preserving scholarly digital projects, and for maintaining long-term usability across a representative range of disciplines and DH methodologies. Janelle also maintains a blog that focuses on occasional drama.SEGMENTS:0:00:00 - Intro and greetings0:02:25 - LEMDO (Linked Early Modern Drama Online), TEI0:04:05 - Internet Shakespeare Editions (ISE) and LEMDO0:12:27 - Future of LEMDO, Queen's Men, Digital Renaissance Editions (DRE)0:15:28 - Mayoral Shows Anthology (MOMS)0:16:00 - Summary of LEMDO's platform, 0:19:38 - Map of Early Modern London (MoEML), John Stow, Mayoral Shows0:41:44 - Gazetteers0:44:03 - Janelle's background humanities/digital0:45:55 - Livery companies, trade guilds0:53:24 - The beginnings of MoEML0:58:19 - MoEML 6.6, Copyrights?1:02:42 - Academic credit for digital contributors1:10:01 - Linked data1:14:00 - Paul's Cross churchyard, ESTC, Stationer's Hall1:19:00 - The future of LEMDO1:21:10 - The Endings Project and points of failure1:29:05 - Closing remarksLINKS:LEMDO: https://lemdo.uvic.caInternet Shakespeare Editions: https://internetshakespeare.uvic.caMap of Early Modern London: https://mapoflondon.uvic.caDigital Renaissance Editions: https://digitalrenaissance.uvic.ca