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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 that Shakespeare’s text gives us absolutely everything we need; the sad truth that there aren’t enough theatre folks who are properly bilingual in the language of sports; the question of whether Falstaff’s punishment (like Malvolio’s) fits the crime; and the great power of extra-textual fart jokes that remain grounded in character and situation. (Length 22:15) (Pictured above, l to r: Olivia Pryor, Issy van Randwyck, Ora Jones, and Nancy Voigts as The Merry Wives of Windsor, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, directed by Phillip Breen, 2026.) The post Shakespeare’s Greatest Comedy? appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

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 identities of the Reduced Shakespeare Company Dancers; jokes and bits we weren’t allowed to do; encounters with amazing seeing-eye dogs; the definitive demonstration of the phenomenon known as "Second-Night Letdown;" a rare award nomination for Best New Play; preserving the true legacy of the Kennedy Center's artistry over at @OurKennedyCenter; and the extraordinary artists whose company the RSC is proud to share. (Length 25:41) The post Kennedy Center Memories appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

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; how they can help get out of the rote of everything becoming "standardized;" the importance of combating ‘boy syndrome;’ the value of someone stepping up and being the “And;” and further examples – if more were needed – that illustrate why Improv Is Magic. Lives are being changed! (Length 20:17) The post Playing To Learn appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

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; what Edinburgh offers that Ren Faires and other festivals don’t; how getting audiences is the work but doing the show is the reward; the power of transforming from a sad mountebank into wandering Troubador; and how Shakespeare – perhaps surprisingly – meets Dungeons & Dragons where it lives. (Length 21:31) The post Dungeons & Shakespeare appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

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 Edinburgh Fringe; how, like Harpo Marx playing the harp on screen, the playing of ping pong onstage also requires no acting; what has to happen when you introduce “Chekhov’s Balls;” how the characters of a drowning man and the person least qualified to save him became the subject of their play; multiple sport, game, and Sondheim references; comparisons to the RSC's The Complete World of Sports (abridged); and how, in all the years they’ve volleyed together – both onstage and at table tennis – they’ve never played a competitive game to win. (Length 23:00) The post Comedies With Balls appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

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 never as good as one’s idea of the play; how this play is fascinatingly (and maddeningly) hard to describe; how one must embrace the quality of madness in one’s writing; how your audience will tell you what your play is; and whether it’s possible to write like a director or direct like an actor. ALSO: an unexpected – and perfectly timed – crash of recycled bottles! (Length 19:53) The post Playwrights Who Direct appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

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 for a Day, which brings Queen Elizabeth I (played by Smith) into the 1980s to meet fashion designer Halston and Liza Minnelli (and playing in NYC September 4-14, 2026); and a possible future show with the working title Romeo & Juliet & Cher; why Smith would love to play Iago; and how all Shakespeare’s villains are probably gay. (Length 22:10)  The post Out, Darn Spot! appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

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 has given over the years; favorite moments they've experienced; memorable Edinburgh Fringe highlights; how the RSC helped changed the reputation of the Criterion Theatre, their West End home for almost ten record-breaking years; the generations of artists they've inspired; and how the Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast has acquired more than four million listens in its 20 years and maybe skipped a week here and there but never missed one. (Length 22:20) (PICTURED, top: RSC founding members Jess Winfield, Daniel Singer, and Adam Long in the early 1980s; bottom: Doug Harvey, Geoffrey Barnes, and Austin Tichenor in 2025.) The post RSC 45th Anniversary appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

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 both is and isn’t “a Bible- and door-slamming farce”; how the play resembles both Slaughterhouse-Five and Dr. Manhattan; the power of a fraught sibling dynamic; how a house both is and isn’t a metaphor; a shout-out to the New Play Exchange and some excellent examples of play descriptions; and how describing your play successfully sometimes starts with examining the reasons why you wanted to write it in the first place. (Length 23:08) (Poster design by Josiah Mothershed at Mothershed Design Company.) The post Describing The Play appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

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 (abridged)); the joys of self-production; how Broadguess fits into the grand tradition of Shakespearean solo shows; and how she's looking forward to passing out flyers on the Royal Mile. Come say hi – she loves a chit-chat on a high street! (Length 17:53) The post ‘Broadguess’ In Edinburgh appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

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 came; how audiences are surprised to encounter unexpected humanity; how it's inspired by Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead; the difference between watching the show from the audience and living inside the words as a cast member; how both authors lead from the codpiece; and the the vital importance of combining silly comedy with heart and humanity. (Length 22:23) (PICTURED, above: Anthony Lawton as Verges, Michael Doherty as Dogberry in the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company production of Dogberry & Verges Are Scared, directed by Matthew Decker, 2026. Photo by Melanie Malicote.) The post ‘Scared’ In Edinburgh appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

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; how MSF likes to mix it up with both its programming and its casting; and now everybody should be eating McClure’s Pickles, the Official Pickle of the Michigan Shakespeare Festival™. (Length 20:20) (PICTURED: MSF actor Rico Bruce Wade, courtesy of Michigan Shakespeare Festival.) The post Michigan Shakes Returns appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

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 creativity and commercialism; the perils of illegal beard display; the importance of including a tiny bit of Transcendentalism 101; the value of playwrights supervising their own readings before passing it off to a director; and the absolute truism that plays are not written, they’re rewritten. (Length 20:34) The post Louisa At Fruitlands appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

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 virtues of hosting a really great party; how Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley is "Fest Central;" fantastic advice from playwright Ken Ludwig; and how Shakespeare is every modern playwright’s great-great-great-great-grandfather. (Length 21:17) The post Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

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 working with Chicago actors; how this epic muscular work plays in an intimate non-proscenium space; how she's able to encourage the actors to "look after" important threads or information; and how she embraces Stoppard's firm and unshakeable belief that "ideas are sexy." (Length 19:10) (PICTURED, above: Adeline Rosenthal and Asha Dale Hopman in the Writers Theatre production of Leopoldstadt, directed by Carey Perloff. Photo by Hugo Hentoff.) The post Directing Stoppard’s “Leopoldstadt” appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.