Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast

The season three finale of Downton Abbey and last night's Academy Awards prompt this conversation with NPR film critic Bob Mondello, with whom we have long wanted to discuss S&M. We discuss whether "sentimental" is an appropriate critical term, and look at tropes that affect even jaded hard-boiled...

Reed and Austin talk about what a busy, hectic, and productive two years it's been, and how weirdly similar 2012 will be. Featuring insight into the cyclical nature of theatre, tips on regeneration, a special appearance from Jon Weber, host of NPR's Piano Jazz Rising Stars, and frustratingly vague r...

Broadcaster, journalist, novelist, inveterate tweeter, and now (gasp) playwright, National Public Radio's Scott Simon discusses his recent novels, upcoming projects, and the degree to which his Chicago background informs his work. Featuring Scott's tribute to the Windy City, insight into the intrigu...

Broadway Play Publishing publishes and licenses the scripts of such playwrights as Tony Kushner, Eric Overmyer, Neil LaBute, Constance Congdon, and the entire Complete (abridged) oeuvre, and Kip Gould, its founder and publisher, raves about the exciting and lucrative field of script publishing (Not...

Our good friend Bill Matson, theatre manager of the Terrace Theatre, our home at the Kennedy Center whenever we perform there, gives us a behind-the-scenes backstage tour at this prestigious arts institution and national presidential memorial. Featuring the controversial bust of President John F. Ke...

This week we dig that crazy Conti beat and go behind the scenes to deconstruct Dominic Conti's lengthy and show-stopping "dorkalogue" at the end of Completely Hollywood (abridged). Featuring the power and limitations of snorting as a character choice, the trust of an actor's instinct, funky frank ap...

Jennifer Lee Carell's new mystery Haunt Me Still (aka The Shakespeare Curse outside the US) deals with the legends surrounding the manuscript and supposed curse of William Shakespeare's Macbeth, or as it's known euphemistically in the theatre world, "the Scottish Play". Featuring the difference betw...

We've been using the micro-blogging service Twitter for almost a year, and we've seen its use rise among other theatre companies. We compare notes with Mary Kathryn Durr, E-Commerce and Social Media Manager for the Blumenthal Center of the Performing Arts, and learn about viral marketing, creating c...

Mike Burton, former special assistant to the Chief of Staff of Vice-President Al Gore, explains how a lowly position as coffee boy led him to working in the Clinton White House. Featuring special appearances by Amanda Painting at Ceredigion FM in Wales and Madeleine Brand from National Public Radio...

Are we a comedy troupe? A rock band? A floor wax? A dessert topping? We try to define once and for all What We Are, and examine the various places we find our actors, reveal once and for all whether our audience "volunteers" are plants, outline the advantages of actors who know themselves, and d...