Thursday, November 26, 2009

Henry IV, Part I

This was a lighthearted episode, appropriate since it introduces the jolly Falstaff to the podcast. Our next episode is going to be about Shakespeare as a fictional character à la the film Shakespeare In Love.

If you would like to see the Welles film Chimes at Midnight, it is available on YouTube Here. I know YouTube is less than ideal, but there are legal issues that prevent it from being released for sale.

We also endorse this film of Henry IV. I couldn't find it on Amazon, so I am providing the link through NetFlix.

Listener Sarah was cool enough to nominate us for a podcast award, you can see the other nominees and vote for us Here.

Shakespeare In The News:
This came out after we finished recording, so I'm just including the link here: This episode of NPR's Talk Of The Nation includes a segment about bringing Shakespeare to other settings and time periods.

Store:
This is the new version of Bryson's Shakespeare: The World As Stage I mentioned in this episode
Shakespeare (The Illustrated and Updated Edition)

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Shakespeare's England

This episode was a labour of labour. We had to record it twice, and it required a lot of research. Please enjoy!

The news story about Edward III being attributed to Shakespeare can be found Here.

The BardTube YouTube channel is Here.

Our next episode is Henry IV, Part I.

Store
Shakespeare's England: Life in Elizabethan & Jacobean Times

For those of you interested in reading more about the Spanish Armada, this is a great introduction to every step of the conflict, from beginning to end.
The Armada

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Merchant of Venice

The Merchant of Venice is a great play, and we were happy to do an episode about it, at a fan's request. Some good outtakes at the end of this one, too.

There's some interesting news about the attribution of Edward III in the Shakespeare canon, but it broke just as we finished the episode. We'll cover it next time.

We'd be really pleased if a listener would request the subject of the next episode as well. In fact, any sort of comment really brightens our day.


Store:
The Merchant of Venice (Folger Shakespeare Library)
William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (Starring Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons)

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Shakespeare's Apocrypha

This one is quite short. There's not much to say about plays Shakespeare probably didn't write, it turns out.

I mentioned the speech by Thomas More that's possibly handwritten by Shakespeare. Wikipedia has a picture of the text in question, and here is the text of the speech, which I think is worthy of Shakespeare: (More is discussing the possibility of expelling immigrants from England, and trying to get the people to sympathize with their plight.)
MORE.
Grant them removed, and grant that this your noise
Hath chid down all the majesty of England;
Imagine that you see the wretched strangers,
Their babies at their backs and their poor luggage,
Plodding tooth ports and costs for transportation,
And that you sit as kings in your desires,
Authority quite silent by your brawl,
And you in ruff of your opinions clothed;
What had you got? I'll tell you: you had taught
How insolence and strong hand should prevail,
How order should be quelled; and by this pattern
Not one of you should live an aged man,
For other ruffians, as their fancies wrought,
With self same hand, self reasons, and self right,
Would shark on you, and men like ravenous fishes
Would feed on one another.

(From the Gutenberg Project, the full text is available Here)


Here's the promised quote from Shakespeare's Lives, which you could purchase if you followed this link: Shakespeare's Lives. (I'm rather surprised, it's a very thorough story of Shakespeare and his legacy up to today, but it's selling for less than 5$.)

To put this quote in context, William Henry Ireland had been fraudulently generating Shakespearean documents, encouraging a cottage industry in false documents. In this spirit, The Telegraph published this humorous "letter" from William Shakespeare to his friend/opponent Ben Jonson:

"Tooo Missteerree BEENJAAMMIINNEE JOOHNNSSONN
DEEREE SIRREE,
Wille you doee meee theee favvourree too dinnee wythee meee onn Friddaye nextte, attt twoo off theee clockee, too eattee sommee muttonne choppes andd somme poottaattoooeesse,
I amm, deerree Sirree,
Yourre goodde friendde,
WILLIAM SHAEKSPERE."

S. Schoenbaum, Shakespeare's Lives, 2006 p. 159

Thursday, September 17, 2009

The Comedy Of Errors

It's been a while, we know, but we did it again. This time, it's The Comedy Of Errors. We disagreed on how good the play was this time. (It's pretty funny).

Nicholas Cage: Americans shouldn't do Shakespeare

Store:
The Comedy of Errors (Folger Shakespeare Library)

Sunday, August 23, 2009

How Shakespeare Got To Us

It's our tenth episode! I honestly didn't think we'd make it this far, but we're doing great! We have more listeners everyday, and they're from all over the world. This episode, about how Shakespeare got to us, is less than half an hour, but it's good.

You can read the First Folio through this link for HTML, and this page has scans, but I warn you, it is tough reading with few of the helpful details that get us through Shakespeare today, like naming characters, and modern English.

As always, there are some books you can purchase through amazon,

The Book of William: How Shakespeare's First Folio Conquered the World

Slings & Arrows: The Complete Collection

Monday, August 10, 2009

Richard II

Our latest episode is about Richard II. You can get it here.

Here's a video of Richard II made by the BBC.

Store:

Slings & Arrows: The Complete Collection

Since recording the Podcast, I've seen all of Slings and Arrows, and it's fantastic. If you don't want to buy it, you should go to the library, or do whatever is necessary to see it. Highly recommended.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Shakespeare's Style

This is a short episode, we mainly did it so we could cover some ideas that we hadn't talked about previously. I hope you like hearing about Iambic Pentameter!


Links to what we talked about today:
Performance of Hamlet with 4 Hamlets
A collection of words possibly invented by Shakespeare
Metal Shakespeare
Zombie Hamlet

The Shakespeare Wars: Clashing Scholars, Public Fiascoes, Palace Coups This Review is pretty good

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Titus Andronicus

Today it's Titus Andronicus.

We had a lot of technical issues with recording this one, so there may be some audio problems; to be honest, you're lucky we got this out at all. I guess we should have said we were making all these mistakes on purpose, so as to be true to the play.

Here is the so-called "Peacham drawing", we see what is probably, from the left, two soldiers, Saturninus, Tamora, two of Titus' sons, and Aaron.

If you do some examination, you'll find that this can't be a single scene from Shakespeare, and must, therefore, be a combination of characters from different characters and scenes.

Like we mentioned in the podcast, now you can go to Amazon through this site. If you buy the stuff we link to, we will get a percentage of the sale. It'd be a help to us, but don't feel like you have to.
Titus, Starring Anthony Hopkins
Romeo x Juliet: Romeo Collection, Part 1. Here's a review on The Escapist
Titus Andronicus (Oxford World's Classics)

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Episode 6: Shakespeare's Life

Here's an informational episode: Shakespeare's life. A little shorter than a usual episode.

Check it out Here.

Shownotes:
Horace Howard Furness' Annotated Shakespeare on Google Books
Midsummer as performed by children on YouTube
Photos of a fan's performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream, with authentic Athenian costumes!
New DVD about Playing Shakespeare: an NPR article

Shakespeare's Coat of Arms, courtesy of Wikipedia

Friday, June 26, 2009

Episode 5: The Tempest

We had some technical issues with recording this one, but we managed to salvage an episode out of it. You can listen to it Here.

As promised, we have pictures of the performance we went to, and links to sources you can look at.

The Genre Issue
Three_Unities
Wikipedia on The Tempest
The book that has the sheet music. It starts on page 20.



We had a great time with the Cromulent Shakespeare Company, if you have the chance to see them, please go. They're free, but do give them a little money; even Shakespeare needs to get paid.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Episode 4: The Authorship "Question"

It's good to be done with this episode. This business needed to be said, whether it's entertaining or not. You can find it directly here.

Here's an insider preview: The complete document for the podcast! You can see what we skipped and what we kept, and use the links provided to see our sources.

Our next episode is about The Tempest. I hope you listen!

Here's the Link for the Stratford Monument

PS. We're on iTunes now, so definitely go there, subscribe, and rate us up!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Episode 3: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Episode 3 is up; you can access it here! This one is the true test of the podcast, as so many of our episodes will be about a specific play. This one, more than any other, needs comments and criticism from our audience, so please give feedback.

Shownotes:
*Wikipedia
*Mendelssohn's Wedding March
*A theater performance available for free Online.
*No Fear Shakespeare online
*10 phrases by Shakespeare

We also have a new icon:

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Episode 2: Reading Shakespeare

Many of us thought it would never happen, but the Bardcast has reached the big 2.0! That's right, episode 2 is available for your listening pleasure Here.

Shownotes:
  1. Fool, a retelling of King Lear
  2. Funny List of Things Not To Do when performing Shakespeare
  3. Hamlet, Facebook Version
  4. 400 Anniversary of Publication of Shakespeare's Sonnets
  5. Rowan Atkinson Edits Shakespeare
El Dawg was kind enough to send us the final link, you can visit his El Blawg here.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Episode 1: Introduction

It's been a long time coming, but the first episode of the BardCast is now available to the public! Please listen and tell us what you think. (Click Here for the MP3)

Shownotes:

  1. New Picture of Shakespeare Uncovered. (So called "Cobbe Portrait")
  2. Cobbe Portrait
  3. Unless it's not
  4. The Denial
  5. Shakespeare and Zombies!
  6. Zombies Play
  7. Shakespeare sells for 5.1 million
  8. AP Article
  9. "House of Juliet" used for weddings
  10. AP article
  11. Guy claims to have unearthed 6 shakespearean documents
  12. The Herald's Article
  13. Supreme Court on Authorship question
  14. Wall Street Journal Article

Sunday, May 10, 2009

First Podcast Is Recorded

We recorded the first episode of the podcast, and I hope to have it up tomorrow. You could vote for the first special subject we cover on the left, if you wanted to.