Shaking Up Shakespeare
Welcome to Shaking Up Shakespeare, a podcast dedicated to examining the legacy of William Shakespeare’s work, specifically in the context of Canadian theatre culture and Canadian society more broadly. Building on recent conversations about diversity and casting practices, colonial structures, and accessibility, this podcast brings together the voices of many individuals with diverse perspectives on Shakespeare.
Shaking Up Shakespeare will be accessible on Spotify and Apple Podcasts starting January 15th, 2024.
Audio Trailer
Marlis Schweitzer: Welcome artists, scholars, bardolators, Shakespeare neophytes, and skeptics alike to Shaking Up Shakespeare. I’m Marlis Schweitzer.
Hope Van Der Merwe: I’m Hope Van Der Merwe.
Liam Lockhart-Rush: And I’m Liam Lockhart Rush. This brand new podcast series aims to examine the legacy of William Shakespeare’s work, specifically in the context of Canadian theatre culture and Canadian society more broadly.
Hope Van Der Merwe: Building on recent conversations about diversity and casting practices, colonial structures, and accessibility, this podcast brings together the voices of many individuals with diverse perspectives on Shakespeare.
Marlis Schweitzer: Between September 2022 and June 2023, our team interviewed over 30 individuals who all have a connection to the Bard or have been impacted by his work in some way. We spoke with actors, directors, playwrights, dramaturgs, some people who are all of the above, as well as intimacy professionals, theatre students, scholars, critics, arts administrators, and educators.
Marlis, Hope, and Liam: Shaking Up Shakespeare!
Marlis Schweitzer: Coming to a streaming platform near you.
ASL Trailer
Episode Description: Welcome to Shaking Up Shakespeare, a podcast dedicated to examining the legacy of William Shakespeare’s work, specifically in the context of Canadian theatre culture and Canadian society more broadly. Building on recent conversations about diversity and casting practices, colonial structures, and accessibility, this podcast brings together the voices of many individuals with diverse perspectives on Shakespeare. In this introductory episode, co-hosts Marlis Schweitzer, Liam Lockhart-Rush, and Hope Van Der Merwe chat about their first experiences with Shakespeare, their hopes for the series, and their reflections on podcasting as a practice.
This episode also features brief greetings from the following folks who sat for interviews with us: Patricia Allison, Sturla Alvsväg, Cole Alvis, Faith Andrew, Roberta Barker, Raoul Bhaneja, Dawn Jani Birley, Peter Kuling, Adelaide Dolha, Miriam Fernandes, Karen Fricker, Duncan Gibson-Lockhart, Barbara Gordon, Jeff Ho, Christine Horne, Dante Jemmott, Stephen Johnson, Erin Kelly, Ziyana Kotadia, Keira Loughran, Jani Lauzon, Allyson MacMachon, Monique Mojica, Yvette Nolan, Laurel Paetz, Peter Parolin, Debbie Patterson, Eli Pauley, Elizabeth Pentland, Melissa Poll, PJ Prudat, Jamie Robinson, Nassim Abu Sarari, Alix Sideris, Sara Topham, Jeff Yung. The series also includes excerpts from the (Re)casting Shakespeare in Canada symposium where you’ll hear from Reneltta Arluk, Kaitlyn Riordan, Erin Shields, and Joseph Jomo Pierre.
Episode 1 ASL translation courtesy of Dawn Jani Birley. Interpretation by Dawn Jani Birley, Robert Haughton, Sage Lovell, and Alice Lo.
Here are links to things mentioned in the episode and some suggestions for further reading:
- (Re)Setting the Stage: The Past, Present, and Future of Casting Practices in Canada
- (Re)casting Shakespeare in Canada symposium
- “Crash course” syllabus
- “Romeo and Juliet actors sue Paramount for child abuse,” from the Guardian
- Trailer for Baz Lurhmann’s 1996 film adaptation of Romeo + Juliet
Episode Description: In this episode, co-host Liam Lockhart-Rush takes us back to school to learn about Shakespeare’s dominance in Canadian educational institutions. Before that, we hear how many people were first introduced to Shakespeare. Some interviewees share positive experiences with parents and teachers, and others share negative experiences, detailing how what they were taught about Shakespeare was difficult, careless, and potentially harmful. Whether good or bad, it is certain that Shakespeare’s impression as a god-like literary figure was not lost on anyone. Later in the episode, educators and students critique Shakespeare’s role in education and offer ideas for how Shakespeare can be taught to students in an inclusive and robust way.
This episode features conversations with Nassim Abu Sarari, Cole Alvis, Rachel Arnold, Roberta Barker, Dawn Jani Birley, Adelaide Dolha, Miriam Fernandes, Duncan Gibson-Lockhart, Jeff Ho, Christine Horne, Stephen Johnson, Erin Kelly, Ziyana Kotadia, Peter Kuling, Anita La Selva, Jani Lauzon, Keira Loughran, Yvette Nolan, Laurel Paetz, Peter Parolin, Elizabeth Pentland, PJ Prudat, Jamie Robinson, Alix Sideris, Sara Topham, and Jeff Yung.
Episode 2 ASL translation courtesy of Dawn Jani Birley. Interpretation by Dawn Jani Birley, Robert Haughton, Sage Lovell, and Alice Lo.
Here are links to things mentioned in the episode and some suggestions for further reading:
- Hamlet (1996) directed by Kenneth Branagh
- Program for Centaur Theatre’s Antony and Cleopatra (1996)
- Shakespeare & Company
- “The Astor Place riot: Shakespeare as a flashpoint for class conflict in 1849” from the Folger Shakespeare Library
- Shakedown Shakespeare by Yvette Nolan
- “TDSB makes Indigenous authors course mandatory for Grade 11 English credit” by CBC News
- ““I’ve had friends say Shakespeare is irrelevant”: Meet the Grade 12 student who changed the TDSB’s English curriculum” by Mathew Silver for Toronto Life
- Harlem Duet by Djanet Sears
- Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) by Ann-Marie MacDonald
Episode Description: In this episode, co-host Marlis Schweitzer continues to investigate the institutional structures that prop up Shakespeare in Canada, reflecting on the way Canadian ideas of Shakespeare have been informed by British and American cultural products, including film and television. She speaks with guests about their experiences of seeing productions of Shakespeare’s works in London and Stratford, England as well as their early encounters with the films of Kenneth Branaugh, most notably Henry V and Hamlet. Taking up questions of casting and celebrity, some interviewees recall Keanu Reeves appearance as Hamlet in the 1995 production at the Manitoba Theatre Centre, while others consider the impact of Paul Gross’s television series Slings and Arrows.
This episode features conversations with Sturla Alsväg, Roberta Barker, Raoul Bhaneja, Karen Fricker, Jeff Ho, Stephen Johnson, Erin Kelly, Peter Kuling, Peter Parolin, Elizabeth Pentland, Jamie Robinson, Allyson MacMachon, Sara Topham.
Episode 3 ASL translation courtesy of Dawn Jani Birley. Interpretation by Dawn Jani Birley, Robert Haughton, Sage Lovell, and Alice Lo.
Here are links to things mentioned in the episode and some suggestions for further reading:
- Case notes and photographs of Adrian Noble’s 1983 production of Measure for Measure for the Royal Shakespeare Company, featuring Juliet Stevenson as Isabella
- Kenneth Branagh giving the “St. Crispin’s Day” speech in Henry V (1989)
- Hamlet (1996) directed by Kenneth Branagh
- Hamlet (solo) adapted and performed by Raoul Bhaneja
- Brian D. Johnson’s 1995 Maclean’s review of Keanu Reeves’s Hamlet, courtesy of the Canadian Encyclopedia
- Slings and Arrows on CBC Gem
Episode Description: In this episode, co-host Marlis Schweitzer considers how the enduring popularity of Shakespeare in the Park and other forms of outdoor Shakespeare continues to guide how Canadians see, hear, and experience Shakespeare. After a short summary of the “open air” movement, which celebrated the virtues of producing Shakespeare outdoors, she speaks with several guests, including the artistic leadership of Toronto’s Shakespeare in the Ruff, about the importance of outdoor Shakespeare today. The second half of the episode focuses more directly on the legacy of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, a company that began producing Shakespeare outdoors – in a tent – and is now arguably the most dominant theatre company in Canada. The episode concludes with a conversation with Melissa Poll, the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion dramaturge at Vancouver’s Bard on the Beach, interspersed with comments from Cole Alvis, a two-Spirit Michif Metis actor and director, and now casting associate with the Stratford Festival.
This episode features conversations with Patricia Allison, Cole Alvis, Raoul Bhaneja, Karen Fricker, Christine Horne, Erin Kelly, Peter Kuling, Anita La Selva, Keira Loughran, Elizabeth Pentland, Melissa Poll, PJ Prudat, Jamie Robinson, Nassim Abu Sarari, Sara Topham, Jeff Yung
Content note: This episode contains discussion of potlatch bans, colonialism, white supremacy, and racism. Listener discretion advised.
Episode 4 ASL translation courtesy of Dawn Jani Birley. Interpretation by Dawn Jani Birley, Robert Haughton, Sage Lovell, and Alice Lo.
Here are some links to things discussed in the episode and some suggestions for further reading:
- Sheldon Cheney, The Open-Air Theatre (1918)
- The Potlatch Ban, from The Canadian Encyclopedia
- Some outdoor theatre companies: Bard on the Beach, Greater Victoria Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan, Shakespeare in the Ruins, Shakespeare in the Ruff, Dream in High Park, Shakespeare in the Park, Bard in the Barracks, Shakespeare by the Sea (Halifax), Shakespeare by the Sea Festival (St. John’s)
- Stratford Festival timeline
- Morten Parker’s Oscar-nominated 1953 documentary, The Stratford Adventure, produced by the National Film Board of Canada
- Ian Rae, “The Stratford Festival and Canadian Cultural Nationalism,” from The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Literature, ed. Cynthia Conchita Sugars (2016)
- Glossary definition and additional resources on the #inthedressingroom conversation
- Bard on the Beach’s Company Commitments
- “Ndo-Mshkawgaabwimi – We all are standing strong,” a video with “stories of endurance, resistance and resilience” told by members of the Indigenous Circle at Stratford (2020)
Episode Description: In this episode, co-host Liam Lockhart-Rush is joined by many diverse perspectives on the topic of Shakespeare and colonialism in Canada, including discussions of Shakespeare’s role in helping to create a national identity founded on oppressive systems, the concept of decolonizing Shakespeare and the Western canon, problematic practices like “stunt casting,” issues of universality, and theories on how to approach producing future Shakespearean productions.
This episode features conversations with Cole Alvis, Nassim Abu Sarari, Duncan Gibson-Lockhart, Jeff Ho, Ziyana Kotadia, Jani Lauzon, Keira Loughran, Monique Mojica, Yvette Nolan, PJ Prudat, and an excerpt of Kaitlyn Riordan speaking at the (Re)casting Shakespeare in Canada symposium.
Content note: This episode contains discussion of residential schools, colonialism, genocide, white supremacy, and racism. Listener discretion advised.
Episode 5 ASL translation courtesy of Dawn Jani Birley. Interpretation by Dawn Jani Birley, Robert Haughton, Sage Lovell, and Alice Lo.
Here are links to things mentioned in the episode and some suggestions for further reading:
- The (Re)Casting Shakespeare in Canada Symposium
- 1939 by Jani Lauzon and Kaitlyn Riordan, produced by the Stratford Festival
- Dr. Sorouja Moll
- “Shakespeare Through Decolonization” by Farah Karim-Cooper
- Native Earth Performing Arts
- Kaha:wi Dance Theatre
- Full Circle First Nations Performance
- “The Meaning of the Bones” by Michael LaPointe for The Paris Review
- “Interrogating the Shakespeare System” by Madeline Sayet for HowlRound Theatre Commons
- Where We Belong by Madeline Sayet
- Centre for Indigenous Theatre
- Between Two Silences by Peter Brook
- Cockroach by Ho Ka Kei (Jeff Ho), produced by Tarragon Theatre
- Titus Andronicus (2014) directed by Keira Loughran and produced by Canadian Stage
Episode Description: In this episode, co-host Liam Lockhart-Rush continues the conversation around Shakespeare’s relationship to colonialism in Canada, specifically through looking at some recent adaptations that complicate his work and cultural privilege. Hearing from several prominent playwrights in Canadian theatre, the conversation focuses on questioning Shakespeare’s authority through the politics of language. This episode contains excerpts from the “Recasting Shakespeare Through Adaptation” and “Grappling with Shakespeare’s Colonial Legacy” panels from the (Re)casting Shakespeare in Canada Symposium which took place in April and May 2023.
This episode features conversations with Jani Lauzon, Yvette Nolan, and PJ Prudat, as well as excerpts of Reneltta Arluk, Jeff Ho, Keira Loughran, Joseph Jomo Pierre, Kaitlyn Riordan, and Erin Shields speaking at the (Re)casting Shakespeare in Canada Symposium.
Episode 6 ASL translation courtesy of Dawn Jani Birley. ASL interpretation by Dawn Jani Birley, Robert Haughton, and Alice Lo.
Here are links to things mentioned in the episode and some suggestions for further reading:
- The (Re)casting Shakespeare in Canada Symposium
- Pawâkan Macbeth by Reneltta Arluk
- Queen Goneril by Erin Shields
- Portia’s Julius Caesar by Kaitlyn Riordan
- Shakespeare’s Nigga by Joseph Jomo Pierre
- Cockroach by Jeff Ho
- 1939 by Jani Lauzon and Kaitlyn Riordan
- otîhêw by PJ Prudat
- Death of a Chief directed and adapted by Yvette Nolan and Kennedy C. MacKinnon
- Dr. Lindsay Lachance
- Chief Bev Sellars
- Decolonizing the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
- Dean Gabourie
- Jessica Carmichael
Episode Description: In this episode, Towards a Feminist Hamlet, co-host Hope Van Der Merwe interrogates the sexism and misogyny we so frequently see littered throughout Shakespeare’s works. With a focus on Hamlet, we pose the question: is it possible to perform Shakespeare – Hamlet, more specifically – in a way that is considered feminist? This episode also draws on ideas from feminist theorist and scholar, Sara Ahmed, whose notion of the “Feminist Killjoy” inspired the way this episode is structured.
This episode features conversations with: Addy Dolha, Alix Sidaris, Allyson McMackon, Anita La Selva, Christine Horne, Duncan Gibson-Lockhart, Eli Polly, Erin Kelly, Jamie Robinson, Jeff Ho, Keira Loughran, Liz Pentland, Marlis Schwietzer, Peter Parolin, Roberta Barker, and Ziyana Kotadia.
Episode 7 ASL translation courtesy of Dawn Jani Birley. ASL interpretation by Dawn Jani Birley, Robert Haughton, and Alice Lo.
Here are some links to things discussed in the episode and some suggestions for further reading:
- Living A Feminist Life and The Promise of Happiness by Sara Ahmed
- Women as Hamlet: Performance and Interpretation in Theater, Film, and Fiction by Tony Howard
- Hamlet at the Stratford Festival of Ontario, 2022
- Why Not Theatre’s Prince Hamlet
- Teatro de los Andes’ Hamlet
Episode Description: In this episode, co-host Hope Van Der Merwe speaks with three disabled artists about Cripping Shakespeare, inequities faced by disabled actors in the Canadian theatre industry, and how to create more inclusive, equitable, and accessible rehearsal spaces for disabled artists. This episode highlights how important it is to invest in disabled artists and disabled artist-lead works as we strive to build an industry where everyone – regardless of disability and ability – is celebrated.
This episode features conversations with Faith Andrew, Rachel Arnold, and Debbie Patterson.
Episode 8 ASL translation courtesy of Dawn Jani Birley. ASL interpretation by Dawn Jani Birley, Robert Haughton, and Alice Lo.
Here are some links to things discussed in the episode and some suggestions for further reading:
- Shakespeare in the Ruins (SIR)
- Sick + Twisted Theatre
- Debbie as Richard III
- Arthur Hughes as Richard III
- Colm Feore as Richard III
- Inclusion: Deaf, disability and Mad arts, the gathering at the NAC in 2016 which Debbie talks about
Episode Description: In this episode, co-host Marlis Schweitzer weaves together a series of interviews conducted by actor-playwright and podcast dramaturge Jeff Ho while on tour with members of Why Not Theatre’s Prince Hamlet. First produced in 2017 as part of Why Not Theatre’s 10th anniversary theatre, Prince Hamlet has been widely acclaimed for its dynamic, intersectional approach to Shakespeare, notably its bilingual blend of English and ASL and its centering of the narrative around a Deaf Horatio played by Dawn Jani Birley. The company remounted Prince Hamlet in 2019 at the Banff Centre and then Canadian Stage, as well as a number of other Canadian stops. In Fall 2022, the company reassembled for a major North American tour, including stops in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Quebec City, among others. In what follows, you’ll hear company members speak with Jeff about the rehearsal process, the importance of ASL to this distinctly bilingual production, and the kinds of reactions the production elicited in audiences.
This episode features conversations with Dawn Jani Birley, Miriam Fernandes, Barbara Gordon, Jeff Ho, Dante Jemmott, Eli Pauley, Sturla Alvsväg.
Episode 9 ASL translation courtesy of Dawn Jani Birley. ASL interpretation by Dawn Jani Birley, Robert Haughton, and Alice Lo.
Here are some links to things discussed in the episode and some suggestions for further reading:
- Why Not Theatre’s Prince Hamlet
- Toronto Star interview (including video) with Ravi Jain and Dawn Jani Birley on the 2017 production of Prince Hamlet
- J. Kelly Nestruck’s review of the 2019 production of Prince Hamlet
- Intermission Magazine video interview with Ravi Jain and Dawn Jani Birley on the 2019 production of Prince Hamlet
- The Stanford Daily review of the 2022 touring production of Prince Hamlet
- Jeff Ho’s video interview with Dawn Jani Birley
Episode Description: In this final episode, the three co-hosts reconvene to identify their key takeaways from the podcast project. They discuss their hopes for the future of Shakespeare in Canada, isolating some recent examples of innovative productions, including the 1S1 production of Lady M (Margaret) starring Dawn Jani Birley and Shakespeare in the Ruff’s Richard Three. The episode (and series) concludes by returning to our interviewees who share some final words on the work that remains, including references to new projects by Deaf and trans artists, and an important reminder to think about what lies beyond Shakespeare.
This episode features conversations with Cole Alvis, Dawn Jani Birley, Liam Lockhart-Rush Monique Mojica, Kaitlyn Riordan, Marlis Schweitzer, and Hope Van Der Merwe..
Episode 10 ASL translation courtesy of Dawn Jani Birley. ASL interpretation by Dawn Jani Birley, Robert Haughton, and Alice Lo.
Here are some links to things discussed in the episode and some suggestions for further reading:
- 1S1 Theatre – a Deaf-led theatre company founded by Dawn Jani Birley
- Short video about 1S1’s production of Lady M (Margaret) (with ASL translation)
- Guardian article about the Stratford Festival’s production of Richard II, adapted by Brad Fraser
- Toronto Star review of Richard II (2023)
- Intermission Magazine review of Shakespeare in the Ruff’s Richard Three
- Engendering the Stage – “an international research project that explores resonances between the history of gendered performance on the early modern stage and our contemporary drive to achieve gender equity in today’s professional theatre industry”
- Galatea 101 with Emma Frankland and Andy Kesson (video with ASL translation), 2021
- Interview with Emma Frankland about the 2023 production of Galatea
- Three volumes of Staging Coyote’s Dream, co-edited by Monique Mojica
- Monique Mojica, Chocolate Woman Dreams the Milky Way