No Holds Bard

This week we'll be wish'd for, see who is willing to be had, and extend an invite to Emma Rice to swing by to Duel with us during her newly-discovered free time.

For this month's Wildcard episode, we sit down for an in-depth interview with the director of the first American-originated production of Jonathan Bates' play BEING SHAKESPEARE.

This week we’ll forget and forgive, review Richard’s motivations, and connect with Christopher Marlowe’s agent to see how he negotiated co-author billing for his client this week on the upcoming Oxford University Press editions of the Henry VI plays.

Are you on the way to see a production of KING LEAR? This episode will get you up to speed on the play in a variety of ways to insure that you'll be the best little audience member you can be.

This week we'll cast grief shadows, examine a royal entourage, and speculate on what exactly will go down in the upcoming issue of the comic DEADPOOL where the title character "goes Shakespeare," whatever that means.

Dan and Kevin invent and play a new parlor game for Shakespeare fanatics called WILL, ACTUALLY, with the hope that it will sweep the nation and yield many tweets with high viral potential.

In this episode we'll see you what you are, turn on the green light, and dig into the new research reported on LiveScience.com this week that shows monkeys with brain implants are able to type out sections of Hamlet.

Are you on the way to see a production of OTHELLO? This episode will get you up to speed on the play in a variety of ways to insure that you'll be the best little audience member you can be.

This week we'll see spiders, compare eulogies, and play Shakespeare Charades with Tom Hiddleston on Twitter using the hashtag #charadespeare.

Inspired by the hit podcast Song Exploder, Kevin and Dan spend this episode breaking down and analyzing Shakespeare's Sonnet #97. How like a winter hath my absence been From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year! What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen! What old December's bareness every where! And yet this time remov'd was summer's time, The teeming autumn, big with rich increase, Bearing the wanton burden of the prime, Like widow'd wombs after their lord's decease: Yet this abundant issue seem'd to me But hope of orphans and unfather'd fruit; For summer and his pleasures wait on thee, And, thou away, the very birds are mute; Or, if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near.

After populating the hockey team (episode 17), baseball team (episode 42), and casting this year's musical production of 1776 (episode 56) at Shakespeare High, Dan and Kevin turn to the gridiron to each draft their Fantasy Football teams with the remaining characters from the canon (boom).

This week we'll see fair and foul days, tread on the ground, and beg for comp meals for Shakespeare Chicago's Culinary Complete Works, where 38 of Chicago's most talented chefs each translate one of Shakespeare's plays into a featured dish, menu, or event at their restaurant.

Are you on the way to see a production of AS YOU LIKE IT? This episode will get you up to speed on the play in a variety of ways to insure that you'll be the best little audience member you can be.

This week we'll explore other worlds, sympathize with He Who Shall Not Be Named, and examine the similarities between Ted Cruz's comments on Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention and Mark Antony's comments on Brutus at Julius Caesar's funeral.

We keep our monthly Wildcard episode but so-so this week as we take a trip down memory lane to revisit our favorite Duel answers from Episodes 11-26.

This week we'll dissemble our discontents, decide who deserves to rule the island, and extend an offer from the Seven Stages Shakespeare Company to pick up the homeless Hamlet production currently wandering aimlessly around NYC.

Are you on the way to see a production of TROILUS AND CRESSIDA? This episode will get you up to speed on the play in a variety of ways to insure that you'll be the best little audience member you can be.

This week we’ll go wise and slow, analyze dream analysis, and take a deeper look at the marketing strategy Shakespeare employed when applying for his coast-of-arms in 1596, as elaborated on in documents recently uncovered by Sylvia Morris at The Shakespeare Blog.

After populating the hockey team (episode 17) and baseball team (episode 42) at Shakespeare High, Dan and Kevin turn to the Drama Department to cast a production of Peter Stone and Sherman Edwards' 1776 with characters from Shakespeare's canon. This episode features what we believe to be the only "U-S-A!" chant to ever appear on a Shakespeare podcast.

Dan and Kevin debrief on three major things each they learned after the Seven Stages Shakespeare Company one-day, twelve hour presentation of eight of Shakespeare's histories (Richard II, Henry IV 1 and 2, Henry V, Henry VI 1, 2, and 3, and Richard III). After this one we probably won't talk about the histories for a while, so enjoy!