Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast

RSC actor Joseph Maudsley (William Shakespeare's Long Lost First Play (abridged)) talks about his solo show Biff to the Future, which celebrates the epic Back to the Future trilogy from the point of view of Biff Tannen, the bully in all three movies. Joe shares how Biff came to life through his experience performing with Oddsocks, Potted Potter, and the RSC; how he made new discoveries in the sacred texts; how he honors the craving to make rehearsed text sound spontaneous every single time; the power of creating your own work; leveling up from reduced production values to more elaborate stage magic; how his Biff characterization was equally inspired by original Biff actor Tom Wilson; and how you absolutely can’t hide when performing a one-person show. (Length 23:15)

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Theater artist and church elder Seth Willis conducts post-show talkback services at the Family of Christ Presbyterian Church in Greeley, CO, home of the Greeley Garage Sale Theater, connecting the art of the theater to the mission of the congregation in both profound and emotional ways. Willis, whose production of Christopher Trumbo's Red, White, and Blacklisted runs October 23-24 & 30-31, 2026, discusses how the particular ritual came to be, his own background with both theology and the arts; the beauty of unanticipated depth and connection; and the brilliant and generous understanding that “wisdom literature” comes in many forms. (Length 21:52)

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Playwright Sara Farrington, whose terrific two-hander "Look Out" has just dropped from Broadway Play Publishing, also writes the most excellent Substack "Theater Is Hard," wherein she writes entertainingly and usefully about not only the difficulties of the artistic process but the business process as well. Sara shares the blessing and curse of playwrights not having bosses; how theater's limitations are what make it an amazing art form; the way in which the audience is always complicit in the theater’s art of “collective imagination;” how there needs to be an “injection of inevitability” in everything; being inspired by both Eugene O’Neill and the Wooster Group; the dangers of explaining everything and related critiques of Stephen Sondheim; and how we're both big fans of those Aristotelian unities, baby. (Length 22:35)

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Veteran TV & film actor (Man on the Inside, Mr. Show with Bob and David) and VoiceOver artist (SpongeBob SquarePants) Jill Talley returns to the legitimate stage this month in Bill Odenkirk's new play We Interrupt This Program, about an alien invasion that coincides with the broadcast of Orson Welles's War of the Worlds. Jill talks about the challenges of voice acting vs. full-body acting; the minor difficulties of playing a crotchety old Chicago lady; how fans of SpongeBob Squarepants are the nicest fans in the world; how she's returning to acting with longtime friend Bob Odenkirk; whether it’d be fun to be recognized more than she is already; how everybody thinks comedy is easy and drama is hard; and how appearing in a very cool Smashing Pumpkins video led to one of Jill’s more obscure – though award-winning – performances. (Length 20:53)

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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.)

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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)

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The Greeley (CO) Garage Sale Theatre hosted a talkback during the closing weekend of Austin Tichenor's play Puritans, and the cast, director Daniel Mothershed, and playwright took questions from an audience that included over a dozen theatre students from Frontier Academy. Austin and the cast share how the play combines autobiographical with fictional elements; how hard it is to pretend characters from other time periods aren't there; how hard it is to understand our past; how multiple generations can be in conversation with each other; how the playwright's a sucker for epic multi-generational family epics; how Puritans evolved from a novel into a play; how characters in a play – even ones based on real people – become automatically fictional with their own narrative imperatives; and how a play about multiple generations appeals to multiple generations. (Length 25:26)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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.)

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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.)

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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)

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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.)

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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.)

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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)

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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)

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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.)

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