Richard II - Episode 5

featuring interviews with actors Len Cariou and Christopher Liam Moore
and University of California, Davis professor Frances Dolan

In episode 5, Richard II is in the spotlight — right where he likes to be. This is the diva king who loves to hear himself talk but doesn’t have many leadership skills beyond his talents as an orator. Shakespeare’s 1590s play about the king usurped 200 years prior raises compelling questions about the nature of leaders’ relationships with their subjects — questions that were near-dangerous in Elizabethan England but still relevant today. Discussing all this and more in this episode are UC Davis professor Frances Dolan, Oregon Shakespeare Festival actor Christopher Liam Moore, and Len Cariou (known for his current role on CBS series Blue Bloods and for originating the role of Sweeney Todd), who recalls how Richard II inspired him early in his theater career.

Hermione - Episode 4

featuring interviews with actor Amy Kim Waschke
and Loyola Marymount University professor Theresia de Vroom

Hermione is a rarity among Shakespeare’s characters: She’s mother of young children. This queen at the center of The Winter’s Tale gets put through the wringer before she can be reunited with her daughter. In this episode, LMU professor Theresia de Vroom and Amy Kim Waschke — who played Hermione at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival last year — discuss how to approach the moment that calls Hermione’s faithfulness into question, what’s remarkable about her trial scene, and varying interpretations of that spectacle of a statue.

Henry IV - Episode 3

featuring interviews with actor Harry Lennix
and University of California, Santa Barbara professor Jim Kearney

After forcefully taking the English throne in the play Richard II, Bolingbroke a.k.a. Henry IV struggles to keep hold of the crown himself. UCSB professor Jim Kearney and actor Harry Lennix (Titus, The Matrix Reloaded, NBC’s The Blacklist) delve into Henry IV’s fraught relationship with his son (the future King Henry V), the stark difference in his leadership style from Richard II's, and the prophecy that keeps Henry IV believing he’s destined to fight a holy war in Jerusalem. Lennix also discusses his film adaptation, H4, that places the text of Henry IV Part 1 and 2 in the experience of modern black America.

Viola - Episode 2

featuring interviews with actors Sara Bruner and Lisa Wolpe
and University of Southern California professor Carla Della Gatta

The second installment of Shakespeare’s Shadows looks at the real reason for Viola’s disguise as a young man, the nuances of Twelfth Night’s tricky love triangle, Viola’s curious silence at the end of Act 5, and more with USC professor Carla Della Gatta, Lisa Wolpe — who has directed and starred in multiple Twelfth Night productions — and Sara Bruner,  who took on the roles of both Viola and Sebastian in a 2016 Oregon Shakespeare Festival staging of the beloved comedy.

Lear - Episode 1

featuring interviews with actors Fran Kranz and John Slade
and University of California, Irvine professor Julia Lupton

Lear’s descent into madness, varying interpretations of a pivotal moment with his daughter Cordelia, and where there may be optimism within the arc of one of the Bard’s greatest tragic characters are all discussed in the first episode of Shakespeare’s Shadows with UC Irvine professor Julia Lupton, John Slade (a familiar face to frequenters of Southern California Shakespeare productions), and Fran Kranz (Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing).

This episode contains explicit language.