The Shakespearean Shrew

Today I am joined by two amazing women: Margaret Upchurch and Naomi Love as they prepare for their upcoming performance of Aphra Behn’s The Rover. What’s it like to be the first professional female playwright? To have to make up a husband in order to have some kind of social standing? To kill off said fictional husband in the plague? Meet Aphra Behn. There are many mights and maybes surrounding the mythical Behn but the certainty is that, as Virginia Wolf said, “All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn, which is, most scandalously but rather appropriately, in Westminster Abbey, for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds.” And while I do suggest that pilgrimage, for those who would like to stay closer to home, there is no better way to pay your respects than to go support her work and the work of other women. What’s it like to be a woman in the theater industry? To face a shortage of substantive roles? To be cast not only on your performative abilities but your body type, your hair style, your height? Does this happen to men too? Of course, but today, as Aphra Behn dictates and I second, it is about the women. We talk about finding opportunity or, as Aphra Behn did, creating their own. We discuss the politics imbedded in academic institutions and the hard lessons these women have learned along their journey. We talk about taking on roles where that push them out of their typical roles and comfort zones. Support Aphra Behn’s work - ESPECIALLY if you have never heard of her - and support these two amazing women as they grace the OSP stage as the leading ladies, Hellena, the anti-nun, and Florinda, who none of us can believe doesn’t want to become a nun by the end of the play. OSP is hosting a performed reading of Aphra Behn’s The Rover with a limited showing April 10th-12th. It’s an intimate, indoor theater so get your tickets soon!The arts are under attack, and buying tickets and books is a great way to show your support and fight back. Buy Tickets for OSP’s: The RoverPLEASE SUBSCRIBE! ⁠www.theshakespeareanshrew.com⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@ShakespeareanShrew Please follow us on Instagram: @theshakespeareanshrewTikTok: @theshakespeareanshrewThe new season of shows for OSP is available ⁠here!⁠ Please donate to OSP: ⁠https://www.okshakes.org/donate⁠ Thank you for listening!Host/Shakespearean Shrew: Karen FeinerCo-Creator/Brew Shrew: Michelle CoffmanCover Art Creator/Artistic Shrew: Katie Kimberling ⁠⁠⁠www.halfmaverick.com⁠⁠⁠Intro/Outro Music: “Tangled”  by Nihilore: Creative Commons MusicThank you to our guests, Naomi Love and Margaret UpchurchNAOMI LOVE (Hellena) is excited to return to Oklahoma Shakespeare for her second performance! AT OSP: Jane Austen’s Christmas Cracker. OTHER THEATRE: A Sick Day for Amos McGee, Oklahoma Children's Theatre; Pillar of Fire, Theatre Crude Fringe Festival; Be Aggressive, Being Enough, Play in a Day, Oklahoma City University. FILM: 10 Weeks, Red Not Blue, The Ghost of Methodist Hall, Pace Yourself. ADDITIONAL CREDITS: Scare Actor, Dead Mans Crossing Haunted Attraction. Character Actor, Fairytale Balls 2024-26. She is a Junior Acting major at OCU, currently working towards a B.F.A. Follow Naomi’s acting on TikTok and IG @naomi.ie.loveMargaret Upchurch (Florinda) is looking forward to making her Oklahoma Shakespeare debut in The Rover! She is currently a Sophomore BFA Acting student at OCU. Previous work at OCU includes When We Were Young and Unafraid (Penny, Out of the Box) and The Children’s Hour (Karen/Mary Swing, Studio Series). She would like to thank her family and friends for their consistent support and love, and God for His guidance. She hopes you enjoy the show!

Spoiler Alert! This week we are once more talking to fabulous director and professor Lance Marsh as he takes on a performed reading of Aphra Behn’s The Rover with a limited showing April 10th-12th. We will talk about what the reading will entail,  the maybes and possibilities of Aphra Behn, her position as the first professional female playwright, and the women she wrote in The Rover, and the similarities between the productions and personas of Behn and Shakespeare. We will talk about her adaptations from Thomas Killigrew’s unpublished work and March’s adaptations for the upcoming production at Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park. It’s 1985 Spring Break in Fort Lauderdale and things are gonna get wild. We also talk about cuts (this was after all a two part play when it was first published) and how to cut while still maintaining authorial intent. We will be talking about the plot of the play AND *trigger warning* the four instances of assault within the play. Note: Marsh cut the severity of those scenes so, viewers, the reading should not be triggering. This is a comedy by a woman about women and the monetization of women in the 17th century. It’s going to get real. Synopsis: Watch as sisters, Florinda (wife to be) and Hellena (nun-to-be), fight the patriarchy and religion(archy), to find their own paths amidst, and within, the upheaval of Carnival (or Spring Break), and have to define themselves amongst the blanket categorization of women as virgins or whores. They will have to navigate between the honorable men (stay gold, Belvile) and the flavors of bad (bad boys, controlling family members, to real POSs - and the lines are squidgy!) to find the guy that will allow them the life they choose. Remember, it’s the 17th century, even Aphra Behn had to make up a husband. The arts are under attack, and buying tickets and books is a great way to show your support and fight back. As promised, here is a link to Siouxsie and the Banshees’ song https://music.apple.com/us/song/cities-in-dust/1443842139 and the playlist is AMAZING. Buy Tickets for OSP’s: The RoverPLEASE SUBSCRIBE! ⁠www.theshakespeareanshrew.com⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@ShakespeareanShrew Please follow us on Instagram: @theshakespeareanshrewTikTok: @theshakespeareanshrewThe new season of shows for OSP is available ⁠here!⁠ Please donate to OSP: ⁠https://www.okshakes.org/donate⁠ Thank you for listening!Host/Shakespearean Shrew: Karen FeinerCo-Creator/Brew Shrew: Michelle CoffmanCover Art Creator/Artistic Shrew: Katie Kimberling ⁠⁠⁠www.halfmaverick.com⁠⁠⁠Intro/Outro Music: “Tangled”  by Nihilore: Creative Commons MusicThank you to our guest, D. Lance Marsh. D. LANCE MARSH (he/him/his) is proud to be serving in his seventeenth year as an Associate Artistic Director for Oklahoma Shakespeare and in his twentieth year at TheatreOCU, where he serves as a Professor and Head of Performance (and briefly as an Acting Associate Dean). For OSP, he has acted in Hamlet, Emma and Blythe Spirit, and The Merry Wives of Windsor and directed Misalliance, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Merchant of Venice, A Comedy of Errors, The Seagull, Othello, Measure for Measure, Macbeth, Blythe Spirit, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, GB Shaw’s You Never Can Tell, and Much Ado About Nothing. A proud member of Actors Equity, he has performed in the City Rep productions of Our Town, Hay Fever, Moonlight and Magnolias, August: Osage County, Much Ado About Nothing and as Mark Rothko in Red and in Peter and the Starcatcher. His most recent projects include playing the role of Sam Byck in Assassins, Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon, and Ebeneezer Scrooge (twice) in A Christmas Carol at Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma.

Do you ever wonder what it takes to be an author? Do you want to find out? Join me this week as I talk with author Luke Swanson about a few of his books and what it has taken to get his work from the idea to the published page. We’ll talk about how social media and AI impact writers and the hidden  cost of writing. We also get to discuss metatextuality, so be prepared to throw that term at some unsuspecting victim and why we, as writers and readers, tend to return to the stories we love. We talk quite a bit about The Other Hamlet Brother because….Shakespearean Shrew, and we’ll discuss anachronisms (concepts out of their time), the amalgamation of characters from all of Shakespeare’s plays, and what Shakespeare would have thought of this beautiful bastardization of his works. As a Shakespearean, I admit, I started the book with some hesitance but it constantly surprised me (and made me snort hot tea), so give it a shot and I’m sure it will do the same for you! Below are links to a few of Luke Swanson’s books discussed in the episode. The Other Hamlet BrotherSpectators of WarCurtains on A Christmas CarolReminders: **Just a reminder that you have one more week to complete the challenge from our first episode to win a signed copy of Kestral Gaian’s The Boy From Elsewhere. This is the last weekend to see The Importance of Being Earnest at OSP ending March 1st. The arts are under attack, and buying tickets and books is a great way to show your support and fight back. Buy Tickets for OSP’s: The Importance of Being Earnest — Oklahoma ShakespearePLEASE SUBSCRIBE! ⁠www.theshakespeareanshrew.com⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@ShakespeareanShrew Please follow us on Instagram: @theshakespeareanshrewTikTok: @theshakespeareanshrewThe new season of shows for OSP is available ⁠here!⁠ Please donate to OSP: ⁠https://www.okshakes.org/donate⁠ Thank you for listening!Host/Shakespearean Shrew: Karen FeinerCo-Creator/Brew Shrew: Michelle CoffmanCover Art Creator/Artistic Shrew: Katie Kimberling ⁠⁠⁠www.halfmaverick.com⁠⁠⁠Intro/Outro Music: “Tangled”  by Nihilore: Creative Commons MusicThank you to our guest Luke Swanson. Luke Swanson was raised on a steady diet of stories. He is the author of full-length fiction as well as a handful of published short stories. Each of his novels has dabbled in a new genre: murder mystery, fantasy adventure, action thriller, dystopian satire, and cozy mystery…so far. He has also adapted three of his works in screenplays, one of which was a finalist in two online festivals. He lives with his wife in Oklahoma City.

**Clarification: these ladies are not cousins and nor do they kiss. Today we get to talk to Amanda Kohutek and Ella Martin about their experiences as best friends being double cast as Gwedolen in The Importance of Being Earnest, their concerns with the current obstacles confronting the arts, and their way of overcoming those obstacles. And what happens when you end up kissing your cousin?! We’ll talk about energy between cast members, what they learned from the more experienced members of the cast, and the different approaches they took towards call backs. Get ready to get some insight into the production, cast, changing locations, and secrets of the stage. The Importance of Being Earnest is running at OSP from February 19th to March 1st. If you are looking for a Valentine’s Day present that sparkles, look no further than this romantic comedy. Also, with two different casts, you can see the same (but very different) show twice! Synopsis: Oscar Wilde’s most celebrated comedy sparkles with wit, charm, and razor-sharp satire. The Importance of Being Earnest follows two young gentlemen, Jack and Algernon, who create elaborate double lives to escape social obligations and pursue romance. But when their deceptions collide, the result is a whirlwind of mistaken identities, outrageous revelations, and Wilde’s trademark epigrams that still dazzle over a century later.Audiences are treated to a delightful romp through Victorian society, where cucumber sandwiches, handbags, and the pursuit of “earnestness” become hilariously entangled. Beneath the laughter lies Wilde’s clever critique of class, marriage, and the absurdities of social convention.The arts are under attack, and buying tickets and books is a great way to show your support and fight back. Buy Tickets for OSP’s: The Importance of Being Earnest — Oklahoma ShakespearePLEASE SUBSCRIBE! ⁠www.theshakespeareanshrew.com⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@ShakespeareanShrew Please follow us on Instagram: @theshakespeareanshrewTikTok: @theshakespeareanshrewThe new season of shows for OSP is available ⁠here!⁠ Please donate to OSP: ⁠https://www.okshakes.org/donate⁠ Thank you for listening!Host/Shakespearean Shrew: Karen FeinerCo-Creator/Brew Shrew: Michelle CoffmanCover Art Creator/Artistic Shrew: Katie Kimberling ⁠⁠⁠www.halfmaverick.com⁠⁠⁠Intro/Outro Music: “Tangled”  by Nihilore: Creative Commons MusicThank you to our guests: Amanda Kohutek and Ella F. MartinElla Martin (Gwendolen) She/her. Ella is a senior BFA Acting major with a minor in Digital Film and Media at Oklahoma City University from Fort Worth, Texas. Recent credits include The Children’s Hour, Bellwether, and Shakespeare’s Other Women.Amanda Kohutek (Gwendolen) she/her. Amanda is a senior BFA Acting major with a minor in Directing at Oklahoma City University, and is from Arlington, Texas. Recent credits include Feline Fighters (OCU), Charlotte's Web (OCT), and She Stoops to Conquer (OCU). 

Let’s get Wilde – Oscar Wilde! (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.) This episode allows me the opportunity to talk to amazing director, actor, and human Lance Marsh as we delve into directing not one cast but TWO in the co-production of The Importance of Being Earnest. We discuss the difference between directing and acting in a production, why Marsh is directing The Importance of Being Earnest once again and why he decrees it the all-time funniest play. We talk about the tragic history of Wilde and how it might impact Wilde’s comedy and our reception of the play. We discuss the similarities and differences between Shakespeare and Wilde, the outrage of a society when you take them out of their comfort zone, and maybe even talk about a certain halftime show. **Listen up as Head of Performance from Oklahoma City University gives some important advice to all our auditioning actors out there on how to get the part - especially when returning for call backs. This show is running at OSP from February 19th to March 1st. If you are looking for a Valentine’s Day present that sparkles, look no further than this romantic comedy. Also, with two different casts, you can see the same (but very different) show twice! Synopsis: Oscar Wilde’s most celebrated comedy sparkles with wit, charm, and razor-sharp satire. The Importance of Being Earnest follows two young gentlemen, Jack and Algernon, who create elaborate double lives to escape social obligations and pursue romance. But when their deceptions collide, the result is a whirlwind of mistaken identities, outrageous revelations, and Wilde’s trademark epigrams that still dazzle over a century later.Audiences are treated to a delightful romp through Victorian society, where cucumber sandwiches, handbags, and the pursuit of “earnestness” become hilariously entangled. Beneath the laughter lies Wilde’s clever critique of class, marriage, and the absurdities of social convention.The arts are under attack, and buying tickets and books is a great way to show your support and fight back. Buy Tickets for OSP’s: The Importance of Being Earnest — Oklahoma ShakespearePLEASE SUBSCRIBE! ⁠www.theshakespeareanshrew.com⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@ShakespeareanShrew Please follow us on Instagram: @theshakespeareanshrewTikTok: @theshakespeareanshrewThe new season of shows for OSP is available ⁠here!⁠ Please donate to OSP: ⁠https://www.okshakes.org/donate⁠ Thank you for listening!Host/Shakespearean Shrew: Karen FeinerCo-Creator/Brew Shrew: Michelle CoffmanCover Art Creator/Artistic Shrew: Katie Kimberling ⁠⁠⁠www.halfmaverick.com⁠⁠⁠Intro/Outro Music: “Tangled”  by Nihilore: Creative Commons MusicThank you to our guest, D. Lance Marsh. D. LANCE MARSH (he/him/his) is proud to be serving in his seventeenth year as an Associate Artistic Director for Oklahoma Shakespeare and in his twentieth year at TheatreOCU, where he serves as a Professor and Head of Performance (and briefly as an Acting Associate Dean). For OSP, he has acted in Hamlet, Emma and Blythe Spirit, and The Merry Wives of Windsor and directed Misalliance, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Merchant of Venice, A Comedy of Errors, The Seagull, Othello, Measure for Measure, Macbeth, Blythe Spirit, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, GB Shaw’s You Never Can Tell, and Much Ado About Nothing. A proud member of Actors Equity, he has performed in the City Rep productions of Our Town, Hay Fever, Moonlight and Magnolias, August: Osage County, Much Ado About Nothing and as Mark Rothko in Red and in Peter and the Starcatcher. His most recent projects include playing the role of Sam Byck in Assassins, Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon, and Ebeneezer Scrooge (twice) in A Christmas Carol at Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma.

Welcome back! Season three is under way and we are starting out with a bang with British author Kestral Gaian, novelist, playwright, poet and professional over thinker. Join us as we discuss Gaian’s new book The Boy From Elsewhere and their poetry from their collection, Tubelines, along with genre, the politics of language, time (and how the construct almost changed completely), and authentic LGBTQ+ characters. Is kissing a political action? Is someone’s identity an attack on someone else? We’ll talk about the human propensity to put words and people in boxes - the human need to define the undefinable. How are you defined? Who defines you? How would you redefine yourself? There is a challenge in this episode that can win you a signed copy of Kestral Gaian’s new book The Boy From Elsewhere so listen up, post the challenge, you can just post it on social media OR email it to us at theshakespeareanshrew@gmail.com, and tag three people who you think would want to complete the challenge. Find out more about Kestral Gaian’s work at: https://kestr.al/Purchase The Boy From ElsewherePurchase TubelinesThe arts are under attack, and buying tickets and books is a great way to show your support and fight back. Buy Tickets for OSP’s: The Importance of Being Earnest — Oklahoma ShakespearePLEASE SUBSCRIBE! ⁠www.theshakespeareanshrew.com⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@ShakespeareanShrew Please follow us on Instagram: @theshakespeareanshrewTikTok: @theshakespeareanshrewThe new season of shows for OSP is available ⁠here!⁠ Please donate to OSP: ⁠https://www.okshakes.org/donate⁠ Thank you for listening!Host/Shakespearean Shrew: Karen FeinerCo-Creator/Brew Shrew: Michelle CoffmanCover Art Creator/Artistic Shrew: Katie Kimberling ⁠⁠⁠www.halfmaverick.com⁠⁠⁠Intro/Outro Music: “Tangled”  by Nihilore: Creative Commons MusicThank you to our guest: Kestral Gaian Kestral Gaian is an author, poet, and playwright whose work refuses to sit neatly inside a box. Their writing inhabits the places where genres overlap and come undone: the personal and the political, the digital and the human, the soft and the furious. Kestral’s work is defined by a deep belief that stories can help us practise being better humans. Or at least weirder, kinder ones.Kestral's background is wide ranging, from psychotherapy to technology to community activism, and this diversity infuses their art. Audiences and readers often describe being moved not just by what Kestral writes, but by how it feels to inhabit the worlds they create: playful, thoughtful, deeply human.Whether writing poetry, plays, lyrics, or fiction, Kestral Gaian is committed to work that challenges, delights, and endures. Their voice is one of defiance and tenderness, of systems questioned, and of humanity held close.

Why bother saying something if it’s impossible to understand? Join me as I talk to Mitch Laman, poet and academic, as he explains mediums, language, and genre and why we should push boundaries in the disciplines we work in and perhaps even the spaces in society that we inhabit. Find out how the conditions and creation of our language impacts our everyday lives. So let’s take a look at the edge of things.Find Mitch’s work on Instagram: @mitchpoetics Send me and Mitch your weird, impossible poetry or just write it and keep it for yourself! #writeyourweirdThe arts are under attack, and buying tickets is a great way to show your support and fight back. Buy Tickets: Jane Austen's Christmas Cracker — Oklahoma ShakespearePLEASE SUBSCRIBE! ⁠www.theshakespeareanshrew.com⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@ShakespeareanShrew Please follow us on Instagram: @theshakespeareanshrewTikTok: @theshakespeareanshrewThe new season of shows for OSP is available ⁠here!⁠ Please donate to OSP: ⁠https://www.okshakes.org/donate⁠ Thank you for listening!Host/Shakespearean Shrew: Karen FeinerCo-Creator/Brew Shrew: Michelle CoffmanCover Art Creator/Artistic Shrew: Katie Kimberling ⁠⁠⁠www.halfmaverick.com⁠⁠⁠Thank you to our guest: Mitch LamanMitch Laman is a poet and professor based out of Norman, Oklahoma. Instagram: @mitchpoetic

Join writer and director Erin Woods and improv and music director Amanda Lee along with Brew Shrew Michelle Coffman as we talk coffee, ice cream, improv, and holiday traditions. This conversation is quite the romp so come frolic through the conversations with us and join us at OSP from the Jane Austen Christmas Cracker from December 4th through the 21st. There is also a Brunch with Jane Austen and friends on December 14th before the matinee show to celebrate Jane Austen’s 250th birthday.  In the comments, please let us know which Disney or Austen character you would be or meet. ORWhat is your favorite smutty book? We need recommendations….The arts are under attack, and buying tickets is a great way to show your support and fight back. Buy Tickets: Jane Austen's Christmas Cracker — Oklahoma ShakespearePLEASE SUBSCRIBE! ⁠www.theshakespeareanshrew.com⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@ShakespeareanShrew Please follow us on Instagram: @theshakespeareanshrewTikTok: @theshakespeareanshrewThe new season of shows for OSP is available ⁠here!⁠ Please donate to OSP: ⁠https://www.okshakes.org/donate⁠ Thank you for listening!Host/Shakespearean Shrew: Karen FeinerCo-Creator/Brew Shrew: Michelle CoffmanCover Art Creator/Artistic Shrew: Katie Kimberling ⁠⁠⁠www.halfmaverick.com⁠⁠⁠Thank you to our guests: Erin Woods and Amanda Lee Erin Woods is a director, playwright, actress, and graphic designer with over 25 years’ experience in Oklahoma Theatre and beyond. Directing credits include Art for Oklahoma City Theatre Company, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Uncle Vanya for Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park, and Pride and Prejudice, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, Hamlet, Sense and Sensibility, Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Women, and Les Liaisons Dangereuses for Reduxion Theatre Company. As a playwright, Erin has written adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Tom Jones, and a holiday play often produced by Oklahoma Shakespeare: Jane Austen’s Christmas Cracker. Look for a workshop of her upcoming work: on a new play (not an adaptation!) based on her favorite book genre called How to Write a Regency Romance coming in 2026. (Bridgerton fans are gonna love it!)Amanda Lee worked as a performer all over the country and the world for 10 years before settling down in 2014 in Norman, OK near her hometown of Noble. She can now be seen onstage with Whodunit Dinner Theater and occasionally at Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park where she also directs and music directs for various productions. Amanda has a degree in music theater from the University of Central Oklahoma which has somehow also garnered her entry into the world of broadcasting as she can currently be heard in the mornings on KJ103 as a co-host on the show TJ, Amanda, and JRod In the Morning. Amanda also runs a Facebook page called The Central Oklahoma Theatre Calendar where she updates her followers on which shows are playing on which stages all over the central Oklahoma region. She is passionate about supporting theater and the arts. 

Join David Weber, friend, clown, professor, director, and amazing human, and the Shrew as we talk about not only the stages of a play but the stages of recovery in terms of sobriety and surgery. What does it take to heal? What does it take to push past our own boundaries? Can we even push the boundaries when we are in debt to our jobs, to the economy, and socially indebted? What happens to our communities when the clown cannot afford to push back? We will discuss the inherent discomfort that is part of life and the hope that audiences and students alike will play along. So when David Weber asks, “Shall we dance?” Do yourself a favor – get up and dance! So join David Weber for 70 minutes of joy, laughter, and redemption in An Actor’s Carol: One Clown’s Dickensian Marathon Towards Redemption on November 28th or 29th at 8pm at Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park. Just maybe you will walk away with your why. Maybe you will walk away just a little braver. The arts are under attack, and buying tickets is a great way to show your support and fight back. Buy Tickets: An Actor's Carol — Oklahoma ShakespearePLEASE SUBSCRIBE! ⁠www.theshakespeareanshrew.com⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@ShakespeareanShrew Please follow us on Instagram: @theshakespeareanshrewTikTok: @theshakespeareanshrewThe new season of shows for OSP is available ⁠here!⁠ Please donate to OSP: ⁠https://www.okshakes.org/donate⁠ Thank you for listening!Host/Shakespearean Shrew: Karen FeinerCo-Creator/Brew Shrew: Michelle CoffmanCover Art Creator/Artistic Shrew: Katie Kimberling ⁠⁠⁠www.halfmaverick.com⁠⁠⁠Thank you to our guest DAVID WEBERDavid Weber is an actor, director, and acting teacher.  He was last seen on stage in Merry Wives of Windsor at Oklahoma Shakespeare as Master Ford and this winter he will once again take his acclaimed one man show, “An Actor’s Carol: One clown’s Dickensian marathon towards redemption” on a national tour this November and December 2025.  He has been on the artistic and educational staff at Stagedoor Manor for three years, and he loves teaching and directing for that community.  He is also a proud member of the National Alliance of Acting Teachers and has an MFA in Acting from California State University Long Beach where he studied acting pedagogy under the direction of Alexandra Billings, Hugh O’Gorman, Ezra LeBank, Dr. Shanti Pillai, and Andrea Caban. David is on the performance faculty at Oklahoma State University as an Assistant Professor of Performance where he teaches BFA Acting, BFA Musical Theatre, and BA Theatre students Acting levels, Auditions, Special topics in Comedy, Movement for the Actor, and Contemporary Performance Techniques. www.davidrweber.com  #gopokes

Keeping it all in the family, yeah, always a creepy aspect of royal families, but how does a fraternal relationship off stage impact a familial relationship on stage? Is the competition real, an act, or something in between? How do actors find camaraderie and community in spite of, or perhaps because of, the fierce competition for roles? Find out in this episode as we sit down to talk with fan (and shrew) favorite Justin Marlow, and bright, shiny, and new faces to OSP and seniors at OU, Ethan Walker and Granger Lusk. We’ll also talk about the sibling dynamics in The Lion in Winter: the momma’s boy, his father’s son, and of course, the middle child. Each of these actors learned under Alissa Branch, our queen, so we’ll get the inside scoop into what it’s like transitioning from student to peer. Please come see The Lion in Winter at OSP opening October 9th and closing the 19th. See the links below for tickets to the show, Tim Grimm’s #1 Folk song “Broken Truth,” and tickets to Theatre Crude’s performances playing through the 11th. The arts are under attack, and buying tickets is a great way to show your support and fight back. Broken Truth by Tim GrimmBuy Tickets — Oklahoma Shakespeare: The Lion in Winter Theatre Crude TicketsPLEASE SUBSCRIBE! ⁠www.theshakespeareanshrew.com⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@ShakespeareanShrew Please follow us on Instagram: @theshakespeareanshrewTikTok: @theshakespeareanshrewThe new season of shows for OSP is available ⁠here!⁠ Please donate to OSP: ⁠https://www.okshakes.org/donate⁠ Thank you for listening!Host/Shakespearean Shrew: Karen FeinerCo-Creator/Brew Shrew: Michelle CoffmanCover Art Creator/Artistic Shrew: Katie Kimberling ⁠⁠⁠www.halfmaverick.com⁠⁠⁠Thank you to our guests ETHAN WALKER, GRANGER LUSK, and JUSTIN MARLOW. Ethan Walker is a BFA Performance major at the University of Oklahoma's Helmerich School of Drama. Previous credits include: Julius Caesar, Waiting for Lefty, Radium Girls, and Marie Antoinette (University of Oklahoma) Lascaux, D.D.M.C. (Co.llective Arts Productions) and Twelfth Night (Shakespeare Everywhere). Ethan is thrilled to be making his Oklahoma Shakespeare debut, and wants to thank his family and his friends for their unwavering support and love!Granger Lusk is an Actor and Educator from Houston, TX. He is currently pursuing his BFA in Acting from the University of Oklahoma and cannot wait to graduate in May '26. Some of his previous works include William, As You Like It; Joe, Waiting for Lefty; and Adrian, oh, to be pure again (collegiate premier) at the University of Oklahoma. You can see him next as the director of The Effect by Lucy Prebble this spring at OU. Granger would like to thank his family and friends for their constant support. As well as the cast, crew, and creative team for this amazing opportunity. BOOMER SOONER! @grangerluskJustin Marlow: Originally from Los Angeles, California. Graduate from the University of Oklahoma with a BFA in drama. Credits include Oklahoma Shakespeare: Born with Teeth, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Much ado about Nothing, Midsummer Night’s dream, Christmas Cracker, Hamlet, Emma, and Shakespeare in Love  University: Burn This, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Great Expectations, and Red Bike Film: Ultraviolet, The Squatter, Waiting on You, and, Unkind Insta: @Justinmichaelmarlow

Two husband and wife duos in a row! This episode we talk to actor Tiffany Tuggle and Wil Rogers, actor and writer of MacDeath. (Yes, those are their real names - I asked.) We talk about balancing family and acting, relationships on and off the stage, superstition on the stage. Warning: Do not say Macbeth in front of Wil in the theatre or you’ll be spinning outside the theatre, spitting, cursing, and begging for reenterance. So, let’s see what it looks like when you “screw your courage to the sticking place” and mess with Mackers. The arts are under attack, and buying tickets is a great way to show your support and fight back. See the links below for tickets to MacDeath’s performances in coordination with Theatre Crude. Thursday, October 2 at 7:00pWednesday, October 8 at 10:00pFriday, October 10 at 8:30pSaturday, October 11 at 4:00pAt 3rd Act Theatre CompanyThe Shoppes at Northpark12000 N. MayOKC, OK 73120Please come see The Lion in Winter at OSP opening October 9th and closing the 19th.Theatre Crude TicketsBuy Tickets — Oklahoma Shakespeare: The Lion in Winter PLEASE SUBSCRIBE! ⁠www.theshakespeareanshrew.com⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@ShakespeareanShrew Please follow us on Instagram: @theshakespeareanshrewTikTok: @theshakespeareanshrewThe new season of shows for OSP is available ⁠here!⁠ Please donate to OSP: ⁠https://www.okshakes.org/donate⁠ Thank you for listening!Host/Shakespearean Shrew: Karen FeinerCo-Creator/Brew Shrew: Michelle CoffmanCover Art Creator/Artistic Shrew: Katie Kimberling ⁠⁠⁠www.halfmaverick.com⁠⁠⁠Thank you to our guests Wil Rogers and Tiffany Tuggle. Wil Rogers is a writer and theatre artist based in Oklahoma City. He will soon finally be a Theatre minor graduate of the University of Central OK, where years ago he was in a KC/ACTF 1st Alternate to Nationals production of Nicky Silver's Pterodactyls. Among many short plays, he also wrote an adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk, Aladdin, and an OK Museum of Art commissioned play The Beginning of Rome, all for OK Children's Theatre, where he acted and directed for 10 years. Favorite directing credits include Into The Woods, Godspell Jr, Barefoot in the Park, The Complt Wrks of Shkspr (Abridged) '14 & '16 (a show he's acted in 3 times), and Sam Shepard's Savage Love & Tongues. Favorite roles include Oklahoma Shakespeare: 19 seasons in roles like Antony, Benedick x3, Pertruchio, Mercutio, Malvolio, Enobarbus, a few Dukes, Demetrius, Lysander, Oberon, Bottom, d'Artagnan, Malcolm, Le Bret, Willoughby, Claudius, Lady Davenant et al in Or, by Liz Duffy Adams, Saturninus, Master Ford, Longaville, and many years in one mainstage production and touring versions as Scrooge in A Christmas Carol - which inspired a one-man staged-reading version that he tours to libraries, assisted living, and retirement villages for the past three years. He's trained in stage combat, including fencing and gun safety from many years in a wild west stunt show and a touring production playing Hamlet.Tiffany Tuggle has worked with theatres all over the metro. Shakespeare audiences might remember her as Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream or Margaret in Much Ado About Nothing. Fresh off her run as Maggie in Tennesee William's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Jewel Box Theatre, you can currently catch her at The Boom playing Janet in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. She has also been seen in numerous musicals and shows such as Laughter on The 23rd Floor at The Pollard Theatre in Guthrie, where for several years, she's played roles in A Territorial Christmas Carol. Tiffany has a Bachelors in Theatre from SWOSU.

Is acting like riding a bike? Like doing yoga after not stretching for a few years? In this episode, I get the opportunity to talk with Alissa Branch and Tim Grimm, two amazing actors, artists, and humans who haven’t tread the boards in a few years and see what their comeback really feels like as they prepare for The Lion in Winter opening October 9th at OSP. We also discuss collaborative efforts on the stage and as a married couple, the impact of art across mediums, and the consequences of technology reliance on art. Please come see The Lion in Winter at OSP opening October 9th and closing the 19th. See the links below for tickets to the show, Tim Grimm’s #1 Folk song “Broken Truth,” and tickets to Theatre Crude’s opening performances. The arts are under attack, and buying tickets is a great way to show your support and fight back. Broken Truth by Tim GrimmBuy Tickets — Oklahoma Shakespeare: The Lion in Winter Theatre Crude TicketsPLEASE SUBSCRIBE! ⁠www.theshakespeareanshrew.com⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@ShakespeareanShrew Please follow us on Instagram: @theshakespeareanshrewTikTok: @theshakespeareanshrewThe new season of shows for OSP is available ⁠here!⁠ Please donate to OSP: ⁠https://www.okshakes.org/donate⁠ Thank you for listening!Host/Shakespearean Shrew: Karen FeinerCo-Creator/Brew Shrew: Michelle CoffmanCover Art Creator/Artistic Shrew: Katie Kimberling ⁠⁠⁠www.halfmaverick.com⁠⁠⁠Thank you to our guests Tim Grimm and Alissa Branch. ALISSA BRANCH is a theatrical and visual artist based in Norman, OK, where she serves as Associate Professor of Acting in the Helmerich School of Drama. Favorite directing credits include Oklahoma Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet(2023), Pride and Prejudice (2022); Phoenix Theatre: The Circumference of a Squirrel; Butler University: The Dreaming of The Bones (with subsequent tour of Southern Ireland). OU University Theatre: Twelfth Night, Arcadia, Summer and Smoke, Clybourne Park, Mary Stuart, Julius Caesar; OU Lab Theatre: Proof (2023), Miss Evers’ Boys (KCACTF Region 6 Director’s Choice Award, and Standard Bank Silver Ovation Award, National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, South Africa), Anna in the Tropics; 9 Parts of Desire (KCACTF Region 6 Director’s Choice Award). Alissa also directed the regional premiere of the new play Shakespeare’s Other Women, which received Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Region 6 awards for Outstanding Work with Heightened Text, and Excellence in Ensemble Acting. Alissa recently created and released a 12-episode video master class for The Great Courses Plus called “Shakespeare: From Page to Stage.” Alissa is also a painter. She and her partner, singer-songwriter Tim Grimm, share a small visual art gallery called Black Chalk Studio. Visit www.alissabranch.com to learn more.Tim Grimm is a bit of a Renaissance man in the performing arts world, forging a rich and varied career that blends his love of songwriting, travel, and acting in theatre, film and television. For most of his 25-year career as a storytelling balladeer in the tradition of John Prine, Woody Guthrie, and Bob Dylan, Tim has written primarily about community, history, family, and social issues - often framed by his strong sense of place and the many years he spent on the family farm he built in rural Indiana. His songs are filled with rural characters and landscapes, written and sung with vivid warmth and intimacy.  

In a political war rife with ugly rhetoric, Alix Golden brings a “new” weapon to the table: song. In this episode, we are talking to actor and writer of the new show Belters–where the broads of Broadway take on Fascism. Join us as we talk about the importance of theater, music, immigrants, religion, and divorce. Listen to how Alix wrote this production from the inside out - being part of the production as she is creating it, and finding the external pressure to fight against the powers of procrastination. And be on the look out for Alix’s next show, There’s a Penis in There Somewhere. Just kidding…maybe…Alix, make it happen. So everyone, go see Belters this October at 3rd Act Theater:October 4th: 5:30pmOctober 5th: 1pm October 10th: 5:30pmOctober 11th: 2:30pm And let me know how many shows you get to on the Theatre Crude list! Get tickets here: Theatre Crude TicketsThe arts are under attack, and buying tickets is a great way to show your support and fight back. PLEASE SUBSCRIBE! ⁠www.theshakespeareanshrew.com⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@ShakespeareanShrew Please follow us on Instagram: @theshakespeareanshrewTikTok: @theshakespeareanshrewThe new season of shows for OSP is available ⁠here!⁠ Please donate to OSP: ⁠https://www.okshakes.org/donate⁠ Thank you for listening!Host/Shakespearean Shrew: Karen FeinerCo-Creator/Brew Shrew: Michelle CoffmanCover Art Creator/Artistic Shrew: Katie Kimberling ⁠⁠⁠www.halfmaverick.com⁠⁠⁠Thank you to our guest Alix Golden. Alix Golden (Writer/Zsa Zsa) is a graduate of Classen SAS where she studied theatre with Terry Veal and Michael Payne. She attended Adelphi University to earn her BFA in theatre. As a student, she co-wrote and directed This is What We’ve Got So Far. Recent acting credit: She Kills Monsters (Carpenter Square Theatre), Mother Road, Lyric’s A Christmas Carol (Lyric Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare in Love (Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park), Inherit the Wind (3rd Act Theatre), The Last Night of Ballyhoo (Jewel Box Theatre, Gem Winner). She is so excited to share this play with you. 

When we think “women gone wild,” we tend to think of wet t-shirt contests. That is not these women. These women (and one man, sorry, Caylor Peterson - they love you and spoke of your glory) have gone off the beaten track (this play is being performed in Yellow Dog Coffee Company), co-produced by three individuals, directed as a company, and are performing a play that pushes the boundaries of actors and audience alike. In this episode, Laura Burguete, Anna Halza, Hannah Haddad, Katy Kendall, and Isabella Woodson talk about some of the restrictions of university theater and making this opportunity for themselves has pushed their knowledge of themselves as actors and forced them out of their comfort zones as they take on characters that would never be brought to stage in a university setting (university politics are real). These women are as delightfully unapologetic as the play; as they say in this episode, “you either get it or you don’t.” This play has a history; it’s a protest piece;  it’s been fought for in the courts, and now it’s coming to Norman. So come see this show; come support these amazing actors, and be part of the history (and maybe even the performative protest). The show is September 12th, 13th, and 14th at 8pm and there is a matinee on Saturday the 13th at 2pm. Students (all students) can get discount tickets! The arts are under attack, and buying tickets is a great way to show your support and fight back. Tickets for The Secretaries: www.isabellawoodson.com PLEASE SUBSCRIBE! ⁠www.theshakespeareanshrew.com⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@ShakespeareanShrew Please follow us on Instagram: @theshakespeareanshrewTikTok: @theshakespeareanshrewThe new season of shows for OSP is available ⁠here!⁠ Please donate to OSP: ⁠https://www.okshakes.org/donate⁠ Thank you for listening!Host/Shakespearean Shrew: Karen FeinerCo-Creator/Brew Shrew: Michelle CoffmanCover Art Creator/Artistic Shrew: Katie Kimberling ⁠⁠⁠www.halfmaverick.com⁠⁠⁠Thank you to our guests Laura Burguete, Anna Halza, Hannah Haddad, Katy Kendall, and Isabella Woodson!Laura Burguete is a Mexican-American actress from San Antonio, TX currently pursuing a BFA in Acting from The University of Oklahoma. Her most recent onstage appearance was Sage in Go. Please. Go. directed by Madison Neiderhauser. She is currently playing Peaches in The Secretaries.Anna Halza is an actor, writer, and theater maker based in Texas and Oklahoma. She is currently pursuing her BFA in Drama at the University of Oklahoma. Her most recent projects include the role of Sarah in Hadley Shipley's Camp Contrition, produced by SheDFW, and co-authorship of How To Smoke Three Cigarettes at Once, produced by Co.Arts Theater Company. The play has just received its fringe debuts at Kansas City Fringe and Omaha Fringe. She is currently playing Susan in The Secretaries.Hannah Haddad is an Assyrian-American actress from Texas, currently pursuing her BFA in Acting at the University of Oklahoma. She recently appeared as Decius in Julius Caesar directed by Livy Scanlon in Prague, the Stenographer in Waiting for Lefty directed by Seth Gordon, and is currently playing Ashley in The Secretaries.Katy Kendall is a junior acting major at the University of Oklahoma from St. Louis, Missouri. Her most recent roles include Voice in the Crowd #2 (Waiting for Lefty—Weitzenhoffer Theater), and Celia (As You Like It—Divadlo Bez zábradlí). She is currently playing Patty in The Secretaries.Isabella Woodson (she/her) is an Oklahoma and Texas based director, producer and actor. She is currently pursuing her B.F.A in Drama at the University of Oklahoma. Recent Credits: Waiting for Lefty (Assistant Director), Another Beginning (Director/Co-Producer), Dearly Departed (Production Dramaturg). She is currently playing Dawn in The Secretaries.

S2 Ep 19: You had questions; we have answers! Cast Q&A: Love’s Labour’s Lost Hello all! You came up with some amazing questions so, in the shortest introduction ever, here are the cast and director’s answers! Thank you all for your questions - on to the roll call!  Erin Woods: PLAY DIRECTOR AND MARKETINGBen Kahre: BEROWNEOlivia Akers: KATHERINE / ASST. DIRECTOR / PROPS DESIGNTeegin Hacker: LONGAVILLE / DULLAriana Sanchez: MARIA Jimmy Pike: DUMAINE / SIR NATHANIEL / MUSIC DIRECTORJessa Schinske: ROSALINEThomas Chavira: DON ADRIANO DE ARMADOLily Marsh: JAQUENETTACorey Whaley: BOYETElla Howard: MOTH / MARCADEPlease come see Love’s Labour’s Lost at OSP; this is the final weekend (August 14th-17th)! It’s an amazing show and cast with a fabulous soundtrack. See Shakespeare mix it up with the musical works of Alanis Morisette, The Doors, and more. And if you are looking to get a little creeped out, don’t miss GRŒNLAND: Stalked by dark and mounting horrors, an isolated religious colony must survive until spring. GRŒNLAND runs at Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center in Oklahoma City on August 15th, 16th, and 17thThe arts are under attack, and buying tickets is a great way to show your support and fight back. PLEASE SUBSCRIBE! ⁠www.theshakespeareanshrew.com⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@ShakespeareanShrew Please follow us on Instagram: @theshakespeareanshrewTikTok: @theshakespeareanshrewThe new season of shows for OSP is available ⁠here!⁠ Tickets for Love’s Labour’s Lost opening August 7th: Love's Labour's Lost TicketsTickets for GRŒNLAND: GRŒNLAND by Chip Keebaugh — Co.ArtsPlease donate to OSP: ⁠https://www.okshakes.org/donate⁠ Thank you for listening!Host/Shakespearean Shrew: Karen FeinerCo-Creator/Brew Shrew: Michelle CoffmanCover Art Creator/Artistic Shrew: Katie Kimberling ⁠⁠⁠www.halfmaverick.com⁠⁠⁠Thank you to the director and cast! 

When everyone else has gone mad, the fool alone is left with reason. Welcome to a look at Costard in Love’s Labour’s Lost and Denton Meehan, the actor who is taking him on in OSP’s upcoming production. (It opens tomorrow, August 7th, get your tickets - go, go, go!)  In this episode, Denton and I discuss the history of the fool, the balance fools bring to the world (and why we cannot afford to get rid of them), the difference between a clown and fool, and why we laugh. Please come see Love’s Labour’s Lost at OSP; it’s running August 7th through August 17th. It’s an amazing show and cast with a fabulous soundtrack. See Shakespeare mix it up with the musical works of Alanis Morisette, The Doors, and more. And if you are looking to get a little creeped out, don’t miss GRŒNLAND: Stalked by dark and mounting horrors, an isolated religious colony must survive until spring. GRŒNLAND runs at Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center in Oklahoma City on August 15th, 16th, and 17thThe arts are under attack, and buying tickets is a great way to show your support and fight back. PLEASE SUBSCRIBE! ⁠www.theshakespeareanshrew.com⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@ShakespeareanShrew Please follow us on Instagram: @theshakespeareanshrewTikTok: @theshakespeareanshrewThe new season of shows for OSP is available ⁠here!⁠ Tickets for Love’s Labour’s Lost opening August 7th: Love's Labour's Lost TicketsTickets for GRŒNLAND: GRŒNLAND by Chip Keebaugh — Co.ArtsPlease donate to OSP: ⁠https://www.okshakes.org/donate⁠ Thank you for listening!Host/Shakespearean Shrew: Karen FeinerCo-Creator/Brew Shrew: Michelle CoffmanCover Art Creator/Artistic Shrew: Katie Kimberling ⁠⁠⁠www.halfmaverick.com⁠⁠⁠Thank you to our guest: Denton MeehanDenton Meehan is a recent graduate from Oklahoma City University, from Kansas City, MO. This is his third show at OK Shakes. Recent credits include A Midsummer Nights Dream, Life Sucks, and Legacy of Light. Special thanks to friends and family.

In this episode we will be talking to Alleese Eldridge and Paxton Kliewer about the challenges and rewards of teaching OSP’s summer camp, what theater does for us as actors and audience, the importance of play, and how yo-yos are the ultimate Brooklyn ice-breaker. Hear about their final productions in OKC (for now) before this dynamic duo heads off to NYC to pursue greatness (even though we would argue that they are already AMAZING). So get your tickets to Love’s Labour’s Lost and Grœnland. This is your last chance to get their autographs and say you knew them when. Please come see Love’s Labour’s Lost at OSP; it’s running August 7th through August 17th. It’s an amazing show and cast with a fabulous soundtrack. See Shakespeare mix it up with the musical works of Alanis Morisette, The Doors, and more. And if you are looking to get a little creeped out, don’t miss GRŒNLAND: Stalked by dark and mounting horrors, an isolated religious colony must survive until spring. GRŒNLAND runs at Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center in Oklahoma City on August 15th, 16th, and 17thThe arts are under attack, and buying tickets is a great way to show your support and fight back. PLEASE SUBSCRIBE! ⁠www.theshakespeareanshrew.com⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@ShakespeareanShrew Please follow us on Instagram: @theshakespeareanshrewTikTok: @theshakespeareanshrewThe new season of shows for OSP is available ⁠here!⁠ Tickets for Love’s Labour’s Lost opening August 7th: Love's Labour's Lost TicketsTickets for GRŒNLAND: GRŒNLAND by Chip Keebaugh — Co.ArtsPlease donate to OSP: ⁠https://www.okshakes.org/donate⁠ Thank you for listening!Host/Shakespearean Shrew: Karen FeinerCo-Creator/Brew Shrew: Michelle CoffmanCover Art Creator/Artistic Shrew: Katie Kimberling ⁠⁠⁠www.halfmaverick.com⁠⁠⁠Thank you to our guests: Alleese Eldridge and Paxton KliewerAlleese uses performance as a site for community organizing and uplifting ideas of collective prosperity. Alleese Eldridge is a founding member of Co.Arts, a company dedicated to producing and developing new works, and currently serves as their Co.Artistic Director. Previous Credits: Men on the Line (Co.Arts, Director), The Great Leap (OKC Rep, Asst. Director), Much Ado About Nothing (OSP, Production Dramaturg). “Every act of art brings us one step closer to our collective liberation.”- Kelli ShermeyerPaxton is an actor from Bethany, Oklahoma. He received his BFA in Drama with an emphasis in Acting from the University of Oklahoma in 2020. His credits include Jaxton-The Thanksgiving play-OKCREP, Captain Wentworth-Jane Austen’s Christmas Cracker!-Oklahoma Shakespeare, Laertes-Hamlet-Oklahoma Shaspeare in the Park, Banquo-Macbeth-Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park, Oberon/Theseus-A Midsummer Night's Dream-Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park, Sebastian-Twelfth Night-Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park, Captain Georg Von Trapp-The Sound of Music: Interactive-Lyric Theatre, Dr. Capt. Kaw-Thee Hidden Claw-Louisiana Art Station,Paul Bratter-Barefoot in the Park-Jewel Box Theatre.

What role does music play on the stage? Can music make theater more accessible? Can it change the roles of players? Find out the answers to these questions and more as we talk to Ella Howard and Lily Marsh who are both performing in OSP’s upcoming production of Love’s Labour’s Lost. We discuss the different music that director Erin Woods has brought into the production and listen all the way to the end for a jaw dropping performance from these amazing actors and musicians as they sing “Hi Lili Hi Lo” - I cannot get it out of my head and I don’t want to. You want to get to know these actors because they haven’t even graduated from college yet and they are already astound. Keep an eye on them; I have a feeling we will see them on many more stages in the decades to follow.  Please come see Love’s Labour’s Lost at OSP; it’s running August 7th through August 17th. It’s an amazing show with a fabulous soundtrack. See Shakespeare mix it up with the musical works of Alanis Morisette, The Doors, and more.  The arts are under attack, and buying tickets is a great way to show your support and fight back. PLEASE SUBSCRIBE! ⁠www.theshakespeareanshrew.com⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@ShakespeareanShrew Please follow us on Instagram: @theshakespeareanshrewTikTok: @theshakespeareanshrewThe new season of shows for OSP is available ⁠here!⁠ Tickets for Love’s Labour’s Lost opening August 7th: Love's Labour's Lost TicketsPlease donate to OSP: ⁠https://www.okshakes.org/donate⁠ Thank you for listening!Host/Shakespearean Shrew: Karen FeinerCo-Creator/Brew Shrew: Michelle CoffmanCover Art Creator/Artistic Shrew: Katie Kimberling ⁠⁠⁠www.halfmaverick.com⁠⁠⁠Thank you to our guests: Ella Howard and Lily Marsh Ella Howard (she/her/hers) is a rising third year acting student at the University of Oklahoma in the Helmerich School of Drama. This is Ella’s third year working with Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park, and Love’s Labour’s Lost is her on-stage debut! Her previous theatre credits include As You Like It, Oklahoma!, and Waiting For Lefty. Ella would like to thank her friends and family for their constant encouragement and support. Lily Marsh (she/they) is a rising junior at Oklahoma City University, pursuing a BFA in Acting with a double minor in Directing and Dramaturgy. Her recent university credits include Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Emily u/s) , Gross Indecency (Carson & Others), Puffs (Swing), and Romeo & Juliet (Swing). She is delighted to be working with OSP again, following her previous work in The Merry Wives of Windsor (Assistant Director), Macbeth (Lennox), and Jane Austen’s Christmas Cracker (Elinor Dashwood).

For so long we have lauded the relationship of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as the healthiest relationship amidst an an unhealthy plot, but Lady Fenton and Anne Page topple the Macbeths in Merry Wives of Windsor and OSP shows that, in Windsor (as should be everywhere), everyone gets a seat at the table. Join me as I talk with Kit Rasmussen in his debut role as Lady Fenton (yes, you read that correctly) and Bell Reeves, a very familiar face and voice in this podcast, in her role as Anne Page as we talk about gender, strong women, and blurring the lines. Shakespeare ascribed his players many traditional parts, but he often mocked them as quickly as he assigned them. Join us in this episode in a traditional mocking of our “parts.” Don’t forget that this is the last week of Merry Wives at OSP so get your tickets and join us from the 12th through the 15th. PLEASE SUBSCRIBE! ⁠www.theshakespeareanshrew.com⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@ShakespeareanShrew Please follow us on Instagram: @theshakespeareanshrewTikTok: @theshakespeareanshrewThe new season of shows for OSP is available ⁠here!⁠ Tickets for Merry Wives of Windsor opening June 5th: Merry Wives of Windsor — Oklahoma ShakespearePlease donate to OSP: ⁠https://www.okshakes.org/donate⁠ Thank you for listening!Host/Shakespearean Shrew: Dr. Karen FeinerCo-Creator/Brew Shrew: Michelle CoffmanCover Art Creator/Artistic Shrew: Katie Kimberling ⁠⁠⁠www.halfmaverick.com⁠⁠⁠Thank you to our guests: Kit Rasmussen and Bell Reeves Kit Rasmussen (Fenton, Pistol) is an Oklahoma-based artist who recently graduated from Wichita State University with a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in Theatre Performance. This is their first show with OSP. Previous credits include Prentiss in Peter and the Starcatcher (WSU) and Valvert in Cyrano de Bergerac (Kechi Playhouse) Bell Reeves is an Oklahoma based actor, and founding member of the Emerging Artists Collective. She is passionate about Theatre's ability to ignite change and foster impactful conversation.  Originally from Houston, Bell graduated from The University of Oklahoma with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre with an Acting Emphasis Some of her OSP credits include Twelfth Night (Viola) Romeo and Juliet (Juliet), Much Ado about Nothing (Hero),and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Helena).

**This is a fun and raucous interview so choose your volume accordingly! For this episode we are going to talk size - no, not that kind of size - though there will be some talk of “eggplant emojis” in this episode. I mean the size of the role versus the impact of the part. Join us as we talk with Jimmy Pike, Denton Meehan, and Lucas Schrantz who are well-versed in playing many parts (sometimes within one play or even a single scene!). These actors (and their characters) will literally muscle their way into your hearts with their sword flourishes and straining biceps. We will talk about conveying different persons through physicality and voice, audience engagement (the good and the bad),  advice to those of you who are pursuant of something against parental (or random stranger’s) advice, and why Merry Wives is a perfect introduction to Shakespeare’s works. It’s mostly prose, people! He left the verse at home. So join us to talk about Merry Wives and come see it at Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park in the Paseo. It opens June 5th and closes June 15th so bring some chairs, blankets, and a picnic worthy of a knight. Also, at the end of the episode, we will tell you about some opportunities to see Merry Wives for FREE. PLEASE SUBSCRIBE! ⁠www.theshakespeareanshrew.com⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@ShakespeareanShrew Please follow us on Instagram: @theshakespeareanshrewTikTok: @theshakespeareanshrewThe new season of shows for OSP is available ⁠here!⁠ Tickets for Merry Wives of Windsor opening June 5th: Merry Wives of Windsor — Oklahoma ShakespearePlease donate to OSP: ⁠https://www.okshakes.org/donate⁠ Thank you for listening!Host/Shakespearean Shrew: Dr. Karen FeinerCo-Creator/Brew Shrew: Michelle CoffmanCover Art Creator/Artistic Shrew: Katie Kimberling ⁠⁠⁠www.halfmaverick.com⁠⁠⁠Jimmy Pike has been working with Oklahoma Shakespeare since 2005. He’s been seen on the OSP stage as Slender in Merry Wives of Windsor, Carbon de Castel-Jaloux in Cyrano, Snug and Snout in Midsummer Nights Dream, Friar Francis in Much Ado About Nothing, and many more. He currently serves on the Board of Directors. Jimmy is a father to Gigi and SamLucas Schrantz (Slender, Host, Servant) is a mama’s boy who has been doing theatre since the wee age of ten. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2022 and has been acting around the state since. This will be the third time he is performing at Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park. Recent roles include Plankton in Pollard Theatre’s SpongeBob Squarepants the Musical and Lysander in Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park’s Midsummer Nights Dream. He would like to thank his parents, all five of his siblings, and partner for supporting him.Denton Meehan is a recent graduate from Oklahoma City University, from Kansas City, MO. This is his second show at OK Shakes. Recent credits include A Midsummer Nights Dream, Life Sucks, and Legacy of Light. Special thanks to friends and family.