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Shakespeare Anyone?

Shakespeare Anyone?

Written by: Kourtney Smith & Elyse Sharp
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 Shakespeare Anyone? is co-hosted by Elyse Sharp and Kourtney Smith, two professional actors and hobbyist Shakespeare scholars. Join us as we explore Shakepeare's plays through as many lenses as we can by looking at the text and how the text is viewed through modern lenses of feminism, racism, classism, colonialism, nationalism… all the-isms. We will discuss how his plays shaped both the past and present, and look at how his work was performed throughout various periods of time–all while trying our best to approach his works without giving in to bardolatry. We examine one play at a time for an extended window of time, interspersed with mini-episodes about Shakespeare's time for context. Episodes are released every other week. Art Entertainment & Performing Arts
Episodes
  • Mini: Shakespeare and Stephen King with Caroline Bicks, author of Monsters in the Archives

    Mini: Shakespeare and Stephen King with Caroline Bicks, author of Monsters in the Archives
    May 6 2026
    Want to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In this episode, we are joined by author and Shakespeare scholar, Caroline Bicks, to discuss her latest book, Monsters in the Archive: My Year of Fear with Stephen King. Caroline will share with us how Shakespeare some of Stephen King's most famous works, and the surprising similarities she discovered between Shakespeare's writing and King's. Monsters in the Archive: My Year of Fear with Stephen King is out now. About Caroline Bicks Caroline Bicks is the Stephen E. King Chair in Literature at the University of Maine, where she teaches courses in Shakespeare, early modern culture, and horror fiction. She is the author of Cognition and Girlhood in Shakespeare's World and Midwiving Subjects in Shakespeare's England; co-author of Shakespeare, Not Stirred: Cocktails for Your Everyday Dramas; and co-host of the Everyday Shakespeare podcast. Her essays and humor pieces have appeared in the Modern Love column of the New York Times, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, and the show Afterbirth. She lives in Blue Hill, Maine, with her family. About Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King After Caroline Bicks was named the University of Maineʼs inaugural Stephen E. King Chair in Literature, she became the first scholar to be granted extended access by King to his private archives, a treasure trove of manuscripts that document the legendary writerʼs creative process—most of them never before studied or published. The year she spent exploring King's early drafts and hand-written revisions was guided by one question millions of Kingʼs enthralled and terrified readers (including her) have asked themselves: What makes Stephen King's writing stick in our heads and haunt us long after we've closed the book? Bicks focuses on five of his most iconic early works—The Shining, Carrie, Pet Sematary, ʼSalemʼs Lot, and Night Shift—to reveal how he crafted his language, story lines, and characters to cast his enduring literary spells. While tracking King's margin notes and editorial changes, she discovered scenes and alternative endings that never made it to print but that King is allowing her to publish now. The book also includes interviews Bicks had with King along the way that reveal new insights into his writing process and personal history. Part literary master class, part biography, part memoir and investigation into our deepest anxieties, Monsters in the Archives—authorized by Stephen King himself—is unlike anything ever published about the master of horror. It chronicles what Bicks found when she set out to unearth how King crafted some of his scariest, most iconic moments. But it's also a story about a grown-up English professor facing her childhood fears and getting to know the man whose monsters helped unleash them. Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp. Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander. For updates: Join our email listFollow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepodVisit our website at shakespeareanyone.com Support the podcast: Become a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone Buy us a coffeeBookshop.org: Since 2020, Bookshop.org has raised more than $38 million for independent bookstores. Shop our Shakespeare Anyone? storefront to find books featured on the podcast, books by our guests, and other Shakespeare-related books and gifts. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores.Libro.fm: Libro.fm makes it possible to purchase audiobooks through your local bookshop of choice. Use our link for 2 free audiobooks when you sign up for a new Libro.fm membership using our link. Find additional links mentioned in the episode in our Linktree.
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    43 mins
  • Julius Caesar: How Often Did Shakespeare Think About the Roman Empire?

    Julius Caesar: How Often Did Shakespeare Think About the Roman Empire?
    Apr 22 2026

    Want to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you.

    In this episode, we use Freyja Cox Jensen's Reading the Roman Republic in Early Modern England to explore how early modern readers encountered, studied, and understood ancient Rome, and what that means for how we read Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

    First, we ask whether early modern people were truly obsessed with Julius Caesar and ancient Rome, and how Rome became so omnipresent in the early modern imagination. We then trace the roots of that obsession: how Roman history was embedded in early modern education and pedagogical theory, which Roman authors Shakespeare and his contemporaries were actually reading, and how the rise of the printing industry accelerated the spread of classical texts across England.

    From there, we explore what early modern people actually thought about Rome: how they understood it, idealized it, and argued about it. Last but not least, we'll examine how ancient Rome was reimagined on the early modern stage, and what all of this tells us about Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

    Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.

    Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.

    For updates:

    • Join our email list
    • Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod
    • Visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com

    Support the podcast:

    • Become a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone
    • Buy us a coffee
    • Bookshop.org: Since 2020, Bookshop.org has raised more than $38 million for independent bookstores. Shop our Shakespeare Anyone? storefront to find books featured on the podcast, books by our guests, and other Shakespeare-related books and gifts. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores.
    • Libro.fm: Libro.fm makes it possible to purchase audiobooks through your local bookshop of choice. Use our link for 2 free audiobooks when you sign up for a new Libro.fm membership using our link.

    Find additional links mentioned in the episode in our Linktree.

    Works referenced:

    Cox Jensen, Freyja. Reading the Roman Republic in Early Modern England. Brill, 2012.
    Show More Show Less
    56 mins
  • Mini: Ecological Shakespeare with Katherine Steele Brokaw

    Mini: Ecological Shakespeare with Katherine Steele Brokaw
    Apr 8 2026

    Want to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you.

    In anticipation of Earth Day and Shakespeare's birthday later this month, in this episode, we are joined by Katherine (Katie) Steele Brokaw to discuss how Shakespeare can be used as a tool to create conversations around ecological issues that impact our communities. We discuss how Shakespeare is already well-positioned to be used as an eco-playwright, why it is important to utilize his plays to speak to our current moment, and how theatremakers and educators can incorporate ecological practices into their productions and readings of Shakespeare's plays.

    About Katherine Steele Brokaw

    Katherine Steele Brokaw is a Professor of English at University of Texas at Austin and the Director of Shakespeare at Winedale at UT. Her work focuses primarily on the production and study of Shakespearean performance, with a special interest in how modern productions can be used to highlight ecological issues. She is the author of Staging Harmony: Music and Religious Change in Late Medieval and Early English Drama and Shakespeare and Community Performance and she is co-author, with Elizabeth Freestone, of Performing Shakespeare on an Endangered Planet. She was the co-founding artistic director of Shakespeare in Yosemite, where she adapted and directed eight productions.

    Resources mentioned in the episode:

    • The EarthShakes Alliance
    • Shakespeare in Yosemite's Romeo and Juliet
    • Globe4Globe presentations via EarthShakes Alliance's Youtube

    Want to hear more about how Shakespeare's world was impacted by climate issues? Check our our episode A Midsummer Night's Dream: Shakespeare & Climate Change with Sydney Schwindt.

    Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.

    Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.

    For updates:

    • Join our email list
    • Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod
    • Visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com

    Support the podcast:

    • Become a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone
    • Buy us a coffee
    • Bookshop.org: Since 2020, Bookshop.org has raised more than $38 million for independent bookstores. Shop our Shakespeare Anyone? storefront to find books featured on the podcast, books by our guests, and other Shakespeare-related books and gifts. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores.
    • Libro.fm: Libro.fm makes it possible to purchase audiobooks through your local bookshop of choice. Use our link for 2 free audiobooks when you sign up for a new Libro.fm membership using our link.

    Find additional links mentioned in the episode in our Linktree.
    Show More Show Less
    37 mins
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