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Shakespeare's Shadows

Shakespeare's Shadows

Written by: Emily Rome
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About this listen

 Featuring interviews with both actors and academics, Shakespeare’s Shadows delves into a single Shakespeare character in each episode. Perspectives from the worlds of academia, theater, and film together shape explorations of the Bard’s shadows, his imitations of life — pretty good imitations, ones that reveal enough of ourselves that we’re still talking about them four centuries later.Emily Rome 2017 Art Entertainment & Performing Arts
Episodes
  • BONUS: ‘Dickinson’ — Shakespeare Club in the Apple TV series

    BONUS: ‘Dickinson’ — Shakespeare Club in the Apple TV series
    Dec 11 2025

    William Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson — both are frequently declared to be among the very best writers in the English language. And now, for Dickinson’s 195th birthday, the time has come to delve into both iconic poets on Shakespeare’s Shadows.

    This bonus episode spotlights the Peabody Award-winning Apple TV series “Dickinson,” particularly looking back at the series’ fifth episode, when Emily and her siblings host Shakespeare Club. Emily (played by Hailee Steinfeld) chooses “Othello” for the club’s latest gathering. The play ends up being a contentious choice for these young people growing up in the years approaching the American Civil War, a launchpad for “Dickinson” to explore questions of privilege and identity.

    Featuring interviews with “Dickinson” alums from both behind and in front of the camera, we discuss how the series’ writers packed so much into that one episode of the show, their memories from making that special episode including one fabulous montage dripping with Shakespearean Easter eggs, and why fans of Shakespeare should spend more time with Emily Dickinson’s poetry.

    Guests on this episode are:

    • Alena Smith (she/her), creator and showrunner of “Dickinson,” which was released on Apple TV from 2019 to 2021. She holds an MFA in playwriting from the Yale School of Drama. Among her published plays are “The New Splendid,” “The Bad Guys,” and “Plucker.” Currently she is an executive producer and writer on FX’s upcoming limited series “Cry Wolf.”

    • Adrian Blake Enscoe (he/they), who plays Emily Dickinson’s brother, Austin, in “Dickinson.” Adrian was in the Broadway original cast of the musical “Swept Away.” They are a member of the folk-pop-americana trio Bandits on the Run, which released their latest EP, “The Shakespeare Tapes,” in May 2025.

    Also appearing in this bonus episode is poet, actor, and teaching artist Melissa Lauricella Bergstrom reading the Dickinson poem “I am afraid to own a Body,” the poem that inspired the title of the Shakespeare Club “Dickinson” episode.

    This episode contains explicit language and discussion of racism and slavery.
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    1 hr and 1 min
  • BONUS: Bandits on the Run’s ‘The Shakespeare Tapes’

    BONUS: Bandits on the Run’s ‘The Shakespeare Tapes’
    May 2 2025
    Shakespeare’s words from "As You Like It" and "Twelfth Night" get a catchy, folkish musical treatment on "The Shakespeare Tapes," a new EP by folk-pop-americana trio Bandits on the Run. The Brooklyn-based group’s three band members — Adrian Blake Enscoe (he/they), Sydney Shepherd (she/her), and Regina Stayhorn (she/her) — join Shakespeare’s Shadows for this bonus episode to talk about the forthcoming EP, which has one single, “Tiny Boy,” out now. Bandits on the Run originally composed the EP’s six songs for a 2022 production of "As You Like It" directed by Peter Andersen at Carnegie Mellon University. The band chatted with Shakespeare’s Shadows host Emily Rome about leaning into As You Like It’s themes of gender and self-discovery with this music, about performing the songs on tour, and why recording this in Nashville felt “actively defiant.” Currently Bandits on the Run are working on the stage musical adaptation of "What’s Eating Gilbert Grape," and they will be on tour across the U.S. this summer. Among the band members’ past work: Sydney has played such roles as Lizzie Borden in the musical Lizzie and Viola in the "Twelfth Night" musical adaptation "Illyria," Regina has performed Off-Broadway at the Secret Theatre and Lincoln Center, and Adrian starred in Broadway musical "Swept Away" and Apple TV+ series "Dickinson."
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    32 mins
  • BONUS: Lauren Gunderson & Kaja Dunn on ‘A Room in the Castle’

    BONUS: Lauren Gunderson & Kaja Dunn on ‘A Room in the Castle’
    Mar 29 2025
    What does it take for a woman to survive in Elsinore? What would Ophelia and Gertrude tell us — if only they got anywhere close to the number of lines Shakespeare gives Hamlet? This and more is explored in new play "A Room in the Castle," which gives the women of Hamlet their time to shine. A co-production of the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and the Folger Shakespeare Library, "A Room in the Castle" is in the midst of its world premiere, onstage at the Folger through April 6. "A Room in the Castle" director Kaja Dunn and playwright Lauren Gunderson join Shakespeare’s Shadows for a bonus episode delving into the origins of this satisfying new play, the significance of who gets to have soliloquies, and what happens when women are labeled “mad” — plus, we also take some time to discuss Lauren Gunderson’s new adaptation of "Little Women." Guests on this episode are: • Kaja Dunn (she/her), whose directing credits include previous productions at the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Old Globe, and Cape Fear Regional Theatre. Her work as an intimacy professional includes productions at the Folger and "A Strange Loop" on Broadway. She is an associate professor at Carnegie Melon University. • Lauren Gunderson (she/her) has repeatedly been among the most-produced playwrights in the U.S., topping the list (which excludes Shakespeare) thrice over the past decade. Her writing credits include the plays "I and You," "Silent Sky," the Pemberley trilogy, and "The Book of Will."
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    48 mins
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