Speaking of Shakespeare
Conversations about things Shakespearean, including new developments in Shakespeare studies and Shakespearean performance and education across the globe. These talks are also available on YouTube under the search term, 'Speaking of Shakespeare'. This series is made possible by institutional support from Aoyama Gakuin University (AGU) in central Tokyo and is also supported by a generous grant from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).
Speaking of Shakespeare
SoS # 61 | James Shapiro: The Playbook
Thomas Dabbs again speaks with James Shapiro of Columbia University, this time about his recent book entitled: ‘The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War.’
[SEGMENTS]
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:20 - ‘The Playbook’ and Shakespeare in America
00:04:17 - The Federal Theater (1935-39)
00:07:22 - Hallie Flanagan and the Federal Theater
00:13:02 - Martin Dies and the conservative playbook
00:18:50 - The American culture war
00:20:05 - Beginnings of the Federal Theater
00:23:50 - A lost and found research archive
00:25:10 - Is Christopher Marlowe a communist?
00:31:35 - Race and Macbeth
00:36:50 - Criticism from the left of the left
00:39:25 - The death of innovation, the playbook redux
00:47:40 - The life of Othello in America