About Clear Shakespeare
Reading and watching William Shakespeare’s plays shouldn’t make you feel stupid. But the 400 years between when they were written and today have put up barriers of culture and language that make it hard to read or watch them clean. People (alive and dead) are always telling you what to think about these plays instead of just letting you engage them yourself.
Clear Shakespeare is a podcast that tries to get you closer to Shakespeare’s plays, so that you can have your own honest opinion of them. Its goal is to let you love or hate them on their own terms, not on anybody else’s. Forget discussing vague themes – I’ll take you through the plays word by word, giving you meanings, language tricks and cultural or historical background when you need them. This is a read-along podcast, so you should follow along, talk back and disagree as you see fit. Each play will be split into several podcast episodes, with one new play added every few months.
Clear Shakespeare is for people who are reading Shakespeare’s plays for the first time, and want to know what the hell is going on. It’s for people who are reading them for the hundredth time, and want to get closer to the text. It’s for actors and directors working on the plays who want to bring a new energy to the millionth production. It’s for people who think they love the plays and for people who think they hate them. If you want to (or have to) read or watch William Shakespeare’s plays, Clear Shakespeare is for you.
About Akiva Fox
I read Hamlet when I was 15 years old, and I’ve been stuck with Shakespeare ever since. I studied his plays at the University of Pennsylvania, and started a group to perform them. Then I went to grad school at the American Repertory Theater Institute, where I kept working on those plays. It all culminated in six seasons as the Literary Manager at the Shakespeare Theatre Company, where I worked with actors and directors to stage a few dozen productions of those same plays. Now I live in sunny North Carolina, where I co-run a company called Bulldog. I support myself with editing and with game show winnings, and making Clear Shakespeare for you is my idea of fun.
If you’d like me to speak at your school or other organization, you can email me at akivafox(at)clearshakespeare(dot)com.