Hamlet to Hamilton: Exploring Verse Drama – Détails, épisodes et analyse

It's our season finale, y'all!...Kinda. Today, we cover plays between Kind Edward to Queen Elizabeth I, as we wrap up the season on this feed, before finishing our season properly on the Beyond Shakespeare Company podcast.

Big thanks to Rob Crighton of Beyond Shakes for guiding us through this season. We're excited to share the remainder of the season (including the introduction of blank verse, iambic pentameter, and prose!) on the Beyond Shakes Podcast feed.

http://www.hamlettohamilton.com

http://www.beyondshakespeare.org

Welcome to our penultimate episode of Season Four, as we continue our journey through Anglophone verse drama. Today, our H2H hosts Emily and Colin, joined by Rob Crighton of the Beyond Shakespeare Company, get a little silly and imagine muppets performing the flurry of fragments from the 1550's.

Make sure you're subscribed to the Beyond Shakespeare Company Podcast feed to continue the second half of our season, as we look at the first iambic pentameter and blank verse plays, as well as the first "prose" plays in English. (Episodes on the BSC Podcast starting August 2024)

http://www.hamlettohamilton.com

http://www.beyondshakespeare.org

Welcome to the long-awaited Season 4 of "Hamlet to Hamilton!" This season, we're joined by Robert Crighton of the Beyond Shakespeare Company. Rob will be our guide through the earliest English verse drama, as hosts Emily C. A. Snyder and Colin Kovarik try out scenes from morality plays and mystery cycles and see just how we got from some highly stylized rhyming drama to the blank verse we know and love today.

Hamlet to Hamilton: Website

Beyond Shakespeare Company: Website

Playwright Monica Cross is back, chatting about some of the tricks and tips she uses as a neurodivergent person when sitting down to write (and rewrite) her verse drama.

CONTENT WARNING: Monica and Emily do (gently) discuss the script formatting and Monica's direction of Sarah Kane's play, 4:48 Psychosis, a brilliant contemporary verse play which does deal with mental trauma and suicidality. These are mentioned only insofar as they relate to the play.

Make sure to check out Monica's previous interview: S3 E13: Monica Cross Discusses Line Endings!

Monica Cross Online: https://monicaatcross.wixsite.com/theroaringgirl

Monica Cross Twitter: https://twitter.com/theroaringgirl

Monica Cross on New Play Exchange: https://newplayexchange.org/users/1040/monica-cross

Website: hamlettohamilton.com

Patreon: patreon.com/hamlettohamilton

For Shakespeare's Birthday, we're kicking off a mini-season of interviews before we dive into Season Four. Let us introduce you to Kyle J. McCloskey (He/They), a two-time recipient of the Paula Vogel Prize from the Kennedy Center, here to chat with us about Paula Vogel's concepts of plasticity, as well as how soliloquies can be powerful political tools.

Official Website: https://www.kylejmccloskey.com/

New Play Exchange: https://newplayexchange.org/users/576/kyle-j-mccloskey

Paul Vogel Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLqM2xXYbzU

Sometimes art really does come Velveteen Rabbit-alive.  In February 2023, Mary Baldwin University gave the Virginia Premiere of Emily C. A. Snyder's Cupid and Psyche.  Here's Emily's reflection on what it was like to let her artistic baby go, and what it's like to see art grow up and become alive.  

Please Note: What follows is said with all love and respect to anyone who has ever born, lost, or gestated a child in their body.  Metaphors are imperfect.  Experiences grope for words.  Thank you for understanding.

We're at our Season 3 finale!  Looking at how to use poetic imagery and poetic techniques to enhance your verse drama...or to ruin it.  (Bless you T. S. Eliot, for showing us what not to do.)  We're looking at how Shakespeare succeeds (Antony and Cleopatra) and fails (Romeo and Juliet) at using poetic imagery, as well as how T. S. Eliot uses poetic techniques well in his poetry (Four Quartets)...aaaaand not so well in his plays (The Cocktail Party).  PLUS!  You get to hear Emily laugh for a full minute, before attempting her version of a very posh British accent for good old Eliot's work.

Up next, we're going to be offering you various interviews from contemporary verse dramatists, before we jump into Season 4, which will look at the evolution of the history of Anglophone verse drama from the Medieval Ages through to the closing of the theatres in the 1640's.  That's in conjunction with the brilliant Beyond Shakespeare Company podcast, so check them out while you're waiting for S4 to drop!

Website: http://www.hamlettohamilton.com

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/hamlettohamilton

It's a new year and a new Unhinged Rant!  We're returning to T. S. Eliot, looking at his poetry in The Cocktail Party vs. Four Quartets.  The cool thing is Eliot always sounds like Eliot.  The cooler thing is that Ralph Fiennes performed Four Quartets (a poetry cycle) on the English stage in 2021.  The weird thing is that Fiennes' works...and The Cocktail Party doesn't.  What's going on with poetry on-stage anyway?

UNHINGED RANTS are Patreon-only monthly exclusives.  We're unlocking this one for you, dear listeners.  Like what you hear?  Come join us over on patreon.com/hamlettohamilton!

(Listen on Patreon)

We close out our exploration of creating character through line breaks by looking at Sir Gawain from The Table Round and The Siege Perilous by our own Emily C. A. Snyder.  We're breaking down how a character can go from complete end-stopped thoughts, to open-ended insecurity, as well as how caesura and broken lines can define a character's arc.  Strap in as we look at one character...and then tell us how you're using line endings, caesura and schwumpf in your own work!

PLEASE NOTE: Sir Gawain suffers sexual coersion and two of his speeches touch briefly on his feelings as he puzzles out what he experienced.  These are flagged during the episode, so that the listener can skip if they prefer.

Read the texts: http://www.hamlettohamilton.com/s3e15.html

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/hamlettohamilton

Let's look at some hyper contemporary verse to see how line endings are used in some Broadway and Off-Broadway plays.  We're delving into Lucas Hnath's A Doll House, Pt. 2 and Jeremy O. Harris' Slave Play to see how enjambment and end stopped lines work when we're not in iambic pentameter.  

(Note: Fear not! Although Slave Play contains difficult material, there is no content warning for this episode as the portion quoted is a neutral and not charged speech.  Phew!)

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/hamlettohamilton

Website: http://www.hamlettohamilton.com