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That Shakespeare Life

That Shakespeare Life

By: Cassidy Cash
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 Hosted by Cassidy Cash, That Shakespeare Life takes you behind the curtain and into the real life of William Shakespeare.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cassidy Cash Social Sciences World
Episodes
  • Wine and Winemaking in Shakespeare’s England

    Wine and Winemaking in Shakespeare’s England
    Jun 23 2025

    While Shakespeare’s plays are filled with references to ale and sack, wine played a central role in both the economy and social customs of Renaissance England. In this episode, we uncork the history of winemaking in Shakespeare’s lifetime—what kinds of grapes were grown, how wine was stored and served, and why a cold snap in the 1500s forever changed England’s vineyards. Our guest, winemaker and historian Stephen Franzoi, joins us to explore the world of Elizabethan viticulture and what Shakespeare himself might have been sipping.


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    34 mins
  • History Behind Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

    History Behind Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
    Jun 16 2025
    “Romeo and Juliet” may be Shakespeare’s most famous love story—but it wasn’t entirely his own. Long before the Bard set quill to page, a tale of star-crossed lovers was already circulating in Europe. In this episode, we’re joined by filmmaker Timothy Scott Bogart, director of the new musical film Juliet & Romeo, which reimagines the lovers’ story in its earlier, 13th-century context. Together, we explore the poems, legends, and historical figures that shaped the world Shakespeare would later dramatize, and discuss how the shifting timeline—from medieval Italy to Renaissance England—changes the story we think we know.

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    31 mins
  • Puppets Offering a Window into Shakespeare History

    Puppets Offering a Window into Shakespeare History
    Jun 9 2025
    Shakespeare wrote his play Hamlet in the early 1600s and by the late 1600s, well after the death of William Shakespeare in 1616, playing troupes are taking plays including Shakespeare’s Hamlet and other works by early modern playwrights, and turning them into performance adaptations using a new medium---specifically, they’re using puppets. Puppetry, marionettes, and glove puppets perform miniature versions of their human like counterparts as a popular form of theater entertainment for the 17th century. Our guest this week, Tiffany Stern, recently gave a lecture at the University of Birmingham, outlining how the examination of these puppet performances and how exploring the puppets themselves, like one that survives from the 17th century puppet named Amleto, suspiciously similar to the name Hamlet, can not only shed light on stereotypes that carry over from Shakespeare’s lifetime, but these puppets also influence how we understand what it means to be a storyteller.

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    30 mins
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