No Holds Bard

No Holds Bard is an American podcast hosted by Dan Beaulieu and Kevin Condardo, the co-founder/artistic director and managing director of Seven Stages Shakespeare Company in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Format

Word of the Week

Before each regular episode, Dan chooses a Word of the Week. This is a Shakespearean word that May Be confusing to an average listener. Dan defines the word, gives an example of it in a sentence, and then tries to use it during the episode without Kevin realizing. At the end of the episode, Kevin attempts to guess what the Word of the Week was.

Duel

The regular episodes include a segment where Dan and Kevin answer three quick questions at The Intersection of Shakespeare and the present day. These are usually listener-submitted questions, though they are occasionally submitted by Dan or Kevin. Episodes #34 and #60 were best of compilations of previous Duel questions.

Previous Duel questions have been:

• With the legalization of same-[...] marriage in the United States, what two characters in the canon would be most excited by this news?
• We are in the age of celebrity branding. Which character would make the best company spokesperson, and what product would they endorse?
• To celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, the Royal Mail launched a set of stamps featuring iconic Shakespeare quotes. What quote from the canon is most fitting for a stamp?

For certain questions, a lightning round is triggered wherein Dan and Kevin give as many answers to the question as possible within a single minute (e.g. Shakespearean cocktails).

Homework

During the regular episodes, Dan and Kevin answer a Shakespearean homework question usually found on Yahoo! Answers or Reddit, or submitted directly to them.

Previous homework questions have been:

• I need to write an 800 word script that fills a gap within the plot of A Midsummer Night's Dream. What are some gaps I could write AbOUT?
• Does Caliban deserve to rule the island at the end of The Tempest?
• In Julius Caesar, how is Mark Antony's funeral speech more personal than Brutus' speech?

Everyday Shakes

The final segment of regular episodes is Everyday Shakes. Dan and Kevin select a Shakespearean quote, or a portion of a quote, and after reading it in context, examine how it can be used in contemporary conversations. The quote they choose is used for the episode's title.

So You're Going to See Shakespeare

Once a month, in place of a regular episode, they release a "So You're Going to See Shakespeare" feature. During the episode Dan and Kevin give a plot summary of the play, discussing where it falls in Shakespeare's personal timeline and what was happening in the world at that time. The breakdown includes identifying a prominent theme in the play, picking which non-title character they would most like to portray in a production, analyzing a quote from the play, and highlighting the biggest practical challenge for a director (usually a stage direction).

The current list of already-discussed plays are:

• The Tempest (Episode #15)
• Macbeth (Episode #19)
• Pericles (Episode #23)
• The Winter's Tale (Episode #27)
• The Two Noble Kinsmen (Episode #32)
• All's Well That Ends Well (Episode #36)
• A Midsummer Night's Dream (Episode #40)
• Romeo and Juliet (Episode #45)
• The Taming of the Shrew (Episode #49)
• Love's Labour's Lost (Episode #53)
• Troilus and Cressida (Episode #58)
• As You Like It (Episode #62)
• Othello (Episode #67)
• King Lear (Episode #71)
• The Merchant of Venice (Episode #75)
• Twelfth Night (Episode #79)

Wildcard

On the last week of every month they release a "Wildcard" episode. Originally, the episode just had to "be better than nothing," which was then changed to be "but so so" (an allusion to Episode #52: "It is but so so"). A common theme among Wildcard episodes is drafting Shakespeare's characters into different fantasy sports within a fictional high school, Shakespeare High. Expanding on that idea, they also cast a fantasy production of 1776 (MusicAL).

Episodes

Reception

NPR featured The Shakespearean Hockey League episode on their podcast aggregator, earbud.fm. "Dan Beaulieu and Kevin Condardo, two smart-aleck Bostonian theater guys now living in NYC, love Shakespeare. They also love sports. In this episode, they draft a fantasy hockey league based on Shakespeare — and it's the perfect amount of absurd."

CBC Radio featured the Shakespeare League Baseball episode on their recommended podcast playlist.

External links

• http://www.7stagesshakespeare.org/no-holds-bard-podcast