Don’t Listen to Yoda - a conversation with YA author Mark Benson

Yes And: Looking Behind the Curtain with David Weber

Have you ever wondered how a production goes from concept to performance? Join me as I speak to actor, writer, professor, and director David Weber about the difficulties of choosing a show, casting a show, funding a show, and directing a show. There is so much we, the audience, don’t see and we’ll get a peak behind the curtain! We’ll also discuss the encompassing nature of theater and the importance of having a mentor and where to find one.  The Tempest opens at Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park June 11th and runs through the 28th. You are not going to want to miss this production or supporting these amazing actors. Also, this is your friendly neighborhood-shrew reminder that there are ways to get free or discounted tickets to many a theater so, if you think you can’t possibly afford it, you can!! Go here [https://www.okshakes.org/buy-tickets]for information about discount opportunities at OSP.  Synopsis (credit to OSP) Exiled sorcerer Prospero conjures a mighty storm to bring his usurping brother to the shores of his enchanted island. There, spirits, lovers, clowns, and conspirators collide in a world shaped by illusion and desire. As Miranda and Ferdinand discover first love, Ariel yearns for freedom, and Caliban plots rebellion, Prospero must choose between vengeance and forgiveness. Shakespeare’s final solo play weaves together magic, mischief, and reconciliation, guiding audiences toward a luminous ending where old wounds heal and new futures emerge. The arts are under attack, and buying theater tickets and books is a great way to show your support and fight back.  Buy Tickets for OSP’s: The Tempest  [https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/the-tempest-4802631] PLEASE SUBSCRIBE! ⁠www.theshakespeareanshrew.com⁠ [http://www.theshakespeareanshrew.com/]  https://www.youtube.com/@ShakespeareanShrew  Please follow us on Instagram: @theshakespeareanshrew TikTok: @theshakespeareanshrew The new season of shows for OSP is available ⁠here!⁠ [https://www.okshakes.org/]  Please donate to OSP: ⁠https://www.okshakes.org/donate⁠ [https://www.okshakes.org/donate]  Thank you for listening! Host/Shakespearean Shrew: Karen Feiner Co-Creator/Brew Shrew: Michelle Coffman Cover Art Creator/Artistic Shrew: Katie Kimberling ⁠⁠⁠www.halfmaverick.com⁠⁠⁠ [about:blank] Intro/Outro Music: “Tangled”  by Nihilore: Creative Commons Music Thank you to our guest: David Weber David Weber is a member of the National Alliance of Acting Teachers, Michael Chekhov Association, Actor’s Equity Association and has an MFA in Acting and Theatre Pedagogy from California State University Long Beach where he studied acting pedagogy under the direction of Alexandra Billings, Hugh O’Gorman, Ezra LeBank, Dr. Shanti Pillai, and Andrea Caban.  In 2025 he was recognized as “Best Director” for Complete Works of William Shakespeare produced by Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park from Broadway World Regional Theatre Awards, and he was listed as one of the Top Ten Actors in Atlanta by The Sunday Paper for his work in Terrence McNally’s A Perfect Ganesh.  Recipient of the Chicago Bar Association Award at The University of Illinois at Chicago 2013, he also received his BFA in Performance under the direction and mentorship of Yasen Peyankov, Tanara Marshal, Luigi Salerni, Jason Martin, Derrick Sanders, Richard Corley and Paola Coletto.  He is currently directing The Tempest for Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park and is part of the theatre faculty at Oklahoma State University as Assistant Professor of Performance.  He will take his one man Christmas Carol, “An Actor’s Carol: One clown’s Dickensian marathon towards redemption” on tour for its 6th year touring Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York.

Wuv, Twue Wuv with Miriam Eleanor Worley and Dalten Hall

Did Shakespeare actually write a couple that isn’t a dumpster fire? Miriam Worley and Dalten Hall are very convincing in their depiction of opposites-attract lovers Miranda and Ferdinand in OSP’s upcoming production of The Tempest. We dig into how to build chemistry on the stage and how, sometimes, bonding is as easy as complimenting a water bottle. Join us as we get amazing insights into these characters, the play as a whole, and perhaps a view of Shakespeare at the end of his career through the lens of Prospero and his relationship with the other characters in the play. Make sure you listen until the end for some amazing advice from Miriam as she prepares to head to LA after graduating from OU and Dalten as he prepares for his senior year at UCO and grad school. The Tempest opens June 11th and runs through the 28th. You are not going to want to miss this production or supporting these amazing actors.  Synopsis (credit to OSP) Exiled sorcerer Prospero conjures a mighty storm to bring his usurping brother to the shores of his enchanted island. There, spirits, lovers, clowns, and conspirators collide in a world shaped by illusion and desire. As Miranda and Ferdinand discover first love, Ariel yearns for freedom, and Caliban plots rebellion, Prospero must choose between vengeance and forgiveness. Shakespeare’s final solo play weaves together magic, mischief, and reconciliation, guiding audiences toward a luminous ending where old wounds heal and new futures emerge. The arts are under attack, and buying theater tickets and books is a great way to show your support and fight back.  Buy Tickets for OSP’s: The Tempest  [https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/the-tempest-4802631] PLEASE SUBSCRIBE! ⁠www.theshakespeareanshrew.com⁠ [http://www.theshakespeareanshrew.com/]  https://www.youtube.com/@ShakespeareanShrew  Please follow us on Instagram: @theshakespeareanshrew TikTok: @theshakespeareanshrew The new season of shows for OSP is available ⁠here!⁠ [https://www.okshakes.org/]  Please donate to OSP: ⁠https://www.okshakes.org/donate⁠ [https://www.okshakes.org/donate]  Thank you for listening! Host/Shakespearean Shrew: Karen Feiner Co-Creator/Brew Shrew: Michelle Coffman Cover Art Creator/Artistic Shrew: Katie Kimberling ⁠⁠⁠www.halfmaverick.com⁠⁠⁠ [about:blank] Intro/Outro Music: “Tangled”  by Nihilore: Creative Commons Music Thank you to our guests: Miriam Eleanor Worley and Dalten Hall  Miriam Eleanor Worley (she/her) graduated with her BFA in Acting from the University of Oklahoma in May, where she was named the Van Heflin Award recipient, the Drama program's award for an outstanding senior. She is thrilled to be making her debut with Oklahoma Shakespeare following that accomplishment! Recent OU credits include: Body Awareness (Joyce), Waiting for Lefty (Florence), and The Realistic Joneses (Pony). She recently traveled to Austin, TX, for a featured role in the upcoming feature film, Dead Calm: The Movie! She is thankful to her family back in Philadelphia for their support of her dreams and to her professors at OU for instilling in her the confidence and competence to take on her first Shakespeare project and the professional world. Dalten Hall is currently portraying Prince Ferdinand in The Tempest at Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park. He is a senior theatre major at the University of Central Oklahoma, and a long term Shakespeare fanatic. He believes everyone should come and see The Tempest if they can!

Calling All Readers! Joining the Romantic Movement with playwright and director Erin Woods and actors Charli Mai Henn and Jimmy Pike

Romance is having a moment – and OSP is joining the ranks. Join the Brew Shrew, Michelle Coffman, as she returns to OSP to talk with Erin, Charli, and Jimmy about a brand new production How To Write A Regency Romance. They will be talking about what it means for the cast and audience  to “choose your own journey” and how this play will tell a story of a story. The actors talk about how this play as a reading is SLIGHTLY less terrifying as there is a prospect of many different routes that the play might take - what happens when the audience takes control and the actors must play it “as they like it”? They will talk about experimental theater and the importance of interaction between actors and audience.  Buy Tickets for OSP’s: How to Write a Regency Romance [https://www.okshakes.org/play-reading-series#regencyromance] PLEASE SUBSCRIBE! ⁠www.theshakespeareanshrew.com⁠ [http://www.theshakespeareanshrew.com/]  https://www.youtube.com/@ShakespeareanShrew  Please follow us on Instagram: @theshakespeareanshrew TikTok: @theshakespeareanshrew The new season of shows for OSP is available ⁠here!⁠ [https://www.okshakes.org/]  Please donate to OSP: ⁠https://www.okshakes.org/donate⁠ [https://www.okshakes.org/donate]  Thank you for listening! Host/Shakespearean Shrew: Karen Feiner Co-Creator/Brew Shrew: Michelle Coffman Cover Art Creator/Artistic Shrew: Katie Kimberling ⁠⁠⁠www.halfmaverick.com⁠⁠⁠ [about:blank] Intro/Outro Music: “Tangled”  by Nihilore: Creative Commons Music Thank you to our guests: Erin Woods, Charli Mai Henn, and Jimmy Pike Erin Woods is a director, playwright, actress, and graphic designer with over 25 years’ experience in Oklahoma Theatre and beyond. Directing credits include Art for Oklahoma City Theatre Company, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Uncle Vanya for Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park, and Pride and Prejudice, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, Hamlet, Sense and Sensibility, Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Women, and Les Liaisons Dangereuses for Reduxion Theatre Company. As a playwright, Erin has written adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Tom Jones, and a holiday play often produced by Oklahoma Shakespeare: Jane Austen’s Christmas Cracker.  Charli Mai Henn (Millicent Gracestone) They/them. Charli is a Junior BFA Acting major with minors in Lighting and Directing at Oklahoma City University from Richardson, TX, and they are thrilled to be returning to OK Shakespeare! Recent credits include Hurricane Diane (Renee), Puffs (Megan Jones), Bellwether (Doll), Let The Right One In (Eli), June, July, August (Female Swing), & A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Slinky Boi). Enjoy the show! Jimmy Pike (Lord Henry Herbert 3rd Earl of Carnarvon, Mr. Snodgrass, Bartholomew Rudely, Him) was last seen on the garden stage in Shakespeare’s big 3 comedy M’s; Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Perhaps it’s in the cards to branch out of the alliterative alley he’s found himself in. Who’s to say? Playing teachers, preachers, and sometimes creatures, he is happy to have a home at Oklahoma Shakespeare; So happy in fact that he serves as a member of the board of directors. He is also a proud dad and an electrician.

Don’t Listen to Yoda - a conversation with YA author Mark Benson

What do you do when your superpower is writing sadness? Lean in! I had the delightful opportunity to talk with Chicagoan Mark Benson [https://www.authormarkbenson.com/aboutme] after reading his debut YA novel Isaac and the Sky [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/isaac-and-the-sky-mark-benson/1148545774]. This novel is an exploration of the stars and grief, bridging together two worlds with the  telescope of Isaac’s murdered mother. It’s a novel full of authentic and imperfect characters that will keep you wondering if Isaac and Halley can ever escape their loss or if, like a black hole, they will get sucked into it.  Mark likes Disney, NASA, talking about writing, Broadway musicals, animals, and Shakespeare - we are now best friends (he just doesn’t know it yet). We discuss NASA legends (two of whom he KNOWS) and how his life experiences have impacted his writing. In this episode, Mark gives us some important advice about writing (he’s written 12 - or maybe 13 - books–you know it’s impressive when you’ve lost count), tells us about his process (which is amazing and a method I have never heard of before), and talks about how to make important connections with other writers. Who else will understand when your characters mutiny? We discuss the publishing industry and the complexities within, which is important for every aspiring author to understand. He also explains why we should NEVER take advice from Yoda.  This is a conversation you are not going to want to miss.  The arts are under attack, and buying theater tickets and books is a great way to show your support and fight back.  Buy Isaac and the Sky [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/isaac-and-the-sky-mark-benson/1148545774] and follow Mark Benson on Instagram: waysidewriter  Buy Tickets for OSP’s: How to Write a Regency Romance [https://www.okshakes.org/play-reading-series#regencyromance] PLEASE SUBSCRIBE! ⁠www.theshakespeareanshrew.com⁠ [http://www.theshakespeareanshrew.com/]  https://www.youtube.com/@ShakespeareanShrew  Please follow us on Instagram: @theshakespeareanshrew TikTok: @theshakespeareanshrew The new season of shows for OSP is available ⁠here!⁠ [https://www.okshakes.org/]  Please donate to OSP: ⁠https://www.okshakes.org/donate⁠ [https://www.okshakes.org/donate]  Thank you for listening! Host/Shakespearean Shrew: Karen Feiner Co-Creator/Brew Shrew: Michelle Coffman Cover Art Creator/Artistic Shrew: Katie Kimberling ⁠⁠⁠www.halfmaverick.com⁠⁠⁠ [about:blank] Intro/Outro Music: “Tangled”  by Nihilore: Creative Commons Music Thank you to our guest, Mark Benson  Mark Benson grew up in Chicago’s south suburbs before heading to Marquette University, with the hopes of becoming a doctor. Turns out, he’s no good at the medical sciences.He became an English major, fell in love with writing and editing, and has been doing both ever since.  After a couple decades running the family business — the World’s Largest Laundromat in Berwyn — he decided to bet on himself: he’s now a travel advisor specializing in Disney vacations and a restaurant host. But despite multiple career paths (including as a USPTA tennis instructor and a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador), he’s always found his way back to writing. He’s passionate about emotional stories, and loves writing novels and stage plays. Check out all of his books [https://www.authormarkbenson.com/books]. Today, he lives with his wife and kids in Forest Park, Ill.

A Badass Playwright and Two Badass Actors Tell It Like It Is

Today I am joined by two amazing women: Margaret Upchurch and Naomi Love as they prepare for their upcoming performance of Aphra Behn’s The Rover. What’s it like to be the first professional female playwright? To have to make up a husband in order to have some kind of social standing? To kill off said fictional husband in the plague? Meet Aphra Behn. There are many mights and maybes surrounding the mythical Behn but the certainty is that, as Virginia Wolf said, “All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn, which is, most scandalously but rather appropriately, in Westminster Abbey, for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds.” And while I do suggest that pilgrimage, for those who would like to stay closer to home, there is no better way to pay your respects than to go support her work and the work of other women. What’s it like to be a woman in the theater industry? To face a shortage of substantive roles? To be cast not only on your performative abilities but your body type, your hair style, your height? Does this happen to men too? Of course, but today, as Aphra Behn dictates and I second, it is about the women. We talk about finding opportunity or, as Aphra Behn did, creating their own. We discuss the politics imbedded in academic institutions and the hard lessons these women have learned along their journey. We talk about taking on roles where that push them out of their typical roles and comfort zones.  Support Aphra Behn’s work - ESPECIALLY if you have never heard of her - and support these two amazing women as they grace the OSP stage as the leading ladies, Hellena, the anti-nun, and Florinda, who none of us can believe doesn’t want to become a nun by the end of the play. OSP is hosting a performed reading of Aphra Behn’s The Rover with a limited showing April 10th-12th. It’s an intimate, indoor theater so get your tickets soon! The arts are under attack, and buying tickets and books is a great way to show your support and fight back.  Buy Tickets for OSP’s: The Rover [https://www.okshakes.org/play-reading-series] PLEASE SUBSCRIBE! ⁠www.theshakespeareanshrew.com⁠ [http://www.theshakespeareanshrew.com/]  https://www.youtube.com/@ShakespeareanShrew  Please follow us on Instagram: @theshakespeareanshrew TikTok: @theshakespeareanshrew The new season of shows for OSP is available ⁠here!⁠ [https://www.okshakes.org/]  Please donate to OSP: ⁠https://www.okshakes.org/donate⁠ [https://www.okshakes.org/donate]  Thank you for listening! Host/Shakespearean Shrew: Karen Feiner Co-Creator/Brew Shrew: Michelle Coffman Cover Art Creator/Artistic Shrew: Katie Kimberling ⁠⁠⁠www.halfmaverick.com⁠⁠⁠ Intro/Outro Music: “Tangled”  by Nihilore: Creative Commons Music Thank you to our guests, Naomi Love and Margaret Upchurch NAOMI LOVE (Hellena) is excited to return to Oklahoma Shakespeare for her second performance! AT OSP: Jane Austen’s Christmas Cracker. OTHER THEATRE: A Sick Day for Amos McGee, Oklahoma Children's Theatre; Pillar of Fire, Theatre Crude Fringe Festival; Be Aggressive, Being Enough, Play in a Day, Oklahoma City University. FILM: 10 Weeks, Red Not Blue, The Ghost of Methodist Hall, Pace Yourself. ADDITIONAL CREDITS: Scare Actor, Dead Mans Crossing Haunted Attraction. Character Actor, Fairytale Balls 2024-26. She is a Junior Acting major at OCU, currently working towards a B.F.A. Follow Naomi’s acting on TikTok and IG @naomi.ie [http://naomi.ie/].love Margaret Upchurch (Florinda) is looking forward to making her Oklahoma Shakespeare debut in The Rover! She is currently a Sophomore BFA Acting student at OCU. Previous work at OCU includes When We Were Young and Unafraid (Penny, Out of the Box) and The Children’s Hour (Karen/Mary Swing, Studio Series). She would like to thank her family and friends for their consistent support and love, and God for His guidance. She hopes you enjoy the show!