What is it like to create a Shakespeare play that's never been written—and will never be performed again? The Improvised Shakespeare Company is a long-running ensemble that performs entirely unscripted plays in the style of Shakespeare. Founded in Chicago in 2005, the company has spent two decades building a devoted following through performances in the United States and internationally.

In this episode, Blaine Swen, the company's founder, and Ross Bryant discuss how their performances take shape in real time, beginning with a single audience-suggested title and unfolding into a full-length play that will never be repeated. Drawing on techniques from long-form improvisation and a deep familiarity with Shakespeare's language, structure, and themes, the ensemble creates stories that balance poetry, comedy, spontaneity, and lots of fun.

They reflect on what makes Shakespeare particularly well-suited to improv, from his larger-than-life characters and emotional intensity to the flexibility of his language and cultural references. They also explore the mechanics of their process—how they listen, build on each other's ideas, and embrace mistakes as opportunities—and why committing fully to the moment often leads to the most surprising and meaningful results.

From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published April 7, 2026. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Technical support was provided by Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Web production was handled by Paola García Acuña. Transcripts are edited by Leonor Fernandez. Final mixing services were provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.

Ross Bryant is a writer/performer from North Carolina. Ross is a performer on Dropout.tv and can be seen regularly at the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theater in Los Angeles. Ross also tours the country and performs monthly at The Largo in LA with The Improvised Shakespeare Company. Ross began performing in Chicago where was a member of the resident cast of The Second City Mainstage. Ross is a writer for Mystery Science Theater 3000, and has co-written original television pilots for Pop TV, Warner Bros and the Showtime network. TV credits include The Good Place (NBC), Crashing (HBO), and I Think You Should Leave (Netflix). Ross also the host of the horror/comedy/improv podcast Push the Roll with Ross Bryant. Instagram: @rossbb

Blaine Swen is the creator and director of The Improvised Shakespeare Company®. He is a writer/actor based in Nashville where you can catch him in the two-person improvised musical Erica & Blaine. Blaine also performs regularly in Chicago where the Chicago Reader named him the "Best Improviser in Chicago." His iO Chicago credits include the two-person group Blessing with Susan Messing and the one-person improvised musical BASH! Additional Chicago stage credits include Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Pegasus Players Theatre, The Back Room Shakespeare Project, and The Second City. He has appeared on Dropout.tv and has developed original pilots with NBC, Universal Cable Productions, and Pop TV. You can hear him as Arnor the Warrior on the podcast Hello, from the Magic Tavern. Blaine also has a PhD in philosophy from Loyola University, Chicago. Instagram: @blaine_swen

Known to many as Lady Danbury in Netflix's Bridgerton, Adjoa Andoh, MBE, is also a celebrated Shakespearean actor and director.

Across her career, Andoh has returned to Shakespeare not as a fixed canon, but as a space for reimagining power, identity, and belonging. Her landmark Richard II at Shakespeare's Globe, created with the UK's first all-women-of-color company, reexamined ideas of nationhood and empire following Brexit, asking who gets to claim the story of England and how those stories are constructed.

In this episode, Andoh reflects on Shakespeare as a profoundly human writer, exploring how vulnerability, love, and damage shape even his most complex characters. Rather than presenting the plays as distant or elite, she invites us to experience them as living conversations—stories that challenge us to shift perspective and see both the stage and the world more expansively.

During her Director's residency at the Folger, Andoh will lead a series of public programs, bringing her distinctive approach to Shakespeare to Folger audiences.

From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published March 24, 2026. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica, with Garland Scott serving as executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Technical support was provided by Ati Pikal in London, England, and Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Web production was handled by Paola García Acuña. Transcripts are edited by Leonor Fernandez. Final mixing services were provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.

Many readers turn to Shakespeare for the beauty of his language or the power of his stories. But in Thinking Through Shakespeare, Oxford scholar David Womersley suggests that the plays offer something else as well: a way of exploring some of the deepest questions about human life.

Womersley looks at tragedies like Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear to show how Shakespeare places audiences inside difficult moral and philosophical problems. The plays raise questions about identity, power, and the tension between doing what is right and doing what is personally advantageous. Rather than presenting clear answers, Shakespeare lets these ideas collide on stage.

In this episode, Womersley explains how Shakespeare's plays become what he calls "crucibles" for thinking. As characters struggle with competing values and impossible choices, audiences go on that journey with them—testing ideas, reconsidering assumptions, and confronting the same enduring dilemmas that have shaped human thought for centuries.