It. Has. Come. Down. To. This. RSC co-artistic director Austin Tichenor is joined by actors, directors, coaches, and Shakespeareans DeeDee Batteast, Elizabeth Dennehy, Gregory Linington, and director/mathemagician Nate Cohen to decide Shakespeare's Best Character in our (mostly) annual Ides of March Madness tournament. The distinguished panel reveals unexpected seeding for some characters fans won't see coming; some heart-stopping upsets; how the depth of some characters compares to the breadth of others; the kind of Rosalind we’re all dying to see; how Nate gamed out the entire season to arrive at this field of 64; threading the needle of Best vs. Great vs. Favorite; how some lesser-known characters punch above their recognition level; which character gets (appropriately enough) voted off the island in the first round; a bold approach to Shylock; and a Sweet Sixteen of undeniable greatness that will compete resolutely when our tournament concludes next week. #EdmundWasRight (Length 1:28:58)

William Sutton has memorized all of Shakespeare’s sonnets so you don’t have to, and created ILoveShakespeare.com (above), an online collection and examination of all 154 of Shakespeare’s sonnets organized by themes of Love, Death, Nature, Pain, and Time. Will is an actor, educator, and alumnus of The Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon, and reveals the possibly real reason Shakespeare wrote exactly 154 sonnets; how he mastered Elizabethan English by learning and speaking the sonnets; how you too can join the pantheon of actors who’ve come before us; how Shakespeare's words are only the beginning; that time he was invited to recite a sonnet at Shakespeare's gravesite; how he was able to pluck from memory Sonnet 138; and the way in which a self-described ‘bear of very little brain’ has come to understand not only Shakespeare’s sonnets, but his plays. (Length 22:19)

The Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation, one of the UK’s oldest cultural education charities, hosts the annual Shakespeare Schools Festival, which gives young people the confidence and skills to succeed in life by using the unique power of Shakespeare to transform lives. Mike Tucker, the head of the Foundation, discusses how they demystify Shakespeare (for teachers and students alike) by removing him from his pedestal; how the process of creating theater creates essential life skills; the importance of failing and learning you are more than your mistakes; the necessity of understanding that the value is in the process, not the product; and how the rehearsal room is not a luxury, it’s a training-ground for democracy. (Length 22:18)