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Mini: Shakespeare in the Borderlands with Dr. Katherine Gillen and Ruben Ramirez of Borderlands Shakespeare Colectiva

Shakespeare Anyone?

Release Date: 11/19/2025

Mini: Shakespeare in the Borderlands with Dr. Katherine Gillen and Ruben Ramirez of Borderlands Shakespeare Colectiva show art Mini: Shakespeare in the Borderlands with Dr. Katherine Gillen and Ruben Ramirez of Borderlands Shakespeare Colectiva

Shakespeare Anyone?

Want to support the podcast? or As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. Each year, in recognition of the National Day of Mourning/Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, we examine how British colonialism is irrevocably intertwined with Shakespeare. Over the past four years, we explored this topic through close reading of Jyotsna Singh's Shakespeare and Postcolonial Theory.  After completing our episodes on Shakespeare and Postcolonial Theory, we wanted to turn to highlighting and amplifying the work of artists, activists, and...

info_outline The Tempest: Wrap-Up show art The Tempest: Wrap-Up

Shakespeare Anyone?

Want to support the podcast? or As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In this episode, we conclude our exploration of The Tempest by examining three distinct interpretations of Shakespeare’s final solo play. We begin with Julie Taymor’s 2010 film adaptation, featuring Helen Mirren as Prospera, and reflect on the criticism of it we read about in our episode, The Tempest: Patriarchy, Gender, and Power in Shakespeare’s Play. We then turn to The Globe’s 2013 stage production, directed by Jeremy Herrin, to discuss how its traditional staging...

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Shakespeare Anyone?

Want to support the podcast? or As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In this episode, we sit down with Ana Davis to discuss her debut novel, My Keen Knife. Set in a Portugal-inspired country, My Keen Knife follows three teenagers as they strive to achieve their foretold fates.  We discuss Ana's inspirations for My Keen Knife, her writing process, and how her background in International Affairs influenced the world of her novel. We also discuss how Shakespeare's Macbeth weaves throughout the plot and the Macbeth Easter eggs she's hidden...

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Shakespeare Anyone?

Want to support the podcast? or As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In this episode, we begin by exploring how Prospero’s magic in The Tempest reflects early modern grimoire traditions—a form of ritual magic rooted in books, incantations, and precise ceremonial practice, especailly as compared to the types of magic we discussed in our Macbeth episodes. We examine how Shakespeare's depiction of Prospero's art, Prospero's relationship with Ariel, and the creation and disappearance of the masque parallel descriptions of grimoire magical...

info_outline Mini: Shakespeare for Young Audiences with ML Roberts, Sean Patrick Nill, and Elyse Sharp of B Street Theatre’s NEVER FEAR, SHAKESPEARE show art Mini: Shakespeare for Young Audiences with ML Roberts, Sean Patrick Nill, and Elyse Sharp of B Street Theatre’s NEVER FEAR, SHAKESPEARE

Shakespeare Anyone?

Want to support the podcast? or As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In this mini-episode, we sit down with actor ML Roberts and co-playwrights Sean Patrick Nill and Elyse Sharp to talk about NEVER FEAR, SHAKESPEARE—a brand new Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) play premiering at Sacramento’s B Street Theatre.  B Street is well known for its Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) programming, which brings high-quality, professional productions to children, families, and schools, making theatre accessible to the next generation. We dive into B...

info_outline The Tempest: Caliban’s Legacy of Race, Class, and Colonialism show art The Tempest: Caliban’s Legacy of Race, Class, and Colonialism

Shakespeare Anyone?

Want to support the podcast? or As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. This episode explores Caliban’s role in The Tempest and the ways his character has been shaped by and interpreted through race, class, and colonialism. We begin with a close look at “the pinch” and unpack how Shakespeare’s audience would have understood its connections to resource scarcity and punishment.  We then chart Caliban’s performance history from the 19th century to the early 1980s, revealing how shifting portrayals reflected cultural attitudes. We end...

info_outline Mini: Court Masques and How They Shaped Shakespeare’s Plays show art Mini: Court Masques and How They Shaped Shakespeare’s Plays

Shakespeare Anyone?

Want to support the podcast? or As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In this mini-episode, we explore the world of the Court Masque, a form of entertainment that flourished in the Tudor and Stuart courts. From its roots in medieval pageantry and music to its height as a vehicle for royal celebration and political display of wealth, the masque became a defining cultural event during Shakespeare's time.  While Shakespeare never wrote a Court Masque, we will explore how Ben Jonson’s Hymenaei may have influenced Shakespeare's choices for...

info_outline The Tempest: Patriarchy, Gender, and Power in Shakespeare’s Play show art The Tempest: Patriarchy, Gender, and Power in Shakespeare’s Play

Shakespeare Anyone?

Want to support the podcast? or As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In this episode, we explore how The Tempest reflects—and at times challenges—patriarchal power structures in Shakespeare’s world and in its performance history. First, we examine how Prospero’s control over Miranda, Ariel, and Caliban reflects early modern ideas and debates about gender, political authority, and service. Then, we look at how changing the gender of Prospero reshapes the play’s dynamics,  how productions across stage and screen have used gender...

info_outline Mini: Making Shakespeare Accessible with Mike and Steph Crugnola of Walking Shadow Shakespeare Project show art Mini: Making Shakespeare Accessible with Mike and Steph Crugnola of Walking Shadow Shakespeare Project

Shakespeare Anyone?

Want to support the podcast? or As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In this mini episode, we’re joined by Mike and Steph Crugnola of Walking Shadow Shakespeare Project to talk about their mission to make Shakespeare more accessible—for both audiences and artists. We dive into the company’s flexible and innovative production models—including one rehearsal performances, collaborative directing, site-specific stagings, and immersive experiences—and how these approaches open up new ways of engaging with Shakespeare’s work. Steph and Mike...

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Shakespeare Anyone?

Want to support the podcast? or As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. Did Shakespeare write The Tempest in response to a shipwreck, or was something bigger at play? In this episode, we explore the early modern travel narratives that many scholars believe inspired Shakespeare’s final solo play. We begin with lesser-known travel accounts that focus on cultural encounters in Russia, Southwest Asia, Central America, and India—narratives that shaped how early modern England imagined the world beyond Europe. Then we turn to one of the most...

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Want to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you.

Each year, in recognition of the National Day of Mourning/Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, we examine how British colonialism is irrevocably intertwined with Shakespeare. Over the past four years, we explored this topic through close reading of Jyotsna Singh's Shakespeare and Postcolonial Theory. 

After completing our episodes on Shakespeare and Postcolonial Theory, we wanted to turn to highlighting and amplifying the work of artists, activists, and scholars who are working in decolonial Shakespeares. 

In this year's episode, we are joined by Dr. Katherine Gillen and Ruben Ramirez of the Borderlands Shakespeare Collectiva to discuss how artists, activists, scholars, and educators in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands engage with Shakespeare in ways that reflect their lived realities. We discuss the plays from this region that adapt or appropriate Shakespeare and how these texts can be used in the classroom or in production alongside Shakespeare's text to illuminate themes and engage new audiences. We also learn more about the work of Borderlands Shakespeare Colectiva and how they uplift and amplify this work, connecting scholarship with theatrical performance. 

For more on the work of Borderlands Shakespeare Colectiva, or to get involved, visit their website at https://borderlandsshakespeare.org/.

For more on Shakespeare and Postcolonial Theory, check out our previous episodes from this series:

Katherine Gillen is Professor of English and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Texas A&M University–San Antonio. With Kathryn Vomero Santos and Adrianna M. Santos, she co-founded the Borderlands Shakespeare Colectiva and is co-editing the three-volume anthology, The Bard in the Borderlands: An Anthology of Shakespeare Appropriations en La Frontera. She is also working on a monograph titled The Renaissance of Whiteness: The Classical Foundations of Shakespeare’s Racial Politics, which examines Shakespeare’s use of classical sources within the context of emerging racial capitalism. 

Ruben Ramirez is an MA student at Texas A&M- San Antonio and currently serving in a Graduate Assistantship Research position with the Borderlands Shakespeare Colectiva. His research interests include Latino/a/x literature, Ecocriticism, Environmental Justice, and Decolonial Theory.

Borderlands Shakespeare Colectiva is an award-winning group of scholars, educators, artists, and activists who engage with Shakespeare in ways that reflect the lived realities of the U.S.–Mexico Borderlands. We aim not only to change the way Shakespeare is taught and performed but also to promote the socially just futures envisioned en el arte de La Frontera.

Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.

Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.

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