When Londoners in 1601 suggested going to the Globe Theatre, they said to one another, “Let’s go hear a play.” The stage of the Globe had, after all, no set or scenery – costumes, yes, movement yes, but above all, “Words, words, words,” as Hamlet said to Polonius. The Fermat Podcast Project is all about words – the words of Shakespeare and other classic and well known writers, local poets and authors, and more. It’s all part of our theme for 2017 and onward – more theater, more art, less overhead. Two and three person scenes for actors, poets reading and discussing their work, scholars helping us make sense of difficult texts (such as Mother Courage and Her Children), musicians talking about composing and playing for the stage, astonishing letters by the likes of Emily Dickinson and Vincent Van Gogh.
Our plan is one podcast per month and to alternate classic and contemporary work. We are delighted to launch the series with a poetry reading by Madison author, musician and photographer Katrin Talbot. Watch this page for monthly updates.
Willa Cather’s letters – # 2
Greg Williard reads his prize winning story, MHW
Robert Ingersoll delivers Walt Whitman’s funeral eulogy
Love Poems of Pablo Neruda for Valentine’s Day
Shakespeare’s women – alone together
Franz Kafka’s story “A Hunger Artist”
James Baldwin’s essay – Why I Stopped Hating Shakespeare
Eugene V Debs – A Graphic Biography
A Gold Slipper – A short story by Willa Cather
The poetry of Richard Meier
Willa Cather’s letters – # 1
Shakespeare’s sonnets for Valentine’s Day – 2019
The strange and contentious life of Simone Weil
Shakespeare’s Richard III – Act 4 Scene 4 “Men shall deal unadvisedly sometimes”
Poems from Jeanie and Steve Tomasko
Poems – Andrea Potos
What to the American Slave is Your Fourth of July – Frederick Douglass, 1852
Poems – Marilyn Annucci
UW Professor Marc Silberman on Brecht and his work
Shakespeare’s sonnets for Valentine’s Day – the Karp sisters three!
Poems – Rita Mae Reese
Music from the Age of Shakespeare by Ely Phan
The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare
“Is my verse alive?” Letters of Emily Dickinson
Poems | Katrin Talbot
The Podcast Project is supported in part by grants from the Wisconsin Arts Board, The Madison Arts Commission and Dane Arts.
