In the last episode in our series on arts and wellbeing, we explore the question of creativity. Creativity has come up again and again in this series, as a way of expressing ourselves, but also as a way of managing the thoughts and the periods in our life which can feel overwhelming. Why is exercising our creative brain such a helpful way of taking…

In the latest episode of our series on arts and wellbeing, we catch up with some of the creatives and scholars in our Globe network to find out about the inspirations that have helped them through this period and why the arts provide such a vital lifeline. Without the opportunity to go out and experience the arts in person, we’ve been turning inwar…

In the latest episode of our series on arts and wellbeing, we turn to the question of connection. What are the connections that arts spaces can bring and how can that impact our mental health? And for theatre in particular, how important is the moment of connection, the shared experience, that comes from spending an evening with an audience of stra…

In this second episode in our series on the connection between the arts and wellbeing, we dig a little deeper into expression and vulnerability. Whilst watching or engaging in the arts and creativity can offer an incredible release, the process can also be very exposing. After a year of isolation with limited outward expression, how do we move back…

In a new series dedicated to the connection between the arts and wellbeing, we explore the many ways in which the arts enrich our lives. As we head out of lockdown and back into our beautiful theatres, what role can the arts and theatre play in helping us to tackle mental health issues, in restoring wellbeing, and to help us find expression and con…

This month, we’ve been celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month. In this episode, our Head of Learning and former drama teacher Lucy Cuthbertson explores the importance of creating a positive environment in schools for LGBTQ+ students and staff. Lucy speaks to eight former students about their experiences of being LGBTQ+ in school and how important drama w…

In our final episode of the year, some of the wonderful Such Stuff team offer up festive readings, poems and stories that bring joy and contemplation at this time of year. We’re calling it out very own Such Stuff Christmas Cracker Bonanza; pull the cracker, and who knows what you’ll find inside? We hear from actor Paul Ready, lecturer and research …

In our second advent episode, we turn to a snowy story from the history of the Globe theatre, our very own Christmas miracle. In the icy winter of 1598, a theatre was dismantled on the north side of the river, the timbers rolled through the snowy streets of London, and the Globe theatre was born on the south side of the river. But what really happe…

With the festive season upon us, we dedicate the first of our advent offerings on Such Stuff to that great theatrical festive tradition... panto! With artists and theatre makers Jenifer Toksvig, Ess Grange, Jude Christian and our artistic director Michelle Terry, we delve into the rich history and contemporary stylings of panto, including our very …

In this episode, we return to the subject of Shakespeare and Fear, unpicking the relationship between our very real fears and anxieties and our obsession with ghost stories, hauntings and imaginary terrors. As part of our digital festival exploring the subject, our 2018 production of Macbeth returns to the candlelit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse as Macbe…

In this episode of the podcast, we get into the spirit of the spooky month and take a deep dive into the world of ghost stories, with frights, thrills and things that go bump in the night. As part of our new festival examining Shakespeare and Fear, self-confessed horror fans Michelle Terry and Paul Ready delve into what makes a ghost story scary, w…

In the final episode of our series on Shakespeare and Race, we take a closer look at the question that has underpinned the entire series: how do we decolonise the works of Shakespeare? We hear myriad suggestions and ideas from contributors from across the series – actors, academics and students. And we return to festival co-curators Michelle Terry …

In the fourth episode in our series on Shakespeare and Race, we turn to the theatre industry to examine how whiteness has dominated – and continues to dominate – our theatres, from the work that we stage to the people who make up our organisations. We spoke to Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Jade Anouka, Adjoa Andoh, Sarah Amankwah and Federay Holmes, who r…

In the third episode of our series on Shakespeare and Race, we look at our education system and the way that we’re teaching the next generation. The way we teach and the way we learn shapes the way we understand the world. If that education is permeated with this idea that whiteness is the norm, and everything else is the other, that is what we tak…

In the second episode in our series on Shakespeare and Race, we take a closer look at the way that whiteness has dominated the way we read Shakespeare, from the first moment we pick up a Shakespeare play. For too long, ways of looking at Shakespeare have been dominated by a concern with whiteness, but one that goes unacknowledged. For those who stu…

With the theatre closed, we take a moment to ask: when we reopen, should we really go back to business as usual? We don’t just want to pay lip service to Black Lives Matter and then move on without making any real changes to the way we operate as an organisation. It is not enough to stand against racism in theory, we need to be actively anti-racist…

This week on the podcast, we bring you another episode of the Shakespeare diaries. Our very own actor artistic director Michelle Terry and actor Paul Ready discuss Shakespeare’s plays from isolation. This week, they revisited Love’s Labour’s Lost, the first production they were ever in together, and on our very own Globe stage. Prompted by question…

This week on the podcast, we return to the Shakespeare diaries. Our very own actor artistic director Michelle Terry and actor Paul Ready discuss Shakespeare’s plays from isolation. This week, they discuss As You Like It. With questions sent in by our audience, Michelle and Paul consider why Rosalind and Celia’s relationship is so central to the pla…

This week on the podcast, the Shakespeare diaries returns. Our very own actor artistic director Michelle Terry and actor Paul Ready discuss Shakespeare’s plays from isolation. This week, just in time for the summer solstice, they turn to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. With questions sent in by our audience, Michelle and Paul consider the epic scope of …

This week on the podcast, we take a moment of reflection. As the future of theatre is in question, we take inspiration from the Globe’s past. What does this rich history of reinvention, of imagination and an enduring determination to tell stories mean to us today? And how do we move into the future when theatre may never be the same again? We asked…

This week on the podcast, we return to the question of Shakespeare and Race. Professor Farah Karim-Cooper is joined by Professor Ayanna Thompson and Dr Noémie Ndiaye to discuss their work across Shakespeare studies and race studies, including the relationship between the history of blackface minstrelsy and Shakespeare, and early modern techniques o…

This week on the podcast, we’re joined by special guest Maggie O’Farrell. The author of eight novels, plus the Sunday Time no. 1 best-selling memoir I am, I am, I am, she has been nominated for the Costa Novel Award three times, winning it for The Hand That First Held Mine. Her new book – Hamnet – is set in the summer of 1596 and imagines the story…

This week on the podcast, we return to the Shakespeare Diaries. Our very own actor artistic director Michelle Terry and actor Paul Ready discuss Shakespeare’s plays from isolation. This week, they delve into Much Ado About Nothing. With questions contributed by our audiences, Michelle and Paul discuss Beatrice and Benedick, why they’re such a relat…

This week on the podcast we introduce Shakespeare’s Globe’s new project: Love in Isolation. Love in Isolation will see an extraordinary array of artists share some of Shakespeare’s greatest words from their place of isolation. To mark the launch of the new project, Michelle spoke to renowned director Peter Brook about Shakespeare’s sonnets. They di…

The first in a new feature on the podcast, The Shakespeare Diaries follows our very own artistic director and actor Michelle Terry and actor Paul Ready as they discuss Shakespeare’s plays from isolation. Up first, Macbeth. They starred as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in a production in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe last winter. Her…