From the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited.

I'm Michael Whitmore, the Folgers director.

This podcast is called A Poor Player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

and it's directed at a specific portion of our Shakespeare Unlimited audience,

people who appear on stage in Shakespeare, and even more so,

people who may want to appear on stage in Shakespeare, but haven't yet.

Laura Waith, assistant professor of theater at San Francisco State University, has written

a how-to book called The Shakespeare Audition, How to Get Over Your Fear, Find the

Right Peace, and Have a Great Audition. We brought Laura in, along with a group of actors, to demonstrate

techniques that can help even the newest aspiring Shakespearean shine on stage. Laura is interviewed

by Neva Grant. So, Laura, what inspired you to write this book?

There's nothing else like this out there. And I sometimes teach at American Conservatory Theater,

and they have a two-week Shakespeare intensive, which is really to get actors, you know, a little

bit of skill in handling Shakespeareverse. And I asked my students at the end of

the two-week session why they wanted to take a class like this. And they told me that they were

absolutely terrified of doing Shakespeare. They didn't know how to approach it. They didn't know how to

find material. And that they really, really needed to find a way to get a handle on it quickly.

So I thought, you know, that's a unique program at American Conservatory Theater.

There must be many actors out there who need something like that.

And if they're in a more rural area or something, they don't have access to that.

So I thought, why not write a guide that would be kind of a quick hit for actors who

needed that kind of experience and that kind of training very quickly. You know, that's such a

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