Mike Lew on Teenage Dick

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

Folger Shakespeare Library

Arts

4.7 • 837 Ratings

🗓️ 14 September 2021

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In Mike Lew's play "Teenage Dick," Richard, a high-school senior with cerebral palsy, is determined to become class president by any means necessary. Commissioned by theater artist Gregg Mozgala and The Apothetae, the company Mogzala started to explore the disabled experience, Lew's comedy drops Shakespeare's "Richard III" in a modern American high school. Barbara Bogaev interview Lew about about the play’s origins, tropes around disability, and how his story reframes Richard's motivations. Teenage Dick will be onstage three times this fall and winter, in a production directed by Moritz Von Stuelpnagel: at Washington, DC's Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company September 22 – October 17, at Boston's Huntington Theater December 3 – January 9, and at California's Pasadena Playhouse February 1 – February 27. Mike Lew is a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow, The Mellon Foundation Playwright-in-Residence at Ma-Yi Theater in New York, and the former La Jolla Playhouse Artist-in-Residence. His plays include Tiger Style!, Bike America, microcrisis, and the book to the musical Bhangin’ It. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published September 14, 2021. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This podcast episode, “Plots Have I Laid, Inductions Dangerous,” was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. We had technical help from Evan Marquart and Susan Palyo at VoiceTrax West in Studio City, California. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The boy who wants to be king of the high school is disabled.
0:04.9	He's also cunning and cruel.
0:07.9	If that scenario doesn't ring a bell, think Shakespeare.
0:18.1	From the Folger's Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited.
0:22.5	I'm Michael Whitmore, the Folger's director.
0:25.4	Richard III is one of Shakespeare's most enduring villains.
0:29.5	And back before the COVID pandemic started, a new adaptation of Shakespeare's classic had
0:34.7	begun making the rounds.
0:36.7	The play, from the mind of Mike Liu, was called Teenage Dick,
0:41.5	and along with the unique title, it came with a substantial twist.
0:46.7	Lou took most of the plot and characters from Richard III
0:50.6	and moved them to a modern-day American high school.
0:57.9	In teenage Dick, the Richard character has cerebral palsy.
1:01.6	Buckingham, who's called Buck, is in a wheelchair.
1:05.0	King Edward is Eddie, the quarterback.
1:07.8	Clarence is Clarissa.
1:15.2	And as in Shakespeare, everyone's in a life or death struggle to be class president.
1:24.1	Yes, it's a comedy. Now that theaters are returning to live performances, Teenage Dick has three productions scheduled, one here in Washington, D.C. at Woolly Mammoth Theater Company,
1:29.4	one at the Huntington Theater Company in Boston, and one at the Pasadena Playhouse in California.
1:36.1	Mike Liu joined us from his apartment in New York to talk about the play's origin,
1:41.1	tropes around disability, and just how similar Richard III is to high school.
1:47.7	We call this podcast Plots Have I Laid Inductions Dangerous.
	...

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