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Play On Shakespeare’s podcast series Play On presents their latest entry: Pericles. The company’s mission is to enhance the understanding of Shakespeare’s plays by bringing his timeless tales directly to modern audiences with updated language translation from the original text.
Their previous entry was Macbeth, present in partnership with Next Chapter Podcasts.
“The Play On translations are heightened by the podcast medium and heighten the medium in return,” Executive Producer, Michael Goodfriend, says. “Thanks to the accessibility and immediacy of the translations, you don’t have to dig into your dictionary to understand what’s going on – and thanks to outstanding audio engineering, design, direction and the phenomenal voices of our actors, you’re dropped into the world Shakespeare created. You can visualize these tales in whatever environment you’re listening. This unprecedented endeavor has given Next Chapter Podcasts an opportunity to raise the bar for fictional podcasts across the industry. I can’t think of a better place for theater artists to ride out the closure of theater venues due to the pandemic than through virtual collaboration in their own personal studios, where Next Chapter Podcasts record them bringing voices to life as only theater artists know how.”
Lue Douthit, Play On Shakespeare’s CEO and Creative Director: “The translation is not to be a paraphrase, nor is it a literal explanation of what’s going on. The translations are not meant to be replacements of the originals. Our goal is to learn how the plays work and to create performable companion pieces. They are new plays in that way.”
Next in the Play On podcast series will be A Midsummer Night’s Dream, translated by Jeff Whitty and directed by Catherine Eaton. Further details will be announced shortly.