Sir Patrick Stewart joins us on the podcast to talk about how Shakespeare has shaped his life. Stewart tells host Barbara Bogaev about his Yorkshire youth, his audition for the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing Starfleet Captain Jen-Luc Picard, and more.

Stewart's memoir, "Making It So," is available now from Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

From the Folger’s Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published October 10, 2023. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leo Fernandez edits our transcripts. We had technical help from Ngofeen Mputubwele in New York and Andrew Feliciano at Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.

Patrick Stewart on a Life Shaped by Shakespeare

John Heart Jackie - Episodes

Produced & Recorded by Peter M. Murray
Mixed & Mastered by The Helio Sequence
All songs written by Jennie Wayne & Peter M. Murray

Nevada City

Called “the finest actor of his generation,” Sir Simon Russell Beale has played just about everyone in Shakespeare’s canon—Hamlet, Lear, Macbeth, Falstaff, Malvolio, Iago—and most recently, Titus Andronicus, for the Royal Shakespeare Company. In this episode, Beale reflects on the Shakespearean roles that have shaped his career and how his approach to them has evolved over time.

He shares what drew him to Titus, and how he found surprising tenderness in Shakespeare’s brutal tragedy. The actor revisits past performances, exploring grief in Hamlet, aging and dementia in King Lear, and how time has deepened his connection to the plays and the characters.

Beale’s memoir, A Piece of Work: Playing Shakespeare & Other Stories, is a moving and often humorous reflection on acting, Shakespeare, and the power of performance to reveal something essential about being human.

Sir Simon Russell Beale studied at Cambridge before joining the RSC. Described by the Daily Telegraph as “the finest actor of his generation,” he has been lauded for both his stage and TV work, winning many awards including the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor, the Evening Standard Best Actor Award, and the BAFTA Best Actor Award.

From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published June 17, 2025. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production from Paola García Acuña. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services are provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.

Simon Russell Beale on Shakespeare, from Hamlet to Titus

We're Never Going Out

I began writing Halcyon Days in August of 2023, right before I began chemotherapy. I'm lucky I got to finish it, in the summer of 2024, cancer free. Going through chemo was like being reborn, and I hope that's communicated in the song. Thank you for listening! 

Halcyon Days

My White Diamond

Produced by Jonathan Soucy and Joseph Gárate 
Mixed by Jonathan Soucy at Electroman Studios, Los Angeles 
Mastered by Paul Logus at PLX Mastering 

All Instruments, vocals, samples, and programing by Joseph Gárate 
Bass: Andrew Narváez 

Lyrics by Joseph Gárate 
Music by Joseph Gárate and Andrew Narváez
license
all rights reserved

We Share Blood

Lyrics and music by Joseph Gárate

Vocals/rhythm guitar - Joseph Gárate 
Drums/percussion/backing vocals - Anders La Source 
Lead guitar/backing vocals - Dominic Costabile 
Bass/backing vocals - Andrew Narváez 

Recorded, engineered, and mixed by Jonathan Soucy at Electroman Studio in Los Angeles 
Produced by Joseph Gárate and Jonathan Soucy
Mastered by Manny Nieto

© Joseph Gárate 2018

We Will Always Be Alone

Actor Edwin Booth was one of the 19th century’s biggest stars. One of the illegitimate sons of equally-famous actor Junius Brutus Booth, he made thousands of dollars touring America’s grandest theaters and playing Shakespeare’s greatest roles. But today, relatively few people have heard of Edwin Booth. Instead, they remember his brother—also an actor—John Wilkes Booth. That’s because on April 14, 1865, John Wilkes assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. The Booths’ story is like one of Shakespeare’s tragedies, with an unstable father, a rivalry between brothers, and an ending that changes the course of history. To learn more about the Booth brothers and their tumultuous lives, we talked to Nora Titone, resident dramaturg at Chicago’s Court Theatre and author of 2010’s My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry Between Edwin and John Wilkes Booth That Led to an American Tragedy. Nora Titone is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. From our Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published February 5, 2019. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This podcast episode, “My Brother, My Competitor,” 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 Andrew Feliciano at VoiceTrax West in Studio City, California, and Shelly Steffens at WBEZ Public Radio in Chicago.

Edwin and John Wilkes Booth

Lyrics and music by Joseph Gárate

Vocals/rhythm guitar - Joseph Gárate 
Drums/percussion/backing vocals - Anders La Source 
Lead guitar/backing vocals - Dominic Costabile 
Bass/backing vocals - Andrew Narváez

Recorded, engineered, and mixed by Jonathan Soucy at Electroman Studio in Los Angeles 
Produced by Joseph Gárate and Jonathan Soucy
Mastered by Paul Logus at PLX Mastering

© Joseph Gárate 2019

Words and music by Joseph Gárate 
All instruments and programing by Joseph Gárate
Produced by Jonathan Soucy and Joseph Gárate
Mixed by Jonathan Soucy at Electroman Studios in Los Angeles

Halcyon Days

Alexandra Helgerson