featuring interviews with actor Bally Gill and University of the Pacific professor Courtney Lehmann

One half of Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers is in the spotlight in this episode, which explores how this character goes from bad poet to good poet, what it takes to deliver an authentic and naturalistic Romeo, and how the introduction of the rapier to England shortly before Shakespeare wrote "Romeo and Juliet" was a deadly game-changer in street brawls.

Guests on this episode are Dr. Courtney Lehmann, professor of English and Film Studies at the University of the Pacific and writer of the book "Screen Adaptations: Romeo and Juliet: A close study of the relationship between text and film," and Bally Gill, who played Romeo at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2018, winning the prestigious Ian Charleston Award for the role. He has just made his return to the RSC, currently playing Oberon and Theseus in their "Midsummer Night’s Dream."