A short radio documentary series on Shakespeare, which was made by students in Waterford Institute of Technology, began broadcasting on Beat 102-103 on Sunday (15 Feb).
The four part series ‘Shakespeare: Rhyme and Reason’ attempts to put Shakespeare’s works in context for a younger audience, drawing many parallels with modern works such as Breaking Bad, House of Cards, Batman and X-Men. The aim is to interest (and possibly excite!) listeners who may have dismissed Shakespeare’s works as “stuffy” and irrelevant. Due to its appearance on this (and next) year’s Leaving Certificate, there’s a heavy focus on Othello, with programmes specifically about the characters of Iago and Othello. The pieces will be played out on The Sunday Grill on Beat 102-103, at around 10.15am. Each episode is approximately 16 minutes long and will be available as a podcast afterwards.
Shakespeare is Relevant: Sunday, 15 February
Delivery of Shakespeare and Iago’s Story: Sunday, 22 February
Othello as the Outsider: Sunday, 1 March
Iago in Focus: Sunday, 8 March
Many people contributed to the series. Most of the material was written, recorded and edited by 3rd year students on the BSc (Hons) Entertainment Systems.
One of the documentaries features a retelling of Iago’s story, which was acted out by Theatre Studies students from the Bachelor of Arts (Hons) degree.
Kate McCarthy, a lecturer in Drama on the Theather Studies course at WIT, provided invaluable editorial advice, as well her own voice to the series. School of Humanities lecturers Una Kealy and Jenny O’Connor, as well as the Head of the School of Humanities, Dr Richard Hayes, appeared as “talking heads” on the piece.
We were also lucky enough to secure the expertise of Waterford-born actor Jamie Beamish, who is currently appearing as Iago in The Globe Theatre’s production of Othello.
SETU Waterford, Cork Road, Waterford City, 
