Thomas Dabbs again speaks with James Shapiro of Columbia University, this time about his recent book entitled: ‘The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War.’

[SEGMENTS]


00:00:00 - Intro


00:01:20 - ‘The Playbook’ and Shakespeare in America


00:04:17 - The Federal Theater (1935-39)


00:07:22 - Hallie Flanagan and the Federal Theater


00:13:02 - Martin Dies and the conservative playbook


00:18:50 - The American culture war


00:20:05 - Beginnings of the Federal Theater


00:23:50 - A lost and found research archive


00:25:10 - Is Christopher Marlowe a communist?


00:31:35 - Race and Macbeth 


00:36:50 - Criticism from the left of the left


00:39:25 - The death of innovation, the playbook redux


00:47:40 - The life of Othello in America