Episode 33: Interview with Charissa Adams

Today we are thrilled to share our latest interview! In this episode, Fable and the Verbivore speak with actor, director, and storyteller Charissa Adams.

Charissa is the founder of Fractured Shakespeare, which reconstructs the lines of Shakespeare’s text into new artistic and dramatic creations. By breaking the words of the Bard free from their original written pieces, they are able to interweave them together to create a modern context for his words. Charissa discusses the path that led to her establishing this diverse group of creatives and performers that are dedicated to making pieces that connect with the human experience.

In this episode, we talk a lot about how the creative process requires just getting out there and trying things, how boundaries can improve creativity, and how seeking out the unique and different can lead you in exciting and unexpected directions. Charissa also shares her experiences in acting that have helped her focus in on the development of a truthful emotional journey for her characters, as well as the creation of believable and nuanced characters grounded in reality.

At one point in the episode, we discuss how several years ago Charissa created a monologue during the #100dayproject that she then developed under Fractured Shakespeare into the short film titled Was it Rape, Then? on the subject of consent. This artistic piece is available to watch on YouTube and boasts some powerful performances. It has also been featured in Huffington Post, Bustle, Stage Raw and Shakespeare Magazine. We highly recommend that you check out this thought provoking piece.

Fractured Shakespeare also has been sharing weekly socially-distanced permances on timely topics such as Not Alone, Thy Mother, Self Love, and Black Lives Matter on their Instagram channel @fracturedshakespeare over the last several months. These collaborative performances can be viewed on their story highlights.

We talked with Charissa for over an hour and it was difficult to cut this conversation down close to the length of our typical episodes. If you want to hear the full discussion, you can find it on our Patreon page. For just $5 a month you can support this podcast and get full author interviews each month.

We hope that you are staying safe and finding time to practice self-care! Keep creating and putting your unique voice out there! The world needs it!

Into the woods,
Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

The Verbivore references a line from the play Much Ado About Nothing, Act 4 Scene 1. The line is said by Claudio during his public shaming of Hero. Here is the full line:

“O, what men dare do! What men may do! What men daily do, not knowing what they do!”

Charissa mentions author Tana French’s work as an example of someone with an acting background using that experience to be able to get inside the heads of a given character when writing in first person.

Books Mentioned:

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
’Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

interviewBethany Stedman