Shelby Bond's Dungeons & Shakespeare is a hilarious and interactive blend of two seemingly disparate elements of pop culture that share more qualities than you might think. Bond reveals the shows Renaissance Faire origins and how early triumphs like Testaclese and Ye Sack of Rome led to its creation; how one survives the challenges of small theaters with no dressing rooms; how the show depends on chaos and if you plan your adventure, they inevitably crash and burn; how improv differs from magic; what Edinburgh offers that Ren Faires and other festivals don’t; how getting audiences is the work but doing the show is the reward; the power of transforming from a sad mountebank into wandering Troubador; and how Shakespeare – perhaps surprisingly – meets Dungeons & Dragons where it lives. (Length 21:31)

Longtime full-time teacher and longtime part-time improviser Kate Wiersema talks about her very fun and incredibly helpful book Playing to Learn: Using Improv in the K-8 Classroom, which creates suggestions and games that provide a "structure for fun" in the classroom. Kate shares how these games and tools can be used for curriculum as well as emotional learning; how these tools require no extra supplies and help build a sense of community; how learning can be collaborative rather than adversarial; how they can help get out of the rote of everything becoming "standardized;" the importance of combating ‘boy syndrome;’ the value of someone stepping up and being the “And;” and further examples – if more were needed – that illustrate why Improv Is Magic. Lives are being changed! (Length 20:17)

John Ahlin and Christopher Patrick Mullen are the creators and stars of Chip & Gus: A Comedy with Balls, an amazing two hander in which the two title characters resolve the crisis in their relationship while playing ping-pong at the same time. John and Chris discuss how their shared expertise in table tennis and experience as actors led them to create this unique theatrical event; how the play both is and isn’t autobiographical; how they navigate “the Wild West of entertainment” that is the Edinburgh Fringe; how, like Harpo Marx playing the harp on screen, the playing of ping pong onstage also requires no acting; what has to happen when you introduce “Chekhov’s Balls;” how the characters of a drowning man and the person least qualified to save him became the subject of their play; multiple sport, game, and Sondheim references; comparisons to the RSC's The Complete World of Sports (abridged); and how, in all the years they’ve volleyed together – both onstage and at table tennis – they’ve never played a competitive game to win. (Length 23:00)