Welcome to episode 3 of The Genre-l Idea on A Teenager’s Take on Shakespeare! Today I have the fantastic Sally McLean on with me to talk about Shakespeare’s history plays. In this episode, we discuss how the Tudor setting of Shakespeare’s day influenced Shakespeare’s work, the relationship between dramatic and contemporary history and the Bard’s calculated balance of the political with the familial. An award-winning, multi-hyphenate creative, Sally McLean began her work in the entertainment biz in her mid-teens as an actor and has since performed lead, guest and supporting roles in numerous Australian, US and UK film, theatre and television productions. A graduate of The Actors Institute UK, Sally’s notable screen acting credits include the lead role of “Angie Powers” in the BAFTA Award-winning BBC mini series Bootleg, lead guest role of “Stacy” in the AACTA Award-winning ABC TV series Utopia and recurring guest roles of “Miss Giddens” in the ABC/CBBC TV series The Worst Year of My Life – Again! and “Barb” in the USA Sony/AMC TV series, Preacher. Sally created her own boutique production business, Incognita Enterprises, under the Honorary Patronage of Oscar® nominated actor, Sir Nigel Hawthorne KB, CBE in 1997 – an association that continued until his passing in 2001. She is currently the Creator/Director and lead ensemble member of the multi award-winning digital series Shakespeare Republic which has been officially selected and screened at over 110 international film festivals, nominated for over 100 awards and won over 60 awards to date including Best Director, Best Web Series, Best Actress (for Sally personally) and Best Ensemble Cast in numerous festivals and industry awards. Her Shakespeare short film, Speaking Daggers, a spin off from the series, was selected for 22 international film festivals, including the Academy Award® accredited St Kilda Film Festival – and won 3 awards, as well as a “Highly Commended” Finalist nod from Sir Kenneth Branagh in his role as Jury President for the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s Shakespeare Shorts Film Festival in the UK in 2017. Her work with Shakespeare Republic has been the subject of several academic presentations and plenary panels at Early Modern Literature and Shakespeare seminars and conferences in Australia, the UK and USA from 2016 to now. Her first published work on Shakespeare, an essay exploring her methodology behind Shakespeare Republic and Shakespeare performance in general, was published in the UK by Routledge Press in 2020 as part of the academic essay collection, Playfulness In Shakespearean Adaptations. The third season of Shakespeare Republic is currently being taught at Syracuse University, USA, has been discussed in papers presented at the Shakespeare Association of America Conference (USA) and BritGrad Conference (UK) and is also further explored in the Arden Shakespeare collection, Lockdown Shakespeare: New Evolutions in Performance and Adaptation, published in July 2022. She additionally teaches Shakespeare as an industry guest teacher as part of the Howard Fine Acting Studio faculty in Melbourne, Australia. Check out Sally’s socials here; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialsallymclean Instagram: https://instagram.com/incognitagal/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/incognitagal Official Acting Website: www.sallymclean.com Official Production Website: www.incognitaenterprises.com Don’t forget to also check out A Teenager’s Take on Shakespeare on Instagram at @ateenagerstakeonshakespeare and on Twitter at @TeenTakeShax. Enjoy!