Episode
Mini: Shakespeare for Young Audiences with ML Roberts, Sean Patrick Nill, and Elyse Sharp of B Street Theatre's NEVER FEAR, SHAKESPEARE
- Podcast
- Shakespeare Anyone?
- Published
- Sep 24, 2025
- Duration seconds
- 2492
- Processing state
not_requested
Actions
POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/shakespeare-anyone-2709617/episodes/mini-shakespeare-for-young-audiences-with-ml-roberts-sean-patrick-nill-and-elyse-sharp-of-b-street-theatre-s-never-fear-shakespeare/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/shakespeare-anyone-2709617/mini-shakespeare-for-young-audiences-with-ml-roberts-sean-patrick-nill-and-elyse-sharp-of-b-street-theatre-s-never-fear-shakespeare.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.
Summary
Want to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In this mini-episode, we sit down with actor ML Roberts and co-playwrights Sean Patrick Nill and Elyse Sharp to talk about NEVER FEAR, SHAKESPEARE —a brand new Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) play premiering at Sacramento's B Street Theatre. B Street is well known for its Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) programming, which brings high-quality, professional productions to children, families, and schools, making theatre accessible to the next generation. We dive into B Street's philosophy of theatre for young audiences and how NEVER FEAR, SHAKESPEARE fits into that mission. Along the way, we discuss the theatre's history with Shakespeare, what makes this new play different from other Shakespeare-for-kids or Shakespeare-adjacent productions, and why introducing Shakespeare to young people matters in today's cultural landscape. ML Roberts shares his perspective on embodying a central role in the play, while Nill and Sharp reflect on the process of adapting Shakespeare's world for youth audiences—balancing humor, clarity, and creativity to keep the material engaging. At Shakespeare Anyone?, we strive to contextualize Shakespeare and make his works accessible. This episode highlights how NEVER FEAR, SHAKESPEARE carries that same mission into the world of young audiences. ML Roberts is the son of a Navy veteran and descendant of the Gullah Geechee of the Carolinas. As a member of Actor's Equity Association, he has performed with Seattle Children's Theater, Folger Shakespeare, Unicorn Theatre (UK), The Williams Project, and Santa Cruz Shakespeare, among others. As a playwright, his debut production Riverside premiered at Indy S…