This week, actress Vella Lovell (Crazy Ex- Girlfriend, The Big Sick) is back on The Stacks. This week we’re talking about New Boy by Tracy Chevalier. New Boy is part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series, in which modern day authors retell Shakespeare’s classic works.New Boy is an adaptation of William Shakespeare’sOthello, set in a 1970’s elementary school in Washington D.C.

We talk about this book in comparison to its source material, where Chevalier’s book wins and where it misses. Just likeOthelloitself, this episode covers a lot of subjects, from racism and sexism, to what makes a good adaptation of Shakespeare?

While we do discussNew Boyin detail, we don’t really spoil the bookif you’re familiar withOthello.If you don’t knowOthellothen there may be spoilers for you. Listen at your own risk.

Here is what we discussed this week

• O (Lionsgate)
• Stamped from the Beginningby Ibram X. Kendi
• Hamlet by William Shakespeare
• Romeo & Julietby William Shakespeare
• MacBethby William Shakespeare
• A Midsummer’s Night’s Dreamby William Shakespeare
• Shylock is My Nameby Howard Jacobson
• Nutshell by Ian McEwand
• West Side Story(United Artists)
• Leonard Bernstein
• Stephen Sondheim

• Othello: Fully Dramatized Audio Edition (Audible)

• Romeo + Juliet(20th Century Fox)
• A Chorus Line(Columbia Pictures)
• Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
• Ten Things I Hate About You (Buena Vista Pictures)
• Richard III by William Shakespeare
• A Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare
• Black Arrow FC
• How Soccer Explains the World by Franklin Foer

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Connect with Vella: Instagram | Twitter

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