Wait, Wait Forsooth!

Above: Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) with panelists Ken Ludwig, Donna Denize, and Arthur Phillips. Photo by James Brantley

NPR's Carl Kasell with The Washington Post's Roxanne Roberts, who served as host. Photo by James Brantley

Last Wednesday night, I was at the Folger Shakespeare Library’s Annual Gala, where the entertainment was a full version of the NPR radio show, Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! Our version was called, “Wait, Wait Forsooth!”

Roxanne Roberts hosted the evening, performing the duties that Peter Sagal always performs on the radio. Karl Castle was there, playing his role from the NPR show, with his beautiful voice, keeping score and reading some questions.

The other panelists were Arthur Phillips and Donna Denize. Arthur Phillips, wrote the critically acclaimed best seller, The Tragedy of Arthur, and Shakespeare scholars love his book because it’s about a previously unknown play by Shakespeare.

Donna Denizé, is an award-winning American poet and head of the English Department of St. Alban’s School in Washington, D.C. (She’s also my son’s 9th grade English teacher.)And one of the VIPs that came up on stage was New Jersey Democrat, Representative Richard Holt.

Roxanne Roberts, director Aaron Posner and I wrote the script, but of course, I didn’t write any of the questions that were aimed at me.

Here are a few of the questions I wrote for the evening. If you listen to Wait, Wait….Don’t Tell Me!, you’ll recognize the format. Drop me a line at kenludwig.playwright@gmail.com if you know the answers.

This old codger believes he's euphonious,
Though with language he sounds more felonious,
He makes Hamlet unhappy,
He's Ophelia pappy,
That tedious snoop named ____.
To be tamed by a man that you hate,
Is a loathsome and terrible fate.
But the man is sublime
When he's singing in rhyme
I can prove it, go see "Kiss me ___!"
Cleopatra gave out with a rasp,
At the moment she gave her last gasp.
As she stood in her digs
With a bowlful of figs,
She was secretly grasping her ____!