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British literature History 16th century British literature History 17th century Drama 16th century Drama 17th century Irish literature History 16th century Irish literature History 17th century Shakespeare, William 1564-1616 Drama Shakespeare, William 1564-1616 Literary style Theater History 16th century Theater History 17th centuryFilter By Series
6 poets, searching for rhyme and reason Core curriculum video libraries (Cambridge educational (Firm)) Core curriculum video library Critical guide to Shakespeare English collection Great Hamlets Hamlet (New York, N.Y.) Macbeth (New York, N.Y.) Marlowe's Faust Ultimate media librarian collectionFilter By Subjects
British literature History 16th century British literature History 17th century Drama 16th century Drama 17th century Irish literature History 16th century Irish literature History 17th century Shakespeare, William 1564-1616 Drama Shakespeare, William 1564-1616 Literary style Theater History 16th century Theater History 17th centuryFilter By Series
6 poets, searching for rhyme and reason Core curriculum video libraries (Cambridge educational (Firm)) Core curriculum video library Critical guide to Shakespeare English collection Great Hamlets Hamlet (New York, N.Y.) Macbeth (New York, N.Y.) Marlowe's Faust Ultimate media librarian collectionSummary: But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Performed at Shakespeare's Globe, London's faithful reconstruction of the open-air playhouse designed in 1599, Romeo and Juliet is arguably the best-loved of all love stories in Western literature. The play's masterful combination of lyricism, suspense, and dramatic changes of mood is dramatized by an...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: While King Lear has again and again been described as Shakespeare's greatest work-the tragedy in which he exhibits most fully his multitude of literary powers-it is the least read, and for many, the most difficult to analyze. In this program, key scenes are dramatized. Noted Shakespearean experts, Professors Robert Smallwood and Stanley Wells, take on the task of examining Lear's enigmatic...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: This program artfully brings together a treasury of visual resources to retrace Shakespeare's life and work. Included are the landmarks of Elizabethan London associated with his plays; depictions of the structure and operations of the Globe Theatre (including scenes from Laurence Olivier's Henry V); historical sources of the plays in art and architecture surviving today; theatrical traditions...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Long considered the world’s greatest writer, Shakespeare the man all but eludes biographers, leading some scholars to doubt they are one and the same. Filmed at salient locations around England, this program explores the four main theories of the Bard’s true identity. Professor Stanley Wells of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust defends Shakespeare’s authorship. Francis Carr and Mark Rylance,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Thomas More's Utopia, one of the most significant texts of English humanism, has become the ideal for a society based on fundamental human principles of fairness and justice. This program follows the progress of More's intellectual development, from his early friendship with the influential humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam, to his rise to power as a member of Parliament and later Chancellor of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Compelling dramatizations of key scenes from Shakespeare's tragedy are analyzed by two noted Shakespearean experts-Stanley Wells and Russell Jackson of the Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon. Themes and topics include the motives of Lago, and whether his evil is as complete as most commentators suggest; Victorian objections to the interracial relationship between Othello and Desdemona;...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: As You Like It runs the glorious gamut of pastoral romance: disguises and love notes, poetry and brilliant conversation, gentle satire and full-on slapstick, and running throughout it all, passion! This staging-performed at Shakespeare's Globe, London's faithful reconstruction of the open-air playhouse designed in 1599-spotlights Naomi Frederick, Jack Laskey, Laura Rogers, Jamie Parker, and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: In this program Trevor Nunn probes the underlying dynamics of the play. He examines the psychological dynamics of Hamlet, the oedipal conflict and Hamlet's madness, feigned or real. Nunn also explores the political questions that are raised in the play. The viewer learns that Hamlet is the most coveted of all performances in the classical repertoire, because, as Nunn says, "To act Hamlet...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: Shakespeare's troubled character comes to life in this program in the capable hands of leading scholars, as they discuss the major themes of the play, its plot, and the actions of its main characters. Analyzing key scenes, scholars Russell Jackson and Stanley Wells of Stratford-upon-Avon offer insights into the underlying meaning of Hamlet's eloquent soliloquies, as well as the play's eight...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Called "the greatest Hamlet of his generation" by Guardian reviewer Robert McCrum, Scottish actor David Tennant headlines this edgy film version of the acclaimed 2008 Royal Shakespeare Company stage production. Tennant is supported by a host of gifted players-including the impeccable Patrick Stewart as Claudius and Oliver Ford Davies in an astonishing performance as a doddering yet strangely...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: An aromatic stew of biography and local color, this program will give viewers a sense of the London and Stratford of Shakespeare's time. The section on London visits 18 major sites associated with the Bard and his plays, including the Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Middle Temple for law students, George Tavern, Southwark Cathedral, and the Globe Theatre site. The section on...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this program, the major themes of Shakespeare's most popular tragedy are investigated by noted experts. Analyzing key scenes from an award-winning film production, Professor Robert Smallwood of the Shakespeare Centre and Professor Stanley Wells of the Shakespeare Institute examine how the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth changes during the course of the play; how Banquo's...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Without doubt the Lear of the century, this performance surpasses the skill of the critics to praise it; its all-star cast and crew have won every award that exists for performance and production. More important, the production makes a taut, compressed, and difficult play into a work that reaches out to modern audiences in its grip on the elemental human emotions-emotions common to ancient...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: John Kani's Othello is a fine and masterful performance that should make every white actor think twice before blacking up for the Moor, wrote The Guardian of this raw and powerful interpretation of the play. The production marked the first time an African actor had been cast in the title role opposite a white Desdemona before a multiracial audience in Johannesburg, South Africa. With Tony Award...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: An intimate look inside a living time capsule, this program explores the planning and reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, presenting a day in the working life of the unique artistic institution. The video guides viewers through the facility, painstakingly designed and built to resemble the original Elizabethan playhouse, and offers commentary from the actors, artisans, and educators...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: A hilarious and insightful introduction to Shakespeare’s Scottish play, This Is Macbeth offers a decidedly different approach to exploring and appreciating the renowned tragedy. The program consists of amusing talk show-style interviews with the main characters interspersed with scenes from the play itself, performed in deadly earnestness by professional Shakespearean actors in a black box...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Half a tragedy centered on the mad jealousy of King Leontes and half a romance of young love triumphant and old love restored, The Winter's Tale is arguably one of Shakespeare's most captivating dramas. This highly acclaimed production by The Royal Shakespeare Company was performed at the Barbican Theatre in London. Interviews with key members of both the cast and the RSC production team offer...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Synonymous with metaphysical poetry, John Donne combined wit with passion, startling diction with curious contrasts. This program chronicles his extraordinary life as lawyer, lover, sailor, father, preacher, and poet. Manuscripts and paintings are combined with readings from many of Donne's most famous writings, including "The Flea," "Elegy XX," "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," "The Calm,"...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: This is the second of two programs featuring a performance of Christopher Marlowe's classic The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus. The play's last scenes including the magical appearance of Helen of Troy, Faustus' failed attempt to repent, and his final, tormented soliloquy are presented. We catch glimpses of Marlowe's classic larger-than-life characters-all "over-reachers," who seek to dominate...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: In a reaction against Elizabethan-period poetry, 17th-century English poets such as John Donne, George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, and Andrew Marvell began writing in a new style. Although derisively dubbed "metaphysical" because of its unseemly-that is, intellectual-nature, metaphysical poetry soon became appreciated for its remarkable blend of emotion and erudition, as evidenced by complex...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: For Columbia University's Simon Schama, John Donne is the poet who transformed English verse through a raw emotional honesty coupled with a virtuosic skill with language. Drawing upon the observations of John Carey, literary critic and author of John Donne: Life, Mind, and Art, and insightful readings by actress Fiona Shaw, Schama undertakes a passionate appraisal of Donne's work. Simon...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: This condensed adaptation of Macbeth, performed by experienced Shakespearean actors of the innovative Big Adventures Theatre Company, uses the Bard's own immortal words to tell the story of Duncan King, head of King Enterprises, and his scheming employee, Macbeth, recently awarded the coveted Cawdor contract. After Macbeth's fateful meeting with three saucy witches-not on the heath, but at the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Winner of five Academy Awards, the International Grand Prix of Venice, the New York Film Critic's Award, and the Parents Magazine Award for Extraordinary Merit, Olivier's Hamlet is no doubt the premier teaching tool for Shakespeare classes-Olivier's breadth of view of both the protagonist and the entire play will be enjoyed again and again by the teacher, while making the text comprehensible...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: A brilliant video release and a particularly effective version for study of the play, with Laurence Harvey as Romeo and Susan Shentall as Juliet, with an unforgettable Flora Robson as the Nurse.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008