FAU Libraries Media Center - Videographies, Shakespeare's Plays

VH 3539 Antony And Cleopatra

Summary: Antony and Cleopatra is perhaps best known for its moments of rich poetry and high romance. But apart from this, there are many short crowded scenes in which soldiers prepare for battle, or politicians deal with the affairs of state. In many productions these scenes are hastened over, although their relative speed and compactness can cause great problems for the actor. In this program, director John Russell-Brown concentrates on one such short scene, in which Antony takes his leave of Cleopatra before going into battle with Caesar. 025 Min. VIDEO 1996 Subject: SHAKESPEARE Series: SHAKESPEARE WORKSHOPS

VH 0531 Exploring a Character
Summary: Under John Barton's direction, two members of the Royal Shakespeare Company explore the character Shylock to demonstrate how Shakespeare develops a character, and the many ways in which his characters can be understood. Given the same text from "The Merchant of Venice", the different readings of the part demonstrate the infinite variety of Shakespeare's work. 051 Min. VIDEO 1988 Subject: SHAKESPEARE Series: PLAYING SHAKESPEARE

VH 2317 Hamlet
Summary: Mel Gibson and Glenn Close star in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Director: Franco Zeffirelli. 135 Min. VIDEO 1990 Subject: COMMUNICATION , SHAKESPEARE

VH 3544 Hamlet, Workshop 1
Summary: The program investigates the question of Hamlet's character as director John Russell-Brown takes actor David Yelland through various interpretations of the role, working on some of Hamlet's key speeches and interactions with other characters and trying out various ways of presenting this complex character. 025 Min. VIDEO 1996 Subject: SHAKESPEARE Series: SHAKESPEARE WORKSHOPS

VH 3545 Hamlet, Workshop 2
Summary: This program expands on the idea of Hamlet's character to bring the prince into dramatic relationship with other characters. The program looks at how far such interactions modify or support issues of character resolved in the first workshop, and how the actor playing this complex role relates the meaning of the famous soliloquies to the dynamic, political moments of the play. 025 Min. VIDEO 1996 Subject: SHAKESPEARE Series: SHAKESPEARE WORKSHOPS

VH 3540 Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2, Workshop 1
Summary: For centuries, Falstaff has been one of Shakespeare's most popular and memorable creations. But are his exchanges with the young Prince Hal just pure comic relief? In this program, director John Russell-Brown asks Timothy West and Michael Thomas to try out some of their crucial scenes, and asks them to explore the ways in which the ebullient humor casts light on the darkest historical elements of the play. 025 Min. VIDEO 1996 Subject: SHAKESPEARE Series: SHAKESPEARE WORKSHOPS

VH 3541 Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2, Workshop 2
Summary: This programs looks at some of the verse scenes, which are sometimes called the political scenes but which are personal and private, as well. The play is not just about a king and his heir, a ruler and those who rebel against him, but about fathers and sons. The program looks in particular at the relationship between Prince Hal and Henry IV and considers what effect it has on the affairs of state and the succession, and how the intimate language conveyed between father and son repeats the poetry dealing with large historical issues of that time. 025 Min. VIDEO 1996 Subject: SHAKESPEARE Series: SHAKESPEARE WORKSHOPS

VH 0537 Irony and Ambiguity
Summary: John Barton guides members of the Royal Shakespeare Company in a discussion and dramatization of Shakespeare's use of irony and ambiguity. Barton analyzes some of Shakespeare's texts with the actors, and demonstrates how understanding the intended irony in a phrase or speech totally changes the perception of the character speaking. 051 Min. VIDEO 1988 Subject: SHAKESPEARE Series: PLAYING SHAKESPEARE

VH 3546 King Lear, Workshop 1
Summary: In this program, director John Russell-Brown takes actor Julian Glover through Act II, scene 4, as far as to the storm scene. The central issue is Lear's madness. How can an actor convey it and at the same time be aware of the "reason in madness" so central to the meaning of the play? Answers to this can come only through detailed enactment and discussion of certain crucial moments. 025 Min. VIDEO 1996 Subject: SHAKESPEARE Series: SHAKESPEARE WORKSHOPS

VH 3547 King Lear, Workshop 2
Summary: This program continues the work begun in the first workshop on King Lear. In the central storm scene, Lear's madness is at its height, and his language, seemingly broken down into incoherent and disconnected phrases, becomes intensely poetic. This intensity has to be combined with dramatic necessities: interactions with other characters, the conveying of plots, the audience's sense of Lear's inner development and understanding despite the growth of his madness. The program looks in detail at Act IV, scene 6, the storm scene, and at Lear's poignant re-encounter with the blind Gloucester, played by Basil Henson. 025 Min. VIDEO 1996 Subject: SHAKESPEARE Series: SHAKESPEARE WORKSHOPS

VH 8017 King Richard The Second
Summary: King Richard confiscates estates and mortgages his realm in order to raise funds for an Irish campaign. Bolingbroke and others make this a pretext for invading England during the King's absence. Learning of the rebellion, King Richard returns to reclaim England, but is unable to conquer the strength of Bolingbroroke's forces. 158 Min. VIDEO 1992 Subject: SHAKESPEARE

VH 0534 Language and Character
Summary: John Barton guides members of the Royal Shakespeare Company in a discussion and dramatization of Shakespeare's use of language to define character. He also explores the Elizabethan relish of words and the use of Elizabethan English in the development of Shakespeare's characters. 051 Min. VIDEO 1988 Subject: SHAKESPEARE Series: PLAYING SHAKESPEARE

VH 1135 Love's Labour Lost (Part 1)
Summary: A satire directed against intellectual pride and pedantry. The comedy concerns a King and his three lords who take a vow to spend three years in study and not to see any women. The storyline becomes complicated when the Princess of France and her three ladies arrive on a mission and thus test the men's vow. 060 Min. VIDEO 1984 Subject: SHAKESPEARE Series: SHAKESPEARE PLAYS

VH 0006 Macbeth
Summary: Originally released as a motion picture in 1948 by Republic Pictures. Orson Welles' Mercury production of William Shakespeare's tragedy, Macbeth. Director: Orson Welles. 089 Min. VIDEO 1983 Subject: SHAKESPEARE , DRAMA

VH 0679 Macbeth
Summary: Macbeth remained a firm favorite in Verdi's own mind, and although it is now recognized as one of his greatest operas, it underwent considerable revisions during his lifetime. The final version we know today appeared in Paris in 1865, some eighteen years after its original premiere in Florence. Sung in Italian, English subtitles. 150 Min. VIDEO 1987 Subject: SHAKESPEARE , OPERA

VH 3542 Measure For Measure, Workshop 1
Summary: This program concentrates on Act II, scene 2, in which Isabella comes to plead with Angelo for her brother's life. Director John Brown asks what, and how much, each character can be said to reveal of themselves here. Through this highly focused rehearsal, it becomes possible to discover an Isabella far more passionate and far more complex than sometimes portrayed. 025 Min. VIDEO 1996 Subject: SHAKESPEARE Series: SHAKESPEARE WORKSHOPS

VH 3543 Measure For Measure, Workshop 2
Summary: In Act III, scene 1, Isabella comes to tell her brother Claudio that he must die, since she will not forfeit her chastity to save him. The emotional focus of this great scene is intense, and its poetry extremely complex and compressed. By working carefully through its most difficult moments, director John Russell Brown examines the extent to which actors can convey this emotion through gestures and language. 025 Min. VIDEO 1996 Subject: SHAKESPEARE Series: SHAKESPEARE WORKSHOPS

VH 1092 Merry Wives of Windsor, The (Part 2)
Summary: A dramatization of William Shakespeare's comedy, which brings together an assortment of sure fire theatrical elements: an inept con man, a jealous husband with a mischievous wife, a pair of young lovers, a dose of disguise, considerable slapstick, an elopement, and a fun filled conclusion. 054 Min. VIDEO 1982 Subject: SHAKESPEARE Series: SHAKESPEARE PLAYS

VH 0666 Midsummer Night's Dream, A
Summary: An operatic version of Shakespeare's romantic comedy. 156 Min. VIDEO 1982 Subject: SHAKESPEARE , DRAMA , OPERA

VH 5206 Midwinter's Tale, A
Summary: Writers/director Kenneth Branagh serves up a Hamlet on wry with this salute to dyed-in-the-wool and often wooly-brained thespians. 098 Min. VIDEO 1996 Subject: COMMUNICATION , SHAKESPEARE

VH 3978 Muse of Fire, A / Guid Scots Tongue, The
Summary: 3. "A Muse of Fire" Covers the Age of Exploration, as pilgrims and pirates carried English to the New World. 4."The Guid Scots Tongue" Traces the Scottish influence from Northern Ireland to Appalachia. 116 Min. VIDEO 1986 Subject: LANGUAGE SKILLS, U.S. HISTORY , COMMUNICATION , SHAKESPEARE Series: STORY OF ENGLISH, THE

VH 0538 Passion and Coolness
Summary: John Barton guides members of the Royal Shakespeare Company in a discussion and dramatization of Shakespeare's use of passion and coolness, including his mixture of deep feeling, choric elements, and the balancing of heightened language and naturalistic performance. 052 Min. VIDEO 1988 Subject: SHAKESPEARE Series: PLAYING SHAKESPEARE

VH 0535 Poetry and Hidden Poetry
Summary: John Barton leads members of the Royal Shakespeare Company in a discussion of Shakespeare's use of poetry and hidden poetry in seemingly unpoetic lines. Barton and the actors demonstrate how polysyllables trip easily off the tongue, while monosyllabic lines and words are packed with thoughts and feelings. They also explore Shakespeare's use of the words "time" and "death". 053 Min. VIDEO 1988 Subject: SHAKESPEARE Series: PLAYING SHAKESPEARE

VH 0536 Preparing to Perform Shakespeare
Summary: Members of the Royal Shakespeare Company present a workshop before a television studio audience to demonstrate how they rehearse and learn to perform Shakespeare's plays. 053 Min. VIDEO 1988 Subject: SHAKESPEARE Series: PLAYING SHAKESPEARE

VH 0540 Rehearsing the Text
Summary: Concentrating on a scene from Twelfth night, John Barton guides members of the Royal Shakespeare Company in a discussion and reading of the lines in search of Shakespeare's clues to character, language, and staging. Barton and the actors demonstrate how verse itself is a clue to the meaning. 052 Min. VIDEO 1988 Subject: SHAKESPEARE Series: PLAYING SHAKESPEARE

VH 4109 Romeo and Juliet
Summary: The Best of the Pre-Olivier Shakespeare films. Norma Shearer received her fifth Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Juliet in this sumptuous 1936 MGM version of Shakespeare's tale of star-crossed lovers. George Cukor directed, relying on dialogue that although truncated, is Shakespeare's. 126 Min. VIDEO 1936 Subject: SHAKESPEARE

VH 0533 Set Speeches and Soliloquies
Summary: John Barton guides members of the Royal Shakespeare Company in a discussion and dramatization of Shakespeare's use of dialogue and soliloquy for story and audience purposes. Barton explains the differences between the two, what they contain, and how they arise. 052 Min. VIDEO 1988 Subject: SHAKESPEARE Series: PLAYING SHAKESPEARE

VH 2404 Shakespeare: Selected Sonnets
Summary: Four sonnets chosen to conform to a single classroom period: sonnet 65 (read by Jane Lapotaire, commentary by Stephen Spender), sonnet 66 (read by Michael Bryant, commentary by Arnold Wesker), sonnet 94 (read by Michael Bryant, commentary by John Mortimer), and sonnet 127 (read by Ben Kingsley, commentary by A.L. Rowse). 040 Min. VIDEO 1993 Subject: SHAKESPEARE

VH 2923 Shakespearean Tragedy
Summary: Exploring the nature of tragedy and the Shakespearean tragic hero, this program is ideal viewing for students before they read any of the tragedies (particularly Hamlet and Macbeth), since is prepares them for Shakespeare's concepts of action, character, and catharsis. 040 Min. VIDEO 1993 Subject: SHAKESPEARE

VH 0539 Speaking Shakespearean Verse
Summary: Members of the Royal Shakespeare Company present a workshop before a television studio audience in which they interpret the rhythms and pronunciation of Shakespeare's English. 050 Min. VIDEO 1988 Subject: SHAKESPEARE Series: PLAYING SHAKESPEARE

VH 0530 Two Traditions, The
Summary: John Barton guides members of the Royal Shakespeare Company in a discussion and dramatization of Shakespeare's use of language, meter, and verse. Barton and the actors address and analyze the question of how to understand Shakespeare's texts, citing examples of writings of other British authors of the period. 050 Min. VIDEO 1988 Subject: SHAKESPEARE Series: PLAYING SHAKESPEARE

VH 5769 Understanding Literature and Life, Part 1a, Lectures 1 - 5
Summary: 1. Why Literature? Civilization and Its Discontents, 2. "Oedipus the King" and the Nature of Greek Tragedy, 3. Fate and Free Will: Reading the Signs in "Oedipus, 4. Self-Making vs. Self-Discovery in "Oedipus", 5. The Interpretive Afterlife of "Oedipus". 155 Min. VIDEO 1997 Subject: DRAMA , SHAKESPEARE Series: GREAT COURSES ON TAPE

VH 5770 Understanding Literature and Life, Part 1a, Lectures 6 - 10
Summary: 6. Shakespeare's "Othello": Tragedy of Marriage and State, 7. Poison in the Ear, or the Dismantling of Othello, 8. Rethinking "Othello": Race, Gender, and Subjectivity, 9. French Theater and Moliere's Comedy of Vices, 10. "Tartuffe" and Varieties of Posture. 155 Min. VIDEO 1997 Subject: DRAMA , SHAKESPEARE Series: GREAT COURSES ON TAPE

VH 5773 Understanding Literature and Life, Part 2a, Poetry, Lec.21-25
Summary: 21. Study of Literature: Approaches, Encounters, Departures, 22. Shakespeare's Sonnets: The Glory of Poetry, 23. The Shape of Love and Death in Shakespeare's Sonnets, 24. Innocence and Experience in William Blake, 25. Blakean Fables of Desire. 155 Min. VIDEO 1997 Subject: SHAKESPEARE Series: GREAT COURSES ON TAPE

VH 5774 Understanding Literature and Life, Part 2a, Poetry Lec.26-30
Summary: 26. Blake: Visionary Poet, 27. Whitman and the Making of an American Bard, 28. "Myself" as Whitman's 19th Century American Hero, 29. Form and Flux, Openness and Anxiety in Whitman's Poetry, 30. Emily Dickinson: The Prophetic Voice from the Margins. 155 Min. VIDEO 1997 Subject: SHAKESPEARE Series: GREAT COURSES ON TAPE

VH 0532 Using the Verse
Summary: John Barton guides members of the Royal Shakespeare Company in a discussion and dramatization of Shakespeare's use of blank verse. The actors discover how Shakespeare uses antithesis, short lines, end-stopped lines and pauses in the middle of a line, and why Shakespeare's lines sometimes mis-scan. 050 Min. VIDEO 1988 Subject: SHAKESPEARE Series: PLAYING SHAKESPEARE