6. The Taming of the Shrew.
A. Context and dating: Misogynist Tradition in Elizabethan England.
B. Character.
C. Inspirations and Sources for the Play.
Roman comedy and the Commedia dell’arte.
Popular Ballads: “A Wife Lapped in Mare’s Skin…”.
The Bible.
The ‘Other’ Shrew: The Taming of A Shrew (c. 1591-4?).
D. Language and Silence.
E. Themes and Issues.
Women’s Roles and Rights: Then and Now.
Fathers and daughters; Men and Marriage.
Role-Playing: Supposes.
F. Staging Challenges in The Shrew.
The Induction Scenes.
Boys Playing Kate and Bianca.
Locales, Interiors, Exteriors, Roadway.
The Text of the Taming of the Shrew.
G. The Taming of the Shrew on Stage.
Elizabethan England.
Restoration Shrews: A Different Tamer.
Eighteenth Century: Garrick’s Catherine and Petruchio.
Nineteenth Century: Shrew Restored.
Twentieth Century: Rethinking The Shrew .
H. The Taming of the Shrew on Film and Video.
Fairbanks and Pickford in the First “Talkie”(1928).
Franco Zeffirelli (1968).
The BBC, Jonathan Miller (1980).
Peter Dews (video of Stratford, Canada Festival,1981) .
I. Adaptations:
Kiss Me Kate: Musical Play (1948) and Film (1953).
I. Spinoffs .
Moonlighting (TV, c. 1983).
Film: Ten Things I Hate About You (1999).
Ballet: John Cranko’s Stuttgart Ballet Shrew(1969).
Close Up: Franco Zeffirelli.
7. A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
A. Contexts and Dating.
B. Character.
C. Language, Structure, and Music in The Dream.
D. Themes and Issues .
Lunatics, Lovers, and Poets.
Imagination and Mind Games.
Generation and Gender Battles.
E. Sources and Inspirations.
The Elizabethans and the Spirit World.
A Courtly Wedding.
Literary Sources.
The Text of A Midsummer Night’s Dream .
F. Staging Challenges in The Dream .
What Does a Fairy Look/Sound Like?
From Court to the Woods and Back Again.
“Bottom, Thou Art Translated”–But How?
The Play Within the Play: Just “Silly Stuff”? .
G. The Dream on Stage.
The Elizabethan Stage.
Reynolds’ Musical Dream.
Shakespeare Restored by Madame Vestris.
19th Century Spectacle (and Spectacle en extremis).
Anti-Spectacle: Granville Barker to Peter Brook.
Post-Brook Dreams.
H. The Dream on Film and Video.
Max Rinehardt (1935).
Peter Hall (1968).
The BBC: Elijah Moshinsky (1981).
Adrian Noble (1996).
Michael Hoffman (1999).
J. Adaptations.
Ballet: Felix Mendelssohn.
K Spin-offs of The Dream.
Musicals: Babes in the Woods.
Films: A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy (1982, Woody Allen); Dead Poet’s Society (1989) .
Frame-by-Frame: Titania and Bottom in Rinehardt, Hall, and Hoffman .
Close-up: Madame Vestris (nee Lucia Elizabeth Bartolozzi) .
8. The Merchant of Venice.
A. Context, Date, Problem Comedy.
Race, Religion, and Ethnicity.
Marlowe’s The Jew of Malt.
Roderigo Lopez and the Plot on Elizabeth’s Life.
B. Characters.
Antonio, the Merchant of Venice.
The Lovers: Portia and Bassanio; Nerissa and Gratiano; Jessica and Lorenzo.
The Villain: Shylock .
The Suitors: The Spaniard and the Moor.
The Clown: Launcelot Gobbo.
C. Sources and Inspirations.
An Italian story (Il Pecorone) and an English ballad (Gernutus).
The Italian Commedia dell’arte.
D. Language and Structure.
E. Themes and Issues….
The Racist Elements.
The Status of Women.
False Appearances.
Legalism.
F. Staging Challenges.
The Antonio-Bassanio Relationship.
“Jewish gabardine:” Shylock’s Appearance.
The Caskets and the Suitors.
Hath not a Jew eyes?”–Sympathy or Menace?
The Ring Trick and a Bawdy Ending.
The Text of The Merchant of Venice.
G. The Merchant of Venice on Stage.
In Elizabethan England; Speculating about Shylock .
Restoration and Eighteenth Centuries: Caricature to Man.
Nineteenth Century: Sympathy and Spectacle.
Early Twentieth Century: Politics and Playing.
Post-Holocaust Shylocks: :Olivier, Carnovsky, Scott, Hoffman, Stewart, Suchet, Goodman.
H.The Merchant of Venice on Film and Television.
Jonathan Miller (dir), Laurence Olivier, Joan Plowright (1970).
The RSC’s Playing Shakespeare: “Exploring a Character” with Patrick Stewart and David Suchet (1983).
Trevor Nunn (dir) with Henry Goodman (2001).
9. Much Ado about Nothing.
A. Contexts and Dating.
B. Character.
C. Language in Much Ado About Nothing.
D. Themes and Issues.
The Battle of the Sexes.
Cuckolds and Misogynists.
E. Sources and Inspirations for Much Ado about Nothing.
Greek and Italian Sources.
Spencer’s Fairie Queene.
F. Staging Challenges in Much Ado About Nothing.
Eavesdropping.
“Kill Claudio”.
The Text of Much Ado about Nothing.
G. Much Ado about Nothing on Stage.
The Elizabethan Stage: Fluid movement.
Restoration Adaptations and Eighteenth Century Practice.
Nineteenth Century: Sensibility and Comedy.
Twentieth Century: Directors and Updates.
Stuart Burge and the BBC (1984).
Kenneth Branagh (1993).
The Renaissance of Shakespeare Films in the 90s.
H. Adaptations.
Opera: Hector Berlioz, Beatrice et Benedict (1861).
Close up: Kenneth Branagh.
Introduction to the Screen for Much Ado about Nothing.
10. Twelfth Night, or What You Will.
A. The Melancholy Comedy.
B. The Title.
C. Character.
D. Sources and Inspirations .
Her Majesty Requests a Twelfth Night Entertainment.
The Feast of Fools.
The Puritan Menace and Sir William Knolyss.
Another Italian Novella and Play.
E. Language and Music.
F. Themes and Issues.
Love, Infatuation, and Lust.
Hypocrisy and Disguises.
Carnival vs. Lent.
Madness.
G. Staging Challenges in Twelfth Night.
Where Is Illyria?
“Identical Twins” and the Love Triangle.
The Tyranny of the Subplot.
Poor Antonio.
The Miraculous Ending.
The Text of Twelfth Night.
H. Twelfth Night on the Stage .
Globe and/or Whitehall?
Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century: Amended, Musicalized, Rediscovered.
Nineteenth Century Romanticism.
Twentieth Century: The Fool’s Place.
John Barton and the RSC 1969.
Increasingly Darker Twelfth Nights.
I. Twelfth Night on Film and Television.
BBC Cedric Messina (1980).
Kenneth Branagh (1988).
Trevor Nunn (1996).
Nick Hytner (video of production at Lincoln Center, 1999).
J. Spin-offs .
Rock Musical: Your Own Thing (1968).
Ellington-scored Jazz Musical: Play On! (1999).
Color Plates: The Histories.
11. Richard III.
A. Contexts, Dating: A Theatrical Villain, Fact and Shakespeare’s Fiction.
B. Characters, conspirators.
C. Sources and Inspirations for the Play.
Revisionism and The Tudor Myth.
The English Chronicles.
Stage Machiavels and Christopher Marlowe’s Villainous Heroes.
D. Language, Soliloquies and Structure in Richard III.
E. Themes and Issues.
Regicide and Its Consequences.
The Art of the Actor and The Seductive Power of Words.
A ‘Tragical History:” Whose Tragedy is It? .
G. Staging Challenges in Richard III.
Cutting/Adapting the (Long) Script.
Visualizing the Crook-Backe`d King.
Richard’s Nightmare.
Bosworth Field and Other Scenes of Murder.
The Text of Richard III.
H. Richard III on the Stage .
Elizabethan England: Downstage Complicity.
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Spectacle and Melodrama.
Twentieth Century Psychology and Current Events.
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Wars of the Roses (1963).
The RSC’s Eight Histories’ Marathon (2001).
I. Richard III on Film and Television.
Silent Films.
Laurence Olivier (1955).
BBC: Jane Howell (1980).
Michael Bogdanov (1989: English Shakespeare Company Wars of the Roses) .
Al Pacino’s Looking for Richard (1996).
Richard Loncraine and Ian McKellan (1995).
J. Spin-offs .
Films: The Tower of London (1939); The Goodbye Girl (1977).
12. King Henry IV, Part One.
A. Contexts and Dating; The Appeal of Falstaff.
B. Characters.
C. Inspirations for the Play.
The Henriad Tetrology.
The English Chronicles; Raphael Holinshed and Samuel Daniel.
Victory over the Armada and English Supremacy.
E. Structure and Language (English and Welsh) in Henry IV.
F. Themes and Issues.
Fathers and Sons.
What is Honor? A Word? Or?
Tempters and the Tempted.
G. Staging Challenges in 1 Henry IV.
The Fat Knight/Reverend Vice.
Eastcheap Tavern.
The Battle Scenes and Death of Hotspur.
The Text of King Henry IV, Part One.
H. Henry IV on the Stage .
Elizabethan England: Speculation and Doubling.
Restoration and Eighteenth Century: Resisting “improvements”.
Nineteenth Century: Spectacle and the Falstaff Phenomenon.
TwentiethCentury: Romanticism vs Realism.
RSC, Michael Attenborough (dir.), 2000.
Lincoln Center, Jack O’Brien (dir.), 2003.
I. Henry IV on Film and Television.
Orson Welles’ Chimes at Midnight (1966: incl. 2 Henry IV).
BBC: Cedric Messina (1979).
Michael Bogdanov (1989: ESC Wars of the Roses).
J. Adaptations.
Opera: Guiseppe Verdi’s Falstaff (1893; inspired by The Merry Wives of Windsor, based on the character Shakespeare created in 1 Henry IV).
K. Spin-offs.
Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor.
Musical: Lone Star Love (2001).
Film: My Own Private Idaho (1991).
13. King Henry V.
A. Contexts, Dating, Hal As Superhero, Statesman, Manipulator and Lover.
B. Characters: the manly English and arrogant French.
C. Inspirations for the Pla.
Victories at Agincourt and Over the Armada.
The Famous Victories of King Henry V (1588).
The Opening of the Globe?
The English Chronicles…and English Myth.
E. Structure and Language in Henry V.
Rousing Speeches.
Two Scenes in French.
F. Themes and Issues.
The Correct Uses of Kingship, Public and Personal.
Shakespeare’s Guide to Personnel Management.
Patriotism and its Limits.
Wooing and Wedding.
G. Staging Challenges in Henry V.
The Chorus.
The Brutal and Exhilirating Battles.
The English vs. The French.
The Text of King Henry V.
H. Henry V on the Stage.
At the Globe Theater: A Topical Play.
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century: Spectacle and the Restored Text.
Twentieth Century through World War II: Irony and Patriotism.
Postmodern Stagings: The Histories in Sequence. .
I. Henry V on Film and Television.
Laurence Olivier (1944).
Kenneth Branagh (1989).
David Giles (dir.), BBC (1979).
Michael Bogdanov (1989: RSC Wars of the Roses).
Richard Olivier (video of production at the New Globe Theater, 1999).
Frame by Frame: The Battle of Agincourt on film -- Olivier and Branagh .
Color Plates: The Tragedies.
14. Romeo and Juliet.
A. Questions of Genre, Context and Dating.
B. Character.
C. Inspirations and Sources for the Play.
Those Romantic Italians: Bandello, and de Porta.
Arthur Brooke’s Poem: Romeus and Juliet.
Ovid’s Pyramus and Thisbe.
D. Language and structure in Romeo and Juliet.
E. Themes and Issues.
O’er hasty Marriages: Passion and Impetuousness.
Blood Feuds: Self-Perpetuating Revenge.
“Fortune’s Fools:” Tragic Heroes or Victims?
Personal Identity and Women’s Roles.
F. Staging Challenges in Romeo and Juliet.
Duels and Swordplay.
Two-hours Traffic: Swift Events.
The Tomb Scene.
The Text of Romeo and Juliet.
G. Romeo and Juliet on Stage.
In Elizabethan England: Swift Transitions.
Restoration and Eighteenth Century: Radical Revisions .
Nineteenth Century: Breeches Romeos and Admired Juliets.
Twentieth Century:Romeo and Mercutio Return.
H. Romeo and Juliet on Film and Television.
The Many Silent Films.
George Cukor (1936)).
Renato Castellani (1956).
Franco Zeffirelli (1968).
BBC, Alan Rakoff (1978).
Baz Luhrmann’s William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet (1996).
I. Adaptations .
Ballets: Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev; Lavrovsky, Ashton, MacMillan.
Opera: Gounod (1867).
Musical Dramas: West Side Story(1957).
J. Spin-offs.
Plays: Maxwell Anderson (Winterset, 1935); Peter Ustinov (Romanoff and Juliet, 1956/1961).
Films: China Girl (1987); Shakespeare in Love (1999).
Frame by Frame: The crypt in Castellani, Zeffirelli, Luhrmann, and MacMillan .
Close -up: Baz Luhrmann (with exclusive interview).
15. Hamlet.
A. Contexts and Dating.
B. Character: Theater’s Most Famous Enigmatic Hero.
C. Sources and Inspirations for the Play.
Thomas Kyd’s Greatest Hit: The Spanish Tragedy.
Saxo Grammaticus, Bellforest, and Others.
The Ur Hamlet.
Deaths in Shakespeare’s Family.
D. Structure, Language, and Soliloquies in Hamlet.
E. Themes and Issues.
Divinity.
Soul-sickness.
Questioning.
Existentialism.
Revenge and Justice.
Women’s roles.
“Consistently Inconsistent”.
The Renaissance Man in a Medieval World.
F. Staging Challenges in Hamlet.
Which Text?–and How Do We Cut It?
Old Hamlet’s Ghost.
The Players and the Dumb Show.
Hamlet’s Treatment of Women.
The Graveyard.
The Fortinbras Subplot.
The Text of Hamlet.
G. Hamlet on the Stage (with Photo Essay: “Hamlet–from Burbage to Branagh”).
Elizabethan England.
Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: Betterton and Garrick.
1800-1900: A Century of Great Hamlets.
Early Twentieth Century: Barrymore vs. Olivier vs. Gielgud (and Others).
Late 20th Century: The Anti-Delicate and Tender Prince.
H. Hamlet on Film and Television.
Silent Hamlets (1913, 1920 and others).
Laurence Olivier (1948).
Franz Peter Wirth (Maximilian Schell, 1960: German).
Gregor Kozintsev (Mikhail Smoktunovsky, 1964: Russian).
Tony Richardson (Nicol Williamson, 1969).
Peter Wood (Richard Chamberlain, 1970: TV).
BBC: Cedric Messina (Derek Jacobi, 1980).
Franco Zeffirelli (Mel Gibson, 1990).
Kenneth Branagh (Branagh, 1996).
Michael Almereyda (Ethan Hawke, 2000).
I. Adaptations and Spin-offs of Hamlet.
Musicals and ballets.
Plays:
Pavel Cahoot, Poor Murderer (1977).
Tom Stoppard, Dogg’s Hamlet (1979) and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1967).
Paul Rudnick, I Hate Hamlet (1993).
Lee Blessing, Fortinbras (2002).
Films.
To Be or Not to Be (1942, remake, 1983).
Johnny Hamlet (1957) .
The Bad Sleep Well (Kurosawa, 1960).
Blue City (1986).
Outrageous Fortune (1987).
The Renaissance Man, 1994).
A Midwinter’s Tale (1998).
Close Up: Laurence Olivier.
16. Othello.
A. Contexts and Dating: Comic Archetypes As Tragic Figures.
B. Characters: Heroes, Innocents and Manipulators.
C. Sources and Inspirations for the Play.
The Lure of Venice.
A Fascination with Moors.
Cinthio’s Novella.
The Morality Play.
D. Language and Music .
E. Themes and Issues .
Passion, Reason and “The Green Eye’d Monster”.
The Machiavellian Mind.
“The Other:” Race , Foreigners, and Women.
F. Staging Challenges in Othello.
Depicting Moors? African? Arabic? Or?
Who is the Protagonist?
The Death Scene (5.5).
The Text of Othello.
G. Othello on the Stage .
Jacobean England: Burbage and What Kind of Iago?
Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century: A Female Desdemona.
Nineteenth Century: Romantic Othellos and Ira Aldredge.
Twentieth Century: Black Actors and Directorial Vision.
H. Othello on Film and Video.
Silent Othellos (1917, 1922).
Orson Welles (Welles, 1952).
Sergei Yutkevitch (1955).
Stuart Burge (Laurence Olivier, 1965).
BBC: Elijah Moshinsky (Anthony Hopkins, 1981).
Trevor Nunn (Willard White, 1989).
Oliver Parker (Lawrence Fishburne, 1995).
I. Adaptations.
Opera: Guiseppe Verdi’s Otello, (1887).
Rock Musical: Catch My Soul (1973).
Play: An Othello (Charles Marowitz, 1973).
J. Spin-offs:
Films:
Men Are Not Gods (1936).
A Double Life (1947).
An Imaginary Tale (1990).
‘0’ (2001).
Close Up: Orson Welles.
17. King Lear.
A. Contexts, Dating, Redemption, Nihilism, Cosmic Catastrophe.
B. Characters: Friendship, Families, Misjudgments, the Fool.
C. Sources and Inspirations for the Play.
Celtic Mythology; Tudor Myth.
An Earlier Leir (1594/1605).
Cinderella and Folk Tales.
D. Structure and Language in King Lear.
Parallel Families.
Verbal Paradox.
E. Themes and Issues .
Natural and Unnatural.
Blindness, Sight and Insight.
Disguise, Illusion, Reality.
F. Staging Challenges in King Lear.
Acting the Old Patriarch.
Embodying Violence.
Storm on the Heath, in the Mind.
The Text of King Lear.
G. King Lear on the Stage .
Nahum Tate’s Long-Lived Adaptation (1681).
David Garrick (Drury Lane, 1756-86).
William Charles Macready (Covent Garden, 1838).
Henry Irving and Ellen Terry (1892).
Laurence Olivier (Old Vic, 1946).
John Gielgud (Stratford 1950/ 1955).
Peter Brook/ Paul Scofield (Stratford, 1962).
Morris Carnovsky (Stratford USA, 1963-65).
H. King Lear on Film and Video.
Grigori Kozintsev (Yuri Jarvet, 1970).
Peter Brook (Paul Scofield, 1971).
Laurence Olivier (Granda television,1984).
Richard Eyre (Ian Holm, 1998).
I. Adaptations .
Film:
Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 1983).
J. Spin-offs.
Play: Lear (Edward Bond, 1971) .
Film.
King Lear: Fear and Loathing (Jean Luc-Godard, 1988).
The King is Alive (dir. Kirstian Levring, w. David Bradley, 1998).
A Thousand Acres (Jocelyn Moorhouse, 1999).
18. Macbeth.
A. Context, Dating, Spiritual Evil and The Drama of Conscience in the “Scottish” Play.
B. Characters and Moral Character.
C. Sources and Inspirations for the Play.
A Scottish King on the English Throne.
James Stuart’s Demonologie.
The Gunpowder Plot.
Holinshed’s Chronicles and The Origins of the Scottish People.
D. Structure and Language in Macbeth.
E. Themes and Issues .
The Perils of Regicide.
Vaulting Ambition.
Power Politics.
The Face of Evil.
F. Staging Challenges in Macbeth.
The Witches.
Bloody Deeds.
The Drunken Porter.
The Gory Locks of Banquo’s Ghost.
‘Lay on MacDuff”–The Final Fight.
The Text of Macbeth.
G. Macbeth on the Stage .
At the Globe and the Blackfriars.
Restoration and Eighteenth Century: Improvers and Adapters.
Nineteenth Century: Gothic Shakespeare.
Twentieth Century: Freudian Shakespeare.
H. Macbeth on Film and Video.
Orson Welles (Welles, 1948).
Roman Polanski (Jon Finch, 1971).
Trevor Nunn (Ian McKellan, 1979).
BBC: Jack Gold (Nicol Williamson, 1983).
I. Adaptations.
Opera: Guiseppe Verdi’s Macbeth (1847).
Film: Akiru Kurosawa, Throne of Blood (1957).
J. Spin-offs.
Films:
Joe Macbeth (1955).
Siberian Lady Macbeth (1962).
Men of Respect (1990).
Scotland, PA (2002).
Close Up: Akira Kurosawa .