Shakespeare: Home

"Meticulously accurate texts from the Folger Shakespeare Library Editions." You can read them online, download them as pdf and even download the code.

Interactive text of six plays including MacBeth and Midsummer Night's Dream.

The RSC channel in Academic Video online includes performances for Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Tempest along with others.

The BBC produced Shakespeare in Perspective, a series of 25-minute personal introductions to individual plays by an eclectic range of presenters from the literary (Anthony Burgess, Dennis Potter, Jilly Cooper) to the scholarly (Germaine Greer, Frank Kermode, Michael Wood) to the celebrity (Roy Hudd, George Melly, Barry Took). These usually took the form of straight-to-camera addresses from assorted locations with some connection to the play, which were intercut with extracts from the accompanying BBC Shakespeare production, usually screened later that evening.

from BBC Worldwide Learning

from BBC Worldwide Learning

Amorous sparks fly alongside barbed repartee in this hip adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic romantic comedy. A modern television news studio provides the setting, transforming Beatrice and Benedick—played by Sarah Parish and Damian Lewis—into bickering coanchors. Meanwhile, Don, a jealous studio tech, tries to sabotage the budding love affair between Claude the sports guy and Hero the weather girl. Screenplay writer David Nicholls cleverly weaves Sonnet 116 (“Let me not to the marriage of true minds / Admit impediments.”) into the dialogue. Produced by BBC Northern Ireland and Horsebridge Productions. A part of the series ShakespeaRe-Told. (90 minutes)

Joseph Papp’s 1972 CBS-TV production of the New York Shakespeare Festival’s Broadway staging of Shakespeare’s rollicking comedy is brassy, bouncy, and altogether entertaining. Featuring Sam Waterston and the Tony-nominated performances of Kathleen Widdoes and Barnard Hughes, Papp’s turn-of-the-century version has Teddy Roosevelt roughriders and bicycle-riding women suffragettes, while remaining faithful to the classic tale: Beatrice and Benedick are still sparring partners fighting their merry war of words; the evil Don Jon continues conspiring to break up the wedding of Hero and Claudio; and it’s once again up to Dogberry to save the day. Critically acclaimed and enormously popular with audiences, this production of Much Ado About Nothing—which was transferred to Broadway after originating at the open-air Delacorte Theatre in Central Park—was perceived as the first successful Shakespeare to play without a major star in Broadway history. The CBS broadcast was seen by 20 million people. Cast: Sam Waterston, Kathleen Widdoes, Barnard Hughes, April Shawnham, Douglass Watson. (155 minutes)

16th century Naples and the Academy of Secrets shaped Shakespeare's play. Francesco da Mosto views the 1589 edition of Della Porta's "Magiae Naturalis." A BBC Production.