Customer Reviews for Tmw Media Group Shakespeare and The Spanish Connection DVD

Join the University of California at Berkeley theatre dept. as they investigate the heart of William Shakespeare's plays. Simple reenactment of plays, featuring beautiful costumes and accessible acting makes both worlds interesting and easy to understand despite the barriers of language. Shakespeare and the Spanish Connection is a must for students, teachers, and Shakespeare scholars of all ages. Experience the plays of traditional Spanish theater firsthand and see how they parallel many of Shakespeare's most famous works, including how plays were brought to early California with the founding of the missions and are still performed as part of Spanish culture in modern-day America. See the archetypal "stock characters" of traditional Spanish theater manifest themselves in Shakespeare's plays. from the black hat villain (Don John in "Much Ado About Nothing") to the nag (Juliet's Nurse in "Romeo and Juliet") to the foolish braggart (Falstaff in "Henry IV," "Henry V" and "The Merry Wives of Windsor").

Host Hugh Macrae Richmond has served as a professor at UC Berkeley since 1968 and Professor Emeritus since 1994. He is also director of the Shakespeare program there and is the author of numerous scholarly works including Shakespeare's Political Plays, 1967, and Shakespeare in Performance: "King Henry VIII", 1994. Grades 9-12. 30 minutes on DVD.