Shakespeare

The Obama White House
May 21, 2009
"Academy Award winning actor James Earl Jones performs from Shakespeare's Othello at the White House Evening of Poetry, Music, and the Spoken Word on May 12, 2009."

This link leads to full-length, BBC produced modern adaptations of Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, The Taming of the Screw, and A Midsummer Night's Dream, all through our Films On Demand database. You can also access the database by going to the "Films" tab on our library's homepage.

Though not free, the Globe Theatre in London - the modern version of Shakespeare's own theatre - offers streaming of many of its performances. From their website: "Globe Player has paid-for recordings of many of the theatre's Shakespeare adaptations spanning more than 10 years . . . "

"Philomena knows absolutely nothing about Shakespeare but that won't stop her presenting a groundbreaking documentary about him."

With quotes like, "Did Shakespeare write nothing but boring gibberish with no relevance to our modern world of Tinder and peri peri fries?" Cunk talks to experts and actors, and discusses why the movie Taken is better than Hamlet.

TEDx Talks
January 4, 2017
"Does Shakespeare make you feel dumb? Stop *reading* him and start *experiencing* him. Rob talks about using acting to teach Shakespeare to kids."

TEDx Talks
March 21, 2012
Christopher Gaze discusses words and phrases invented by Shakespeare at TEDxVancouver.

TEDx Talks
May 13, 2016
"In this the 400th year since William Shakespeare’s death, there is still reluctance among many secondary school students to accept Shakespeare as an author who speaks to them and their dilemmas. In part this derives from the misguided notion that Shakespeare’s language is historically remote, too difficult, even inaccessible. Thus the rich market of Shakespeare translations from his English to contemporary English, with No Fear Shakespeare leading the way. But Shakespeare is not difficult if we understand his work as he intended it, as theatre not narrative. If we listen to Shakespeare rather than reading him, if we attend to the human scenarios he presents rather the hunting for meaning, theses, and essay topics, if we recognize the everydayness rather than pursuing the remote, then Shakespeare is as contemporary in 2016 as he was in 1616."

TEDx Talks
October 9, 2012
"Dan and Giles explain Shakespism, a sort of sickness that prevents us to love and truly understand Shakespeare. But we should cure us, because Shakespeare is as relevant today as he has always been. He has already written all the difficult words and he understand humans. Because he was just a man."

TEDx Talks
December 7, 2011
Akala demonstrates and explores the connections between Shakespeare and Hip-Hop, and the wider cultural debate around language and it's power.

TEDx Talks
Nov 9, 2017
"Ben Crystal is fascinated not only with the writing, producing, and performing of Shakespeare plays but also with how the theatres built 400 years ago might contribute to our entertainment experience today. English actor, author, producer and linguistic expert, most famous for performing and promoting William Shakespeare. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community."

The New York Times
April 27, 2016
"Shakespeare died 400 years ago, but his influence on language and culture remains."
Brief video showing the amount Shakespeare pops up in pop culture, from Star Wars to Beyonce.

This 93 minute documentary won 8 film festival awards! Here's it's description form Kanopy: "Murderers, Fugitives, Thieves...Shakespeare would have loved these guys. Shakespeare Behind Bars is an unexpectedly delightful documentary that follows the casting, rehearsal, and presentation of Shakespeare's play, The Tempest, by convicted felons inside Kentucky's Luther Luckett Correctional Complex."