Aly Wepplo recommends Shakespeare: A Day at the Globe on Kanopy streaming video.
Recently, I performed in a production of As You Like It with Sun Valley Shakespeare in the Park. To prepare, I watched Shakespeare: A Day at the Globe on Kanopy streaming video. This documentary gives a brief historical look at public theatre in England in Shakespeare’s time and presents an imagined viewing of Julius Caesar performed at the Globe Theatre.
Just 29 minutes in length, Shakespeare: A Day at the Globe has the feeling of an old filmstrip shown in high school English class.
Still images with narration and dramatized quotes from well-known figures of the time paint the picture of a day spent attending or performing in one of Shakespeare’s plays, with descriptions of the architecture, scenic design, costuming, and staging seen at The Globe.
Particularly fun are the descriptions of actors in Shakespeare’s company, including Will Kempe, the most popular comic actor of his day. Kempe criticized the performance style of unrealistic actors, saying they never talked while walking, “but at the end of the stage, just as though in walking, we should never speak but at a gate or a ditch, where a man can go no further.”
I thoroughly enjoyed the retro educational feeling of this video and finished before the lunch bell rang.
Find this and many more Shakespeare-related film offerings using your library card on Kanopy streaming video.
Find Shakespeare: A Day at the Globe in our collection here.
