Shakespeare's Tragedies and an Acting Lesson: Crash Course Theater #15

[@abhinavtiku4501]

People complain about George R.R. Martin killing off beloved characters. Shakespeare got in on the ground floor when it came to murdering his darlings!

[@gailcbull]

In Shakespeare's tragedies, things just get increasingly verse.

[@mustardsfire22]

What I love about Akira Kurosawa's Ran is that it takes the story of King Lear and makes it A. Make sense. and B. Resolve every thread, for the most part. Plus it's visually one of the most beautiful films of all time.

[@vrixphillips]

unfortunately it has no eye-stomping lol

[@snarkmarx]

Huh, so even Shakespeare used the old "Based on a true story" tagline.

[@margony6921]

OMG! This is the best summary of King Lear I have ever encountered!! Great job!

[@anungodlyamountofcereal6384]

-gasp- STAN HAS A FACE?!?!

[@gazelleguy]

He actually has a few episodes on various Crash Courses! He did one episode in World History 2 on energy, and I believe he was the main host of the 10 episode Intellectual Property series.

[@kikibirdball]

Theatre History final starts in 9 and a half hours. Perfect timing!

[@stormcloudsabound]

good luck!!

[@LorrTube]

Stan is real?!

[@lsamaknight]

Yeah, he subbed for John in World History 2 and got his own mini-series in with Intellectual Property

[@joryjones6808]

Stan!

[@davidssanchez3462]

He is really

[@cedarbobedar7223]

I SAW STAN! HI STAN!

[@camiloiribarren1450]

Love the speech Hamlet gave the audience to not blurt out lines, no overacting. Way to go, William. Thanks, Mike

[@PhoenixProdLLC]

Camilo Iribarren WHAT?! (windmill arms, heavy foot stomp). WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! (hands saw air) 😁

[@petrramx2674]

calling the name of the scottish tragedy is misfortune, but if you name the protagonist, Macbeth, then nothing wrong is bound to happen, now if you excuse that slippery floor is not going to fall on itself

[@vrixphillips]

Anyone who hasn't read King Lear certainly should. It's my favorite of Shakespeare's and has the best insult tirade, to say nothing of those excellent lines such as "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!" Also there's an excellent performance with Ian McKellen as Lear that... might be on KZbin lol. Apparently Anthony Hopkins is going to be in an upcoming BBC movie with Emma Thompson as one of the elder sisters, in a more modern take. I'm stoked

[@stephaniehight2771]

A heartfelt "Thank You!" for not thought bubbling "Titus Andronicus." Had to do that one for a college project. Yeecchhh!

[@Beryllahawk]

Dying laughing at Stan in the back there!!!!

[@rawjawbone]

King Lear does not get enough love, but I think Akira Kurosawa's version, "Ran" probably does it a lot more justice.

[@Jelcinpapa]

Best channel on KZbin !! Absolutely love you guys :D

[@maxwellwilliams3291]

If this series doesn't comment on Artaud, or Meyerhold, or Appia, or any of the lesser known crazy/cool stuff, I will lose it. They've never let me down before though, so I can't wait!

[@michaelarcaro8815]

Overall an excellent video! But as someone whose studied Shakespeare for years, many of them with a specific focus on this play, there are a few critical points that I feel should be brought up. First, Kent and Gloucester are both Earls of their respective places where you imply that the former goes by such as a personal name and claim the latter to be a duke. One of the interesting things that we see in many of Shakespeare's plays is that characters of noble stature are often known by the places they rule (creating bit of interesting confusion in the play we looked at in the last episode - Richard III). In this piece in particular, it goes to the extreme that the both of these men as well as the Dukes of Cornwall and Albany (the husbands of Goneril and Regan respectively) in addition to the King of France and the Duke of Burgundy transverse the actions of the play without the audience knowing their given or family names. All in all, a bit of a nitpick, but something I feel is worth mentioning. Second, and in my opinion the more prominent of the issues, is that the thought bubble implies that Edgar dies at the end of the play along with all of the other named characters. In reality though, he not only survives, but is the one offered the crown after Kent turns it down in some of the original versions of the play (the others have it fall to Albany and in either case, the one who gets the crown gives the final line of the piece). By and large though, this is a truly descent video!

[@nadiae683]

Just gotta love Shakespeare and CrashCourse! Before CrashCourse, I just, well, um, didn't really enjoy Shakespeare or chemistry or...or...ya know. Can you..umm...sympathize?

[@nadiae683]

guess not...sigh

[@Isaiah_McIntosh]

Nadia Estep younger sympathy for chemistry but not for Shakespeare

[@m.douglas8492]

THIS IS SYMPATHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@volk551]

Better to know the pain filled truth than sweet lies, for though sweet when truth become known the sweetness becomes bitter poison, that damns the soul. Truth is painful, but though that truth you shall know how to live know how to be better, as to not fall in to the sweetness that lies can bring you.

[@nikitaiafrate-mansi2140]

please do a video completely dedicated to King Lear! would be so helpful!

[@brendanobrien8198]

Actors STILL need to project

[@adaardeleanu4404]

Could you please do a crash course on architecture? I think that would be really interesting

[@ms.rstake_1211]

...yes it would I also think the history of Mathematics would be amazing.

[@cramerfloro5936]

the fool is still missing? well then this a REALLY sad tragedy

[@danier21]

*"Get in line, Sweeney Todd."*

[@davidshi451]

What I've always wondered is how Shakespeare holds up to his contemporaries?

[@sergeantpickles4202]

I think of him a bit like the Quentin Tarantino of his time, lots of violence and bad language, brilliant dialogue and characters, maybe not the strongest stories but that’s not really the focus.

[@davidshi451]

I've also heard that he was sometimes looked down upon by the "University Wits" because he was an actor and didn't go to university

[@charlesdonnelly7768]

Overall his body of work is bigger and better, but they’re plays from others that are just as good if not better in a lot of ways. Ben Jonson for one is a lot smarter, and his plays actually need footnotes unlike a lot of Shakespeare. Kyd reimagines greek revenge tragedy before Shakespeare. Marlowe inspires Shakespeare to do his Henry trilogy. Webster does things nobody else is even attempting. You’ll find just as much pleasure from other playwrights’ work.

[@NoelleMar]

"Ben Jonson for one is a lot smarter." WTF?? Wrong. However, I would recommend checking out his contemporaries. Lots of intertextuality. Honestly, what surprised me is how Shakespeare was real good at walking down the middle in certain ways. Others tended to be more didactic and political, sometimes in very admirable ways.

[@charlesdonnelly7768]

Noelle Matteson Sorry hunny, facts are facts. Jonson was smarter than Shakespeare. He was university educated and it shows in his works. The allusions and depth of meaning in his work surpass that of Shakespeare. In fact, Jonson was probably the smartest writer until Milton came along. I study english at Ucla hunny, I know what I’m talking about

[@matthewodonnell6906]

I love that you mentioned Hegel

[@sixpomegranateseeds6893]

The people who survive these things are usually the ones who don't initiate any BS. Like Edgar, Benvolio, and Horatio. They're the ones who survive and get to tell everyone exactly how everything went to heck in five acts.

[@jamiee7367]

I want to make a note about you saying _Titus Andronicus_ was Shakespeare's first tragedy, because it's a bit more complicated than that. There are potentially two tragedy plays written by Shakespeare that could precede _Titus,_ which is usually assigned a date around 1589-1591. First, there's _Arden of Faversham,_ a domestic tragedy published in 1592. The play dramatizes the murder of Thomas Arden in a plot orchestrated by his wife Alice Brigantine, and her lover Richard Mosby. Like many plays of the time, it was published anonymously, and many writers have been suggested in the past, such as Thomas Kyd, Christopher Marlowe, & William Shakespeare. However, several recent computer stylometric analyses have forwarded Shakespeare as author of scenes 4-9. MacDonald P. Jackson identified four people as potentially the author of the rest of the play, which Gary Taylor later narrowed down to poet & playwright Thomas Watson. Oxford University Press, accepting Shakespeare's authorship, date _Arden_ to 1588, which would make it precede _Titus Andronicus._ However, this is still kinda up to dispute, and there are modern scholars that attribute the whole play to Kyd instead. Second, there's _Hamlet._ Traditionally, Hamlet is dated to around 1599-1603, in the very middle of Shakespeare's career. There are, however, two major issues revolving around _Hamlet._ For one, the first quarto of _Hamlet_ significantly differs from the second quarto & first folio, being about half as short. Earlier scholars explained Q1 as simply being a bad quarto, a poor reconstruction of the play from memory. Secondly, there exist pre-1599 references to some sort of Hamlet play. The oldest reference comes from Thomas Nashe in 1589, who made a semi-mocking comment about an "English Seneca", who "if you entreat him… will afford you whole Hamlets, I should say handfuls, of tragical speeches." This lead to a theory postulating the existence of an 'Ur-Hamlet, a lost play Shakespeare used as a source for his play. Some would specifically suggest Thomas Kyd as author of the 'Ur-Hamlet' due to another vague reference by Nashe. However, more recent scholarship has increasingly disputed the Q1 bad quarto theory & the Kyd 'Ur-Hamlet' theory. Instead, several scholars are arguing that Q1 represents an earlier draft of _Hamlet_ by Shakespeare, written & preformed around 1588-1589, which was heavily revised around 1603. If this is indeed the case, then _Hamlet_ would precede _Titus Andronicus_ as well (but _Arden_ could potentially precede both). So essentially, the title of 'Shakespeare's First Tragedy' is a contention between _Arden of Faversham, Hamlet,_ and _Titus Andronicus._

[@Alverant]

More Stan! Encore!

[@JDazell]

That's the best summary of King Lear on KZbin

[@rhysicles01]

Will you guys be doing an episode on christopher marlowe? Specifically the play Dr. Faustus?

[@THGS-gu4fh]

7:35 what about Macbeth towards the end? Especially in such scenes as the one his wife dies

[@danieluroz8659]

where is Crash Course Theater #15? or is it a typo in the title?

[@ms.rstake_1211]

yes it is

[@VorpalBunnysRevenge]

You're doing a great job with this series even if I have a couple of notes from my own education. But then, this is a crash course now, isn't it? As to costuming, all my theatre history classes indicated that the actors wore what we would consider "street clothes". Meaning there really wasn't much costuming just as there wasn't much scenery at the time Shakespeare's plays were first performed. It was all done through "spoken scenery" because audiences at the time and place were much more in tune with metaphor and imagery from language because their immortal souls depended on it, as taught in church. Modern audiences don't think that way, so a lot of the depth of the text is usually lost on us. It wasn't until later, particularly with the Realism movement, that we got elaborate sets and costumes. As to Hamlet, what sets him apart is an idea called "self overhearing". Before this most playwrights constructed an argument and a speech as a whole item and had their actors speak it to the audience. But Shakespeare had Hamlet hear his own words and change his position because he persuaded himself. Missing this point is why most English teachers tell their students about Hamlet's "inability to act" when in fact he's acting throughout the whole play. Shakespeare's plays are not "English literature", they're drama -- they're meant to be seen and heard, and that's a very different experience than just reading them as a closet play. Also Hamlet is a "revenge play" meaning it has to follow a certain structure and rules. For instance, the reason Hamlet doesn't immediately kill his uncle Claudius is because the structure of that type of play requires the villain not only die but also go to Hell. Having just confessed his sins, he would presumably go to Heaven so Hamlet needs him to sin again before he dies.

[@sion-dafyddlocke9913]

CBV123 as a costume designer, I cannot think of anyone in our industry that would say Elizabethan drama wore “street clothes”. They did, in fact, base their costumes on the current fashion, but to think they wore whatever they had on that day is as much of a misnomer as “elaborate costumes.” In truth, no designer would allow a director/ producer to describe costumes as “ elaborate” with out clarification. Regardless, what we do know Elizabethan theatre is that they did indeed wear the current fashions, however supplemented by the necessary pieces to achieve the effect. This process of foundation garment set supplemented by pieces to establish specific informational sets (I.e. status, location, occupation) is actually termed “ elaboration” by most designers, and is still highly in used today. Julie Taylor actually uses this to effect in both “Titus” in which she elaborates modern, architectural fashions with romantic components, as well as “Lion King” where she sets ethnic garments next to mask and body puppets meant to indicate animal characters. In addition, Shakespeare himself actually discussed costumes with the mechanicals of “Midsummers” and necessitates it within several plays( I.e. anything with a disguise, the cultural groups in “Cymbeline”, the military groups in “Coriolanus”, and the Capulet/Montagues divide in “Romeo and Juliet”). Add to that the fact that extant records of theatres like the Rose have accounts of both garments purchased as well as tailor’s bills, not to mention the wills of actors that leave garments to another actor, and I think think it’s safe to say that specific, character-driven decisions were being made.( I am subsequently leaving out the economics of repertory theatre, which dictate that higher initial invest reaps higher ROI due to costume life.) As to your assertion that production doesn’t become elaborate until the Realist, you were simply misinformed. Stagecraft, design, and production is not solely the Providence of theatre. In fact, Opera developed these crafts more than theatre could hope for, given royal patronage. Although we do see purpose-built costumes in the professional theatres including the Elizabethan, whole productions are not purpose-built until the introduction of royal patronage and their subsequent tailors. By the classical baroque, we see full productions of purpose-built costumes, and by the time of Bel Canto, we have, in my opinion, the most exaggerated (elaborate ) costumes of the stage. Through the Restoration/ Baroque stage there is also an increasing effort towards scenic painting and mechanics. I will concede that Realism brings about dimensional, functional, architecturally structured sets, but stage design had already developed so much, starting with a well-known piece of experimental theatre named “The Tempest”. As far as costumes, I cannot pinpoint a single lasting contribution that Realism brings to the table. The concept of period pieces and the use of research had already been pioneered by Planchè in the 1820’s for his work with the National Theatre. It was the Romantic fascination with the High Gothic that propelled this work. The accessibility of sewing machines and the development of dress forms is more culpable in the availability of purpose-built costumes than any Realistic perspective. I will admit that I took my fair share of theatre history classes, usually taught by old men from the direction perspective. However, most stagecraft D &P history is taught in the respective intros because it requires a knowledge of the technology or construction to really make any sense. A general theatre history survey will at most contain a cursory mention of the tech, and no more. It also doesn’t hurt that stage designers are experts in doing research, therefore lessening the need for intensive histories of D&P

[@eddysanders2301]

you're not my dad's ghost

[@cm5061]

that's actually edgar in the storm, not edmund!

[@lupusrex2515]

I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS!!!😆😆😆😆Been waiting a long time 😊😋

[@lakrids-pibe]

I'm walking on sunshine, uh uuuh, I'm sawing the aaair, uh uuh

[@winniewildflower3540]

"Love and be silent"

[@danielsolomon6563]

They meet up with EDGAR, not Edmund, disguised as Tom O' Bedlam. 9:02

[@kikignis]

heeerreeee comes the problem plays!!!! gimme some cymbeline bro

[@ameliebowman5091]

Thanks for this video! Sorry if this is really annoying but I would love it if in (especially the science ones) the description said what the video said. Sorry it really helps me remember though 💙

[@bishfish7726]

Lol at 9:01 you mistakenly said Edmund instead of Edgar.

[@JonBastian]

Wow... nice landing on this one.

[@BrianHutzellMusic]

"Not do not saw the air too much with your hand." What would Hamlet have thought of Hank?

[@hollyburton9314]

Can you make a video on Catch 22?

[@VorpalBunnysRevenge]

Also, I would add that Shakespeare was being more Roman than Greek when it comes to depictions of violence. The Greeks told you about what happened off stage, where the Romans were more likely to depict acts of violence on stage. The Romans borrowed heavily from the cultures they conquered but adapted their stories to conform with Roman virtues. More Roman plays survived than Greek ones, so that fueled a lot more of the Neoclassism Movement which I'm sure is coming up.

[@joryjones6808]

Stan! Stoping acting like a ghost!

[@PhoenixProdLLC]

Beckett > Billy Wobblesticks People know of Shakespeare because there weren't copyright laws. Nor dictates post mortem about a playwrights work. IOW, it's tough to get Samuel's work out there to the public as compared to William's. So anyway...

[@GreyPop]

Edgar not Edmund is Mad Tom. Love this series!

[@wenseulrenejoyrisupremacy8758]

Hamlet for acting teacher

[@Zeldarw104]

very interesting entertaining & quite educational! Excellent video.👏👏👏😊

[@AlKohaiMusic]

Oh Titus Andronicus how I miss you.

[@thewalkingthinker6561]

making the way in this quarentine with a friend through the 51 videos

[@somphothbsiratsamy3748]

The elaboration is almost fragmented. It's there, but there is no way you can get it all in 12 mins

[@TheElitexPanda]

Ummm, Edgar becomes the king at the end, he doesn't die. Also you left out Goneril and Regan's husbands who are somewhat integral to the story.

[@ianalvord3903]

Haven't seen Stan since he hosted the copyright series.

[@tuskinekinase]

Stan!!!

[@kentkacs3140]

What happened to #15?

[@TammyJerkChicken]

LET THE BODIES HIT THE....

[@TammyJerkChicken]

FLOOOOOOOR

[@sydneywillis602]

Could you guys talk about the Macbeth taboo in one of the episodes please? I’ve heard about but never knew where it was from.

[@gracebarber9257]

Sydney Willis it’s an alleged curse stemming from repeated accidents over the hundreds of years of the play’s performances. Apparently by saying the name bad things will either happen on stage or to the actors and crew themselves. I’ve even heard that people have died after they said the name Macbeth. It apparently only applies to actual productions, not daily life, so if luck is on my side I’m probably fine after writing this comment 😆

[@Vinc90]

I've heard that it's got the reputation of being cursed because you see it performed so often just before a theater closes. The reason for that is that, what often happens, a theater goes broke, so they only keep on running for a season or so, so they decide to put on Macbeth, because that is always a popular play and will draw crowds.

[@emilyniedbala]

It’s also party that there is a theory that the witches’ spell in the play is actually a curse being put on the show/theatre, I believe

[@opticowl5486]

There’s a great Shakespeare Unlimited (a Folger Library Podcast) episode on curses. The supposedly “ancient” curse only dates back to the 1920s at the earliest, and was probably developed as a marketing ploy for a production where bad stuff was happening behind the scenes. Since then, there have been hundreds of iterations on the folklore behind the curse, counter-curses, etc. The one I grew up with is that only productions that cut the part of Hecate are cursed, because the god of Magic was angry at them. Before the Macbeth curse, though, it was actually considered bad luck to perform All’s Well That Ends Well; that was the play with the “cursed” reputation. That superstition fell out of vogue around the same time the Macbeth curse was introduced, which makes sense because Macbeth is a lot more fun to be scared of.

[@FlesHBoX]

Soo, there is a debate over on Folding Idea's comment section of his 50 shades video about whether or not that is you, Mike, reading Mr. Grey's lines.... I'd really like to know, because it certainly does sound like you...

[@kevinmbrooks]

FlesHBoX Mike is credited at the end of that video.

[@FlesHBoX]

Nice! I missed that.

[@MK.5198]

Mike is credited at the end of that video.

[@Suite_annamite]

*This should be labelled as #15.*

[@ms.rstake_1211]

yup

[@rkpetry]

*_...'ahh' yes-CUES-and when the actor skips/forgets a cue line it's a scramble to RING THAT DOORBELL NOW, (or the era equivalent)..._*

[@offscript1498]

Crash course mythology

[@ZIZZY11268]

9:12

[@holyhamuel1901]

Cheeky mistake hehe, when you said that Lear and Kent meet up with Edmund I got super confused haha

[@somphothbsiratsamy3748]

Remember, the wise fool"""

[@gothicdragonwarriorqueen5819]

Very interesting!!!😄❤👍

[@1857Bharat]

Why is John not in the video

[@wizardofcalisthenics9382]

I love english videos !! Don’t know why

[@BonESaw95]

Please make Crash Course Neuroscience!! Please Please!!

[@KrazyKaiser]

THIS IS EPISODE 15 BUT IT IS LABELED AS 16

[@mobilelegends5633]

Who else is here for fcking freshman shakespear

[@mauricioalarcon4169]

Tradicion!

[@wellimeantosaywhat]

same could said for Marlowe, though

[@rgaleny]

VICTOR HUGO CALLED WS THE LAST CATHEDRAL

[@AshishGupta-ql9lq]

the greatest dramatist in english history came up with out vile jelly hmmm.

[@Charles-nm1zx]

#15?

[@coredumperror]

Hahahaha, friggin' Stan!

[@billyboots14]

So, what is Coriolanus? A history play?

[@brubafc]

Tragedies? Yayyyy! So excited, it's kinda unhealthy. 😂

[@josephconnelly1816]

Is it not Edgar who disguises himself as Tom?

[@kmbehrens14]

Loved the video, but I get the feeling Thought Cafe is not too familiar with King Lear? Some of the story elements could have been way less confusing with a change of scenery (like all of Act V on a battleground).

[@uranshvoria6150]

Yeah, the Thought Cafe/Bubble had some incorrect facts about the plotline of King Lear, I was disappointed in that.

[@somphothbsiratsamy3748]

Lol Shakespeare's deliberate description of a figurative elaboration. By the way, women could never have a part w/ lines in the beginning of theatre. Not until theatre had commune to other cities.

[@RinjarinCODM]

Macbeth.😬

[@Beretta249]

Is there the slightest bit of sense in this running *gag* , the appropriate reaction, about not saying "Macbeth" aloud?

[@BrianHutzellMusic]

It is a very famous and long-standing bit of theatre superstition, that one should never say "Macbeth" in a theater, but should always say, '"The Scottish play." J. K. Rowling may have had this in mind when she created the superstition about never saying Voldemort's name aloud. Dickens also plays on this a bit with Bill Sikes's name in "Oliver Twist."

[@stormcloudsabound]

:D Stan!!!

[@NoelleMar]

Wake and Shake!

[@TASmith10]

Shouldn't this be the 15th video?

[@canadmexi]

Is it weird that I like Macbeth?

[@somphothbsiratsamy3748]

I only subscribed to take the challenge

[@TheRachaelLefler]

I may be wrong but my personal hypothesis is that the comedies were primarily written for the working class and the tragedies were primarily aimed at the ruling class. That's why they tend to prefer teaching the tragedies in HS English classes, because they were about the big philosophical questions faced by nobles, not laborers. More relatable in modern times, when everyone is more like the nobles of that time, especially with public schools.

[@TheRachaelLefler]

Highlighting this, a lot of the tragedies are about kings or nobles but few of the comedies are.

[@emilyniedbala]

Can you please stop saying the name of the Scottish Play? I’m about to start a show, and I can’t have this kind of thing around me I’m generally not a superstitious person, but when it comes to theatre, that $#!+ is real

[@judewakefield7213]

Emily Niedbala Good luck!

[@stephennootens916]

An English teacher once told me Shakespeare plays were the equivalent of soap operas

[@lobae.vonwahnsinn6199]

HEY CHISTIAN, U A SADIST?

[@himanshuverma97]

I thought theatre was about overacting and sawing the air

[@X0_O7X]

Um i dont think i get it.

[@NeonsStyleHD]

Hearing Hamlet in an American accent is like fingernails on the black board lol

[@pennyfarting]

Fun fact: The American accent is closer to the way people spoke in Shakepeare's time than the current standard English accent.

[@NeonsStyleHD]

Nice delusion you have there lol

[@pennyfarting]

Google "Original Pronunciation". You can actually hear performances of Shakespeare delivered in a reconstruction of the accent of the time. It sounds like a hybrid between an American accent and West Country English, with a bit of Irish. Which makes sense, seeing as a good portion of the original American settlers came from the west of England (and later, Ireland and Scotland).