Arts in the Renaissance: Scene from Hamlet

Actor Kevin Hardesty performs the famous “To be, or not to be” soliloquy from Act III, Scene I of the Shakespearean tragedy Hamlet. Hardesty opens the segment with an introduction to the scene.

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Arts in the Renaissance: Scene from Much Ado About Nothing

The main plot in Much Ado About Nothing revolves around Claudio and Hero. This scene features the more mature lovers from the play—Beatrice and Benedick. Hero’s character has been defamed, causing her fiancé, Claudio, to reject her at the alter. Enraged, Beatrice urges Benedick to kill Claudio.

African/African-American Culture: Anansi's Rescue from the River

In this video, storyteller Nana Yaa Asantewaa performs the story “Anansi’s Rescue from the River.” The Anansi tales are told by the Ashanti people of Ghana, West Africa, and have been passed down through the generations by oral tradition.

Japanese Culture: Bunraku

In this excerpt from a documentary on Bunraku, students meet an apprentice studying to be a puppeteer at Bunraku Theater in Osaka. In addition, they learn a little bit about the history of this classic Japanese art form and see puppets being manipulated.

Japanese Culture: Japanese Aesthetics

Shozo Sato provides a brief overview of Japanese aesthetics and explains the major differences between Western and Japanese aesthetics. He talks about the Japanese emphasis on stylization and the function of art and the artist in Japanese society.

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Japanese Culture: Kabuki Actor's Technique

Shozo Sato describes Kabuki acting technique and the training that Kabuki performers, traditionally all male, go through in order to learn how to play male, female, young, and old characters. He demonstrates vocal inflections and actual movements—walking, how the head is held, poses—of various Kabuki characters.

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Japanese Culture: Kabuki Makeup

Kabuki master Shozo Sato applies makeup to actor Michael Goldberg as he discusses about how makeup is applied and how colors and lines help suggest character. In Kabuki theater, makeup is used to express a character’s personality.

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Japanese Culture: Scene from Macbeth Kabuki-Style

In the segment Macbeth: Kabuki Style, actors Michael Goldberg and Barbara Robertson perform the scene from Macbeth in which Macbeth and Lady Macbeth plot the murder of Duncan. The text used by the actors in this video was adapted to better suit Kabuki-style performance and only resembles the standard text of Macbeth.

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