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Experiencing Shakespeare: From Page to Stage

Experience Shakespeare’s plays from the other side of the stage with a rare peek behind the curtain to see how productions are brought to life for the modern audience.
Experiencing Shakespeare: From Page to Stage is rated 4.2 out of 5 by 13.
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Rated 5 out of 5 by from Excellet acting and commentary I enjoyed every moment of watching this course, but particularly loved the scenes in rehearsal and performance. It gives an authentic view into the directing and acting process. The course definitely meets its objective to demonstrate why Shakespeare's plays must be seen to be fully understood.
Date published: 2022-12-29
Rated 1 out of 5 by from Boring Conversations on Shakespeare This course is mostly an incoherent mush-mash. It is by far the worst of my 100+ Great Courses. So much of it appears to be in the basement of a high school student’s parents. Here the student and instructor sometimes just sit on the floor and talk. The students read Shakespeare directly from printed pages in a notebook. The acting is at best average. The instructor is less than professional in appearance. The previous Great Courses on Shakespeare were exciting and interesting. As a result, I wanted to learn more and watch more of Shakespeare. However, this course did the opposite, it turned me off on Shakespeare.
Date published: 2022-12-29
Rated 5 out of 5 by from An informative & entertaining look at Shakespeare This course is a wonderful behind-the-scenes look at how a Shakespeare play gets “from page to stage”. After a brief look at Shakespeare himself as well as the Elizabethan stage, Prof Branch examines for us various aspects of Shakespeare’s writing, such as his choice to use verse or prose, his use of alliteration and repetition, and his strategic use of soliloquies. Then, she picks selected passages from several different plays to rehearse with the help of two actors. Collaborating together, they try to work out what Shakepeare’s intent was for the characters in these scenes. They experiment with different physical staging possibilities, as well as discussing things like the characters’ emotional state and where the scene’s crescendo should be. I wonder if the reviewer who was unhappy that the actors used scripts as prompts rather than memorizing their lines, got as far as Lecture 12 in which Brooke and Kam give a fully polished and costumed performance (sans scripts) of several of the scenes we saw being rehearsed. They did a wonderful job! I loved this course and highly recommend it!
Date published: 2022-12-23
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Shakespeare Never Looked or Sounded So Good I purchased "Experiencing Shakespeare From Page to Stage" and could not have enjoyed it more! I come a theatre background and Shakespeare has always been a favorite. Professor Branch's command of the subject is excellent. The overall organization of the course is clear and thorough. The use of the two actors to demonstrate was very entertaining and informative. The use of Jane Lapotaire's voice over & still shots lends a sense of history and elevates the discussion. The production values were very strong. I will be diving into other Great Courses!
Date published: 2022-12-18
Rated 2 out of 5 by from Not the best way to approach Shakespeare Pros: The two actors had mastery of the language of Shakespeare, vocal resonance and clear diction. They brought much clarity to their lines and I enjoyed listening to them. Cons: The professor's approach obscures the subject matter.
Date published: 2022-12-17
Rated 4 out of 5 by from Very Good But... It's not the outstanding John Barton series Playing Shakespeare series, but it's very good. That's not a fair comparison I know. Barton was the director of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Plus he had outstanding English actors such as Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, and David Suchet working with him. I had just two major problems but they were stylistic. First, she's talking to you. Then, inexplicably, she is suddenly talking to someone else. She's looking off to one side. It's keenly disconcerting. The second problem is one that may be gender related. It seems that women lecturers feel the need to smile almost constantly, whereas male lecturers rarely do. That too feels strange to me. I have nothing against smiling but the pattern is disturbing.
Date published: 2022-12-15
Rated 5 out of 5 by from I've never cared about Shakespeare until now. Anytime I read (or hear) a "doth" or "thou," I usually tune out. So my expectations were low going into this course. But I absolutely LOVED the breakdown of Shakespeare's words and how actors go from table readings to performance. (another reviewer was upset that the actors "didn't know their lines" in the earlier sections.. but that was the point! It showed the progression.) This gave me a much more profound respect for the plays than I had in high school when I was forced to read them. Now I want to go watch a Shakespeare play!
Date published: 2022-11-22
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Comments from a learner This is a good little introduction to Shakespeare. Got me wanting to read one of his plays!
Date published: 2022-11-21
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Overview

Our 12-lesson series, Experiencing Shakespeare: From Page to Stage, gives you a rare insider’s peek behind the curtains of a Shakespeare production. Expert Alissa Branch will help you decode the tools Shakespeare embedded in his words for actors to understand his plays and bring them to life. With glimpses into Shakespeare's life and culture, you’ll get a richer appreciation for the genius behind his words.

About

Alissa Branch
Alissa Branch

The word 'play' implies an action, and experiencing a play is meant to be an active, playful experience, not a passive one—for both the performers and the audience.

INSTITUTION

University of Oklahoma

Alissa Branch is an Associate Professor of Acting in the Helmerich School of Drama at the University of Oklahoma, where she created an advanced Shakespeare performance curriculum. She is also an actor and director whose productions have won multiple Kennedy Center awards. Her directorial credits include Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Twelfth Night, among other plays. She has studied acting at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and Shakespeare’s Globe, and she earned her MA in Drama from Washington University in St. Louis.

By This Professor

Experiencing Shakespeare: From Page to Stage
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Experiencing Shakespeare: From Page to Stage

Trailer

Reading versus Watching Shakespeare

01: Reading versus Watching Shakespeare

Because so little is known about him, the written words of Shakespeare are our ultimate guide to performing his plays. Join Professor Alissa Branch and dive behind the scenes to find out why, more than 400 years after his death, his plays persist in being among the most staged.

26 min
Plays in the Elizabethan Age

02: Plays in the Elizabethan Age

Shakespeare may have been a genius, but he was no god pouring out sacred texts. He was a hustling playwright working hard to please commoners, aristocracy, and royalty, all at once. Learn about theater culture in the Elizabethan era to get a deeper, humanized understanding of his texts for performance purposes.

25 min
Secrets of Shakespeare’s Verse

03: Secrets of Shakespeare’s Verse

Is there a secret to decoding Shakespeare's verse to bring it to life on a stage? Learn the brilliant tricks that Shakespeare used to give clues and hints to actors, including his use of iambic pentameter—a rhythm that is embedded into our bodies and translates naturally into the flow of the English language—as well as tools like antithesis within the words themselves.

23 min
Discovering Shakespeare’s Characters

04: Discovering Shakespeare’s Characters

The modern actor uses newer psychological tools to decide how to play their roles, yet human troubles remain the same through the ages. Because Shakespeare's characters say exactly what they want, the key for actors is to pay attention to Shakespeare’s words when deciding how to emote and move.

30 min
Shakespearean Rhetoric and Wordplay

05: Shakespearean Rhetoric and Wordplay

Because Shakespeare's words are his characters, it is vital to examine how he makes use of rhetoric to inform actors on how to make the characters come alive. There is a myriad of ways this rhetoric is used, such as prose vs. verse, emotional arguments vs. logical reasoning, and banter.

21 min
What Soliloquies Reveal

06: What Soliloquies Reveal

Should soliloquies be performed by addressing the audience directly or having the character muse to themselves? Learn from Professor Branch how Shakespeare writes his soliloquies in a way conducive to breaking the “fourth wall” and granting the audience access to the inner workings of the characters' minds.

36 min
How Shakespeare Uses Prose

07: How Shakespeare Uses Prose

Turn your attention from verse, which looks like poetry on a page, to prose. The rules of when and why Shakespeare switches between verse and prose aren't always consistent, but a closer examination of the shifts provides instruction on characters' feelings and behavior toward each other, thus informing the actors' choices.

19 min
Shakespeare’s Creative Imagery

08: Shakespeare’s Creative Imagery

How many different words would you guess Shakespeare used in his body of writing? Not only did he utilize 17,677 words, but he also invented new ones and innovated how they were used—in fact, scientists assert that his work alters the way our brains respond to written words!

18 min
Rehearsing the Role: Shakespeare’s Tragedies

09: Rehearsing the Role: Shakespeare’s Tragedies

Now, take a behind-the-scenes look at the rehearsal process, beginning with an initial read-through, called "table work"; then blocking movement; and, finally, scene repetition. It's worthwhile to note that the illusion of spontaneity that audiences experience during the best onstage performances is actually a result of weeks of practice.

29 min
Rehearsing the Role: Shakespeare’s Comedies

10: Rehearsing the Role: Shakespeare’s Comedies

Shakespearean comedy relies on well-known comic devices that he used in numerous plays, for example, "mistaken identity." As you will see, Shakespeare repeatedly used the device of letting female characters dress up as boys in order to grant them more social agency and cause merry plot misunderstandings.

30 min
Designing and Directing Shakespeare’s Plays

11: Designing and Directing Shakespeare’s Plays

So far, we have focused mainly on the actors' preparation. Now, we will expand our look into the many behind-the-scenes jobs required for a production of this level, from set builders and prop managers to producers and choreographers, with special attention to the costume designer and stage manager.

30 min
To the Stage!

12: To the Stage!

By the time the actors are ready to embody the characters they've been studying, the illusion of the characters' spontaneous thoughts being spoken for the very first time is complete. Enjoy as the team brings this study to culmination by skillfully performing scenes from Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, and Hamlet.

22 min

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