Product Details

• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Cerebellum Corp
• VHS Release Date: July 11, 2000
• Run Time: 30 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1886156905
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #382,878 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Promising "we're going to get to the bottom of this Shakespeare guy," the Standard Deviants, an energetic gang of young performers, provide a lively and offbeat introduction to the life and work of the immortal bard. The basic facts of the writer's life are provided by a narration accompanied by a slide show of vintage prints and paintings as well as animated depictions of Shakespeare that may annoy purists, but may also provide memorable and thereby helpful images for students. This video is actually a fairly sedate offering by the Standard Deviants, though their typical approach, to provide solid information that's irreverent and offbeat enough to be memorable, is still used to good effect. Once the biographical segment is out of the way, the video gets into an explanation of Shakespeare's use of language, with succinct explanations of iambs, and his predilection for composing in iambic pentameter. A brief introduction of Elizabethan drama is presented that emphasizes how plays in Shakespeare's day were primarily a verbal, rather than a visual, event, and the concepts of dramatic art and tragedy are discussed. Specific Shakespearean tragedies, including King Lear and Macbeth, are described briefly. This video is a quite credible and engaging introduction to Shakespeare and would serve as a refresher and review for anyone whose student readings of some of the plays are fading into distant memory. --Robert J. McNamara

Product Description

Discover the origins and influences of one of the greatest writers the world has ever known. The Standard Deviants get up-close and personal with Shakespeare and examine Elizabethan & modern drama.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Help for the 'blah-blahs", August 31, 2000

By 

Melissa Diane Smith "Melissa" (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Standard Deviants TV: Shakespeare [VHS] (VHS Tape)

As a freshman in my English class, when I introduce Shakespeare, all a student hears is "Blah-Blah-Blah-Blah." I sound like the Peanuts teacher. This video helps with this problem. It is fast-paced and informative, hitting all the high points. The most impressive thing about it, though, is how well it teaches iambic pentameter, which is so hard for freshmen to grasp. I love this tape and will use it as long as I teach Romeo and Juliet!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A pedagogical gem., November 24, 2000

By 

Samuel Chell (Kenosha,, WI United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Standard Deviants TV: Shakespeare [VHS] (VHS Tape)

For a teacher at the high school or even college level, this fast-paced introduction to Shakespeare, his times, his style, his oeuvre is just what the doctor ordered. What I appreciate most is the emphasis on language--not actions, plot, setting--as the key to understanding Shakespeare. Use the video at the beginning of the course--and don't feel compelled to order the longer, more expensive DVD version about the tragedies, which I discovered basically repeats the same material as on this 30-minute VHS tape.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Assumes teens have the attention span of a peanut, April 1, 2002

By 

Jaime (Alexandria, VA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Standard Deviants TV: Shakespeare [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Although the information in this video is good and the style engaging, I was dissapointed with the way it talked down to students. Several times one of the performers says something to the effect of "Don't worry -- we'll give you plenty of examples to explain it." My 9th grade students prefer to be treated like adults when discussing complex topics like symbolic art. It is also just a little too "fast-paced."