| In Search of William Shakespeare |
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Books in the Running Brooks -- A Simple Biography | |
| Keith recounts all the known facts of Shakespeare's life, separating legend from recorded fact. This program follows the playwright from his boyhood and education in Stratford, through his years in London, to his retirement in the town of his birth. Keith intersperses Shakespeare's biography with speeches from the plays and passages from contemporary documents. |
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His Hour Upon the Stage -- Shakespeare's Career in the Theatre | |
| This program relates the adventure of the Elizabethan theatre: playwrights' wars, scandals at court, the bear pit and the colorful characters of Cheapside. From the founding of The Theatre by James Burbage in 1576 to the closure of all theatres by Oliver Cromwell in 1642, Keith outlines Shakespeare's development as an actor, playwright, and businessman. The story is told in speeches from the plays, anecdotes, contemporary accounts, and references found in the work of friends and rivals. |
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Of Strange Shadows -- Mysteries of the Sonnets | |
| Only in the sonnet sequence does Shakespeare speak in the first person. This series of "letters in verse" provides us with the very real and brutally frank responses to the changing relationship between himself and someone unknown, the true story of which we may only guess. Why were the sonnets suppressed? Who are the Dark Lady, the Fair Friend, the Rival Poet? What is the nature of Shakespeare's "disgrace"? And who is Mr. W.H.? The narrative includes more than 20 sonnets. |
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The Purple Testament -- William Shakespeare on Peace and War | |
| This program presents Shakespeare's observations on war -- between England and France, Greece and Troy, Rome and the rest of the world -- international wars, border wars, civil war. His words seem to apply to all the wars that had taken place up to his own day, and to reach forward through history to our own times. |