Great Books/Plays

Here are the great books I have studied and read so far (and keep scrolling down for my videos inspired by the great books):

Great Books

The Odyssey, Homer
The Aeneid, Virgil
Antigone and Oedipus, Sophocles
Oresteia, Aeschylus
Bacchae, Euripides
The Apology, Plato
The Art of Living, Epictetus
The Essential Epicurus
Meditations, Marcus Aurelius
Gilgamesh
Beowulf
Bhagavad Gita
The Popol Vuh
Consolations of Philosophy, Boethius
The Old Testament 
The New Testament (gospels and revelations)
Ovid, Metamorphoses
Canterbury Tales, Chaucer
The Divine Comedy, Dante
Decameron, Boccaccio
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Don Quixote, Cervantes
Shakespeare (see below)
Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Thus Spake Zarathustra, Nietzsche
Utopia, Thomas Moore
In Praise of Folly, Erasmus
John Milton, Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained
Voltaire, Candide
Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
Waiting for Godot, Beckett
War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells
Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain
Persuasion, Jane Austen
Goethe, Faust
Goethe, Sorrows of Young Werther
To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Emma, Jane Austen
Origin of Species, Charles Darwin
Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud
Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx
Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass
Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
Ulysses, James Joyce
Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut


(We have found this documentary series, Invitation to World Literature, really helpful for our studies of the Great Books)

And here are the plays and other live performances I have seen

Shakespeare

Twelfth Night (SUNY 2010)
Romeo and Juliet (New Genesis Productions, 2010)
Much Ado About Nothing (Globe Theater, London, 2011)
Macbeth (RSC Stratford, 2011)
Comedy of Errors (New Genesis Productions, 2011)
Midsummer Night's Dream (New Genesis Productions, 2011) - acted in
Love's Labor's Lost (Public, NY, 2011)
King Lear (Public, NY, 2011)
Cymbeline (Barrow St Theater NY, 2011)
Titus Andronicus (Public Theater, 2011)
Henry V (Irondale Theater, 2011)
Macbeth (2012 - Judson)
Macbeth (NGP, acted in, 2012)
As You Like It (off broadway, Queen's company 2012)
As You Like It (NGP acted in, 2012)
Twelfth Night (NGP, 2012)
Macbeth (Tisch, NYU, 2012)
Twelfth Night (off broadway, 2012)
Much Ado About Nothing (Broadway, 2013)
Taming of the Shrew (NGP, 2013)
Macbeth (Globe Theater, London, 2013)
Tempest (NGP, acted in, 2013)
Love's Labor's Lost (NGP, 2013)
Love's Labor's Lost (West Kortright Center, 2013)
Romeo and Juliet (Broadway w/ Orlando Bloom, 2013)
Midsummer Night's Dream (Theater for New Audience, dir. Julie Taymor, 2013)
Hamlet (Gallatin, NYU, 2013)
Othello (Lee Strasberg Institute, 2014)
Hamlet ((Lynn Redgrave Theater NY, Bedlam, 2014)
Measure for Measure (New Victory Theater, Fiasco, 2014)
Hamlet (Globe Theater, London, 2014)
King Lear (Theater for a New Audience, Brooklyn, 2014)
King Lear (Shakespeare in the Park, The Public, Central Park, NY, 2014)
Midsummer Night's Dream (NGP, acted in 2014)
Twelfth Night (NGP, 2014)
Much Ado About Nothing (NGP, 2014)
Midsummer Night's Dream (Gorilla Rep, Washington Square Park, NY 2014)
King Lear (London Globe production showing at Skirball NYC, 2014)
The Tempest (La Mama, NYC, 2014)
Winter's Tale (Pearl Theater, 2015)
Twelfth Night (Bedlam, 2015)
Two Gentleman of Verona (Fiasco, 2015)
Romeo and Juliet (NGP, 2015)
Midsummer Night's Dream (Hudson Valley Shakespeare, 2015)
Julius Caesar (SUNY New Paltz, 2015)
Hamlet  (NT Live, 2015)
Twelfth Night (Skirball/Globe, 2016)
Richard II (RSC/BAM 2016)
Henry IV Part 1 (RSC/BAM 2016)
Henry IV Part 2 (RSC/BAM 2016)
Henry V (RSC/BAM 2016)
A Winter's Tale (NGP, 2016 - Benny as Polixenes)
Anthony and Cleopatra (NGP, 2016 - Benny as Enobarbus)
Tempest (Off-Broadway, 2016 - Benny as Antonio)
A Winter's Tale (NYU, 2017)

Others

St Joan (The Public, 2017)
Cry Havoc! (Bedlam, NYC, 2017)
The Cherry Orchard (NYU, 2017)
Zamboni Godot (The Brick, 2017)
Skin of our Teeth (Theater for a New Audience, 2017)
Public Enemy (Pearl Theater NY, 2016)
Cherry Orchard (Broadway, 2016)
Anitgone (NYU, 2016)
The Servant Has Two Master (TFNA, Brooklyn, 2016)
Beckett's Not I, Footfalls, Rockaby (Skirball, 2016)
Stupid F**king Bird (Pearl Theater, NY, 2016)
Uncle Vanya (NYU, 2016)
The Cherry Orchard (BAM 2016)
Jane Eyre (NT Live, 2016)
Glory of the World (BAM, 2016)
Mother Courage (Classic Stage Company, 2016)
Treasure Island  (NT Live, 2015)
Everyman (NT Live, 2015)
Antigone (BAM, 2015)
Isolde (Theater for a New Audience, 2015)
Ghosts (BAM, 2015)
Three Sisters (NYU, 2015)
Nevermore (Broadway, 2015)
The Iceman Cometh (BAM, 2015)
Belle of Amherst (Westside Theater, NY, 2014)
Tamburlaine Part 1 and 2 (Theater for a New Audience, 2014)
Sense and Sensibility (Bedlam, NY, 2014)
The Seagull (Bedlam, NY, 2014)
The Valley of Astonishment (Theater for a New Audience, Brooklyn, 2014)
The Killer by Ionesco (Theater for a New Audience, Brooklyn, 2014)
Heritage (a National Theater Connections play at the Bush Theater, London, 2014)
Dorian Gray (Riverside Studios, London, 2014)
The Malcontent (The Globe, London, 2014)
Uncle Vanya (in Russian at Wyndham Theater, London, 2014)
A View From the Bridge (Young Vic, London, 2014)
Three Sisters (Southwark Playhouse, London, 2014)
Medea (Players Theater, Brooklyn, 2014)
Near Vicksburg (Off Broadway, 2014)
The Doll's House (BAM, 2014)
Saint Joan (Lynn Redgrave Theater NY, Bedlam, 2014)
The Yellow Wallpaper (Off Broadway, 2014)
Rime of the Ancient Mariner (BAM, 2013)
No Man's Land (Broadway w/ Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, 2013)
Waiting for Godot (Broadway w/ Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, 2013)
The Seagull (Lynn Redgrave Theater NY, 2013)
Henry and Emily (Off Broadway, 2013)
Bacchae (Off Broadway (2013)
Women of Will (Off Broadway 2013)
In Acting Shakespeare (Broadway 2013)
Antigone (Gallatin NYU, 2012)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Broadway 2012)
The Acting Lesson (Off Broadway)
Enemy of the People (Broadway 2012)
Waiting for Godot (Rhinebeck, 2012)
The Doll's House (Off Broadway, 2012)
Judas' Last Stand (off Broadway 2012)
Chalet Lines (Bush Theater, London, 2012)
39 Steps (London, 2012)
Wit (2012, Broadway)
Freud's Last Session (2012, Broadway)
Superman 2050 (Off-off Broadway, 2012)
Wild Duck (Tisch, 2012)
Three Sisters (SUNY, 2011)
Good People w/Francis McDormand (Broadway 2011)
Noises Off (SUNY 2011)

And here are the movies and TV adaptations of great books and plays I have seen so far

Shakespeare adaptations:

Richard II (live from the RSC, with David Tenant)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935 dir. Max Reinhardt)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999, dir. Michael Hoffman)
Hamlet (1990, dir, Franco Zeffirelli)
Hamlet (2009, starring David Tenant)
Much Ado About Nothing (1993, dir Kenneth Branagh)
Mucha Ado About Nothing (2013, dir. Joss Whedon)
Julius Caesar (1953, dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
Anthony and Cleopatra (BBC)
Comedy of Errors (BBC)
Macbeth (BBC)
Cymbeline (BBC)
Titus Andronicus (BBC)
Henry IV, Part One (BBC Hollow Crown series)
Henry IV, Part Two (BBC Hollow Crown series)
Henry V (BBC)
Othello (Branagh and Laurence Fishburne, dir. Oliver Parker)
As You Like it (BBC)
As You Like It (1935, dir. Paul Czinner)
Julius Caesar (BBC)
Romeo and Juliet (Zeffirelli) 
The Tempest (Taymor, 2012)
The Tempest (BBC)
The Merchant of Venice (BBC)
Richard III (1955, dir, Laurence Olivier)

Jane Eyre movie series:
Jane Eyre, dir. Robert Stevenson 1944
Jane Eyre, dir. Franco Zeffirelli 1996
Jane Eyre, dir. Cary Fukynaga 2011
Jane Eyre (BBC 2006) dir. Susannah White

Austen's Emma series:
Emma (BBC 2009)
Emma (movie dir. Douglas McGrath)

Wuthering Heights series:
Wuthering Heights (PBS, 2009 dir. Coky Giedroyc)

Elizabeth Gaskell series:
North and South (BBC)
Wives and Daughters (BBC)
Cranford (BBC)

Tolstoy series:
The Last Station (Michael Hoffman, 2009)
Anna Karenina (BBC series,
Anna Karenina (Joe Wright, 2012)
Anna Karenina, (Julien Duvivier, 1945)
War and Peace, (King Vidor, 1956)


Sophocles
Antigone (BBC)
Oedipus (BBC)

Henrik Ibsen
Doll's House (BBC)
Enemy of the People (BBC)
Wild Duck

Anton Chekhov
The Seagull
Three Sisters
Uncle Vanya

Eugene O'Neill
Long Day's Journey Into Night
The Iceman Cometh

Eugene Ionesco
Rhinoceros 

Samuel Beckett
Waiting for Godot
Happy Days
Endgame

Here are some movies we have made based on the great books! 

First, The Bhagavad Gita:



William Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud"



Wallace Steven's "Life is Motion."


Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House (starring me and my grandparents!)

 

Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard


Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote de la Mancha



The Popol Vuh: the ancient text of the Maya Culture

Boccaccio's The Decameron



Emily Dickinson's "Bee! I'm Expecting You!"



William Wordsworth's "We Are Seven"



Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (Act 4, Scene 3)



Shakespeare's Macbeth (Lady Macduff scene)



Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot"



Walt Whitman's "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer"



Macbeth's "Tomorrow and Tomorrow" monologue



Sophocles' Antigone

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