TED Talks
Handspring Puppet Co.: The genius puppetry behind War Horse
"Puppets always have to try to be alive," says Adrian Kohler of the Handspring Puppet Company, a gloriously ambitious troupe of human and wooden actors. Beginning with the tale of a hyena's subtle paw, puppeteers Kohler and Basil Jones...
TED Talks
TED: A playful exploration of gender performance | Jo Michael Rezes
From the stage to everyday life, theater educator Jo Michael Rezes studies queer identity and the spectrum of gender performance — in its success and failure. Aided by a delightful introduction of campy charm, Rezes explores the freeing...
TED Talks
TED: Spider-Man, The Lion King and life on the creative edge | Julie Taymor
Showing spectacular clips from productions such as Frida, The Tempest and The Lion King, director Julie Taymor describes a life spent immersed in theater and the movies. Filmed right as controversy over her Broadway production of...
Crash Course
Dances to Flute Music and Obscene Verse. It's Roman Theater, Everybody: Crash Course Theater #5
Today, Mike Rugnetta takes you from our beginnings in ancient Greek theater, and moves on to the development of Roman theater. Which, it turns out, is A LOT like Greek theater. Because the Romans were real Grecophiles, they modeled their...
TED Talks
Joshua Prince-Ramus: Building a theater that remakes itself
Can architects re-engineer their design process? Joshua Prince-Ramus shows how the results can be spectacular. He walks us through his fantastic re-creation of the Wyly Theater as a giant "theatrical machine" that reconfigures itself at...
TED Talks
Eve Ensler: Happiness in body and soul
Eve Ensler, creator of "The Vagina Monologues," shares how a discussion about menopause with her friends led to talking about all sorts of sexual acts onstage, waging a global campaign to end violence toward women and finding her own...
TED Talks
Anna Deavere Smith: Four American characters
Writer and actor Anna Deavere Smith gives life to author Studs Terkel, convict Paulette Jenkins, a Korean shopkeeper and a bull rider, excerpts from her solo show "On the Road: A Search for American Character."
TED Talks
How theater weathers wars, outlasts empires and survives pandemics | Cara Greene Epstein
When catastrophe strikes, art prevails -- and has done so for centuries. In this fascinating talk, writer and director Cara Greene Epstein places the closing of theaters during the coronavirus pandemic in a historical context, exploring...
TED Talks
TED: My journey from Marine to actor | Adam Driver
Before he fought in the galactic battles of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Adam Driver was a united States Marine with 1/1 Weapons Company. He tells the story of how and why he became a Marine, the complex transition from soldier to...
Crash Course
Zola, France, Realism, and Naturalism: Crash Course Theater #31
This week, we're back in Europe to learn about Realism and Naturalism. In the 19th Century, playwrights like Eugene Scribe, Alexandre de Dumas Fils, and Emile Zola remade the French theater, first with Realism, and later with Naturalism....
Crash Course
The Spanish Golden Age: Crash Course Theater #19
This week on Crash Course Theater, Mike and Yorick take us to beautiful Spain, and look at its Golden Age. Spain was having kind of a moment in the 16th and 17th centuries. They had this big empire, the culture was really flowering, and...
Crash Course
China, Zaju, and Beijing Opera: Crash Course Theater #25
This week we're headed to China to learn about the ancient origins of theater there. We'll look at the early days of wizard theater (not a typo), the development of classical Chinese theater, and the evolution of Beijing Opera.
TED Talks
Tim Berners-Lee: The next web
20 years ago, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web. For his next project, he's building a web for open, linked data that could do for numbers what the Web did for words, pictures, video: unlock our data and reframe the way we use...
Crash Course
Tragedy Lessons from Aristotle: Crash Course Theater #3
Aristotle. He knows a lot, right? And if you choose to believe Aristotle, then you must believe all the mechanics of tragedy that Mike is about to lay on you. This week, we're looking at Aristotle's rules for the basic elements of...
TED Talks
TED: What to do when everything feels broken | Daniel Alexander Jones
Some call me a soul sonic superstar, says Jomama Jones, the alter ego of TED Fellow and theater artist Daniel Alexander Jones. In this stunning talk and performance, Jomama Jones invites us to consider how coming undone can be the first...
Crash Course
Magnetism: Crash Course Physics
You’re probably familiar with the basics of magnets already: They have a north pole and a south pole. Two of the same pole will repel each other, while opposites attract. Only certain materials, especially those that contain iron, can be...
TED Talks
TED: 3 ways to create a space that moves you, from a Broadway set designer | David Korins
You don't have to work on Broadway to design a set, says creative director David Korins -- you can be the set designer of any space in your life. Sharing insights from his work on hits like "Hamilton" and "Dear Evan Hansen," Korins...
Crash Course
North America Gets a Theater...Riot: Crash Course Theater #29
It's lights up in America! This week, we're headed to North America. We'll look at Native American storytelling traditions, the theater that Europeans brought along starting in the 17th century, and how theater developed before and after...
Crash Course
Nostrils, Harmony with the Universe, and Ancient Sanskrit Theater: Crash Course Theater #7
Ancient Sanskrit theater is one of the oldest theater traditions, and thanks to Bharata Muni and his treatise on theater, the Natyashastra, we can tell you quite a bit about it, all the way down to eyebrow and nostril poses. This week...
Crash Course
The Death and Resurrection of Theater as...Liturgical Drama: Crash Course Theater #8
As the Roman Empire fell, so did the theater. If there's anyone who hates theater and actors more than Romans, it's early Christians. As Christianity ascended in the west, theater declined. But, fear not. This isn't the end of the...
Crash Course
Where Did Theater Go? Crash Course Theater #18
The English Theater survived a lot of pushback from various powers that be, but in the 17th century, it had to go into hiding, from PURITANS. Let's take a look at how the English Civil War, Charles I's beheading, and the Restoration of...
Crash Course
Just Say Noh. But Also Say Kyogen: Crash Course Theater #11
This week on Crash Course Theater, Mike is taking you to Japan to have a look at Noh theater. Noh, and its counterpart Kyogen are some of the most revered theater forms in Japan, and are still performed today. Today you'll learn how Noh...
Crash Course
Japan, Kabuki, and Bunraku: Crash Course Theater #23
We're headed back to Japan, this time in the Edo period to follow up on Noh theater, which had gone out of style last time we checked in. Now, under the Shoguns, there's couple of really interesting types of drama on the scene. Kabuki is...
Crash Course
The English Renaissance and NOT Shakespeare: Crash Course Theater #13
The Renaissance came to England late, thanks to a Hundred Years War that ran long and lasted 116 years, and then a civil war to decide who would be the royal family. BUT after all that, with the Tudors (relatively) securely installed on...