Invite your learners to consider how the context of an artwork can alter its meaning and interpretation throughout its history by examining the intriguing history behind Michelangelo's statue of David. The video discusses...

Believe it or not, Shakespeare wasn't the only British playwright to rise to fame during the Renaissance. Writers other than the Bard make up the content of a video about British theater during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The...

Illustrator Siegfried Woldhek describes how he analyzed over 700 of Leonardo's works in order to determine an image of the face of the famed Renaissance man. Try flipping the lesson and adding your own assessment and discussion...

Heads up! In the Golden Age, women threw cucumbers at other audience members. This detail is just one of many fun facts a video about Spanish theater during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries covers. Other information the resource...

Welcome to the Renaissance, known as one of the most vibrant periods in the world of theater. An informational video provides a thorough overview of the period, noting key changes that took place on the stage. After a lengthy discussion...

How do we come to view objects and artifacts as art? What terms and ideas do we associate with craft instead? The distinction between art and craft may be subtle, but has profound roots in art history and the development of western...

Artists shattered stereotypes during the Harlem Renaissance. Video 41 on the Crash Course Drama and Theater playlist describes art and theater during the time period with a focus on Broadway plays and musicals written by...

Some of the greatest plays contain only one act. A video, the 36th in the Crash Course Theater and Drama playlist, provides an overview of playwrights connected to the Irish Renaissance, particularly J.M. Synge, who was known for his...

Despite spending many years in a sanatorium, Antonin Artaud became a well-known playwright. Video 43 from the Crash Course Drama and Theater playlist describes the life work of the French playwright with a focus on the theater of...

Many Broadway shows, including Hamilton, got their start off the infamous street. Video 47 from the Crash Course Drama and Theater playlist focuses on the creation of Off-Broadway theater. Discussion centers around specific theaters and...

"Can a museum be a catalyst in a community? Can a museum house artists and allow them to be change agents as communities re-think themselves?" Watch as curator Thelma Golden re-imagines the museum as a think tank and explores the...

Who would've guessed that a boy from the sleepy town Stratford-upon-Avon would grow up to become one of the greatest playwrights of all time? Scholars only know a few details about Shakespeare's early life, but that information is the...

Life doesn't make sense, so theater shouldn't make sense either. A video about the theater of the absurd, the 45th installment of the Crash Course Drama and Theater series, discusses the unique movement in theater history. An overview of...

Have you ever noticed that babies in paintings from the Middle Ages look a little...strange? Find out why with an informative and amusing video about the moment artists decided to make babies look cute again.

Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God is the subject of a Crash Course Literature episode narrated by John Green. Here, Green shares the critical reactions to the novel as well as his own thoughts about its importance.

Before Bollywood movies, Sanskrit theater ruled the stage in ancient India. Learn about rasas, bhavas, and categories of plays through the seventh video in the Crash Course Theater series that explores the first type of theater to appear...

From mystery plays to Shakespeare! Progress chronologically through the evolution of English drama, which began as a way for English clergymen in the eleventh century to illustrate biblical stories to the mass of illiterate commoners....

School children are not the only ones who have rules to follow! During the neoclassical period, the French established five main rules for plays. A video on theater history outlines those guidelines, as well as other elements of theater...

Until the reign of Louis XIII, French society did not view acting as an honorable profession. A video describes French theater during the time of popular playwright Moliere. Viewers enjoy an excerpt of the play Tartuffe and learn the...

Who doesn't love a play where most of the characters die? Such deaths are a defining characteristic of many of Shakespeare's tragedies, the topic of an informational video on the Bard and his works. Along with outlining the plot elements...

Method acting got its start in the 1930s. A video, the 42nd video in the Crash Course Theater and Drama playlist, describes the theater scene during the 1930s, including the introduction of method acting. Information on Waiting for...

Zora Neale Hurston, her life, her work as an anthropologist recording the customs and speech of southern Black people, and her novels would have remained largely ignored if not for the efforts of Alice Walker. An American Masters video...

Viewers of a short video learn about the development of the Broadway Book Musical in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Scholars explore the Golden Age of Broadway, which produced classics like Annie Get Your Gun and...

A short clip discusses Leonardo da Vinci's art, inventions, architecture, and amazing mind. Many of his inventions and ideas have actually been built, such as tanks, man-powered flying machines, and a parachute.