A Midsummer Night's Dream on Page and Screen

Continuing my series of Shakespearean plays on page and screen, this play will be the first comedy to be studied.  The films we shall see are Max Reinhardt’s famous film of the 1930’s starring, among others, James Cagney, Mickey Rooney, Dick Powell, and Olivia DeHavilland;  Peter Hall’s 1969 version with David Warner, Helen Mirren and Judi Dench in key roles; and the 1990’s treatment of the play with Michelle Pfeiffer, Kevin Kline, and Rupert Everett.  The course, as usual, will alternate film viewing with open class discussion.

Text:  Any annotated text with numbered lines will be acceptable.

Class is limited to 20 members.

MICHAEL MANHEIM received his B.A. from Columbia in 1949, his M.A. in 1951, and his Ph.D. in 1961.  He is an Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Toledo, where he lectured and conducted seminars in Shakespeare, modern drama, and the Great Books, as well as chairing the English department and serving terms as dean of the humanities division and director of the M(A)LS program.  He is past president of the Midwest MLA, the Ohio Shakespeare Conference, and the Eugene O’Neill Society.  For the summer of 1972, he was invited to teach Shakespeare by the Dartmouth English department.  He has also published books on Shakespeare and on early modern drama.