How much of Shakespeare is history, how much propaganda, and how much sheer
imaginative force? This section celebrates 1996 as the Year of Three Richards, with two new and one very old film version released. It also examines Richard III in Shakespeare, in other dramatic vehicles, and in history.
Looking for Richard, a film by Al Pacino
Overview of the Film | Cast | Viewer's Guide and Lesson Plan | Looking for Richard? We Have Some Ideas...
Richard III, A Film Starring Sir Ian McKellen
Cast and Credits | Synopsis | Production Notes | Interview with Sir Ian McKellen | MGM/UA site Text of the American Branch Press Release | Information on the Stage Production that preceded the film
America's Oldest Surviving Feature Film
1912 production of Richard III starring Frederick Warde. Press Release (mirrored from American Film Institute site) | American Film Institute Homepage
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King Richard the Third
The Richard we all love to hate. Hypertext edition of the play, with timeline and links to notes from Charles D. Ross's biography of Richard III for those interested in comparing history to drama.
More on Shakespeare's Play
"Me, drunk? Ha! You Should See Buckingham!" (Shakespeare's Richard III in performance) | Full text of Colley Cibber's adaptation of Shakespeare's play (large file, 157 KB) | Historicity in Richard III, by James A. Moore | Laurence Olivier on the Historic Richard III | Strutting and Fretting His Hour on the Stage by Judy R. Weinsoft (lecture presented at the 1993 Oregon Shakespeare Festival) |Internet Shakespearean Resources
Other Dramatic Views of Richard III
Maxwell Anderson's Richard and Anne | Alexander Clark and the Friends of Richard III | The African Company Presents Richard III by Carlyle Brown | Bibliography of Sixteenth-Century English History Plays
Looking for the Historic Richard III
Richard III, The Making of a Legend, by Roxane C. Murph (biography and introduction to the issues) | You Can't Tell the Players without a Scorecard, from Anne Vineyard's curriculum for high school students | Richard III: A Study in Historiographical Controversy, by Beth Marie Kosir | Pursuing the White Boar: Approaches to Teaching Richard III by Richard Oberdorfer | Ricardian Reading (bibliography for further study)
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