Many of us know the Black Death as a catastrophic event of the medieval world. But the Black Death was arguably the most significant event in Western history, profoundly affecting every aspect of human life, from the economic and social to the political, religious, and cultural. In its wake, the plague left a world that was utterly changed, forever altering the traditional structure of European societies and forcing a rethinking of every single system...

On St. Martin's Lane in London, a popular spot for street performers, a busker (Charles Laughton) works a poor girl (Vivien Leigh) into his act. As her popularity rises, he guides her to stardom even though it means sacrificing his love for her.. Leigh is mesmerizing in her final film before Gone With the Wind..

Many political and cultural events sent shockwaves through the Irish world in the 19th and early 20th centuries as Ireland gradually shook off the shackles of British rule. Alongside a long and painful political process arose one of the greatest flourishings of literature in modern times. The Irish Revival that occurred around the turn of the 20th century fused and elevated aesthetic and civic ambitions, fueling a cultural climate of masterful artistic...

First staged in 1904 by Konstantin Stanislavsky in the very theater and on the very stage of this production, director Adolf Shapiro's interpretation asks the question, where would the characters of this play live today years after their cherry orchard has been cut down? The answer, which lies in the material world created by set designer David Borovsky, is, of course, on the stage. Russian star, Renata Litvinova, in her debut theatrical performance,...

For their honeymoon, Anna and Mathieu traveled to Turkey with their camera in hand to learn about Mathieu's Armenian heritage and to learn what modern day Turks think about the Armenian Genocide that occurred in 1915.Sadly, Turkey denies the Genocide for a variety of reasons including that the crimes was actually committed by Armenians against the Turks.Using footage from their trip mixed with interviews, news footage, historical documents and animation,...

The Playboy of the Western World is now regarded as a classic of Modernism and one of Ireland's defining plays, but when it premiered in 1907, it shocked Dublin and inspired riots. See what made this play so controversial to its original audience-and why the play is a truly great work of art.

The Colosseum is a monument to Roman imperial power and cruelty. Its graceful lines and harmonious proportions concealed a highly efficient design and advanced construction methods that made hundreds of arches out of 100,000 tons of stone. In its elliptical arena, tens of thousands of gladiators, slaves, prisoners and wild animals met their deaths. Ancient texts report lions and elephants emerging from beneath the floor, as if by magic, to ravage...

Alalá La Escuela de Arte, an arts center for children that uses flamenco as an educational language, comes to life thanks to the efforts of well-known guitarist Emilio Caracafé, who together with other artists, offers us his personal vision of this Gypsy neighborhood, where flamenco is a productive element for providing opportunities and has the power to transform society.

The Irish Renaissance had largely succeeded in bringing folk life to the center of cultural consciousness by the 1930s. At that time, the poet Patrick Kavanagh-hailing from the rural farmland-emerged with a critique of the sentimentality and nostalgia of Yeats's generation. Explore how the next wave of poets carved out their own views of Ireland.

Glide into the age of Romanticism, when poets surpassed politicians in setting national agendas. In this lecture, after considering the distinction between civil and ethnic nationalism, you'll study a number of 19th-century revolutions that swept across the region-and reflect how defeat in these revolutions paved the way for empires..