Joseph Papp

Meryl Streep is one of the most versatile and successful actresses of all time and is still considered a superstar after 50 years of career. She fascinates filmmakers and audiences alike with her broad range of expression.

Joe Papp, the founder of the New York Shakespeare Festival and, subsequently, The Public Theater—arguably the most important theatre in North America—is profiled in this documentary that neither sanctifies nor vilifies him. He brought us free Shakespeare in the Park, Hair and A Chorus Line, and nurtured many of America’s greatest playwrights, directors and actors. His complex personality and mercurial behavior are much in evidence and spoken of with frankness through interviews with some of America’s most celebrated artists, including Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Kevin Kline, and James Earl Jones.

David Hare's account of a one-time French freedom fighter who gradually realizes that her post-war life is not meeting her expectations.

In spite of being apprenticed to a Pirate King as a child, Frederic has led a very sheltered life. So when he arrives in Cornwall with his boisterous shipmates, there are a few surprises in store for him!

A documentary about the 1978 stage production of The Taming of the Shrew by the New York City Shakespeare company at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park. Includes scenes from the production, interviews with Meryl Streep (Kate) and Raul Julia (Petruchio) as well as an introduction by producer Joseph Papp and audience commentary.

Winnie, a woman in her fifties, is buried waist-deep in a mound of scorched earth, with just a large, black shopping bag and a collapsed parasol. Behind her and hidden from view sleeps Willie.

This Pirates of Penzance is primarily a historical document, part of the Broadway Theater Archive television series. It presents, with some inevitable, tiny technical shortcomings, a live 1980 performance in Central Park, not the 1983 movie of the same name that also starred Linda Ronstadt and Kevin Kline. Those who remember that film, which had the benefit of retakes and editing, a lavish production budget, and the spaciousness of a Hollywood studio, may find this video less polished. On its own terms, it is nonetheless thoroughly enjoyable.

A video recording of a New York Shakespeare Festival 1979 stage production of Coriolanus with an all-black and Hispanic cast. Producer Joseph Papp intended to provide professional opportunities for actors of minority ethnic backgrounds. A banished hero of Rome allies with a sworn enemy to take his revenge on the city.

This documentary explores the growth and development of black theatre from its earliest roots, also examining its close ties with the civil rights movement. Included are interviews with veterans of the theatrical world such as James Earl Jones and Ed Bullins.

A cocktail party at which no topic, thought or action is taboo. The result is Jungian pornography a wickedly funny and often troubled look at what we feel and think but dare not say. Recorded theatre performance.

A drama which examines the enduring nature of love between a white man and a black woman in 1918 South Carolina.

A young man returns home from Vietnam blind. He is very bitter about the war and alienates his family and friends. This movie deals with the aftermath of war and how people react to it both veterans and their families. (IMDb)

Don Pedro and his men (Teddy Roosevelt Roughriders) have returned from the wars. After Beatrice turns down his proposal, Don Pedro decides to matchmake her with Benedick (her former boyfriend), but she being an independent-minded, bicycle-riding Suffragette type, it's going to take a bit of trickery.

A German scientist works on a way of quelling overly aggressive soldiers by developing implants that directly stimulate the pleasure centers of the brain.