Marc C. Conner

My daughter, who is home schooled, watched and enjoyed this 24-lecture course very much. Conor is one of the most fluent lecturers I have seen on a Teaching Company course. Perhaps this isn't surprising since he not only teaches Shakespeare but also acts in plays. His selection of plays is good and the amount of coverage dedicated to each is about right. Conor uses a set of "tools" to show how to understand Shakespeare's plays. These are a bit contrived--I'm not sure I'd call them tools--they are more like concepts that can be applied across the plays to see similarities and differences, and to especially see how tragedies and comedies share much in common. The presentation is not overdone. The extended quotes from the plays are presented on screen so the language is easy to follow. There are various still photos of scenes from Shakespeare as well, some of which may be familiar from other sources. There are no actual filmed scenes from the plays, but with Conor's skill, he doesn't need them. Highly recommended.… (mere)