California Stories: Theatrical Representations of Race, Labor, and Tourism

4 credits · Undergraduate

How might we characterize California? Who lives here & what are the stories we tell about them? This course takes California as the site through which to explore how cultural systems of performance help shape social systems of race, considering the role performance forms–theater, film, tourism, pageants, political protests–have played in shaping California’s unique cultural and racial topography. From the theatricalization of Chinatown in Rodgers’ and Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song to that of urban riots in Twilight, from the staging of Latinx farmworker’s rights to those of post-war African American workers of the Great Migration, performance strategies have been used by a variety of agents towards a range of social & political goals.