Global Theatre and Performance: Paleolithic to the Threshold of Modernity

This course explores performance practices that predate the European Renaissance across disparate parts of the globe. Considered will be Paleolithic rock art and other evidence of ritual practices in Europe, Africa, and the Americas; ritual dramas of Egypt, Greece, and the Roman Empire; Sub-Saharan African traditions and theatre/dance forms in ancient India, medieval Japan and the indigenous Americas. In short, we will explore a wealth of differing ancestral theatrical modes and methods that continue to leave their mark in contemporary diasporic expressions.