Special Topics in Drama

6 units · Undergraduate

Fall and Spring: 6 units Section A: Special Topics: WAYS OF SEEING (Not John Berger) - Theatre History: In a similar spirit to John Berger's seminal work Ways of Seeing, this class offers a critical survey of theatre making beyond the current moment. The class is fundamentally a history lesson, and posits "history" not as narratives and their interpretations, but a repository of ideas and techniques that students can use as inspiration and reference in their own practice. Key references in this course include: Japanese Noh, Wole Soyinka, Konstantin Stanislavski, Sergei Eisenstein, Antonin Artaud, Peter Brook, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Bertolt Brecht, Jerzy Grotowski, The Wooster Group, Allan Kaprow, Pina Bausch, Tadeusz Kantor, Anna Deavere Smith, Rezah Abdoh, Susan Sontag, and Jos and #233; Esteban Mu and #241;oz. Section B: WAYS OF SPEAKING: ON DIALOGUE What is dialogue and how does it function? In this class, we will investigate dialogue as a craft, a series of choices made by the playwright. We will read plays from history and then look at contemporary plays set in those time periods. We will study how cadence, vocabulary, and 'realistic dialogue' has changed over time, asking ourselves what playwrights prioritize through the choices they make when writing dialogue. We will explore the ways alternate vocabularies, dialects, and formatting affect our understanding of character and the worlds they inhabit. Potential plays include Fefu and Her Friends, Stereophonic, Lunch Bunch, and The Good John Proctor. This class will involve reading (both independently and aloud in class), as well as academic and creative writing projects.