Screening the Stage: Contemporary Global Theatre Across Media and Culture

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course will examine connections between screen media and live performance from the mid-20th century to the present. It will be structured around three key ideas: adaptation, remediation, and intermediality. First, students will look at case studies of plays reworked for film and theories of adaptation. Next, we will examine films about the theatre, in order to understand how newer forms of media "remediate" older art forms and how that affects the relationship between the two. Finally, the course will conclude by looking at instances of intermediality wherein theatre artists incorporate projections, live video feed, and other forms of screen media onstage during their performances or use virtual platforms to perform. What different relationships are engendered by these various combinations of screen and stage? How do artists mobilize media in performance to achieve disparate aesthetic, political, social, and economic goals? And how do films and performances from different countries reflect culturally specific understandings of the relationship among technology, media, and art? This course will emphasize transnational and transmedia connections, while also introducing students to works of theatre and film from around the world. All course materials will be in English (or translated/subtitled in English) and no background knowledge necessary; FTT students may benefit from having completed their concentration core requirements before taking this course.