Special Topics: Performing the Immigrant Experience

“Immigrants: We get the job done.” These show-stopping lyrics from the Broadway smash Hamilton and the production’s resonance with our contemporary zeitgeist serve as a potent reminder that the history of the United States is truly a story of immigrants. This course examines the impact that such immigrant experiences have had on the narratives told in American theatre, and analyzes the ways in which diasporic communities have used the stage to challenge the power dynamics of a dominant cultural hierarchy. Beginning with the racial and ethnic stereotypes constructed through minstrelsy and vaudeville in the nineteenth century and journeying through the Arab American theatre movement of the present day, students will investigate the construction and performance of immigrant identities by theatre practitioners of the Irish, Italian, Jewish, African, AAPI, Latine/x, and MENASA diasporas in the United States.