Playwriting and Performing with Non-Fiction Sources

Undergraduate / Graduate

Students will write original performances based on non-fiction sources. How does a writer approach an actual event or someone else's experience? What are methods for collecting and adapting non-fictional material for performance? How do you navigate the blurred boundaries between what's 'real' and what's 'fiction', the inherent biases of interpretation, the stakes of performing as oneself and as other people, and the ethics of turning lived experience into staged performance? This is primarily a writing workshop and studio course with accompanying readings and viewings on documentary, verbatim, and ethnographic performance approaches. Course texts might include Tectonic Theater's The Laramie Project, Anna Deavere Smith's Twilight: Los Angeles 1992, the musical London Road, essays on performance ethnography and related topics by D. Soyini Madison, E. Patrick Johnson, and others. Students will work individually and collaboratively. The final project will be a short-form non-fiction performance piece with options for a written submission, staged reading, or performance presentation.