Creating Documentary Drama: Life On Stage

3 units

This class will teach students how to transform oral histories and family history into a stage performance. Examination of family history in context of historical events, gives both the author and the audience the opportunity to put a human context to our history. In this class students will learn: oral interview skills; how to structure history, oral interviews and family stories to be stage worthy; the art of compression, economy and intensity of the story; and how to find the poetry inside our lives. The purpose of the class will be to encourage literacy in history, awareness of the student's family role in history, and to give the students the necessary tools to apply what they have learned in a performance. The students will also read several classic American plays and see the plays shown at Washington University. The end of the semester they will have created a one-act performance piece about their family's history.