Contemporary Drama / Theatre

The main objective of this course is to help undergraduate students get acquainted with a variety of styles developed and practised by male and female, mainstream and non mainstream, white and colored dramatists of the last five decades in the U.S. Emphasis will also be placed on the development of interpretive and critical skills in evaluating contemporary drama. Students are expected to read at least one play per week.

Objectives

Not available

Prerequisites

Not available

Syllabus

Week 1. Cultural background. American 50s and 60s. Vietnam War. Anti-war movement, hippie movement etc. Week 2 Cultural background continued. Week 3. Theatrical innovations introduced. Problematics of contextualizing a play (how to read a play in relation to its era). Cultural historicism. Postmodernism. Week 4. ALBEE. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? “Theatre of loss”. The American suburbs. The language of the absurd and other related matters. Visit to theatre. Playing “critic”. Week 5. Theatre of improvisation. Jean-Claude van Itallie. The Serpent. Megan Terry. Comings and Goings. Week 6 Theatre of color. Kopit’s INDIAN . Week 7 Theatre of race Shange’s For Colored Girls who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf). Week 8. The problematics of ethnicity 1. Valdez’s Los Vendidos. Week 9. The problematics of ethnicity 2. Maria Irene Fornes. The Conduct of Life. Visit to theatre: playing critic. Week 10. The problematics of Ethnicity 3. Elizabeth Wong. Letters to a Student Revolutionary Week 11. About feminism and subjecthood. Marsha Norman. Getting Out. Visit to theatre: playing critic. Week 12. About the postmodern. Sam Shepard. Tooth of Crime. Week 13. About hypernaturalism. David Mamet. Oleanna. Week 14. Wrapping up. The course wraps up by bringing together the questions that dominate all lectures: i.e. How real is “reality”? Who defines culture? What is color? What is gender? What is race? What is a national narrative?