World Theatre I and II
Syllabi
| TH 231 WORLD THEATRE PART II: 1800 TO THE PRESENT Dr. Amy Seham Fall 2003 M,W 10:30-12:20 Office: FAC 221, ext. 7460 Office Hours: Tues and Wed 1:30-2:30 or by appointment. Required Texts: HBJ Anthology of Drama Worthen Living Theatre: A History Wilson and Goldfarb The Laramie Project Kaufman REQUIRED PRODUCTIONS The Laramie Project Anderson Theatre Footprints Anderson Theatre Topdog/Underdog Mixed Blood Theatre, Minneapolis Course Objectives: To identify and explore periods of world-wide theatrical activity since 1800 and to study concurrent cultural values and ideologies. To study selected playscripts as representative artifacts of the historical period and culture that created them. To study, embody, and seek to understand the creative impulses and movements within theatre history in the areas of acting, design, and other collaborative arts. To identify recurring questions, patterns, and ideas that appear throughout theatre history. To speculate on the significance of those questions both within their own culture and historical period and in the context of our own time. Course Requirements: 1. Preparation and homework/participation : This class is designed as a seminar, rather than a lecture class, and thus depends on YOUR PARTICIPATION. You are responsible for keeping up with the syllabus and being prepared to discuss both the plays and historical material assigned for each class session. While we may not go over every aspect of the Wilson chapters in class, you will be responsible for this material and may be tested on it for the exams. Bring your opinions, thoughts, questions, and beliefs about the plays and other readings into class and share them with your colleagues! HOMEWORK will be assigned on a regular basis. These assignments will give you specific questions to answer, things to look for, or other preparation for the following class. HOMEWORK will be collected, and should be written neatly, but need not be typed. Your partcipation in class discussions will be evaluated as follows: D= Rarely or never speaks in class; C= occasionally contributes to discussion, but shows only quick, casual reading of the texts; B= contributes to every class discussion, shows careful reading and thought about the material, listens to others’ comments and adds or responds to them; A= shows thorough reading of all assignments, contributes thoughtfully and creatively to class discussion, brings additional, outside insights and information to the discussion, makes connections between various elements of the material, adds positively to the class's knowledge and understanding of the subject. 2. FINAL PAPER: History is an ongoing process very much influenced by what historians choose to document. In this 10-12 page research paper, YOU are the historian. In your research, strive to find and use PRIMARY sources (original writings, contemporary news reports, interviews) as well as secondary sources. You may even find that you can create and uncover new history. The best subjects for this project may be theatre/dance/or opera companies still in operation, or performance artists who are underappreciated. Strive to get in touch with living artists right away -- most are thrilled to give interviews, access to archives, self-publications, journals, letters, popular press articles and promotional materials. All this is the grist for any historian's mill. Contact the Gustavus librarians right away for help getting newspaper accounts, and alternative sources. Secondary sources are also very helpful in giving historical context, parallel examples, and supporting material. AT LEAST TWO NON-WEBSITE SOURCES MUST BE INCLUDED other than Wilson or Worthen. An A paper will uncover new information, show your analysis of the historical artifacts, and make imaginative connections between your own original research and the movements and ideas of the material we have studied in class. Get started early on this project -- it can't be done in one week! Pay attention to interim deadlines throughout the semester: 1. Topic choice 2. Bibliography and primary sources 3. Outline 4. Final paper. You will prepare and give a short oral report on your topic during the scheduled exam period for the class. 3. EXAMS: Two mid-terms will each contain two elements. A short objective section will test your knowledge of the basic material in The Living Theatre, in Worthen, in the assigned essay readings, and in the plots and characters of the plays. Essay questions will ask you to think and write about the patterns and meanings in the material covered, to relate the dramatic texts to the historical context, and to make connections and comparisons among the cultural movements we have studied. 4. Show and Tell: 15-minute presentations to the class that focus on the visual, aural, and spatial elements of a genre of theatre in its historic context. These reports may cover involvement or influence of visual artists in theatre of the period, music that evokes the era, design, technology and/or production elements of a particular period or other topic approved by the professor. The presentation should go beyond a simple oral report, and should include visual aides (slides, pictures, video etc.), sound/music and/ or a participatory experience for the class. ** Presentations require a typed bibliography of AT LEAST three sources you have used in addition to Wilson or Worthen to expand your understanding of the topic. Hand in bibliography on the day of the presentation. Be creative! Your goal is to bring a piece of theatre history to life, and to make us understand it in our artistic souls, not just our academic brains. Material from Show and Tell presentations will be on the Mid-terms! 5. Performances: The class will be expected to attend and to be prepared to discuss the two on-campus shows. In addition, a field trip to see a professional production of Topdog/Underdog at the Mixed Blood Theatre Minneapolis is scheduled for the second half of the semester. Grade Break-down: Show and Tell 10% Mid-term #1 20% Midterm #2 20% Research Paper 30% Participation/Homework 20% (+) Course Schedule and assignments (* indicates materials on reserve or Xeroxed for your use) Week 1 Sept 3 Introduction and Orientation Look at The Drunkard Week 2 Sept 8 Theatre from 1800-1875/Romanticism Wilson Chapter 11 Worthen 531-541 "Rules for Actors"*(hand-out) Play: Hernani* (hand-out) Sept 10 Play: The Octoroon (hand-out) Minstrelsy and Melodrama (early Show and Tell?) Week 3 Sept 15 READING Zola "Naturalism" (Worthen) Worthen 547-553 Wilson Chapter 12 -1875-1915 Play: A Doll's House Sept 17 Suffrage movement Play: Votes for Women (Worthen) Worthen 541-551 and READING-- G.B. Shaw's review of Doll's House Brantley's review of Doll's House *Show and tell – Suffrage and performance TALK WITH ME ABOUT TOPIC FOR FINAL PAPER Week 4 Sept 22 Symbolism and Realism Play: Cherry Orchard (Worthen) READING Stanislavsky (Worthen) Sept 24 READING: “Against Naturalism in the Theatre” (hand-out) Play: The Crystal Spider – (hand-out) *Show and Tell-- Symbolism Week 5 Sept 29 Chapter 13 1915-1945 Futurism READING: Futurist Manifesto and Futurist Short Plays (h/o) Dada The Gas Heart (hand-out) Oct 1 German Expressionism TRANSFIGURATION Ernst Toller (hand-out) Guest speaker? Week 6 Oct 6 New Approaches to Staging READING: Meyerhold (hand-out) Appia, Craig Constructivism Play: Machinal (Worthen) Play: Trifles (Worthen) Oct 8 Surrealism Reading: The Surrealist Manifesto (hand-out) *SHOW AND TELL: Surrealism Week 7 Oct 13 Theatre of Cruelty Artaud "Theatre of Cruelty" (Worthen) Worthen 541-547 Jet of Blood (hand-out) Oct 15 Midterm #1 October 17-20 Fall Break Week 8 Oct 20 Total Theatre and Epic Theatre Living Newspaper in Worthen p.956 Piscator and Brecht Play: Mother Courage—part one READING -- Brecht "Theatre for Pleasure" (Worthen) HAND IN SHORT PARAGRAPH ON PAPER TOPIC Oct 22 Play: Mother Courage part 2 READING-- Brecht "Chinese Theatre" (hand-out) *Show and tell – Chinese Opera (Oct 22 Midterm grades due) See Laramie Project Week 9 Oct 27 Discuss Laramie Project script/production OCT 29 Socialiist Realism/Totalitarianism US Commercial theatre Pirandello and Lorca Six Characters in Search of an Author (Worthen) *Show and tell --Socialist Realism Week 10 NOV 3 Wilson Chapter 14 1945-1975 Worthen 951-959 Death of a Salesman READING -- Miller "Tragedy and the Common Man" (Worthen) Death of a Salesman in China (hand-out) HAND IN PRELIMINARY BIBLIOGRAPHY/LIST OF PRIMARY SOURCES FOR RESEARCH PAPER. SHOW EVIDENCE OF MAKING CONTACTS. Nov 5 Glass Menagerie *SHOW AND TELL: the American Musical Week 11 Nov 10 Existentialism and Absurdism Endgame (Worthen) Not I (hand-out) READING—Esselin (Worthen) Camus, Sartre Nov 12 Avant-Garde in the 60s Happenings, environmental theatre, Grotowski PLAY: Dutchman (Worthen) Los Vendidos (Worthen) READING: The Revolutionary Theatre (Worthen) *Show and tell—1960s context NOVEMBER 14 SEE TOPDOG/UNDERDOG AT MIXED BLOOD THEATRE Week 12 Nov 17 Footprints Indian Theatre READING—Chadhuri Staging Place (Worthen) Worthen 1341-1365 Nov. 19 Death and the King's Horseman (Worthen) Read Worthen pp. 1197-1217 READING: Post Colonial Drama *SHOW AND TELL—Yoruba ritual performance See Footprints Week 13 Nov 24 Chapter 15 1975-present READING-- Jameson "Postmodernism and Consumer Society" Postmodern directors/contemporary experiments Intercultural theatre PLAY: Hamletmachine Nov. 26 Midterm #2 THANKSGIVING Week 14 Dec 1 Feminist Theatre Cloud 9 (Worthen) A Woman Alone (hand-out) READING – Feminist essay (hand-out) HAND IN FIRST PARAGRAPH/OUTLINE OF RESEARCH PAPER Dec 3 Information for Foreigners Latin-American theatre *SHOW AND TELL: Latin American context Week 15 Dec. 8 New Voices in American Theatre Top Dog/Underdog Review of Topdog/Underdog READING: Bhaba "Mimicry and Man" Dec 10 PERFORMANCE ART Sally’s Rape World Without End *SHOW AND TELL – Performance Art context FINAL EXAM time will be spent in GRADED oral reports on your own research. Final paper due by the end of exam period. |