 |
||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Fall 2008 This course will focus on drama not only as text but also as performance. So we will read modern plays and discuss them as they are often discussed in English courses, concentrating on theme, character, world, imagery, language, and dramatic action. But, in addition, we will also examine the “texts” as scripts, as working papers for actors and directors: in short, as source materials for performance. To this end we will also view movie versions of many of these plays and students will act scenes in class in an effort to understand more fully the demands and possibilities of theatrical performance. Work in this course will consist of readings and film viewing, a journal, essays, and a staged production of a fifteen-minute scene (or scenes) from one of the plays studied. Everyone in the course will be expected to perform a scene in the evening of the last week of class. Students, working in groups of at least two, must cast, block, and costume these scenes themselves. And they must perform them off-book. As they work on this project, all students must keep a journal of its development from day to day. Since the scene is designed to be both an exercise in, and an analysis of, group work, this journal will be as important as the staged scene itself. Regular class attendance is mandatory during the semester, as are regular journal entries about the readings. This journal- different from the journal about the scene performed in the last week-will be collected periodically in class without prior notice, so it must be kept up to date all semester long. The plays, still not fully determined, will most likely be chosen from the following list: Enrico IV |
|