DRAMA 581 A: Analysis Of Dramatic Texts

Between the turn of the twentieth century and World War II, easier access to technology (including the telegraph, the typewriter, the telephone, the camera, etc.) and the new media of film and radio revolutionized western daily life and transformed western theatre. Theatre practitioners drew inspiration from the social changes that these technologies provoked and began incorporating them into theatre-making. Indeed, technological development was a significant factor in the development of directing and design as the specialized professions that we now take for granted.

Grounding our discussion in questions asked by media and performance theorists, we will discuss how the emergence and increasingly wide use of modern technologies informed the practices of modern theatre and the larger representational theories of western modernity.