DRAMA 201 A: Plays And Styles

Students in this course will read plays closely with special attention to structure and style, investigate the key ideas of major dramatic theories, and engage with performance practices from a range of periods and geographies. Guiding our search are questions around those anxieties, problems, and identities that threaten established socio-cultural boundaries, specifically prompting negotiations of political subjectivity and human identity. The “monstrous other” is not a stable substance across time, but is a shifting and permeable category that speaks to localized concerns, both temporally and geographically. We will look at those concerns and put them in conversation. Additionally, this course will explore practical approaches to reading play texts within the framework of possible staging(s) by focusing on a text’s original period, style, and ideas set in dialogue with contemporary technology, practices, and concepts.