DRAMA 451: Documentary Theatre

This course invites students into the electrifying world of documentary theatre—where real stories, lived experiences, and urgent histories are transformed into bold, immediate performance. Together, we will investigate how playwrights, theatre makers, and companies craft theatre from the world around them.  Students will learn the art of oral-history interviewing—how to listen deeply, ask boldly, and translate lived experience into theatrical form—while examining how documentary theatre responds to social, cultural, and political crises in real time. Along the way, we’ll dive into the inventive methodologies that brought us plays like The Vagina Monologues, The Laramie Project, and Fires in the Mirror, as well as scholars who illuminate the power of storytelling in shaping public memory, ultimately equipping students with the tools to craft their own compelling, research-driven, conversation-sparking work.