Theater and Dance 151 - Theater and Performance

This course examines key ways by which theater and performance have contributed to enrich processes of social transformation within specific socio-political contexts throughout the Americas. Students will study exemplar cases in which theater and performance have participated in and affected the political life of countries and communities, trying to raise public awareness about issues such as state violence and trauma, memory, migration and globalization, indigenousness, neoliberalism, gender and the right of citizenship. In addition, students will acquire understanding about the practice and aesthetic of professional art works and grass root and community-based theaters that are fundamental to the practice of civic engagement. The course is designed to build a more contemporaneous and nuanced understanding of the meaning and implications of engaging in the practice of theater and performance for social change in the Americas. 

Spring semester.  Five College Fellow Barriga.