Theater and Dance 160 - Dynamics of Play Reading

In this course, students explore elements of dramatic literature and their implications for audience experiences in performance. Character, language, spectacle, plot, rhythm, and theme are studied in the light of dynamic audience response in real time and space. Particular emphasis is placed on exploring the legacy of classical form and later evolutionary and innovative responses to it. In addition to exercises in analytical and descriptive writing, students undertake experiential projects that explore distinctive theatrical conventions of the plays studied. When possible, course activities may also include attending live performances.  Exemplary plays are chosen for their contrasting qualities, from antiquity to the present, including plays by Euripides, Shakespeare, Ibsen, Shaw, Brecht, Churchill and Kushner, among others. Two class meetings per week.

Fall semester. Professor Bashford.