Theatre 221 - REHEARSING THE IMPOSSIBLE

Building on the legacy of Alice Childress, Lorraine Hansberry, Adrienne Kennedy, and Ntozake Shange, this course will explore the work of Pearl Cleage, Lynne Nottage, Suzan Lori Parks, Anne D. Smith and other playwrights who from the 1950's to present go about reinventing the narrative of America. We will consider their theatrical/artistic production in the context of black feminism. As artists, audiences, and critics grapple with the enduring legacy of minstrel storytelling in the late 20th early 21st, what were/are the particular artistic and intellectual challenges for these theatre artists? What are/were their strategies, missteps, triumphs?