Theater 333 - Contempry Repertory

THEATER 130 PLEASE NOTE: Students who have taken TH 120, please email Bethany Sherwood - bsherwood@theater.umass.edu - to be enrolled.

PLAYMAKING: A STRUCTURAL APPROACH TO WRITING FOR THE STAGE.
Is it possible to make a play without meaning? Without dialogue? What parts do blocking and movement, placement of objects AND ACTORS create the story of the play? Can a canon play, like Oedipus Rex, the model for Aristotle?s theory of play structure, work as a flashback? What is the story of any play if the salient actions all happen offstage? What if the chit chat and actions, even thoughts (heard through their headsets) are the real story of the play and not what the audience is seeing onstage when the lights are up? What if the actors keep moving as their dialogue is delivered? And what if they turn up in the audience? Can one find characters and dialogue in any text? This course explores these questions in exercises in class and in student-written plays which are presented in class. At the end of the term, the students will turn in portfolios with the final drafts of their work.