Requirements:
Regular attendance* with preparation and class participation
Group presentations**
Midterm and Final Exams
* Attendance:
You’ll automatically fail this course on your third absence. Two late arrivals or early departures constitute one absence.
**Group presentations: 2-3 people form a group. Each group needs to sign up for two presentation topics. At the time of the presentation, each group will provide a one-page handout to the class that consists of a written summary of the text(s) assigned and discussion questions. The group members will also be responsible for responding to the teacher’s questions on that day.
Art exists to expand the imagination; to do that, sooner or later, it has to provoke.Imagination, naturally, is what we want in our age. Imagination is unpleasant and frightening; it puts you in touch with parts of yourself you may be trying to conceal; it shows you how things might be, in dramatic contrast to the way they actually are. The educated heart can look on all this with unfrightened calm; people with something to fear, either in themselves or in their actions, cover their fear with blustering rage. We have created one kind of art called television. The technological alternative to reality has shrunk, as movies and radio never did, the number of people the theater reaches; to most people today, a live stage performance is a marginal and exotic phenomenon. But television has failed, significantly, to take over either the theater's scope or its intensity. Even as its best, it is a cold, two-dimensional form.
Falling asleep with the TV on is one of the central images of our culture; falling asleep in the theater implies criticism of the performance. The crucial difference underscores what makes the theater so important: It's a waking place, where human senses, feelings, and brains come alive. This course is thus designed to increase understanding and appreciation of modern drama. In class, we will experience and enjoy the variety and richness of the art of drama in our time. The plays we are going to read have been selected primarily for their artistic greatness. We will have extended discussions of representative works of well-known contemporary playwrights, such as Heiner Muller, John Guare, A. R. Gurney, Peter Shaffer, Willy Russell, Caryl Churchill, and Tony Kushner. Available video taped productions by each playwright will be shown. Class format is arranged to feature students' input from reading and conducted by group reports and discussions. I hope, in this class, you will expand your imagination and find a new dimension of interest in your life.
Reading lists:
Heiner Muller Hamletmachine (1979)
Caryl Churchill Cloud Nine (1980)
Willy Russell Shirley Valentine (1988) (+Film)
A. R. Gurney Love Letters (1990) (+Film)
John Guare Six Degrees of Separation (1990) (+Film)
Peter Shaffer The Gift of the Gorgon (1992)
Tony Kushner Angels in America Part I (1995) (+Film)
Grading System:
Class attendance, group presentations and discussion 40%
Midterm & Final Exam 60%