Late Modern and Contemporary Theatre and Performance

Catalog description

This class provides introduction to an array of theatre and performance forms of 20th- and 21st-century Europe and North America. We explore historical realism and naturalism to symbolism, the birth of avant-garde, constructivism, dada and surrealism, and myriad other modernist isms. After Stein, Artaud, and Brecht, we jump to Americas and indigenous theatre, the Harlem Renaissance, site specific art, and innovative companies and practitioners from Maria Irene Fornes to the Wooster Group, Augusto Boal and more. We study playwrights, directors, actors, dancers, designers, and performance artists. The focus is on “experimental” forms, recalling that even naturalism, in its day, was "revolutionary."