Introduction to Theater

Catalog description

This course offers an introduction to a number of significant dramatic works from Shakespeare, to Ibsen, to Suzan-Lori Parks, alongside seminal figures in the theorization of theater and performance from Aristotle, to Nietzsche, to Artaud. We will concentrate on the intersection of interpretation and enactment, asking how these texts appear on stage and why. This is not merely descriptive work, but interpretive and physical work. Students will be challenged to engage theater both on an embodied and conceptual level and ask: what thoughts does this particular performance or method enable us to think that we wouldn't have thought otherwise?