Political Theatre

Catalog description

Major forms, plays, and theories of socially engaged theatre exemplifying performance as a site of resistance, social critique, and utopianism. While the course provides an examination of the historical development of political theatre, focus may vary semester to semester, from an examination of activist forms including agit-prop, pageantry, epic theatre, documentary, street theatre, women?s performance art to major theoretical perspectives and their practical translations since Brecht, including Boal and feminist and queer theory to plays and productions by the Blue Blouse, Clifford Odets, Bertolt Brecht, the Living Theatre, Bread and Puppet, El Teatro Campesino, Heiner Mueller, Caryl Churchill, Athol Fugard, Ngu~g~i wa Thiong?o, Split Britches, Tony Kushner, Emily Mann, and others.