Dramatic Strategies

Catalog description

This first year MFA text analysis course examines the essential elements of storytelling through the analysis of dramas in theater, film and episodic series. Texts from antiquity to the present from each of the three mediums will be read and analyzed for character, story, plot, structure, theme and technique. This is a text analysis class which is meant to complement the writing workshops that students are taking at the same time. The course will use dramatic examples to illustrate elements of storytelling that students can apply to their own original work. By studying source material in its historical context, students will better understand their own work and how it fits into, and is influenced by, the evolution of the form.