Science and the Theater

Catalog description

Arthur Miller, who wrote The Glass Menagerie, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible and other renowned plays, asserted the following: “Everything influences playwrights. A playwright who isn’t influenced is never of any use.” Science is definitely among that ‘everything.’ Astronomy, medicine, mathematics and biology have influenced the plots and themes of playwrights like Bertolt Brecht, Margaret Edson, Tom Stoppard and Anna Ziegler. But how can complex scientific issues be addressed in a theatrical format without compromising the subject or the dramatic form? When a dramatic plot revolves around a scientific issue, how are the science and the scientists portrayed? What are the consequences of literary license when a playwright elects to take liberties with scientific matters to augment dramatic effect? When do such liberties negate the veracity of the work? This course examines these issues. Relevant plays are read with an eye toward addressing science’s influence on theater and the theater’s influence on the perception of science as we seek to understand the complementary relationship between the two domains.