Latinx Theatre and Performance

Catalog description

Course description (optional): This class will look at the west coast tradition of Latinx theater and its particular connections with the broader Los Angeles performance community. Focusing primarily but not exclusively on questions of regional development, history, aesthetic specificity, and political impact, Latinx Theater and Performance may look at the development of this particular cultural form as a distinct genre with roots to oral ritual, performance art, studio art and other interdisciplinary influences. The class may trace roots back to the Latin American performance traditions such as Mexican vaudeville, the rise of the political theater in the 1960s, and the complexity of the genre in more contemporary times. Students will read play texts as well as scholarly articles to frame a more in-depth critical analysis of the Latinx performance.