Performance and Politics: Theatrical Transformations in Latin America

Catalog description

An active interdisciplinary approach to the study of representative works from Spacin and Latin America drawn from both the traditional and the emerging canon. Students will approach and analyze a variety of Spanish and Latin American plays both as works of literature and as theater in performance. This course will not only foreground this dual nature of drama, but it will also examine the use of the theater as a vehicle for the expression of cultural values and socio-political issues. It delves into the themes, conventions, and aesthetics influencing theater in these cultures. Issues of identity, gender, class, race, community, and sexuality contained in the plays will explored within an aesthetic context. Students will develop skills in literary analysis as well as explore a character’s development and growth through monologues, scene performances and written assignments. This course will include a final public staging of selected scenes or one-act plays.