Structure: Dramaturgy and the Politics of Form

Catalog description

To undertake a structural analysis is to ask why things are the way they are, how they got to be that way, and whether the system is still working—if the structure still holds. Dramaturgy as structural analysis considers not only the form of the drama but also the methods and modes of production and how theatre and performance organize (or potentially restructure) public life. Dramaturgy asks students to consider the infrastructure of making theatre, alongside questions of aesthetic form and political effect. This discussion-based course will teach dramaturgy as a form of structural analysis and as a set of strategies and tactics for intervening within structures as they already exist—institutions, rehearsal rooms, modes of thinking, and modes of making. Readings and viewings will pair plays and performance scores that experiment with structure alongside structuralist and poststructuralist theories of race, gender, sexuality, ecology, infrastructure, networks, phenomenology, and political philosophy; for example, the works of Ligia Lewis, the international Fluxists, Judson dance, María Irene Fornés, Una Chaudhuri, Sylvia Wynter, Bruno Latour, and Donna Haraway. Assignments will include creative, collaborative exercises and works of scholarly analysis; students will be asked to write critically, to critique one another’s writing, and to devise their own “structures”—scores and scenarios for performance—in class. Open to Advanced undergraduates (juniors and seniors). Performance Research