Course ID: | THEA 4230/6230. 3 hours. |
Course Title: | Theatre and Ritual |
Course Description: | Examines theatre as a cultural form crucially interwoven with
systems of ritual as didactic and community bonding events.
Exploration of ritual as an origin for theatre, although other
theories of theatre origin will be explored. Studies
theatrical practices and dramatic literature (global in scope). |
Oasis Title: | THEA HIST RITUAL |
Semester Course Offered: | Offered every year. |
Grading System: | A-F (Traditional) |
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Course Objectives: | Across time periods, cultures, and places, theatre has been a
privileged arena for addressing people's relationship with the
supernatural and with human rites of passage. Providing a survey
of world theatre history and dramatic literature, this course
examines theatre and its relation to ritual in diverse
historical and geographical contexts. Expected learning
outcomes: Students will demonstrate the ability to:
* Read plays from a variety of periods and places as
traces of past performances and blueprints for possible
productions.
* Compare diverse performance traditions and contexts.
* Use historical and cultural research to understand
plays and their staging, including the research appropriate for
a director, actor, or designer.
* Write clearly structured essays combining specialized
terminology with the student's own voice.
* Describe what is known, what is not known, and what is
in dispute about the historical interrelation of theatre and
ritual. |
Topical Outline: | TOPICAL OUTLINE:
I. What is a ritual? (a form of knowledge; didactic;
influence or control events; glorify a supernatural power; bring
a community together to bond and pass on knowledge)
a. Theories on rituals (cultural Darwinist, functionalists,
structualists)
b. Victor Turner
II. What makes a ritual theatrical?
a. Repeated patterns
b. Costumes
c. Special spaces (African, Egyptian, classical Greek,
Roman, Indian, Native American, etc.)
d. Special language
e. Jerzy Grotowski and Richard Schnechner
III. Theory of ritual origin of theatre and some critical texts
a. Other origin theories (storytelling, shaman, shaman-
clown, etc.)
b. Aristotle, mimesis and methexis
c. Soyinka: Ogun meets Dionysus
d. Natyasastra
IV. Ritual, Festival, Performance
a. Egungun Festival (Nigeria)
b. Barong Dance (Bali)
c. Abydos Passion Play (Egypt)
d. Indian/Asian
e. Native American
f. City Dionysia
g. Ludi Romani
h. Feast of Corpus Christi as well as the Quem Quaeritas
Trope
i. 1960's rituals
The course has four units, and in each unit students will be
asked to read a variety of dramatic and critical texts. |