Course Description
A special topics course in dramatic writing.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students will be expected to do additional reading and projects and/or papers.
Athena Title
Topics in Dramatic Writing
Non-Traditional Format
Special workshops with guest artists.
Prerequisite
THEA 3020 or THEA 3020E
Semester Course Offered
Not offered on a regular basis.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
On completion of the course, the successful student will be able to trace the relationships between the forms and styles of play scripts and scripts written for various media to the historical conditions, assumptions about performance, and the shifting role of the writer in crafting dramatic works and dialogue.
Topical Outline
Week 1: Early forms of play scripts. Remnants from the Greco-Roman and Medieval periods. Styles of writing in Spain, France, and England. Week 2: Elizabethan and Jacobean Scripts. Built-in assumptions about the relationship between companies of players and the script. The question of what a playing script was. How the scripts we now regard as "authoritative" came about. Week 3: The script as a work for performance versus as a work of "dramatic literature" as plays have been passed down to us: the case of 16th through 19th century plays. Week 4: Plays NOT meant to be read: the curious example of the melodramatic play from Pixerecourt onward, and the evolution of scenarios for spectacle theatre in the 19th century. Week 5: Forms of realist play scripts in the 19th and early 20th centuries: the well-made play, Ibsen, et al. Week 6: Scripts for expressionistic and "non-realistic" forms of theatre. Week 7: Vaudeville, popular performance, and the script (or lack thereof) Week 8: The early film script. Week 9: Adaptations from literature and theatre during the silent film period. Week 10: The script as outlined for performance versus as blueprint for production: D. W. Griffith vs. William Inge. Week 11: The evolution of the "Continuity" script in Hollywood from 1927 through the early 1950s. Week 12: Variations on the continuity script: French and English examples. Week 13: The shift to "Master Scene" format. This format's variations, virtures, and problems. Week 14: Variant forms reflecting different realities: TV series, etc. Week 15: Current European script forms. Week 16: Scripting for New Media
Syllabus
Public CV