Course Description
Traces the history and legacy of key Modernist movements including psychological realism, epic theatre, symbolism, expressionism, theater of the absurd, theatre of cruelty, and postmodern theatre, among others. Explores the way the innovations, ideals, and controversies stemming from these movements continue to shape and inspire theatre artists in diverse ethnic communities across the world.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students are assigned additional dramatic and critical
readings; write a 15-20 page research paper (not required of
undergraduates) reflecting graduate-level historical research
skills and analysis, and in lieu of in-class quizzes; and
complete a series of take-home exams modeled after--and grading
according to the standards of--the PhD comprehensive exam in
theatre history and theory.
Athena Title
Theatre and Modernity
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Upon completion of this course, students will achieve not only a high degree of cultural literacy on the subject of modern theatre history, but also will become familiar with the methodology of historians. Historians in the postmodern age are being compelled to re-address the basic assumptions of their discipline: how (and why) do we study, research, read, and write history? In this course, students will learn to think critically about the problems of linear, narrative historiography. Students will make fresh connections between various movements and legacies outside of the chronological framework and will subject their textbook to the same methodical scrutiny that historians give to primary sources.
Topical Outline
1. 18th Century Theatre According to Brockett a. Restoration Comedy b. Scenic practices and innovations 2. 19th Century Theatre: Romanticism; Popular Theatre a. German Romanticism, Sturm und Drang b. Goethe, Gottschedd, Neuber c. Melodrama 3. Late 19th and Early 20th century: Naturalism and Realism a. The Well-Made Play: Scribe and Sardou b. Wagner c. Duke of Saxe-Meinegen troupe d. Ibsen and Chekhov e. Antoine and the Theatre Libre f. Stanislavsky and the Moscow Art Thetare g. Independent theatre movement 4. Antirealism, Symbolist and Popular Theatre a. Jarry b. Symbolism, Strindberg c. Yeats and other poetic drama d. Cabaret, Music Hall and Vaudeville 5. Expressionism and the New Stagecraft a. German Expressionism b. New Stagecraft: Appia, Craig, and their legacy c. Eugene O'Neill's early plays 6. Futurism, Dada, and Surrealism a. Italian Futurists b. Zurich and Paris Dada c. Breton, Cocteau, Bunuel d. Antonin Artaud (early) 8. The Interwar Years: Italy, France a. Theatre of the grotesque, Pirandello b. Antonin Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty c. Coupeaaaau, Jouvet 9. German and Austrian Thetare and Drama Between the Wars a. Max Reinhardt b. Piscator and Brecht c. Epic theatre 10. Interwar British, Irish and American Theatre, and Drama Between the Wars a. Little Theatre Movement b. Federal Theatre Project: Leftist theatre c. Broadway, Lilian Hellman, Folk drama d. Old Vic, Tyrone Guthrie, National theatre, Abbey Theatre, Dublin 11. War, Recovery, Absurdity, Anger a. American Musicals, Broadway b. English actors, Olivier, Gielgud, Evans, Redgrave, Ashcroft, Richardson etc c. Existentialism, Sartre, Camus d. Absurdism? Genet, Ionesco e. Samuel Beckett
Syllabus