Course Description
Survey of dramatic literature that foregrounds issues of race, gender, culture, and/or ethnicity. Emphasis is placed on African American, Asian American, Latino/Latina, and Native American drama and theatre. The origin and development of these theatre movements are contextualized within the social and cultural milieu of the times.
Athena Title
Voices of Diversity
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in THEA 2110
Non-Traditional Format
This course will be taught 95% or more online.
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall and spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
- Students will appreciate theatre and drama by, for, and about artists from diverse American backgrounds performing in various venues from Broadway, off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway and regional theatres in the United States.
- Students will understand theatre as an important facet of expression of all of the cultures under consideration in this class.
- Students will interpret and analyze how a play offers different possible meanings within multiple cultural contexts.
- Students will respond thoughtfully and critically to live performance and written scripts by playwrights and performers identifying with underrepresented social groups in American culture, using the vocabulary of the theatre.
Topical Outline
- Week One Introduction and Historical Overview of American
Drama and Theatre
Week Two African American Theatre History and Development
Week Three Plays: Charles Gordone’s No Place to be Somebody,
George C. Wolfe’s The Colored Museum, and August Wilson’s Joe
Turner’s Come and Gone
Week Four Plays: Alice Childress’ Wedding Band: A love/hate
story in black and white and Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls
Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf
Week Five Latino/Latina Theatre History and Development
Week Six Plays: Luis Valdez’ Zoot Suit, Jose Rivera’s The
House of Ramon Iglesia
Week Seven Plays: Milcha Sanchez-Scott’s Roosters and Nilo
Cruz’ Anna in the Tropics
Week Eight Asian American Theatre History and Development
Week Nine Plays: Frank Chin’s The Chickencoop Chinaman, David
Henry Hwang’s M Butterfly
Week Ten Plays: Wakako Yamauchi’s And the Soul Shall Dance
and Philip Kan Gotanda’s Yankee Dawg You Die
Week Eleven Plays: Anuvab Pal’s Chaos Theory, Aasif Mandvi’s
Sakina’s Restaurant, and Shishir Kurup’s Merchant on Venice
Week Twelve Selected Plays by Filipino and Vietnamese Authors
Week Thirteen Native American Theatre History and Development
Week Fourteen Selected Plays by Native American Playwrights
Week Fifteen Research and Writing Projects and Conclusions
General Education Core
CORE IV: Humanities and the Arts
