Tennessee Williams (1911-83), arguably America's greatest playwright, was also our most prolific and controversial one. Williams' career spanned six decades, including two (1918-38) growing up in St. Louis, and one important year (1936-37), enrolled at Washington University. While he wrote a number of masterpieces (The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), he also wrote many plays which remain virtually unknown, but which are worthy of renewed exploration. The playwright's tortured and self-destructive life and mysterious death (including his addiction to drugs and alcohol) hold a mirror up to American culture, especially with regard to the writer's first closeted, then flamboyantly gay life-style. This seminar offers an opportunity to examine this brilliant, flawed, and obsessive writer in depth. Included will be discussion of some of the films made from his plays, and visits to some of the St. Louis landmarks which are featured in his plays.
Course Attributes: EN H; AS HUM; FA HUM; AR HUM
Acting Styles: Realism to Nonrealism
DRAMA 4224
This course builds on skills in character development and scene study, beginning with psychological realism and then shifting into various forms of nonrealism. Through written analysis and performance, students apply acting techniques that address a variety of playwriting styles. The semester begins with a deepening understanding of psychological realism through the exploration of Anton Chekhov's plays. Focus then shifts to nonrealism with Harold Pinter. The second half of the semester is solidly rooted in nonrealism. Students hone their skills by exploring two more scenes from classical and/or contemporary texts. Additionally, in the final scene, students are encouraged to explore applicable considerations of gender-identity, race, and ethnicity in play and character selection. (Formerly Drama 342, Acting III)
Prerequisites: Drama 2401 Fundamentals of Acting, Drama 3411 Intermediate Acting. This course is open exclusively to seniors and graduate students
Course Attributes: EN H; BU Hum; AS HUM
Advanced Practicum in Technical Theater
DRAMA 412
Intensive practical experience in scenic design building and painting; lighting design and installation; costume design, coordination, and construction; makeup; and audio production. Prerequisites: Drama 212E, credits on at least two productions, and permission of faculty.
Course Attributes:
Theater for Social Change
DRAMA 4081
Drawing upon the principles and teachings of Brazilian director Augusto Boal, students will explore ways of effecting positive social change in a theatrical context. Students will study the aesthetic of Boal's "Theatre of the Oppressed" and learn various games and exercises designed to mine issues of social (in)justice. Using Boal's techniques of "image" and "forum" theatre, students will then create and perform plays focused on these issues. This public performance will be an interactive event offered for and with the university community. No prior performance training or experience is required for this course.
Course Attributes: EN H; AS HUM; AS SD I; FA HUM; AR HUM; AS SC; FA CPSC
Shakespeare
DRAMA 395C
While Shakespeare is celebrated for his realistic depictions of characters, events, and emotions, his work is filled with other-worldly elements, including sorcery, oracles, myths, and grotesque creatures. This course will explore Shakespeare's use of the fantastic, the unnatural, and the monstrous. Reading a wide selection of comedy, tragedy, and history, we will consider Shakespeare's often contradictory attitude to the supernatural: on one hand, a source of evil, villainy, and perversion, and, on the other, a symbol of the divine and a means of surpassing the humanly possible. We will look at how Shakespeare used monstrous imagery to reflect upon his own work and the nature of theatre itself. Finally, we will examine how Shakespeare's allusions to the unnatural allowed him to critique and engage with historical sources as well as contemporary issues such as gender, politics, and globalization. Readings may include "Antony and Cleopatra," "Othello," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "The Tempest," "Coriolanus," "Troilus and Cressida," "The Winter's Tale," and "Richard III." 3 short response papers; midterm and final papers; and a presentation introducing one of the assigned readings. First-year and/or students with no prior knowledge of this topic are encouraged to enroll. Satisfies the Early Modern requirement.
Course Attributes: EN H; BU Hum; AS HUM; FA HUM; AR HUM; EL EM
Digital Media for the Stage
DRAMA 384
Entertainment technology continues to evolve and push boundaries of taking our imagination and turning that into a version of reality. Digital Media will attempt to explore some of the tools used to bridge those two worlds of thought and sight. We will learn how to think creatively about imagery and how to paint that onto a stage through a different type of light.digital. Through Qlab and Green Hippo, two of the most widely used media control systems in the world, we will learn how to use those platforms to deliver thought provoking illusions of light and texture on the stage.
Course Attributes: EN H; BU Hum; AS HUM; FA HUM; AR HUM
Theater Culture Studies III: Melodrama to Modernism
DRAMA 365C
The third in the department's three-course history sequence, TCS III surveys the dramatic literature and cultural history of the modern theater. Beginning with Romanticism's self-conscious break with the past, we'll study the rise of bourgeois melodrama with its intensely emotional rendering of character and spectacular effects. We'll consider how those effects were made possible by advances in industrial stage technology which reproduced the everyday world with unprecedented verisimilitude, and how playwrights responded to those technologies by calling for the theatre to become either a "total work of art"--plunging its spectators into a mythical realm--or a petri dish--analyzing the struggles of the modern individual within his or her modern milieu. Exploring a range of aesthetic modes--including Realism, Naturalism, Symbolism, Expressionism, the Epic Theatre, and the Theatre of the Absurd--we will read classic plays by modern playwrights to consider how the modern theatre helped its audiences understand as well as adapt to the rapidly changing conditions of the modern world.
Course Attributes: EN H; BU Hum; AS HUM; FA HUM; AR HUM
Intro to Playwriting
DRAMA 351
Course Attributes: EN H; BU Hum; AS HUM; FA HUM; AR HUM
Media Cultures
DRAMA 3491
This course is an introduction to methods in media and cultural studies. We will analyze intersections of media with race, gender, and sexuality by focusing on television and digital media examples. The course begins by exploring questions of representation in media then continues by interrogating how media are implicated in existing structures of inequality and differences of social and cultural power. We will end by discussing some ways that scholars have theorized media consumers as actively engaging with media texts, including scholarship on fan cultures and social media. Required screenings: Tuesdays @ 7pm
Course Attributes: EN H; BU BA; AS HUM; FA HUM; AR HUM; FA VC
Fundamentals of Directing
DRAMA 343
Directing is the most liberal arts of the creative theatre-making areas, drawing analytical, critical thinking, communication, design and actor coaching skills. This course will explore fundamental lessons in some of those areas, including text analysis from a directorial perspective, stage composition, auditions/casting, actor communication, time management and team leadership skills. Major course components will include one extensive script analysis paper and the direction of a scene from a contemporary play. The latter will require outside-of-class rehearsal time. Prereqs: Drama 212E, Drama 2401. Preference given to drama majors. For junior/senior status or grad students only.
Course Attributes: EN H; BU Hum; AS HUM
