Introduction to dramatic writing. Reading assignments from classical, modern, and contemporary plays as well as from commentaries on the playwright's art, Aristotle to the present. Students write scenes and exercises throughout the semester, culminating in a final project. Series examining significant works of world drama with a focus on Western traditions. Major performance styles and physical theatres and evolving interpretations of genre.
Students participate in scene readings and staging demonstrations.
Reading of 12 to 15 plays each semester. Critical emphasis on student responses through discussion. Focus on English and Italian Renaissance, French neoclassicism, English Restoration, romanticism, and melodrama. Focus on modern theatre from Buchner and Ibsen through Caryl Churchill and August Wilson. Development of and interaction between realistic and nonrealistic theatre.