Drama Studies |
Academic Requirements | Production Options
The Junior Seminar and Senior Project | Courses | Faculty
The Drama Studies Program: Courses
Lower level (freshman): DRA 1000–1999
Lower level (sophomore): DRA 2000–2999
Upper level (junior): DRA 3000–3999
Upper level (senior): DRA 4000–4999
Fundamentals of Acting
TAC 1055 Refer to Acting Courses (Conservatory of Theatre Arts & Film) for description.
Added Fall 2009 (11/13/08):
Dramatic Shifts:
Drama in the West From the Ancient World Through the Middle Ages
DRA 1200 / 4 credits / Fall
Drama and poetry are used to explore the development of Western civilization from the ancient world through the Middle Ages. The cultural context of each play and poem is found in the architecture, visual arts, philosophy, music, and general view of the history of the era. Topics include the lives, social roles, and interests of men and women; the relationship of human beings to God (or gods); issues of personal freedom and responsibility; concepts of justice; the passions; Nature; and gaining knowledge and wisdom (divine and human).
Added Spring 2010 (11/13/08):
Dramatic Expression in Western Civilization:
From the Renaissance to the 20th Century
DRA 1210 / 4 credits / Spring
In this survey of Western civilization from the Renaissance to the 20th century, works of dramatic literature are used to probe the cultural values of each historical period. The social and artistic background of each period provides the context for readings of works by Shakespeare, Jonson, Molière, Voltaire, Ibsen, Wilde, Chekhov, Brecht, and Wilson. Emphasis is placed on close reading of texts, writing, and class participation.
Added Spring 2010 (11/25/08):
Modern Culture Onstage and in Life, 1880–1914
DRA 1220 / 4 credits / Spring
Many scientific, technological, artistic, and literary advances that dominated the 20th century came to light between 1880 and 1914. During this period of great experimentation, dramatists were among those pushing European social and intellectual values in new directions. This course uses the plays of such authors as Ibsen, Strindberg, Wilde, Chekhov, Wedekind, Jarry, and Feydeau to investigate the cultural crosscurrents swirling throughout the Western world at the dawn of the modern age.
Added Fall 2009 (11/21/08):
From Page to Stage
DRA 1230 / 4 credits / Fall
Studies the relationship of dramatic texts and performance from the Greeks through Shakespeare to the present, using readings and performances on or near the campus, as well as film and video.
Acting the Classics
DRA 2000 / 4 credits / Spring
Integrates discussions, readings, presentations, viewings, and exercises to teach students an appreciation of the elements of classical theatre, the new theatre, and the performing arts. The acting techniques of Stanislavsky and Uta Hagen, among others, are used to analyze and understand classic modern drama. Students develop dramatic tools for creating new realities via acting and directing in both solo and group performances. Readings include works by Chekhov, Ibsen, Lorca, and Havel.
Introduction to Drama and Performance Studies
DRA 2020 / 3 credits / Fall
An introduction to dramatic literature and theory and to seeing, writing about, and participating in theatre and performance.
Introduction to Shakespeare
DRA 2200 / 4 credits / Spring
Selected plays spanning Shakespeare’s entire career. In addition to close reading and textual interpretation, students address questions and problems of performing, directing, lighting, costuming, and set designing Shakespeare’s plays. The course examines past and current trends in Shakespearean criticism, as well as the social and theatrical contexts in which the plays were first produced. Also offered as LIT 2200.
Added Spring 2009 (10/14/08):
Performing Oral History and Poetry
DRA 2380 / 4 credits / Alternate years
Students learn to transform poetry and personal stories into short plays and performance pieces. Poetry and movement are used to create choreopoems with works by feminist performer Ntozake Shange serving as models. Students also develop interview theatre pieces, using works by artists Eve Ensler and Anna Deavere Smith as models.
Stage Management
DRA 2550 / 3 credits / Fall
Examines the stage manager’s role and responsibilities in overall theatre production, focusing on what to do and how to do it effectively. Students learn how to create a prompt script; create and use light, sound, and costume plots; work with production designers; perform safety, lighting, and set checks; and make technical and dress rehearsals run smoothly.
American Drama: From O’Neill to Albee
DRA 2600 / 4 credits / Alternate years
American drama considered primarily as a criticism of American society, values, and life. Covers the period from 1918 to 1962, including plays by Eugene O’Neill, Clifford Odets, Lillian Hellman, Gertrude Stein, Thornton Wilder, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Lorraine Hansberry, Adrienne Kennedy, and Edward Albee. Also offered as LIT 2600.
Movement for Actors
SOA 2760 Refer to School of the Arts Courses (Conservatory of Theatre Arts & Film) for description.
History of the Modern Theatre
DRA 2780 / 4 credits / Spring
Theatre in the Western world from the 17th to the 20th centuries. Playwrights, actors, directors, producers, and designers; neoclassicism, romanticism, realism, naturalism, expressionism. This course begins where DRA 2880 leaves off, but either can be taken independently.
Performance and Culture in a Global World
DRA 2860 / 4 credits / Every year
This course equips students with the tools to read performance in its myriad contexts, including Broadway musicals, “native” rituals, American drama, museums, modern dance, international arts festivals, and everyday life. Students read many plays, ethnographies, and reviews and consider some issues involved in their production. These issues may include tourism, gender, interculturalism, and cultural capital.
Performance of Dramatic Literature
DRA 2870 / 4 credits / Fall
A performance course that covers rehearsal techniques, monologues, and short scenes, using classic, modern, and contemporary plays. Students critique campus productions in written essays and write character and play analyses.
History of the Theatre
DRA 2880 / 4 credits / Fall
Theatre from ancient Greece to 1642, when the theatres of Shakespeare’s time were finally closed. What would now be called actors, playwrights, producers, directors, designers, and theatre architects are all considered.
Production Practicum
DRA 2895 / 4 credits / Spring
Students receive training in lighting (hanging, focusing, and maintaining), the use of power tools, and basic set construction. Elements of lighting and set design are also discussed. Requirements include work on a minimum of two productions in the Humanities Theatre as crew and board operators. A lab section is required.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor
Acting Scene Study
TAC 3070 Refer to Acting Courses (Conservatory of Theatre Arts & Film) for description.
Commedia and Pantomime
DRA 3110 / 3 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
An introduction to the history and contemporary practice of physical theatre and to the traditions of commedia and pantomime. Includes lectures, mask making, scenario creation, and instruction in and physical practice of the form.
Prerequisite: One acting course, preferably DRA 2870 or TAC 1055
Medieval and Renaissance English Drama
DRA 3140 / 4 credits / Alternate years
A study of the mystery plays, morality plays, interludes, masques, and entertainments of the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. Analysis of texts is combined with consideration of theatrical production in light of the ideological, religious, and historical contexts of the plays. Also offered as LIT 3141.
Medieval and Renaissance Play Production Practicum
DRA 3150 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
After work on some principal texts and contexts of medieval and Renaissance drama, the course turns to the production and public performance of a full-length play from this period. The semester-long study and rehearsal process provides experience in ensemble acting and textual interpretation.
Prerequisite: At least one literature or drama studies course, or permission of instructor
Practicum in Directing/Studies in Directing
DRA 3200 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
A practical course in directing, focusing on exercises. Especially recommended for junior drama studies majors who are considering production senior projects.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor
Theories of African Diaspora: African/Caribbean Performance
DRA 3220 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
Theories of African diaspora are analyzed and applied to plays and performance traditions from the Caribbean and Africa. Students study Black Nationalist and pan-Africanist movements in different locations, as well as more contemporary theories of African diaspora like Gilroy’s The Black Atlantic. Students also conduct research projects on a play, playwright, or performance tradition within a theoretical framework studied in class.
20th-Century Italian Drama
DRA 3232 / 4 credits / Summer (offered in Italy)
Italian performance and plays from the 20th century are considered in their social and political contexts, including the works of Dario Fo, a performer and playwright who received the Nobel Prize. The course culminates in a student performance of selected scenes and excerpts, staged in an ancient piazza.
Theories of Drama and Performance
DRA 3250 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
Historical and cross-cultural study of how playwrights, directors, and actors have addressed issues of aesthetics, representation, style, space, and time. Focus is on postmodern theory and performance: Schechner, Turner, Geertz, Butler.
Reinsated Spring 2009 with GND crosslisting added (9/18/08):
Women in Performance
DRA 3300 / 4 credits / Alternate years
This course considers 20th- and 21st-century performance work by women in dance, theatre, and the visual art world (performance art) from a historical and theoretical perspective. Critical and theoretical feminist essays and other writings are assigned. Students read original texts, view documentation, and analyze contemporary works by women writers, choreographers, performance artists, and theatre directors. Also offered as GND 3300.
Concepts in Costuming
DRA 3320 / 3 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
An introduction to the fundamentals of designing costumes for theatre and dance productions. As they examine the design process, students explore how and why a designer makes certain choices. Emphasis is placed on how ideas are generated and communicated within the flux of the production process.
Contemporary British Drama
DRA 3460 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
In 1956, a play called Look Back in Anger began a revolution in British drama. The class focuses primarily on the plays of the last 40 years, studying how British playwrights expressed the concerns of their changing society. Dramatists considered include Osborne, Pinter, Bond, Littlewood, Churchill, and Kane.
LIT crosslisting reinstated Spring 2009 (10/15/08):
Black American Drama
DRA 3495 / 4 credits / Alternate years
Examines the history of 20th-century black American theatre. Major representative plays are read as literature; playwrights include Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Amiri Baraka, Alice Childress, Adrienne Kennedy, August Wilson, Robert O’Hara, Suzan-Lori Parks, Lynn Nottage, and Lorraine Hansberry. Also offered as LIT 3495.
Documentary Theatre: Performing Real Life
DRA 3500 / 4 credits / Spring
Students collect, assemble, and perform scripts based on “lore” (oral history, personal narratives). History is seen as a performative way to construct identity. Includes readings by documentary playwrights like Brecht, Emily Mann, and Caryl Churchill. Also offered as DWR 3500.
Theory and Drama
PHI 3510 Refer to Philosophy Courses for description.
Performing the Self in Society
DRA 3510 / 4 credits / Spring
Includes both historical material (precedents for performance art) and a creative process for developing solo and group performances from personal material. Requirements include both academic and creative projects.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor
Gay and Lesbian Theatre
DRA 3520 / 4 credits / Alternate years
Historical, theoretical, and performative perspectives on the representation of same-sex relationships and issues on the stage. Topics include cross-dressing, camp, gender, parody, coming out, identity formation, and affirmation. Close reading and discussion of male and female authors, mostly contemporary American dramatists. Also offered as GND 3520.
France on Stage
DRA 3530 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
Explores performance, dramatic literature, and high points of theatrical experience, using texts, scripts, and filmed versions of stage performances ranging from Molière to Mnouchkine.
Playwriting I
DRA 3590 / 4 credits / Fall
Limited to 15 students.
Prerequisite: Prior dramatic literature courses and permission of instructor
Playwriting II
DRA 3591 / 4 credits / Alternate years
How to keep audiences awake and interested. Shock therapy for playwrights.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor
Women and Drama
DRA 3600 / 4 credits / Fall
Explores female characters in plays by Ibsen, Chekhov, Shaw, and contemporary women playwrights (Mann, Fornes, Churchill, Shange). Theories of gender, language, and performance are addressed. Also offered as GND 3600.
Contemporary Performance
DRA 3610 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
In performance or mixed media pieces (Bread and Puppet, Open Theatre, Bausch, Wilson, Clarke) narrative “text” drops away, yet narrative defines the work of performance artists like Gray, Bogosian, and Anderson. Students study, attend, and create contemporary performance pieces.
Shakespeare and Film
DRA 3620 / 4 credits / Alternate years
Shakespeare goes to celluloid, Hollywood, Japan, TV, and elsewhere. On the one hand, this is a Shakespeare seminar, with emphasis on discussions of the plays themselves. On the other, it becomes a film course, focusing on analyses of screen adaptations. Also offered as LIT 3619.
Prerequisite: DRA 2200
Contemporary Theatre: Experiment and Performance Art
DRA 3630 / 4 credits / Fall
Contemporary theatre encompasses a wide range of approaches, from the collective experiments in the 1960s (e.g., Living Theatre, Open Theatre) to Robert Wilson’s “operas” and the mixed-media performances of Ping Chong and Meredith Monk. Students study the works of several contemporary theatre artists, attend performances, and meet selected artists working with new forms in New York theatre. Taught in New York City.
Contemporary French Theatre
DRA 3670 / 4 credits / Alternate years
Key dramatic works and important theatrical moments in contemporary France, including the Theatre of the Absurd, the popular theatre movement, collectively conceived playwriting, decentralization and regional theatre, and audiences as reflections of contemporary French societal attitudes. Taught in English.
Prerequisite: FRE 3015 or equivalent
Production and Direction Workshop
DRA 3680 / 4 credits / Fall
Introduction to staging and production. After a brief overview of directing history, students interpret texts for the stage, becoming familiar with technical aspects of theatre.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor
Ensemble Creation
DRA 3685 / 3 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly, Fall)
In this introduction to strategies of collective creation, students are engaged in a process that culminates in an end-of-semester production.
American Theatre in Our Time
DRA 3690 / 4 credits / Alternate years
American theatre and society during the last 40 years. Plays by Hansberry, Jones (Baraka), Mamet, Shepard, Hwang, and August Wilson.
Prerequisite: Some knowledge of the American drama of O’Neill, Williams, and Miller
Theatre and Revolutions
DRA 3700 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
A study of revolutions in theatre, and theatre at the time of historic revolutions. Students study plays (Beaumarchais’s Marriage of Figaro, Buchner’s Danton’s Death, Peter Brook’s Marat/Sade), and movements (guerrilla street theatre, Chicano theatre, Bread and Puppet, Living Theatre), focusing on theatre as an active, participatory art and on drama as a literary form.
Performance Ethnography
DRA 3710 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
Explores how ethnography influences performance practices, the anthropological gaze of theatre on foreign bodies, the legacies of anthropology in intercultural theatre, and ways of conducting ethnography as “fieldwork” for artists. Students have the opportunity to present an actual ethnographic project (performed or otherwise) in class as part of their assignments.
Modern Hispanic Theatre
DRA 3715 Refer to SPA 3715 in Spanish Courses for description.
Performance of Narrative
DRA 3720 / 4 credits / Alternate years
By scripting and performing oral traditions, short stories, and 19th- and 20th-century novels, students learn how narratives establish gender, ethnicity, region, and nation as indexes of identity. Solo and group work.
Adapting Literature for Performance
DRA 3725 / 4 credits / Fall
A writing workshop on how to develop performance scripts from poetry, prose fiction, and nonfiction. Requires a background in literature, interest in theatrical form, and commitment to the scripting process.
Non-Western Theatre History and Practice
DRA 3740 / 4 credits / Spring
An introduction to the history of world theatre, apart from the Western tradition, including discussion of theatre traditions in Japan, China, India, and Africa. Requirements include readings and viewings of live and videotaped performances. Whenever possible, practitioners of the form under discussion offer an on-campus lecture/demonstration/workshop, for which students enrolled in this course have priority. Limited to drama studies, acting, and theatre design/technology majors.
European Drama in Our Time
DRA 3750 / 4 credits / Spring
Malaise, futility, despair, and, sometimes, hope in the plays of Pirandello, Brecht, Giraudoux, Beckett, Ionesco, Genet, Osborne, Pinter, and others, from World War I to somewhere short of tomorrow. Also offered as LIT 3751.
Poetry in Performance
DRA 3760 / 4 credits / Alternate years
Study and dramatic interpretation of 20th-century lyric poetry, including Eliot, Roethke, Sexton, Plath, Olds, Ginsberg, Rich, Stafford, and Giovanni. Workshop atmosphere; solo and group techniques of performance and script making; written analyses.
Pioneers of Modern Drama
DRA 3770 / 4 credits / Fall
A fundamental course on the shapers of modern drama: the plays of Ibsen, Chekhov, Strindberg, Shaw, and others who wrote between the 1870s and World War I.
Criticism/Reviewing Workshop
DRA 3780 / 4 credits / Spring
An introduction to styles of criticism and a practical course in writing short, critical essays (reviews) on the performing and visual arts. On-campus plays and films are assigned; students write about theatre, film, music, dance, painting, and other art forms. Also offered as JOU 3780.
Shakespeare’s Contemporaries: English Drama to 1642
DRA 3800 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
The development of English drama, exclusive of Shakespeare, from its medieval origins to the closing of the theatres in 1642. Plays are studied in the context of their social and political backgrounds. Works include plays by contemporaries of Shakespeare (e.g., Lyly, Greene, Marlowe, Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, Webster, and Middleton).
Prerequisite: DRA 2200
Junior Seminar in Drama Studies
DRA 3890 / 4 credits / Spring
Focuses on the relation between text and production in the theatre through play analysis, theoretical readings, research, student presentations, and discussion of campus productions. A substantial research paper and senior project proposal are required. Required for all junior drama studies majors, and normally open only to them.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor or board-of-study coordinator
Shakespeare Seminar: Approaches to Shakespeare
DRA 4210 / 4 credits / Alternate years
Explores the variety of ways in which readers, critics, actors, and directors have interpreted—and can interpret—Shakespeare’s plays and poetry. While written work and some research are required, there are also options for oral presentations and performance.
Prerequisite: DRA 2200
Studies in Drama
DRA 4230 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
A seminar on a topic to be announced. Students present brief oral and written reports and write a substantial critical paper. A performance component may also be included.
Prerequisite: At least two dramatic literature courses
Advanced Shakespeare Workshop
DRA 4450 / 4 credits / Fall
Advanced study of one Shakespeare play that will be mounted in the spring. Focuses on the performative, historical, and critical context of the play and provides an in-depth understanding of Shakespeare’s theatrical art. A folio acting version of the play, a modern critical edition, and required background material are used in a close study of the text. Requirements include group and individual research projects. Required for senior acting majors in the Conservatory of Theatre Arts & Film. Also offered as LIT 4451.
Prerequisite: Open to a limited number of drama studies majors with permission of instructor
Senior Project in Drama Studies
DRA 4990 / 4 credits (per semester) / Every semester
Two semesters required (8 credits total). Students have the option to either write or direct/perform. Writing option: An essay on theatre history, dramatic literature, film (history, criticism, or theory); an original play or adaptation from existing literature; a promptbook with critical essay for a production; or a screenplay. Directing/performing option: A play or performance piece or a combined project.
Updated Nov. 25, 2008