Theatre 533: coping with a required course

This is the third in a one-year, three-quarter, sequence of courses that survey the literature and history of western theatre, and fills several requirements for Theatre majors. The course itself is not required--majors have a range of courses which satisfy the lit/hist requirement. So there's not a built-in audience, which is just as well. In any event, this is my approach for Spring 2007:

Theatre 533: Theatre Repertory III: Survey of representative theatre and drama since the rise of Realism. Shattering the Norm: expanding theatre beyond commercial Broadway/West End productions and interests MW 11:30 a.m. – 1:18 p.m. DR 2068

Instructor: Dr. Alan Woods, 1433 Lincoln Tower
Woods.1@osu.edu
Office hours: M 9:00 – 11:00 a.m.
T 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. and by appointment

Course Description:
The course will explore efforts – sometimes violent, sometimes subtle -- to expand the concept of “theatre” over the course of the twentieth century from a professional commercial entertainment industry to something capable of expressing artistic, political, social, and ethnic concerns. We will also survey the changing definition of reality in theatrical performance, through an exploration of performance conventions, theatrical texts, theories of acting and design, theatre architecture, and the shifting role of the audience.

Course Objectives:
1. To discover how the concept of the real has shifted over the past century or so.
2. To study the ways in which theatrical conventions adjust to shifts in hegemonic structures
3. To explore the ways in which the tensions between experimentation and commercialism both benefit and harm the role of theatrical art in society
4. To give students the opportunity to gain a richer comprehension of the interrelations among cultural, commercial, social, and political currents shaping the nature of theatrical performance.

Background Statement:
All theatrical performance is a lie: the audience knows that it’s fictive; we know that the handsome man we see at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theatre is not really nineteenth-century literary critic Vissarion Belinsky in nineteenth-century Moscow, but an actor named Billy Crudup who’s on a Manhattan stage in 2007. But we agree to accept the fiction as reality – a process often called “the willing suspension of disbelief” – for the sake of an evening’s entertainment. The highest praise for an enjoyable performance is to call it “realistic.” That’s been true for most Western theatre since the fifth century B.C.E. But what is accepted as “real” shifts and changes over time. Thus we will explore how that concept has shifted over the twentieth century and into the first decade of the twenty-first, and what have been some of the reasons for the shifting. And we’ll also explore how theatrical experimenters have sought to find new ways to express reality, as well as efforts to escape the narrow constraints that commercial and audience perceptions of “realism” place on artists.

Course Requirements:
It is assumed that participants will complete readings as assigned; readings and due dates are listed on the course schedule below. Most readings can be found in the required texts; several additional readings will be available on the course’s Carmen site (www.carmen.osu.edu), which also has various other course materials. Each participant will submit short papers exploring the conventions at play in three radically differing theatrical experiences in central Ohio over the course of the quarter; guidelines on Carmen. Specific experiences must be approved in advance. Each participant will also complete a research project, exploring some aspect of the issues raised in the course. An oral report on the research will be given during the final two weeks of the term; a final research report will be submitted at the Final Examination. The research topic must be approved via a proposal due April 25^th. The format of the final research report must be approved by May 21^st. Guidelines for the research topic proposal and final report format are on Carmen. . Research projects should employ primary sources.

Additional Course Guidelines:
All written work must be submitted in processed form or via e-mail. Handwritten work will not be accepted.

Texts:
Most plays are in William B. Worthen’s The Harcourt Brace Anthology of Drama; historical background is provided by assigned chapters from the Brockett and Hildy History of Theatre. General texts are available at the usual bookstores; additional copies are on reserve through the Ohio State University Libraries. Additional copies will be available in the reading room of the Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute, 14th floor of Lincoln Tower. Some texts will be available only at the TRI or through Carmen; these are identified on the Class Schedule

Grading Scale:

Your grade will be based on a combination of the following:

Conventions in central Ohio performances: 3 @ 20 points: 60 points

Research project oral presentation: 60 points

research project written report: 60 points

active participation in class sessions: 20 points

TOTAL POSSIBLE POINTS: 200
Grading Points:

A 185 and above A- 180-184 B+ 174-179
B 166-173 B- 160-165 C+ 154-159
C 146-153 C- 140-145 D+ 130-139
D 120-129 E 119 and below

Any student who feels s/he may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact me privately to discuss specific needs. Please contact the Office of Disability Services at 292-3307, room 150 Pomerene Hall, www.ods.ohio-state.edu/welcome.htm (a text only version is at www.ods.ohio-state.edu/textonly/index.htm) to coordinate reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities.

Class Schedule:

M 3/26 Introduction
W 3/28 have read Henrik Ibsen: A Doll House 1879

M 4/2 have read Lottie Blair Parker: Way Down East 1898~; Brockett and Hildy Ch. 16
W 4/4 submit venue for Conventions Paper 1; have read Anton Chekhov: The Cherry Orchard 1904

M 4/9 Conventions Paper 1 due; have read Bernard Shaw: Major Barbara 1905; Brockett and Hildy Ch. 17
W 4/11 submit venue for Conventions Paper 2; have read Eugene O’Neill: The Hairy Ape 1922

M 4/16 Conventions Paper 2 due; have read Lillian Hellman: The Children’s Hour 1934; revised 1952*; Brockett and Hildy Ch. 19
W 4/18 have read Ena Lamont Stewart: Men Should Weep 1947*

M 4/23 have read Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee: Inherit the Wind 1955*; Brockett and Hildy Ch. 31
W 4/25 Research Topic proposal due; have read Harold Pinter: The Homecoming 1965

M 4/30 have read Brian Friel: Translations 1980; Brockett and Hildy Ch. 23
W 5/2 submit venue for Conventions Paper 3; have read Sam Shepard: True West 1980

M 5/7 Conventions Paper 3 due; have read August Wilson: Fences 1985; Brockett and Hildy Ch. 24
W 5/9 have read Jack Davis: No Sugar 1985

M 5/14 have read Liz Lochhead: Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off 1987*
W 5/16 have read Timberlake Wertenbaker: Our Country’s Good 1988

M 5/21 have read Carlos Murillo: dark play, or stories for boys 2007*
Research Reports; Research Format Proposal Due
W 5/23 have read Ken Weitzman: As If Body Loops 2007*; Research Reports

M 5/28 Memorial Day; no class
W 5/30 Summary and Conclusions;

W 6/6 11:30 a.m. – 1:18 p.m. Final Examination Scheduled; Final Research Report Due by 1:18 p.m.