Theatre Arts 100
INTRODUCTION TO
THEATRE ARTS
Professor Mazer
Fall 2000
Bennett Hall 305, x7382; cmazer@english.upenn.edu
Office Hours: Tu
1:30-2:45; Th 1:30-2:45; and by appointment
September 7:
Introduction: What is Theatre?
September 12:
Theatre and Representation
Reading: Susanne K. Langer, “The Dynamic Image” and
“Creation,” from Problems of Art (bulkpack).
September 14:
Theatre and Representation (cont.)
Reading: Bernard Beckerman, “Imitation and
Presentation,” from Theatrical Presentation: Performer, Audience and Act (bulkpack).
[REQUIRED THEATRE GOING:
Theatre Arts Program: Thornton
Wilder, The Happy Jounrey to Trenton and Camden and Pullman Car
Hiawatha, September 14-16, Studio Theatre, Annenberg Center.]
September 19:
Theatre in Performance I: The
Happy Jounrey to Trenton and Camden and Pullman Car Hiawatha
September 21:
Acting and Behavior
Guest
Lecturer: Jim Schlatter, Theatre Arts.
Reading: Robert Cohen, “Playing the Situation: Out of the Self,” from Acting Power: An Introduction to Acting (bulkpack).
September 26: Acting
and Action
Reading: Bernard Beckerman, “The Theatrical Segment”
and “The Dramatic Segment,” pp. 44-64, from Dynamics of Drama: Theory and Method of Analysis (bulkpack).
September 28: Action
and Character I
Reading: Arthur Schnitzler, La Ronde;
Beckerman, Dynamics of Drama, pp. 64-77 (bulkpack).
October 3: Action
and Character I (cont.)
Reading: La Ronde (cont.)
[APPROXIMATE DUE DATE:
FIRST TAKE-HOME ASSIGNMENT]
[RECOMMENDED THEATRE GOING:
Eve Ensler, The Vagina Monologues: Zellerbach Theatre, Annenberg Center, October 3-15]
October 5: Action
and Character II (cont.)
Reading: August Strindberg, Miss Julie (with
preface) (bulkpack); Bert O. States.
“The Anatomy of Dramatic Character” (bulkpack)
October 10: Action
and Character II (cont.)
Reading: Strindberg, Miss Julie (cont.)
October 12: Action
and Character III
Reading: Aristotle, The Poetics.
[REQUIRED THEATRE GOING:
Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival:
William Shakespeare, Romeo
and Juliet, Oct. 13-Nov. 12, 21st and Sansom Streets; exact dates and
group-rate tickets to be arranged]
October 17:
Character, Action, and Place
Reading: Strindberg, Miss Julie (cont.); Una Chaudhuri, “Private Parts: Sex, Class, and Stage Space in Miss Julie”
(bulkpack).
October 19:
Character, Action, and Place
Guest
Lecturer: Peter Whinnery, Theatre Arts.
Reading: Strindberg, Miss Julie (cont.).
[REQUIRED THEATRE GOING:
Theatre Arts Program: Harold
Pinter, Old Times, October 19-21, 27-28, Studio Theatre, Annenberg
Center]
October 24:
Representation and Place
Reading: William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet; Alan
C. Dessen, “Shakespeare and the Theatrical Conventions of his Time” (bulkpack).
October 26: Theatre
in Performance II: Romeo and Juliet.
October 31: Theatre
in Performance III: Old Times.
November 2: Defining
the Audience:
Guest
Lecturer: Marcia Ferguson, Theatre
Arts.
Reading: Oscar Brockett, Chapter 6, “Redefining Theatre,” from Perspectives on
Contemporary Theatre (bulkpack); Washington Irving, “The Audience of the
First Park Theatre” (bulkpack).
November 7: : Language, Action, and the Actor
Reading: Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (cont.);
John Barton, “The Two Traditions” and “Using the Verse,” Playing Shakespeare
(bulkpack).
November 9: Music,
Action, and the Actor
Guest
Lecturer: David Fox, Theatre Arts.
[APPROXIMATE DUE DATE:
SECOND TAKE-HOME ASSIGNMENT]
November 14: Acting Alternatives I: Presentation and Ideology
Guest
Lecturer: Jim Schlatter, Theatre Arts
Reading: Essays by Bertolt Brecht: “The Modern Theatre is the Epic Theatre,”
“Theatre for Pleasure or Theatre for Instruction,” “Alienation Effects in
Chinese Acting,” “The Street Scene” and “A Short Organum for Theatre”
(bulkpack).
November 16:
Re-Defining the Audience:
Guest
Lecturer: Marcia Ferguson, Theatre
Arts.
Reading:
Susan Bennett, Chapter 2, “Theories of Reading and Viewing,” from Theatre
Audiences: A Theory of Production and Reception (bulkpack)
[REQUIRED THEATRE GOING:
Theatre Arts Program, Kenneth Lonergan, This is Our Youth, November 16-18, Studio Theatre, Annenberg
Center]
November 21: Theatre
in Performance IV: This is Our Youth.
[November 23:
Thanksgiving]
November 28:
Presentation and Ideology
Reading: Caryl Churchill, Cloud Nine.
November 30: Acting
Alternatives III: Performance,
Ideology, and Gender
Guest
Lecturer: Rose Malague, Theatre Arts.
Reading: Gay Gibson Cima, “Strategies for Subverting
the Canon,” and Rhonda Blair, “‘Not...but’/‘Not-Not-Me’: Musings on Cross-Gender Performance,” from Upstaging
Big Daddy (bulkpack).
[TELEVISED VIDEO, dates to be announced: Anna Deavere Smith, Twilight: Los Angeles]
December 5: Acting
Alternatives II: Representing Others
Guest
Lecturer: Rose Malague, Theatre Arts
Reading: Bert O. States, “The Actor's Presence: Three Phenomenal Modes” (bulkpack); “Anna
Deavere Smith: the Word Becomes You,”
an interview by Carol Martin (bulkpack).
December 7:
Conclusions: Script to
Performance:
Reading: Churchill, Cloud Nine (cont.).
In addition to the two take-home essays and the in-class
exercise, there is a choice of EITHER a final examination, at the date
scheduled by the registrar, OR a 12-15 page final term paper, on an open topic,
due FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15. ALL TERM PAPER
TOPICS MUST BE APPROVED BY ME BY TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28. Late term papers will not be accepted; if
you cannot complete your paper by the deadline, you must take the exam.
Books (including La Ronde, Romeo and Juliet,
Aristotle's Poetics, and Cloud Nine) can be purchased at the Penn
Book Center (at 34th and Sansom Sts.); the Bulkpack can be purchased at the
Campus Copy Center, 39th and Walnut.
YOU ARE REQUIRED to see (and you will almost certainly be
asked to write about) productions and performances around the Philadelphia area
over the course of the semester, including productions in the Studio Theatre of
the Annenberg Center sponsored by the Theatre Arts Program, as noted on the
syllabus. Additional required
productions may be added over the course of the semester.
The listserv for this course is
mazer100@english.upenn.edu. You have
been subscribed automatically. If you
do not seem to be on it, or if you drop the course and wish to be unsubscribed,
please send a note to cmazer@english.
The syllabus for this course is available in electronic form through the world wide web, at http://www.english.upenn.edu/~mazer/100f00.html. Make a bookmark on your web browser for this site. In addition, we will be using an experimental web site for this course. Make a bookmark on your browser for http://courseweb.upenn.edu, click on Theatre Arts, and click on our course. If you are registered, you are automatically subscribed: your login will be your PennNet ID and your password is your PennNet password. CHECK THIS SITE DAILY. The web site will include daily announcements (including information about theatregoing assignments), and an electronic copy of the syllabus. The site also includes a discussion group, with access restricted to members of the course.