Theatre Arts 100 INTRODUCTION TO THEATRE ARTS Professor Mazer Fall 1995 Bennett Hall 305, x7382; cmazer@dept.english.upenn.edu Office Hours: Tu 1:30-3:00, Th 1:00-2:30, and by appointment September 7: Introduction: What is Theatre? September 12: Theatre and Representation Reading: Susanne K. Langer, "The Dramatic Illusion," from Feeling and Form (bulkpack). September 14: 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 19: Acting and Action Reading: Bernard Beckerman, "The Theatrical Segment" and "The Dramatic Segment" (excerpt), from Dynamics of Drama: Theory and Method of Analysis (bulkpack). September 21: Action and Character I Reading: Arthur Schnitzler, La Ronde. [September 26: NO CLASS] September 28: Action and Character I (continued) Reading: Schnitzler, La Ronde; Bert O. States, "The Anatomy of Dramatic Character" (bulkpack). Video Screening (to be arranged): Theatre Arts Program production of La Ronde. October 3: Action and Character II Reading: Henrik Ibsen, A Doll House. October 5: Action and Character II (continued) Reading: Ibsen, A Doll House; William Archer, Playmaking: "Dramatic and Undramatic," and "The Obligatory Scene" (bulkpack). October 10: Action and Character III Reading: William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet. [APPROXIMATE DUE DATE: TAKE-HOME ASSIGNMENT #1] October 12: Action and Character IV Reading: Aristotle, The Poetics. [Fall Break] October 19: Character, Action, and Place Guest Lecturer: Peter Whinnery, Theatre Arts. Reading: Ibsen, A Doll House; Roland Barthes, "The Reality Effect" (bulkpack); Bert O. States, "The Scenic Illusion: Shakespeare and Naturalism," from Great Reckonings in Little Rooms: On the Phenomenology of Theater (bulkpack). October 24: Representation and Place Reading: Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet; Alan C. Dessen, "Shakespeare and the Theatrical Conventions of his Time" (bulkpack). October 26: 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). October 31, November 2: Presentation and Ideology Reading: Brecht, Galileo. (Possible special guests: company member(s) from the People's Light & Theatre Company production of Galileo. November 7: 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). Video Screening (to be arranged): Anna Deavere Smith, Fires in the Mirror. November 9: 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': Musing on Cross-Gender Performance," from Upstaging Big Daddy (bulkpack) November 14: Shakespeare in Performance Special Guests: members of the ACTER troupe [APPROXIMATE DUE DATE: TAKE-HOME ASSIGNMENT #2] November 16: Shakespeare, Language, and the Actor Reading: John Barton, "The Two Traditions" and "Using the Verse," Playing Shakespeare (bulkpack). November 21: Shakespeare: Inventing a Convention of Staging (ACTER Romeo and Juliet [Thanksgiving] November 28, 30: Putting it Together: Script to Performance Reading: Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Perestroika December 5, 7: Putting it Together: Script to Performance (readings and guest lecturer to be announced). In addition to the two take-home essays, 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 THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30. 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, Ibsen Plays, V. I, Romeo and Juliet, Aristotle's Poetics, Galileo, and Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Perestroika) can be purchased at the Penn Book Center, 37th and Walnut; the Bulkpack can be purchased at the Campus Copy Center, 39th and Walnut. YOU ARE REQUIRED to see (and possibly 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. These productions may include (and are not limited to) the following: Bertolt Brecht, Galileo, People's Light & Theatre Company (Malvern, PA), September 20-October 15 (exact date of class group-rate and bus to be announced). Theatre Arts Program, two student-directed one-act plays, Studio Theatre, Annenberg Center, October 25-28. Tony Kushner, Angels in America (Part I: Millennium Approaches; Part II: Perestroika), Zellerbach Theatre, Annenberg Center, November 7-12 (student tickets available for each part, $12 in balcony, $25 in the orchestra; if you cannot make the performances that week, both parts can be seen at the Merriam Theatre on Broad Street the following week, without student discounts). Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, ACTER, Zellerbach Theatre, Annenberg Center, November 15 and 17 (student-rate Annenberg Center coupons apply). Theatre Arts Program, Play to be Announced, directed by Jim Schlatter (the first of this year's Senior Acting- Thesis Projects) Studio Theatre, Annenberg Center, November 15-18. Theatre Arts Program, Schmidt and Jones, The Fantasticks, directed by Todd Shotz (as his Senior Directing-Thesis Project), Studio Theatre, Annenberg Center, December 6- 9. I have set up a listserv for this course on e-mail, to which you have been automatically subscribed (if this is not so, contact me via e-mail). You will be sent a copy of every e-mail message posted to the listserv, and any message you send will be distributed to everyone who signs up (including the professor). Important announcements about assignments and due dates, notices about local theatre events, etc., will be posted regularly, so CHECK YOUR E-MAIL EVERY DAY. The listserv can also be used by you and your classmates as a clearing house for thoughts and impressions about the readings and the class discussions. Just send a note to Mazer100@english.upenn.edu, or reply to any message you receive over the listserv. (But remember: everything you post can be read by everyone; if you have any private comments, or any private replies to a query you read on the listserv, you should respond privately to the individual's own e-mail address, rather than replying through the listserv). If you are not yet on e-mail, you might consider getting an account, which you can access at any computer hooked up to the network.