Theatre Arts 112/English 98

Theatre, History, Culture III:

Modernism to Post-Modernism

Professor Mazer

Fall 2010

519 Annenberg Center, 3-2659; cmazer@english.upenn.edu

Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:30-3:00, and by appointment

[September 8: No class]

I. Against/Beneath/Beyond Realism

September 14: Introduction. Anton Chekhov, The Seagull.

[REQUIRED THEATREGOING: Transfixed, Theatre Arts Program, Montgomery Theatre, September 15 and 16]

September 16: The Seagull (cont.); Maurice Maeterlinck, “The Tragic in Everyday Life,” and The Intruder (bulkpack).

September 21: Edward Gordon Craig, “The Actor and the Über-Marionette” from On the Art of the Theatre (bulkpack); Adolphe Appia, “Ideas on a Reform of our Mise en Scène (bulkpack)”; William ButlerYeats, At the Hawk’s Well and Purgatory (bulkpack).

II. Dada and Surrealism

September 23: Alfred Jarry, Ubu Roi (bulkpack); Guillaume Apollinaire, The Breasts of Tiresias (bulkpack).

III. The Theatre of Cruelty

September 28: Robert Leach, “Antonin Artaud,” in Makers of Modern Theatre; Antonin Artaud, “Metaphysics and the Mise en Scène,” “On the Balinese Theater,” “No More Masterpieces,” “The Theater and Cruelty,” and “Theater of Cruelty (first manifesto)” from The Theater and its Double (bulkpack).

IV. Expressionism

September 30: Kenneth Macgowan and Robert Edmond Jones, “Beyond Realism,” “The Living Stage,” and “Masse-Mensch—Mob-Man,”from Continental Stagecraft (bulkpack); Ernst Toller, Man and the Masses (bulkpack).

[REQUIRED THEATREGOING, to be arranged: The Threepenny Opera, The Arden Theatre, Sept. 30-Nov. 7]

V. Constructivism and Bio-Mechanics

October 5: Robert Leach, “Vsevolod Emilievich Meyerhold,” in Makers of Modern Theatre; Mel Gordon, “Meyerhold’s Biomechanics” (bulkpack); Vsevolod Meyerhold, “Observations on the Play” and “Meyerhold at Rehearsal” (bulkpack).

VI. The Epic Theatre

October 7: Robert Leach, “Bertolt Brecht,” in Makers of Modern Theatre; Bertolt Brecht, “The Modern Theatre is the Epic Theatre,” “Theatre for Pleasure or Theatre for Instruction,” “Alienation Effects in Chinese Acting,” “The Street Scene” (bulkpack).

[Fall Break]

October 14: Readings: Brecht, The Threepenny Opera.

[Approximate date: FIRST TAKE-HOME ASSIGNMENT]

VII. American Expressionism

October 19: Eugene O’Neill, “A Manifesto on Masks” (bulkpack); Sophie Treadwell, Machinal.

VIII. American Political Theatre, American Realism and Beyond

October 21: Clifford Odets, Waiting for Lefty and Awake and Sing!

October 26: Awake and Sing! (cont.); Lee Strasberg, “The Voyage Continues II: The Actors Studio and My Classes,” A Dream of Passion (bulkpack).

IX. Theatre of the Absurd

October 28: Samuel Beckett, Endgame.

X. Synthesis

November 2: Peter Brook, The Empty Space.

November 4: Film viewing, on reserve in Rosengarten: Peter Weiss, Marat/Sade, directed by Peter Brook.

XI. The actor and the Body

November 9: Jerzy Grotowski, “Towards a Poor Theatre,” “The Theatre’s New Testament,” and “He Wasn’t Entirely Himself,” from Towards a Poor Theatre (bulkpack).

XII. Post-Colonial Theatre

November 11: Brian Crow and Chris Banfield, “Introduction,” from An Introduction to Post-Colonial Theatre (bulkpack); Girish Karnad, Naga-Mandala (downloadable from the Blackboard website).

[REQUIRED THEATREGOING: The Laramie Project and Laramie, Ten Years Later, Tectonic Theatre, Annenberg Center, Nov. 11-13]

XIII. Performance Anthropology and the New Inter-Culturalism

November 16: Interviews and articles on The Mahabharata, from Peter Brook: A Theatrical Casebook, ed. David Williams, pp. 353-390 (bulkpack); Gautam Dasgupta, “Peter Brook’s ‘Orientalism’” (downloadable for the Blackboard website); slides, and video clips about Peter Brook’s Mahabharata and Ariane Mnouchkine’s Shakespeare and Aeschylus.

[REQUIRED THEATREGOING: Urinetown, Theatre Arts Program, Nov. 15-18]

[Approximate date: SECOND TAKE-HOME ASSIGNMENT]

November 18: [TO BE ANNOUNCED]

XIV. Feminist Theory and Performance

November 23: Jill Dolan, “The Discourse of Feminism: The Spectator and Representation,” from The Feminist Spectator as Critic (bulkpack; Caryl Churchill, Cloud Nine; Rhonda Blair, “‘Not … but’/‘Not-not-me’: Musings on Cross-Gender Performance” (bulkpack).

[Thanksgiving]

XV. Documentary Theatre

November 30: Moises Kaufman and Tectonic Theatre, The Laramie Project.

XVI. Post-Modern Drama, Post-Dramatic Theatre, and The Theatre of Images

December 2: Suzan-Lori Parks, The America Play; Sarah Kane, 4.48 Psychosis.

December 7: Richard Foreman, “Foundations for a Theater,” “Directing the Actors, Mostly,” “Visual Composition, Mostly,” from Unbalancing Acts (bulkpack); slides and video-tapes of productions by Robert Wilson, Richard Foreman.

December 9: Catch-up and conclusions.

There will be TWO take-home essay assignments (approximately 5 pages), plus a choice of A FINAL TERM PAPER (approximately 10-12 pages), due on MONDAY, DECEMBER 13, the first day of the exam period, OR A FINAL EXAM, to be scheduled by the registrar. The topic for the final term paper must MUST BE APPROVED IN ADVANCE, in person, by TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30; if you have not received approval for the topic by the date, YOU HAVE JUST CHOSEN TO TAKE THE EXAM. Late term papers will not be accepted; if you do not turn in your paper by 5PM on Monday, December 13, YOU HAVE JUST CHOSEN TO TAKE THE EXAM.

Attendance in class is crucial; CHRONIC ABSENCE OR LATENESS WILL BE COUNTED AGAINST YOU.

Please familiarize yourself with the rules of academic intergrity, at http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/osl/acadint.html. I will rigorously pursue violations of the code.

The following books can be purchased at the Penn Book Center, 34th and Sansom Sts.:

Anton Chekhov, The Major Plays

Robert Leach, Makers of Modern Theatre

Sophia Treadwell, Machinal

Clifford Odets, Waiting for Lefty and Other Plays

Bertolt Brecht, The Threepenny Opera

Samuel Beckett, Endgame

Peter Brook, The Empty Space

Caryl Churchill, Cloud Nine

Moises Kaufman, The Laramie Project

Suzan-Lori Parks, The America Play

Sarah Kane, 4.48 Psychosis

The bulkpack can be purchased at the Campus Copy Center, 39th and Walnut.

The listserv for this course is THAR112-401-10C@lists.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 at http://www.english.upenn.edu/~mazer/112f10.htm. Make a bookmark on your web browser for this site. There is a Blackboard web site for this course, to which you are automatically subscribed, which includes an electronic copy of the syllabus, and (under “Course Documents”) downloadable PDF files of several of the course readings. We may discover other uses for this web site over the course of the semester.