American Theatre Left and Right:
Performance, Culture, and Politics in the 1930s, 50s, and 80s
Professor Mazer
Spring 2010
519
Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, Noon-1:15, and by appointment
January 14: Introduction.
January 19: The 1930s: Politics and Performance.
Helen Krich Chinoy, “The Poetics of Politics: Some Notes on Style and Craft in the Theatre of the Thirties” (Blackboard).
January 21: Agitprop Cinema.
Film viewing: Our Daily Bread (on reserve in Rosengarten).
January 26: Agitprop and Realism I.
Clifford Odets, Waiting for Lefty.
January 28: Waiting for Lefty (cont.)
February 2: Brecht in
Bertolt Brecht, The Mother; James K. Lyon, Bertolt Brecht in America, pp. 6-20 (bulkpack); Bertolt Brecht, “Criticism of the New York Production of Die Mutter” (bulkpack).
February 4: The Group Theatre.
Harold Clurman, The Fervent Years,
pp. 16-50, 129-149 (bulkpack); “
February 9: Agitprop and Realism II.
Clifford Odets, Awake and Sing.
February 11: The Federal Theatre Project.
Loren Kruger, “‘A People’s
Theatre’: Art, Democracy, and the
Federal Theatre,” The National Stage:
Theatre and Cultural Legitimation in
February 16: The Living Newspaper.
February 18: The Political Musical.
John Houseman, Run-Through, pp. 242-281 (bulkpack).
Listening assignment: Marc Blitzstein, The Cradle Will Rock (sound recording in Ormandy Listening Room).
February 23: The Death of the Federal Theatre Project.
John H. Houchin, Censorship of the American Theatre in the Twentieth Century, pp. 131-154 (bulkpack).
Film viewing: Who Killed the Federal Theatre (DVD, on reserve at Rosengarten, in the book, Voices from the Federal Theatre).
[Approximate date: first take-home assignment.]
February 25: The 1950s.
Albert Wertheim “The McCarthy Era and the American Theatre” (Blackboard); Houchin 154-172 (bulkpack).
March 2: Theatricality and Resistance.
Maxwell Anderson, Joan of
March 4: HUAC and the Blacklist I.
Arthur Miller, The Crucible. (The 1996 film version of The Crucible is on reserve in Rosengarten).
[Spring Break]
March 16: HUAC and the Blacklist II.
Film viewing: On the Waterfront (on reserve in Rosengarten).
Houchin, pp. 162-172 (bulkpack); Victor Navasky, “Elia Kazan and the Case for Silence,” from Naming Names, pp. 199-222 (bulkpack).
March 18: HUAC and the Blacklist III.
Arthur Miller, A View from the Bridge.
Film viewing (to be arranged): Arthur Miller, Elia Kazan and the Blacklist: None Without Sin.
March 23: Acting and Politics.
Bruce McConachie, “Method Acting and the Cold War” (Blackboard).
March 26: The Politics and Apolitics of the Musical.
Stacy Wolf, “Introduction” and
“Mary Martin” (partial), in A Problem Like Maria: Gender and Sexuality in the American Musical,
pp. 1-63 (bulkpack); Bruce McConachie,
“The ‘Oriental’ Musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein and the U.S. War in
[Approximate date: second take-home assignment]
March 30: Right-wing Theatre.
Richard H. Palmer, “Moral
Re-Armament Drama: Right Wing Theatre in
April 1: TBA
April 6: Left-wing Right-wing Theatre.
Larry Bogad, “Electoral Guerilla Theatre in Recent Democracies: peaking Mirth to Power,” from Electoral Guerilla Theatre: Radical Theatre and Social Movements (bulkpack).
April 8: The NEA Four I.
Karen Finley,
“The
April 13: The NEA Four II.
Lynda Hart, “Karen Finley’s Dirty Work: Censorship Homophobia, and the NEA” (bulkpack); Richard Meyer, “‘Have You Heard the One about the Lesbian Who Goes to the Supreme Court?’: Holly Hughes and the Case Against Censorship” (Blackboard); Houchin, pp. 225-245 (bulkpack).
April 15: The ’90s’ ’80s’ ’50s.
Tony Kushner, Angels in
April 20: Kushner, Angels in
April 22: Reacting to Angels.
David Savran,
“Ambivalence, Utopia, and a Queer Sort of Materialism: How Angels in America Reconstructs the
Nation,” in Approaching the Millennium:
Essays on Angels in
April 27: Catch-up and Conclusions
There will be TWO take-home essay assignments, plus ONE final research project, due at a date to be announced, on a topic that must MUST BE APPROVED IN ADVANCE. Attendance in class is crucial; CHRONIC ABSENCE OR LATENESS WILL BE COUNTED AGAINST YOU.
The following books can be
purchased at the
Clifford Odets, Six Plays.
Arthur Miller, The Crucible.
Arthur Miller, A View from the Bridge.
Tony Kushner, Angels in
The bulkpack
can be purchased at the