Course: Eng 184, Contemporary Drama
- Date of Application:October 25, 2013
- Name, Department of Proposer: Barry Horwitz
- Name of department housing course: English
- Name of Chair: Carol Beran
- How often is course taught: Yearly
- Course prerequisites: None
- Unit value of course: 1
- Normal class size: 24
- Number of sections expected to be taught in Fall 2013:0
- Number of sections expected to be taught in Spring 2013:1
- Is the course appropriate for first-year students: Yes
- Relevant Learning Goals: Artistic Understanding
- Chair will oversee submission of student work: Yes
- Chair will oversee instructor participation in norming & assessment exercises: Yes
TEACHING
How the course will guide students toward achieving the learning outcomes:
1a. Explore works of art.
In "Contemporary Drama," students read, analyze, and discuss recent and contemporary plays.Playwrights may include: Edward Albee, Lorraine Hansberry, August Wilson, John Guare, Lanford Wilson, Craig Lucas,Tony Kushner, Suzan-LoriPark, Kristoffer Diaz, David Henry Hwang, and Sarah Ruhl, among many others.In addition to studying these playwrights, we analyze recorded past productions, film adaptations, and current live productions at theaters. We discuss and analyze character development, dramatic structure, and contemporary themes in each play. Additionally, local directors and actors may be invited to offer their perspectives on plays, dramatic form, and production techniques. We also exploreacademic essayson the plays to enrich the students' knowledge of a spectrum of critical approaches. A typical assignment would include written analysis of a daily reading as well as generating questions for discussion.
1b. Analyze/interpret form and meaning:
When students discuss, compare, and contrast the dramatic works in class, they are preparing to write their own essays on those works. By analyzing the staccato language of David Mamet in Glengarry Glen Ross, or the interactions of social classes in John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation; or by understanding the revolutionary dramatic structure of Suzan-Lori Parks'Venus, and the epic theater techniques in Tony Kushner's Angels in America, students begin to link formal dramatic structures with modern issues and ideas. In discussion and in essay writing, students develop an appreciation for the interaction between experimental dramatic structure and the challenging contemporary issues and ideas they present to theater audiences. They also interpret the way formal techniques affect the evolution of meaning from one playwright to the next. We analyze and clarify formal elements in each play, such as:exposition, climax, denouement, rising and falling action, character development, and emotional subtext. We link these formal elements to themes in the plays, including individual, social, and cultural meanings.
1c. Apply discipline-based vocabulary:
In discussing the plays, students will master dramatic terminology, including the fourth wall, emotional memory, distancing, alienation, epic theater, character arc, beat, climax, back-story, resolution, reversal, and simultaneous dialogue.They will read critical essays written both by the writers themselves and by literary critics. By noting and reacting to the artists' manifestos and the critics' analyses, they will use the terminology used in theatre criticism. Special attention will be paid to the playwrights' attempts to expand and adapt their forms to modern conflicts and crises.
1d. Explore the artistic piece's significance within appropriate contexts:
The course focuses on contemporary drama, usually within the last thirty years. Students will be able to situate works into discrete historical and cultural epochs. For example,in discussing David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, studentswill explore and write about the cut-throat real estate operations in Chicago. The play will open up discussion of competition, economic boom, social class, and both Christian and Judaic values in 1980s America.
In addition to exploring American culture, students will analyze plays that explore European, Japanese, and other cultures as well. Contemporary plays will reflect significant issues, such as: individual identity, family dynamics, parental relations, education and opportunity, gender roles, and political perspectives. The artistic elements of a play will highlight the questions that the playwright is raising in each work and in the specific culture as a whole. Live productions and films can also help to contextualize and particularize the historical or cultural significance of plays from a given period or movement.
LEARNING
How coursework will be used to measure student achievement of the outcomes:
1a. Look at and read works of art:
Studentswill demonstrate their mastery of each text and related concepts by writing daily questions and responsesto the assigned playsfor discussion in class. Plays are typically broken down into scenes and sections, which can be studied in a series of readings, and also read aloud in class to study their performance values and techniques.After studying several texts, students will produce an essay based on their questions, class discussion, and research in dramatic criticism. These written analyses—along withactive participation in class discussions—demonstrate the student's ability to understand and interpret theconnections between dramatic action, language, and human relations.For example, in John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation, students will be challenged to connect individual characters, settings, and dramatic structure to the play's psychological, cultural, and socialconflicts. The student essays will receive constructive comments and grading based upon the student's abilityto effectively articulate connections between their own insights and the works as a whole.
1b. Analyze/interpret form and meaning:
Students will write essays in which they analyze characters, actions, or themes in the plays under discussion. Students will consider how the specific structure of individual scenes affects the meaning of the play. They willlearn to interpret the relationship between dramatic forms and the ideas that emerge fromdramatic actions.In their analytical essays, students will interpret howcontemporary dramatic structure advances both character development and cultural ideas in plays. For example, when writing about Suzan-LoriParkVenus, students will be required to examine the issue of woman's roles in modern life and the evolution of feminism. Student essays will provide evidence of an understanding of cause and effect between formal elements and the individual and social meanings they convey.
1c. Apply discipline-based vocabulary:
Students will demonstrate their mastery of dramatic vocabulary by employing the technical language of theater in discussion and writing. This language includes: the fourth wall, emotional memory, distancing, alienation, epic theater, character arc, beat, climax, back-story, resolution, reversal, and simultaneous dialogue. Students will be expected to use the technical language acquired in class and apply it in their written analyses, explaining the terms, relating them to each play, and using the terms to make connections between structure and meaning.
1d. Explore the artistic piece's significance within appropriate contexts:
Daily discussions and assignments will explore the multiple origins of each text in its psychological, historical, and cultural context. Successful students will be expected to discuss these concepts in relation to both the plays themselves and contemporary American social issues.
Instructors may ask students to read or perform scenes from the plays under consideration for greater immersion. Through these readings, students will improve and deepen their insights into the dramatized personal and political conflicts in the plays. By interpretingscenes with a partner, they will acquire the ability to identify and empathize with characters in conflict that will be an asset to them in their own lives.
Students learn that plays are not created in a vacuum; rather significant dramatic works have beeninfluenced by specific socio-political and ethnic movements.Students will demonstrate this understandingthrough their written essays. For example, when reading Suzan-Lori Parks' Topdog/Underdog, successful students can recognize the dominant/subordinate relation between African Americans brothers named Lincoln and Booth; or they can take note of the economic and social disparities between the two brothers.