Theatre Arts 120
History of Theatre I – The Theatre’s Use of History from the Greeks to the Renaissance
Spring 2017
Dr. John Blondell
MWF 11:30-12:35
Office Hours: M/W 2-4 and T/TH 10-11:50 and by appointment
Extension 6778
Disciplinary Introduction
The master subject of theatre is change. Whether understood in terms of a stage figure’s personal destiny (a young college student is called to avenge his father’s death), the stage picture (an eaves-dropping counselor is stabbed, and falls dramatically through a curtain), or the words in a speech (“To” flows into “be” in a famous soliloquy), change is constant in the theatre. It is the art form’s subject and means – subject because theatre’s meanings are always derived from it, and means because the activities of the theatre (acting, staging, speaking, moving, lighting, etc.) always display it. Change is ever-present, unchanging, unequivocal – both in life and in the theatre. If theatre is the art closest to life itself, as I would argue, then it is theatre’s partnership with change that makes it so. Change is also central to theatre history. In the western world, the ideas, practices, and institutions of theatre are in constant, dynamic flux: this is why much theatre looks different today than it did 2000, 200, or 20 years ago, for that matter. Yet change is seen and understood in relation to what doesn’t change – established conventions that offer continuity between periods and cultures. This is why many theatrical conventions haven’t changed from the time of ancient Greeks. The purpose of theatre history is to create narratives that retrieve traces of the past, and place the practices of the art form in the context of the periods that create and develop them. Theatre historians “see” into the theatrical past, interpret the residue of previous periods of human endeavor, and interpret ways to understand human social, cultural, and aesthetic life[JB1].
Methodological Introduction
Theatre’s special allure is its liveness. The “complete” theatrical experience is perceived only through the super-charged now of performance. This is theatre’s excitement, its relevance, and its special relationship to life itself. Yet when performance slips into memory, into “the present of things past,” as St. Augustine would say, it presents special challenges to the theatre historian. Where did it go? The experience is no longer “there” for analysis, evaluation, and interpretation: only vestiges remain, palimpsests of what were there before, artifacts of a previously lived experience. The study of theatre history is at least partially the study of these artifacts, the relics left behind following the dismembering ravages of Time. These artifacts could include many things – writings, drawings, models, manifestoes, letters, essays, plays, sketches, engravings, paintings, budgets, tickets, and lists that provide a picture (incomplete as it might be) of the art form’s institutional and creative development.
This course investigates the 5th BCE theatre in Athens, the English Corpus Christi cycle plays, and the stages of Early Modern London, and the ways that those histories have been developed subverted, amplified, misrepresented, transformed, and otherwise used by the theatre. Most vitally, however, the course shows ways that theatre uses history as its means of production, and how the past intersects with students’ contemporary life, and the implications of being human at this time and place. We will look at the following histories: events leading up to and concluding the Fall of Troy, as told by Aeschylus and Euripides, especially as those events relate to the figure of Helen of Troy; axial moments in the history of Christianity, as developed in the York Cycle Plays; important events of significant figures in Roman history, as first told by Plutarch in his Lives, and then used by Shakespeare in his Historical Roman Tragedies; and then stories of the important Houses of English history, as developed by Raphael Holinshed and Edward Hall, developed for theatrical purposes by Shakespeare in his English History plays. Class discussions and assignments focus on how theatre uses history in the creation of its form and content. In addition, the course develops perspectives about how and in what ways the past is brought to bear on the present in a variety of contemporary productions of ancient (or at least very old) material. In “The Past is Present” assignments, students locate descriptions, reviews, writings, designs, clips, and other material that create contexts for interpretation and analysis of the material in question. In a final project, students research and write an historical analysis of a relatively recent (last 25 years) production of Greek, Medieval, or Shakespearean material[JB2].
Theatre History and the Theatre Arts Major:
The course is vitally important to the Westmont Theatre Arts major, since it develops knowledge and practice in two important departmental outcomes – Core Knowledge and effective Written Communication. These outcomes can be found on the departmental website, and read as follows:
- Students demonstrate Core Knowledge in major literature, history, and theory of western theatre practice.
- Students apply discipline-specific research methodologies in crafting effective writing about theatrical practice.
As part of the preceding outcome, the department has created two other outcomes with respect to disciplinary writing:
- Student Learning Outcome 1
Students will develop a precise thesis and fully developed arguments in their writing.
- Student Learning Outcome 2
Students will be able to produce accurate discipline-specific research in their writing.
Theatre History and the Westmont General Education Program:
This course is also vitally important to Westmont’s General Education program. It satisfies Westmont’s Thinking Historically category in Westmont’s General Education, the outcome of which reads:
- Students will be able to analyze historical sources with appropriate attention to their various contexts.
The course also satisfies requirements for Writing Intensive courses. This syllabus contains information relative to topics, essays, revising policies, and so forth (see below).
ASSIGNMENT, DEADLINES, AND OPPORTUNITIES
M January 9Introduction to Course
W January 11Greek Myth as History and Performance
The Theogony, Hesiod
The Poetics, Aristotle
F January 13The Oresteia, Aeschylus
“Myth and Attic Tragedy,” Bernard Knox
M January 16No Class: Martin Luther King Holiday
T January 17The Oresteia, Aeschylus
W January 18Iphigenia in Aulis, Euripides
“Euripidean Tragedy and Genre: The Terminology and its
Problems,” Donald J. Mastronarde
F January 20Helen, Euripides
M January 23Orestes, Euripides
W January 25The Past is Present: Greek Drama in Performance
F January 27The Past is Present: Greek Drama in Performance
S January 28Trip to Getty Villa
M January 30Christian History as Theatre and Performance
“Dramatic Elements in the Liturgy of the Church,”
David Bevington
W February 1Church and City: Spaces to Perform in Medieval England
And Europe
First Essay Due
“The York Cycle and the Worship of the City,” Pamela M
King
F February 3The York Cycle
M February 6The York Cycle, continued
W February 8The Past is Present: Medieval Drama in Performance
F February 10The Past is Present: Medieval Drama in Performance
M February 13Film: Jesus of Montreal
W February 15Film: Jesus of Montreal
F February 17 Midterm Exam
M February 20No Class: President’s Holiday
W February 22Shakespeare’s Use of History
“The Shakespearean History Play” and
“Shakespeare and the Early Modern
History Play,” in Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare’s History Plays, pp. 3-39
F February 24Yards, Inns, Rooms, and Pits
The Playhouse Develops its Space
M February 27Elizabethan Actors and Companies
W March 1The Elizabethan Playhouse
F March 3Shakespeare’s Historical Tragedies: Rome
“Shakespeare’s Ancient Rome: Difference and Identity, in
Cambridge Companion, pp. 193-213
“Brutus” and “Caesar” in Roman Lives, Plutarch
M March 6The Past is Present: Julius Caesar in Performance
W March 8The Past is Present: Julius Caesar, continued
F March 10“Marc Antony” in Roman Lives, Plutarch
Revision of First Essay Due
M March 13No Class: Spring Recess
W March 15No Class: Spring Recess
F March 17No Class: Spring Recess
M March 20The Past is Present: Antony and Cleopatra in Performance
W March 22The Past is Present: Antony and Cleopatra, continued
F March 24“Plantagenets, Lancrastrians, Yorkists, and Tudors:
1-3 Henry VI, Richard III, Edward III, in Cambridge
Companion, pp. 89-105
Second Essay Due
M March 27Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland
Raphael Holinshed, excerpts TBA
The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancaster and York, Edward Hall, excerpts TBA
W March 29Film: Henry V, Shakespeare
F March 31Film: Henry V, continued
M April 3Discsuss Henry V
W April 5“The Kings,” in Shakespeare our Contemporary,
by Jan Kott
F April 7The Past is Present: 1-3 Henry VI and Richard III, Shakespeare
Second Revision Due
S April 8Trip to Huntington Library
M April 10The Past is Present: 1-3 Henry VI and Richard III, Shakespeare
W April 12The Elizabethan World Picture and New Historicism
“Shakespeare, Cultural Materialism, and the New Historicism,”
by Jonathan Dollimore
F April 14No Class: Easter Recess
M April 17No Class: Easter Recess
W April 19“The Patriarchal Bard: Feminist Criticism and Shakespeare,”
Kathleen McLuskie
F April 21“Shakespeare Beyond English,” by Susan Bennett and Christie
Carson
M April 24The Past is Present: Shakespeare in Other Languages
W April 26The Past is Present: Shakespeare in Other Languages, continued
F April 28Reading Day
Final Exam: (TBD Spring 2017 Exam Schedule)
Required Texts
TA 120 Reader (contains all short articles listed in syllabus)
The Poetics, Aristotle
The Oresteia, Aeschylus
Iphigenia in Aulis, Euripides
Helen, Euripides
Orestes, Euripides
Roman Lives, Plutarch
The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare’s History Plays, Michel Hattaway, ed.
The York Corpus Christi Plays
Julius Caesar, Shakespeare
Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare
Henry VI, Part I, Shakespeare
Henry VI, Part II, Shakespeare
Henry VI, Part III, Shakespeare
Richard III, Shakespeare
Notes
1. Events, assignments, topics, deadlines, etc. are subject to change.
2. Assigned plays are due on the date indicated on the syllabus.
3. As noted above, in “The Past is Present” assignments, students locate descriptions, reviews, writings, designs, clips, and other material that create contexts for interpretation and analysis of the material in question[JB3].
3. Midterm and Final exams will be identification/essay in nature. You will be required to know the relevant terms, individuals, theatre forms, and architectural structures relevant to the major historical periods we are studying. In addition, you will be asked to correctly identify significant passages from several plays, and write short essays about the significance or relevance of the passages in question.
3. There are two major writing projects for the course: a relatively short project (1,250 words) about an important controversy in ancient Athenian theatre; and a longer project (2,500 words) wherein students – solely using primary sources – create an historical analysis of an important (or not so) production of the last 25 years from the local, regional, national, or international stage. Source material includes reviews, interviews, drawings, designs, program material, archival material, photographs, and video of the performance in question[JB4].
For the 2500 word essay, students receive a letter grade and specific feedback on work submitted, both in written and oral form. Students use the feedback to prepare revisions of the essays, which are due on the dates indicated. At that time, more written feedback will be offered, and students have, as an option, the opportunity to continue revising their work. In other words, all students will revise each written assignment at least one time during the course of the semester, and may revise essays as many times as they wish, at least until the hour glass of the semester runs its course.
Grading
Requirements
The major requirements for the course and grade percentages are as follows.
Midterm Exam20%
Final Exam20%
Essay Number 115%
Essay Number 225%
Past is Present Assignments20%
Performances
Where possible, we will attend performances of plays from the ancient to early modern periods. In addition, the course will visit the Getty Villa in Malibu, to explore some of its holdings in ancient Greek and Roman art. Later in the semester, we will travel to the Huntington Library in Pasadena, to examine some of their many holdings in Renaissance documents.
Academic Accommodations
Students who have been diagnosed with a disability (learning, physical/medical, or psychological) are strongly encouraged to contact the Disability Services office as early as possible to discuss appropriate accommodations for this course. Formal accommodations will only be granted for students whose disabilities have been verified by the Disability Services office. These accommodations may be necessary to ensure your full participation and the successful completion of this course. For more information, contact Sheri Noble, Director of Disability Services (565-6186,) or visit the website
[JB1]Disciplinary Introduction attends to "Thinking Historically" introductory paragraph in the GE Combined Document.
[JB2]Methodological Introduction, discussions, assignments, and writing projects attend to the bullet point number 3 in committee praxis, and certification criteria 1-3.
[JB3]Adresses certification criteria #3.
[JB4]First writing project addresses certification criterion #2; second writing projects addresses certification criterion #3