10154 Experiencing Theater: Introduction to Drama and the Theater

Credits: 6 introductory credits in Theater or in Comparative Literature

Prerequisites: none

Authors: Zmira H. Heizner, Karin Hezkiah

The course investigates the theatrical experience through an examination of culture and the medium of the theater, factors which construct and influence this experience. It introduces fundamental concepts in drama and the theater and outlines milestones in the history of the theater and its conventions, giving examples from a number of plays considered classics of Western culture, beginning with the Classical period, through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the English Restoration, the Romantic period in the 18th century; the historic, social and cultural changes in the 19th and 20th centuries, and to the present.

Plays: Sophocles, Oedipus Rex; Shakespeare, Macbeth; Ibsen, The Wild Duck; Beckett, Waiting for Godot; H. Levin, Those Walking in the Dark.

DVDs: Rehearsals of Miss Julie, Per Gint, The Wild Duck, Three Sisters, The Ghost Sonata, Oedipus Rex, Macbeth, Wojaczek, Saint Joan, The Twins of Venice, The Way of the World, Ubo the King, Sizawa Benzi is Dead, Six Characters in Search of an Author and Kadish for Naomi. Required plays are in bold; the others are optional. The DVDs are accompanied by a booklet with the script.