Course content and requirements change frequently. Syllabi from past years can give you a sense of how a course may be taught, but are not meant as a promise of any given professor's plan for a future semester.

Introduction to Drama: Theater, Drama, Performance

Spring 2006
10:10-11:05 (MWF)
Dr. Melissa Bloom
Office: Basil 115, Hrs: MWTh: 1-4 and by appt.
mbloom@sjfc.edu, 385-7397

In this course, we will read a number of plays from different theatrical traditions and from different positions within the Western tradition. We will focus on plays that are, in one way or another, conscious of themselves as drama, or as performance. We will consider cultural and performance histories, self-conscious attention to literary traditions, and 21 st century interpretations of older plays. The question we will seek to answer, throughout the semester, is what makes drama a distinctly different form from fiction, or from poetry?

We will read approximately one play each week. Class participation will require students to participate in scene readings. You will attend at least three performances during the semester and write online reviews of them, will take a mid-term and a final, and will write two short (3-5) page papers.

A list of performances at local companies is on our BB page, as is a description of the “review” you will write after each one you see. Any additional plays you see (and write reviews for) will earn extra credit. The Nazareth and Fisher productions are only for extra credit (not the first 3). As a class, we will be going to see the opera Madama Butterfly – this does count as one of your three (only if you write a review).

Required Texts:

• The Beggar’s Opera, John Gay (1728)
• The Threepenny Opera, Bertolt Brecht (1928)
• A Chorus of Disapproval, Alan Ayckbourn (1985)
• Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller (1949)
• Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett (1952)
• Hippolytus, Euripides (circa 420 BCE)
• Phèdre, Racine (1677)
• M Butterfly, David Henry Hwang (1988)
• Bartholomew Faire, Ben Jonson (1631)

In addition, there will be several plays on the syllabus that I will post in PDFs online.

You will also read short critical essays each week (also posted in PDF on the course Blackboard page). These essays provide theoretical, cultural, and performance context for the week’s reading.

Grading

15% Attendance and participation (the two are linked – showing up but sleeping, staying awake but never speaking, and otherwise being a warm body only, will get you only a 50% for attendance and participation)

20% (each) Short Essays (2)

5 % (each) Reviews (3)

15% Midterm

15% Final

All papers must be sent to me via Digital Drop Box. I strongly encourage you to email me with any questions or comments you have.

Attendance Policy: Students may miss two classes without penalty. Three late arrivals will equal one absence. Subsequent absences will lower your final grade in the course.

Policy on Plagiarism : Plagiarism is the undocumented use of another person’s ideas, organization, or research on a written assignment. It is plagiarism to turn in a paper written by another student or to copy or paraphrase any portion of your text from another source (study guides, articles, books, another student’s paper or the Internet) without proper documentation. Any case of plagiarism will be prosecuted according to the guidelines in the SJFC handbook. Students who plagiarize will receive an F for the course.

Policy on Disabilities: In compliance with St. John Fisher College policy and applicable laws, appropriate academic accommodations are available to you if you are a student with a disability. All requests for accommodations must be supported by appropriate documentation/diagnosis and determined reasonable by St. John Fisher College. Students with documented disabilities (physical, learning, psychological) who may need academic accommodations are advised to make an appointment with the Coordinator of Services for students with disabilities in the Office of Academic Affairs, Kearney 202. Late notification will delay requested accommodations.

Reading Schedule

Critical essays will be added online each week. Be sure to check the BB page frequently for uploads and schedule changes.

January 13 Introductory

16, 18, 20 Fences, Everyman; “African-American Drama and Theater”; “The Ground on Which I Stand” by August Wilson

23, 25, 27 Death of a Salesman, Waiting for Godot ; “Popular Theater and Mass Culture”; “Tragedy and the Common Man” by Arthur Miller

Jan. 27 (Friday) 8pm or January 29 (Sunday) at 2pm. Performance of Madama Butterfly by Puccini Mercury Opera at Eastman Theater. Required.

30, 2/1, 3 Chūshingura: The Forty-Seven Samurai; “The Development of Kabuki Theater”; “Classical Japanese Drama in Performance History”; Performance review by Sandra Schlanger

6,8 M Butterfly

13, 15, 17 Hippolytus

20, 22, 24 Phèdre

27, 3/1, 3 Prometheus Unbound

6-10 BREAK

13, 15, 17 The Beggar’s Opera, The Threepenny Opera

20, 22, 24 A Chorus of Disapproval

27, 29 (31 cancelled) Bartholomew Faire

4/3,5, 7 The Critic

10, 12 (EASTER) The Rehearsal

19, 21 Catch up

FINALS

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