EN343 Drama, Performance and Identity Post 1955
Overview
This module will ask to students to think of the many ways in which “drama”, “performance” and “identity” are connected and intertwined in late 20th/early 21st century culture. The module will seek to illuminate notions such as the nature of individual identity broadly, national identity, bodily identity, gender identity, racial identity, and spiritual identity. The more recent material will be used to reflect both upon the increasing prominence of consumer, hybrid, border, and marginal identities, and the notion that identity can shift, that it can be fragmented, and that a variety of identities can exist simultaneously. Students will be required to read a minimum of 1 play per week alongside relevant critical material. Students should also be prepared to work in IATL's "open" spaces in a practical way that embodies their knowledge. No acting skills are required, however, and students with no “theatrical” experience at all are welcome to join. The first term’s work will involve 9 x 2-hour sessions in IATL's spaces, and the second term will involve independent guided study.
Please read Endgame by Tuesday 4th October.
Syllabus
Term One:
Unit 1: Intellectual and Theoretical Background
Week 1: The 1950s. Beckett and the Modernist “I”
Unit 2: Racial Identity
Week 2: The 1960s. Jean Genet, Adrienne Kennedy
Unit 3: Towards Postmodern Identities
Week 3: The 1970s. Beckett and the Postmodernist “I”
Week 4: The 1980s. Heiner Muller
Unit 4: Postmodern Identities
Week 5: The 1980s/90s. Suzan Lori-Parks, Caryl Churchill
Week 6 : Reading Week
Unit 5: Capitalist Identitities, Border/Transgressive Identities, Globalised Identity
Week 7: The 1990s and beyond. Martin Crimp, Sarah Kane.
Week 8: The 1990s and beyond. Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Orlan
Week 9: The 1990s and beyond. Tony Kushner
Week 10: The 1990s and beyond. Debbie Tucker Green, Jez Butterworth
Term Two: Practical and Independent Study
In order to develop their own “performance project” in term 2, students will be divided into groups of 4 or 5 and encouraged to use both the theoretical materials and primary texts from the 1st term to create a practical “performance piece" n.b. this NEED NOT be a “play”, nor need it involve any “acting” – although these are perfectly acceptable methods of presentation. The idea is that students show their learning using means other than writing. Students will attend tutorials consisting of project review and journal monitoring. The final element in the assessment process is the viva: a discussion of up to 30 minutes of the project, and the individual’s contribution to it, with the student and seminar tutor. Final grades are calculated from the various marks received for the performance, viva, and essay.
Week 1: Submission of assessed essay. Meetings with groups to finalise performance proposals
Week 2: Individual Monitoring
Week 3: Individual Monitoring
Week 4: Individual Monitoring
Week 5: Project Review. Each group’s performance to be discussed with the tutor
Week 6: Reading Week
Week 7: Individual Monitoring
Week 8: Further guidance
Week 9: Further guidance
Week 10: Final Project Review and guidance on performance videos, and conducting vivas
Term 3: Final Assessment
Week 1: Recorded performances. Vivas
Week 3: Submission of reflective journals
Assessment
Assessment will be by 1 X 3,500-5,000 word essay (40%), and a performance piece, viva and reflective journal (60%). The performance piece, viva and reflective journal constitute an exam for the purposes of weighting.
Text Books
PRIMARY
Beckett, Samuel. Collected Shorter Plays, Endgame
Butterworth, Jez. Jerusalem
Churchill, Caryl. Plays 2, The Skriker
Crimp, Martin. Attempts on Her Life
Genet, Jean. The Blacks: A Clown Show
Gomez-Peña, Guillermo. The New World Border
Kennedy, Adrienne. Adrienne Kennedy in One Act
Kushner, Tony. Angels in America
Lori-Parks, Suzan. The America Play and Other Works
Müller, Heiner. Hamletmachine and Other Texts for the Stage
Tucker Green, Debbie. Stoning Mary
SELECTED CRITICISM ON THE PRIMARY TEXTS
Material from Hegel, Lacan, Richard Rorty, Galen Strawson, and Theodor Adorno, amongst others, will be distributed on a weekly basis
SELECTED CRITICISM ON THE PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF PERFORMANCE
Allain, Paul, and Jen Harvie. The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance
Boal, Augusto. Games for Actors and Non-actors
Goldberg, RoseLee. Performance Art from Futurism to Present