DRAM 301: Theories of Theatre I

We had an excellent discussion of Artaud last class, so instead of holding another class on Artaud, I am offering the following videos that you can watch on your own time. There will be no class this Tuesday, November 18.

1. Spurt of Blood: Edited version of a production of Artaud’s “Spurt of Blood” on YouTube

2. The Plague: the video discussed in class, available on VHS from Carol Anne. You can borrow it and watch it in the department (by the Living Theatre) 27 min long.

3. The following page from Richard Drain’s book on 20th century theatre explains Artaud’s concept of ‘cruelty’ quite economically: Drain/Artaud

4. Finally, if you’re curious about the man himself, you can watch a clip of him acting in a silent film. The film is The Passion of Joan of Arc by Dreyer (it’s famous in film history). Unfortunately I can only find of clip of the film that is shown in another film by Jean Luc Godard (also famous), but this fact makes it kind of metatheatrical/self-conscious: The Passion of Joanne of Arc

Enjoy! See you Thursday Nov 20.

Here is the document on integrating quotations in an essay:

Composition Lesson (Nov 11)

Links to the Improv Everywhere ‘missions’ shown in class:
Frozen Grand Central (on YouTube)
No Shirts (on YouTube)

Forum Theatre example:
A Lost Heritage: Canada’s Residential Schools (CBC report)

An excellent, concise set of notes about Forum theatre and other exercises by Boal:
Augusto Boal’s Forum Theatre for Teachers

Please note that the schedule for our last classes has changed slightly. The Schedule page is now current.

Hi all-

After a few student requests, and the realization that it would not make a significant difference to the pace of our course, I have extended the deadline for the Comparative Essay. You now have an extra weekend, as it is due Tuesday Oct 21, at the beginning of class. Happy Thanksgiving!

You might find of interest this ‘review’ of Zola’s ideas on naturalism, published in 1881 in the New York Times. Considering the great historical gap between his time and ours, it is useful to read commentary from the time: “Dramatists in France; Old and New Ideas and the Progress of Realism.” Comments are welcome below!

The collection of reserve readings are now officially ready at the P&CC. I will be dropping off a copy at Stauffer later today, so it should be processed by the library in the next day or two. The collection includes the readings by Plato, Tertullian, and Artaud.

Everyone has been assigned a seminar – you can now find dates and presenters on the Schedule page.

Welcome to the website for your course – I look forward to meeting you all very soon. ‘Theory’ is a demanding course, in the sense that you’ll be asked to really think through ideas, to challenge assumptions, and to reassess your thoughts in the light of new insights. For these reasons, theory is also a very rewarding course, and I truly look forward to the journey we will take as a class.

The page you are now looking at (home page) is the ‘blog’ for the course. Periodically I will post questions, articles, announcements, and instructions on this page. It’s a good idea to check each week before classes begin. You can reply to these posts through the ‘comment’ function, and even generate discussions here with other classmates. All posts on this page are tagged with different category names, so you can also access past quotes by category, or by the month in which they were posted (archive).

On the left sidebar you will also see a list of ‘pages’. These pages provide the equivalent of a course syllabus, but ready-made for a paperless universe. Read ‘em and you’ll find out many details about the course.

Thanks for stopping by.

See you in September,
Natalie