SEMESTER AT SEA COURSE SYLLABUS University of Virginia, Academic Sponsor

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1 SEMESTER AT SEA COURSE SYLLABUS University of Virginia, Academic Sponsor Voyage: Fall 2014 Discipline: Drama SEMS : Theatre Around the Atlantic Lower Division Faculty Name: Reade Dornan Credit Hours: 3; Contact Hours: 38 Pre-requisites: None COURSE DESCRIPTION Featuring historic landmarks of 19th and 20th century drama, the plays in this course will highlight key theatrical movements around the rim of the Atlantic. We will begin with the Moscow Art Theatre and Chekhov's Cherry Orchard. We will read an assortment of plays from Belgium, France, Ireland, Spain and Africa. The selections draw on the ideologies of the symboliste and Theatre of the Absurd movements on the European continent. We will also explore the themes of Anti-Colonialism in Africa, South America, and Ireland as expressed in our plays. Discussions will center on how these movements grew out of their time and place. In South America, we will experiment with theatre games from Augusto Boal's workshops, which he once conducted in Brazil and around the world. Assessments will be based heavily on class participation, quizzes, and a final exam. COURSE OBJECTIVES 1. To employ theatre games for unpacking the thematic currents of each play 1. To enjoy plays that are landmarks in world theatre 2. To ground each reading in the contexts of its time, in the theoretical movements that shaped the style and ideas of the plays, and in their continued influences on later theatre 3. To engage with plays interactively, to envision staging possibilities and multiple interpretations 4. To make connections between the history, politics, social conditions of the countries we visit and their lasting arts 5. To appreciate the ways that the language of drama shapes a sense of community REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS AUTHOR: Boal, Augusto TITLE: Rainbow of Desire: The Boal Method of Theatre and Therapy PUBLISHER: Routledge ISBN #: DATE/EDITION: 1995 AUTHOR: Friel, Brian TITLE: Translations PUBLISHER: Faber and Faber ISBN #

2 DATE: AUTHOR: Jeyifo, Biodun TITLE: Modern African Drama PUBLISHER:Norton Critical Edition ISBN # DATE/EDITION: 2002 AUTHOR: Maeterlinck, Maurice (available electronically) TITLE: Pelléas and Mélisande PUBLISHER: Bibliobazar, 2011 PLACE: Lexington, KY DATE: 2011 AUTHOR: Tirso de Molina (aka Fray Gabriel Téllez) TITLE: The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest PUBLISHER:Aris and Phillips Hispanic Classics ISBN # DATE/EDITION: 1986 AUTHOR: Walcott, Derek TITLE: Moon-Child PUBLISHER: Farrar Straus, and Giroux ISBN # DATE/EDITION 2012 And photocopies of three chapters. YOU ARE REQUIRED TO BUY THE SIX TEXTS LISTED ABOVE, ANY EDITION WILL DO. YOU MAY FIND THEM AT SECOND-HAND BOOKSTORES OR YOU CAN PHOTOCOPY THEM FROM LIBRARY EDITIONS. FOR DIFFICULT-TO- FIND PLAYS, STUDENTS SHOULD ALSO CONSIDER BUYING THE INEXPENSIVE SCRIPTS AT NOTE IF YOU WANT FREE COPIES OF THE CHEKHOV PLAY, YOU MUST PRINT THEM OUT BEFORE LEAVING ON SAS BECAUSE THE INTERNET SYSTEM ON BOARD IS TOO SLOW TO ACCOMPLISH THIS TASK. OTHERWISE, YOU CAN BUY THEM FROM THE UVA BOOKSTORE. REGARDLESS OF EDITION OR SOURCE, YOU MUST HAVE A PERSONAL, HARD COPY OF THE FOLLOWING DRAMATIC WORKS TO PARTICIPATE IN CLASS. 2

3 1. Cherry Orchard by Chekhov (print it out FREE at gutenberg.org) 2. Three Penny Opera by Bertolt Brecht 3. Happy Days by Samuel Beckett TOPICAL OUTLINE OF COURSE B1- August 26: Introduction to Theatre: European Theatre and Modernism 3 *B2 - August 28: Read Cherry Orchard by Chekhov Topic: Pre-Revolutionary Russian Theatre--Stanislavsky and Moscow Art Theatre -- B3- September 2: Read Three Penny Opera by Bertolt Brecht. Germany/Poland Topic: Brecht's "Epic Theatre" and Jerzy Grotowski B4- September 4: View Three Penny Opera in class and more on Brecht. Short intro to Maeterlinck. Nothing due. *B5 -September 11: Read the Pélléas and Mélisande libretto by Maurice Maeterlinck Antwerp Topic: Symboliste Drama, the Dada Movement, and theatre *B6 - September 13: View the film and read Happy Days by Samuel Beckett before coming to class. France Topic: Theatre of the Absurd and Mid-century drama *B7- September 21: Read Chapter 2, pp "Cultural Roots" from Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson AND the play we will be experiencing in our field lab, September 26 (if we have advanced notice of it). *B8- September 23: Read Translations by Brian Friel Ireland Topic: The power of language to form community identity and nationalism. Sept. 26 Field Lab: A Day with the Irish Writers and the Dublin Theatre Festival *B9- September 29: : Read The Trickster of Seville by Tirso de Molina (Fray Gabriel Téllez) Spain Topic: Don Juan and his legacy in European film and theatre B10- October 6 : : Nothing due--wrap-up on European Theatre & QUIZ in class B11- October 12: : Read pp in Modern African Drama Morocco Topic: Introduction to African theatre and the profound influences of Islam and colonialism *B12- October 14: Read "Death and the King's Horseman" by Nigerian Wole Soyinka AND critical articles on his Nobel Prize winning work (pp in anthology) *B13- October 20: Read "The Dilemma of a Ghost" by Ama Ata Aidoo (in anthology) 3

4 AND the articles on her Ghanaian plays ( in anthology) Ghana 4 *B14- October 22: "Sizwe Bansi is Dead" by South African Athol Fugard (in anthology) B15- October 24: Read the short article, "Shakespeare in the Bush" by Linda Bohannan (available electronically and online from Natural History magazine, August/September, 1966). B16- October 30 - Read pp in Modern African Drama Topic: Ideology on stage B17- November 1: Nothing due--a Wrap-up on African theatre & QUIZ in class B18- November 4: Read "Cultural Imperialism at Its Most Fashionable" by Roger M. Allen (available electronically) Topic: Influences of Europe and America on Brazil and its theatre. In class we may view scenes from Como querem beber agua : Augusto Boal and Theatre of the Oppressed in Rio de Janeiro B19- November 6: Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed-- San Salvador Topic: Theatre of the Oppressed practices and Agitprop & some workshoping B20- November 16: A Rainbow of Desire by Boal-- Rio de Janeiro Topic: A Boalean Workshop B21 - November 18: Read "Is There That I Born: The Gift of Place" by Paula Burnett (available electronically and also in the book). Topic: Derek Walcott and the Latin/o Theatre of the Caribbean *B22- November 21: Read Moon-Child by St. Lucian and Nobel Prize in Literature Winner Derek Walcott Barbados B23- November 25: Cuban Theatre of Protest and Music B24- November 27: Nothing due--preparation for the final exam B25 -December 5: (All Day Finals): Final exam over major theatre movements METHODS OF EVALUATION / GRADING RUBRIC Requirements: 1. Read ten plays, select chapters in Rainbow of Desire and Imagined Communities as well as four articles in the digital file, and the introductory material on African drama 4

5 2. Participate in the class' theatre games 3. Take part in the discussions 4. Participate in the Field Lab and write a follow-up essay 5. Write the two announced quizzes and a final exam 5 Grading (Roughly 400 maximum points) Daily participation in the theatre games and discussions of readings = 100 points total. You will earn 5 points each day you participate in class by writing about or performing in a play. Written responses and quizzes are graded on a pass/fail basis. Points are awarded on the basis of effort and demonstration of comprehension Two Quizzes = 50 points each (100 points total) Field lab and essay = 100 points Final exam = 100 points ATTENDANCE: Because daily attendance is crucial to the functioning of this class, you are permitted only TWO absences without question. Please save those days for emergencies-- heavy study schedule, external activities, long shore time--allow excused absences ONLY for serious illness accompanied by a doctor's excuse or equally serious event. Excess absences reduce your final grade in the course by a half grade (-.5) for each time missed beyond the allotted one. If you are having problems attending the class or accessing the plays so you cannot participate in class activities, please make new arrangements with me. The Honor System assumes that you do your own thinking, reading, and writing in this course. Plagiarism is the use of material that is in part or whole not entirely your own work without crediting those same portions to the original source. You must credit ALL ideas, sequences of ideas, wording, facts, opinions and any other intellectual property to the person or group of people who generated them. This applies to taking material verbatim from the Internet and to short phrases that you might borrow from another source as well as to full length sentences or whole paragraphs. Failure to treat your information sources honestly is a serious breach of academic protocol and could lead to failure in the whole course. If you have any doubt about how to treat your sources honestly, please ask me to read your paper before you hand it in for credit. RESERVE LIBRARY LIST AUTHOR :Zarrilli, Phillip B., et.al. TITLE Theatre Histories PUBLISHER: Routledge DATE/EDITION: 2010 [second edition] AUTHOR: Grotowski 5

6 6 ARTICLE/CHAPTER TITLE: "The Theatre's New Testament" and "Towards a Poor Theatre" JOURNAL/BOOK TITLE: Towards a Poor Theatre PUBLISHER: Touchstone, an imprint of Simon and Schuster DATE: 1968 PAGES: pp AUTHOR Kerr, David, ed. TITLE African Theatre: Media & Performance PUBLISHER: Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK DATE/EDITION: 2011 AUTHOR: King, Kimball, ed. TITLE: Western Drama Through the Ages PUBLISHER: Greenwood Press ISBN #: DATE/EDITION, a two-volume set: 2007 AUTHOR: :Winograd, Annabelle TITLE: Dada and Surrealist Performance PUBLISHER: PAJ DATE/EDITION: :1994 ELECTRONIC COURSE MATERIALS AUTHOR: Allen, Roger M. ARTICLE/CHAPTER TITLE: "Cultural Imperialism at Its Most Fashionable" JOURNAL/BOOK TITLE: The Brazil Reader: History, Culture, Politics PUBLISHER: Duke UP DATE: 1999 PAGES: pp AUTHOR Anderson, Benedict TITLE: "Cultural Roots" from Imagined Communities PUBLISHER: Verso DATE/EDITION: 1983 PAGES: Chapter 2, pp AUTHOR: :Bohannan, LauraA ARTICLE/CHAPTER TITLE: "Shakespeare in the Bush: An American Anthropologist Set Out to Study the TIV of West Africa and Was Taught the True Meaning of Hamlet." JOURNAL TITLE: Natural History 6

7 VOLUME:75 DATE: 1966 (also available on the Internet) PAGES: pp AUTHOR: Burnett, Paula ARTICLE/CHAPTER TITLE: "Is There That I Born: The Gift of Place" JOURNAL/BOOK TITLE: Derek Walcott: Politics and Poetics PUBLISHER: Florida UP DATE:2000 PAGE: pp FILMS AVAILABLE ON DVD THROUGH VIRGO These DVDs will be available over the Intranet and scenes from them may be shown in class: The Cherry Orchard Como querem beber agua : Augusto Boal and Theatre of the Oppressed in Rio de Janeiro Happy Days Pélléas et Mélisande Three Penny Opera We are the Music! Nosotros, la música! The Golden Age of Cuban Music HONOR CODE Semester at Sea students enroll in an academic program administered by the University of Virginia, and thus bind themselves to the University s honor code. The code prohibits all acts of lying, cheating, and stealing. Please consult the Voyager s Handbook for further explanation of what constitutes an honor offense. Each written assignment for this course must be pledged by the student as follows: On my honor as a student, I pledge that I have neither given nor received aid on this assignment. The pledge must be signed, or, in the case of an electronic file, signed [signed]. 7

SEMESTER AT SEA COURSE SYLLABUS University of Virginia, Academic Sponsor

SEMESTER AT SEA COURSE SYLLABUS University of Virginia, Academic Sponsor Voyage: Fall 2014 Discipline: Drama SEMS 2500-104: Theatre Around the Atlantic Division: Lower Faculty Name: Reade Dornan Credit