Theatre Arts 001 Great Literature of the Stage Dr. John Blondell. Introduction. --The Tempest, Epilogue, William Shakespeare

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1 Theatre Arts 001 Great Literature of the Stage Dr. John Blondell MWF 9:15-10:20 Porter Theatre Phone Office Hours TBA Now I want Spirits to enforce, art to enchant; And my ending is despair, Unless I be relieved by prayer, Which pierces so that it assaults Mercy itself and frees all faults. Introduction --The Tempest, Epilogue, William Shakespeare From the earliest moments of human history, people have represented the joys and vicissitudes of human life through literature, theatre, dance, painting, sculpture, and music. Though the various literary and artistic forms have diverse purposes, they share the potential to deepen and enliven people s understanding of what it means to be human, and offer distinctive insights into how people formulate, make sense of, and at times challenge the nature and shape of reality. According to the quote from The Tempest found above, Shakespeare believes that aesthetic enjoyment is necessary to the human spirit. Located at the end of his last play, the speech can be thought of as a kind of last word regarding what Shakespeare finds important about life. Like Shakespeare, Westmont believes that the literary, performing, and plastic arts are important to a fully rounded educational experience. In the Theatre Arts Department, we believe that the study of Theatre and Drama is a sure way to become more lively, sensitive, and expressive individuals, while becoming conversant in the history, theory, and practice of the field. Finally but significantly aesthetic enjoyment is one way that people participate in the ongoing process of Creation, and receive the innumerable gifts that stream from God. From The Page To The Stage: Drama in Performance Theoretical Orientation This course satisfies two components of Westmont s General Education Program Reading Imaginative Literature and Interpreting and Performing The Arts. Covering a nearly 2,500 year period from the ancient Greeks to today, the course studies some

2 of the masterpieces of the Western dramatic tradition, and the principles inherent in the performance of those plays on stage. Etymologically, the term drama derives from the Greek term dran, which means, to do. Today, we understand Drama to be the literary component of a multi-disciplinary art form that fuses literature, the plastic arts, and the art of acting in the time-based art we know as theatre. The term theatre also has an interesting etymology. It derives from the term theatron, which is where ancient Greeks sat to watch plays, and is translated as seeing place. The derivations of drama and theatre, then, illuminate many important characteristics of both terms, and bear witness to the fundamental relationship between them. Drama is a particular kind of literature, one created for the stage, where humans enact significant (or sometimes frivolous) stories for the enjoyment of other people. Dramatic literature is literature meant to be seen, to be incarnated in people speaking and behaving in three-dimensional space, through the sweep of time. This intentional corporeality suggests the fundamental wholeness of the theatrical enterprise and the literature that comprises it. The appeal of drama is to the whole person, to aspects and concerns that run the gamut of human experience, be they spiritual, emotional, psychological, social, physical, and so forth. One way to think about the fundamental corporeality of drama is to draw on the German critic Wolfgang Izer. If fiction, as he describes it, is literature that lures the imaginary into being, then I would suggest that drama is literature that lures being into the imaginary. Dramatic literature is indeed fictional in that the stories and characters expressed on stage are products of the human imagination, yet things on stage never fully give up their own self-identities as things in this world. Their being, their fundamental, concrete realness doesn t change. Rather, for the purposes of the fictions being spun out before us, we keep this knowledge of the real at abeyance, in a kind of willful forgetting that the great 19 th century critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge calls the willing suspension of disbelief. The Purpose of Playing Methodological Orientation The course is founded on an essential premise: dramatic literature cannot be fully comprehended without studying the nature of theatrical performance, and theatrical performance cannot be fully understood without an understanding of dramatic writing. Consequently, we will spend a great deal of time studying the formal elements of drama; relevant theory and history that deepens our understanding of play texts; staging and acting conventions popular during the periods when these plays were written; and modern and contemporary acting and staging practices that reveal how texts mean now. We will be centrally concerned with theatre as a living, vital, and meaningful activity that reveals the structure and patterns of human life.

3 The heritage of Western Drama is rich and vast, and includes great dramatic traditions from numerous countries and cultures. We will focus on three: the Classical tradition of the ancient Greeks, Shakespeare, and the French playwright Moliere; the Modern tradition represented by Henrik Ibsen and Anton Chekhov, and the American tradition represented by Eugene O Neill and Tennessee Williams. The plays selected present a great range of style and form, subject and theme, structure and genre. Our study will be cultural, in that we will explore the plays as expressions and products of certain times and places, aesthetic in that we will explore the formal components that make up the individual plays, and practical in that we will explore the means and methods used in playing these great plays in the theatre. The Nitty Gritty Goals and Purposes The fundamental purpose of the course is to develop appropriate literacy necessary for the understanding, reception, creation, and enjoyment of dramatic literature and theatrical performance. By the end of this course, you will have become conversant with numerous masterpieces of Western Drama. In so doing, you will be able to: identify cultural forces involved in their writing, describe formal elements and conventions important to the transmission of their meaning, and use appropriate vocabulary for the art of the stage. In addition, you will display the following in your thinking, speaking, and writing: proper language and terminology useful to and important for describing theatre and drama; appropriate methodological processes for analyzing, interpreting, and enjoying theatre and drama; educated standards of judgment related to artistic quality and value; and openness to an understanding of the multifacetted nature of aesthetic enjoyment and judgment. Finally, you will participate in the performative and collaborative nature of theatrical activity through exercises, demonstrations, and games; and experience theatrical performance firsthand through the development, rehearsal, and presentation of one short theatrical performance. The Final Word In short, by the end of the semester you will have developed a rich and nuanced understanding of the interface between theatre and drama, and the nature and purpose of the theatrical endeavor. You will see and experience how the art of the stage has enriched people s lives for millennia, and continues to provide ways to illuminate the past, understand the present, and envision the future. The course is

4 intended as an introduction to the intellectual, creative, and artistic life of the stage, and is meant to ignite a life-long love affair with various arts that create it. ASSIGNMENTS AND READINGS THE GREEKS M September 1 W September 3 F September 5 M September 8 W September 10 F September 12 M September 15 W September 17 F September 19 Introduction to the Course The Poetics, Aristotle The Poetics, continued Introduction to Greek Tragedy The Theatre of Dionysus Oedipus Rex, Sophocles Oedipus Rex, Sophocles Introduction to Greek Comedy The Birds, Aristophanes WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE M September 22 W September 24 F September 26 M September 29 W October 1 F October 3 M October 6 W October 8 F October 10 M October 13 W October 15 Introduction to Shakespearean Tragedy The Shakespearean Stage Shakespeare s Use of Language Hamlet, William Shakespeare Hamlet, William Shakespeare The Tempest, William Shakespeare The Tempest, William Shakespeare Introduction to Shakespearean Comedy A Midsummer Night s Dream, William Shakespeare First Essay Due No Class: Fall Holiday A Midsummer Night s Dream, William Shakespeare NEOCLASSICAL COMEDY F October 17 Neoclassical Comedy Moliere

5 M October 20 W October 22 F October 24 M October 27 W October 29 The 17 th Century French Stage The Misanthrope, Moliere Discuss Lit Moon Festival Modernism and the Realistic Tradition in Europe Exam Classical and Neoclassical Drama MODERN DRAMA F October 31 M November 3 W November 5 F November 7 M November 10 W November 12 F November 14 M November 17 W November 19 Realism on Stage Constantin Stanislavski Ghosts, Henrik Ibsen Ghosts, Henrik Ibsen The Seagull, Anton Chekhov The Seagull, Anton Chekhov Theatre of the Mind -- Expressionism The Hairy Ape, Eugene O Neill Second Essay Due The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams ACTING AND PERFORMANCE F November 21 M November 24 W November 26 F November 28 M December 1 W November 3 F December 5 M December 8 W December 10 F December 12 Acting Workshop Presence, Movement, and Storytelling Acting Workshop Presence, Movement, and Storytelling No Class Thanksgiving Holiday No Class Thanksgiving Holiday Presence, Movement, and Storytelling, continued Given Circumstances and Playing Actions Given Circumstances and Playing Actions Third Essay Due Circumstances and Actions, continued Present Final Projects Present Final Projects

6 Notes on Assignments: Note: Westmont has identified six important standards as foundational for our work as a college. These standards include Christian Orientation, Critical-Interdisciplinary Thinking, Diversity, Active Societal and Intellectual Engagement, Written and Oral Communication, and Research and Technology. It has also created a rigorous General Education program that is intended to foster intellectual vitality, Christian character, and commitment to service that will last a lifetime. The General Education program is comprised of a range of courses intended to develop and explore expertise in a variety of different disciplines and methods of inquiry. This course satisfies what Westmont has described as one of the Common Inquires of its General Education program Reading Imaginative Literature. According to the Westmont catalogue, Courses satisfying this requirement develop students skills in analyzing and understanding the ways of knowing provided by imaginative literature. Such an approach invites students to see how literature reveals things we cannot know except by inference or by metaphor. Students in these courses should recognize how imaginative literature honors the complexity of human experience. Further, by encouraging the practice of compassion by imagining the other, the course involves students in ways of knowing that are inherently ethical. The course also satisfies the Performing and Interpreting The Arts component of the Westmont GE. According to the Westmont catalogue, Courses satisfying this requirement develop students understanding of the fine arts and performing arts, including music, visual arts, theatre, or dance. Such courses develop and expand perceptual faculties, develop physical practices integral to the art form, and explore critical principles which guide artists in the area. Requirements There are three major requirements for the course. Grade percentages are as follows. Midterm Exam 20% Final Exam 25% Two Five-page Essays 30% Class Participation 10% Final Performance Project 15% Essays: There are two separate essays required for the course. The first essay focuses on Shakespeare s language, and asks you to paraphrase, using parallel imagery, a speech of at least 20 lines from Hamlet. After you have paraphrased the speech, you will write an essay that explores the patterns of imagery of the selected speech as they relate to the larger patterns of meaning in the play. For the second essay, you will discuss and

7 describe the realistic tradition of playwriting as exemplified in the writing of the major modern European writers we read in the course Henrik Ibsen and Anton Chekhov. The final project: We will conclude the semester with workshops in acting, whereby students explore principles used in the creation and development of theatrical performances. These exercises culminate in a short performance, devised by the students, that uses the material from Tennessee Williams play The Glass Menagerie as subject matter. Through these exercises, and the creation of this performance, students not only comprehend theatre through a study of the art form, but also experience the art form directly by participating in the very processes of enactment that characterize the art of the theatre. Plays in Performance: As indicated above, this course develops important principles, methods, and techniques related to the understanding of drama (the written text) and the live performance of that text in the theatre. An important component of our study involves attending live performances, discussing those performances, and developing the tools necessary for the reception and comprehension of the performance component of theatre. We will be seeing a total of seven productions during the course of the semester. You will see performances by companies from Poland, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, and the United States; and you will be seeing performances developed by your friends and peers at Westmont. Attendance at the productions is required. Missed performances and/or more than three unexcused absences will result in automatic failure of the class participation portion of the grade. The total cost of seeing all the plays this semester is $100. You will not be required to come up with cash directly; rather, your Westmont account will be charged. Notes and Policies Students with disabilities are encouraged to discuss requests for reasonable accommodations with me at the beginning of the semester. In order for accommodations to be provided, your disability must be verified by Michelle Hardley, director of first year programs, ext: Her office is located on the top floor of the Voskuyl library. Essays are due on the dates indicated. There will be no exceptions to this policy. Attendance Policy: Students are allowed a total of three (3) unexcused absences for the semester. 4 unexcused absences will result in failure of the Class Participation portion of your grade. 5 unexcused absences will result in failure in the course.

Theatre Arts 121 History of the Theatre II 1600 to 1980 Spring, Theoretical Introduction

Theatre Arts 121 History of the Theatre II 1600 to 1980 Spring, 2010 MWF 9:15-10:20 Porter Theatre Dr. John Blondell; extension 6778 T/R 10:30-12; Monday 3-4; and by appointment Theoretical Introduction