Christopher Grobe
Johnson Chapel #5
Office hours: W 2-4 (or by appt.)
cgrobe@amherst.edu
ENGLISH 231
3, 2, 1: READING SMALL DRAMA
Before long those two-character dramas which occasionally appear will seem positively
cluttered, and some day we may have, by way of variety, that ultimate theater proposed by an
enthusiast in one of George Kaufman’s comedies: “No actors, no text, no audience; just scenery
and critics.
– Joseph Wood Krutch in The Nation (1952)
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
During the first half of the twentieth century, it was not unusual for a stage in America (or
anywhere in the English-speaking world) to be filled with dozens of actors. Over the last sixty
years, though, the crowds onstage have thinned. Today, two- and three-person plays are as
common as twenty-person plays once were, and nearly every major playwright has written one
of these chamber dramas. Since the early 1980s, even the one-person play has become a
fixture of the English-language theater, reducing performance to a single figure on a typically
bare stage.
In this course—intended for students of literature, playwrights, actors, and armchair-thespians
alike—we will practice a kind of “middle-distance reading.” That is, in addition to paying
close attention to the local texture and vocabulary of a play, we will also stand further away
from it in order inquire into its broader structure and premises. How does this stage-world
work? What are its rules, its tendencies, its textures? Most importantly, since this is a course
on small-casted plays, how are characters created, tested, and distributed within the play?
READINGS:
Starred readings appear in the course packet (available in Johnson Chapel #3)
All others are available at Amherst Books
REQUIREMENTS:
- Active participation (no unexcused absences)
- Exercises (informal writing, submitted most Fridays and compiled at semester’s end)
- Collaboration with THDA340 directors (attend rehearsals, write them up, and discuss)
- Responsible for beginning discussion on one play
- One paper (7-8 pages)
- Final project (10- to 12-page paper or a substantial creative/analytic project)
CLASS SCHEDULE:
INTRODUCTION
January 23rd – “Just Scenery and Critics”
In-class: Samuel Beckett, Breath (film); Edward Albee, Box (handout); Francesco
Cangiulio, Detonation, or Synthesis of All Modern Theatre (handout); SuzanLori Parks 365 Plays (selections on handout)
January 25th – Character, Structure, World
Fuchs, The Death of Character (excerpt)*; Woloch, The One v. The Many (excerpt)*;
States, Great Reckonings in Little Rooms: On the Phenomenology of Theater (excerpt)*
THREE-PERSON
January 30th & February 1st – Odd Man Out
Harold Pinter, The Caretaker (1960)
David Mamet, American Buffalo (1975)
February 6th & 8th – Power Triangles
Athol Fugard, Master Harold … and the boys (1982)
Sarah Kane, Blasted (1995)
February 13th & 15th – Triangulation
Brian Friel, The Faith Healer (1980)
Michael Frayn, Copenhagen (1998)
February 20th and 22nd – One, Two, Many
Paula Vogel, Baltimore Waltz (1992)
Caryl Churchill, The Skriker (1994)*
TWO-PERSON
February 27th and 29th – Face to Face
Edward Albee, Zoo Story (1958)
Amiri Baraka, The Dutchman (1964)
March 5th & 7th – Collaborations
Sam Shepard, Cowboy Mouth (1971)
Suzan-Lori Parks, Topdog/Underdog (2001)
March 12th & 14th - Crossfire
David Mamet, Oleanna (1992) (optional screening)
Donald Margulies, Collected Stories (1998)
Paper #1 (due 3/16): Pick a pair of plays from our syllabus. Use local close-readings
within each play to make a larger claim about their shared narrative or
dramaturgical problems. (7-8 pages)
March 19th & 21st
SPRING BREAK
March 26th & 28th – [Revise, Reboot]
Argument Workshops
Revision of Paper #1 due (7-8 pages)
April 2nd & 4th – Two-in-One
Eugene O’Neill, Hughie (1959)
Samuel Beckett, Krapp’s Last Tape (1958) Not I (1972), Footfalls (1975), Ohio
Impromptu (1981) (read texts and attend Beckett on Film screenings)
ONE-PERSON
April 9th & 11th – E Unibus Pluram
Eric Bogosian, Men Inside (1981)
Anna Deavere Smith, Fires in the Mirror (1991)
April 16th & 18th – The Story
Spalding Gray, Swimming to Cambodia (1986)
David Greenspan, The Myopia (1999)
April 23rd & 25th – The Confession
Wallace Shawn, The Fever (1990)
Sarah Kane, 4.48 Psychosis (1998)
April 30th & May 2nd – Wrap-Up & Presentations on Final Project
Final Project (due May 7th)
Option #1
In consultation with me, choose and read at least two other plays by a playwright on
this syllabus. Write a 10- to 12-page paper analyzing some aspect of this playwright’s
dramaturgy.
Option #2
Write a one-act play, paying special attention to the configurations of character we have
studied in this class. Attach an explanation of the relationship between your play and
the dramaturgical strategies of the playwrights we have studied. (Please consult with
me before pursuing this option.)