1
Q3256 Theories and Contexts of Drama
Autumn 2014
Convenor: Dr William McEvoy, w.j.mcevoy@sussex.ac.uk
Tutors: Dr David Barnett, Dr William McEvoy
Office: William McEvoy: Arts B 351; David Barnett: Arts B 242
Office Hours: William McEvoy: Thursday 3-5; David Barnett: Tuesday and Thursday 11-12.
Description
Theories and Contexts of Drama explores key issues in the analysis of theatre and
performance. It looks at how theorists and practitioners have attempted to engage with
theatre as an art form, as a cultural product, as a form of expression and representation,
and as a creative, social and political medium. The module examines the role that text,
acting, performance, audiences, space/site, the body and technology have played in
furthering our understanding of drama.
Each week, you will examine one issue in relation to a range of critical and theoretical
material. All of the primary reading for each week can be found either in the module reader
or online using the library’s electronic resources. This module outline includes suggestions
for further reading which you will find useful, especially in relation to the assessments.
The module is taught via a weekly two-hour seminar. Attendance is compulsory and you
should come prepared with copies of the readings to refer to. In the seminar, you will be
encouraged to explore some of the consequences of the readings you have done, to
critically evaluate them, to identify their shortcomings or limitations, and to think about
them in relation to other significant theoretical ideas in philosophy, critical theory,
performance and cultural analysis.
Aims
 To reflect on key aspects of drama, theatre and performance by focusing on a range
of theoretical ideas, practices and movements.

To develop a critical and theoretical vocabulary for thinking about theatre and
performance.

To synthesise the work of theorists and practitioners in relation to a range of topics
such as the use of text, acting vs. performing, the body, expression and
representation and the audience, amongst others, in particular through discussion
and critical analysis in seminars.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this module, the successful student will have:

Extended knowledge of a range of drama theories and their links with wider critical
debates in theatre, performance and cultural studies
2

Developed research skills in summarising, evaluating and synthesising the work of a
number of key drama theorists

Analysed the work of specific theorists in oral and written form by combining
extensive background reading, clearly structured arguments and close critical
analysis
Teaching and Learning Modes
One two-hour seminar per week
Minimum of 5 hours’ independent reading and research per week
Modes of assessment
Essay (1000 words): 40%
Essay (1500 words): 60%
Assessment submission deadlines
Please check and confirm these on Sussex Direct/Study Direct.
Assessment criteria
Essays
 Clear and appropriate structure
 Contextualized and substantiated argument
 Use of appropriate conceptual frameworks
 Critical analysis of texts
 Appropriate original ideas and insights
 Appropriate use of examples and evidence
 Evidence of appropriate reading and research related to the course
 Accurate referencing according to standard form
 Clear, lucid expression
 Accurate spelling, punctuation and syntax
 Accurate and appropriate bibliography
Note on seminar participation
 Try to contribute at least one or two comments during every seminar. Developing
your oral skills is a key element of your learning process at university.
 Try to make your first comment as early as possible in the seminar. This will help
increase your confidence.
 Listen carefully when other people are speaking out of respect and in order to
creating a relaxed context for sharing ideas.
 Try to be conscious of not dominating the discussion if you have lots of thoughts and
ideas. It is always more productive to engage in a dialogue with as many voices as
possible.
3
Outline of weekly topics
The main critical reading for each week is available in either the Module Reader or
electronically
Week 1. Introduction to the module
Week 2. What is theatre theory?
Module Reader:
Bertolt Brecht, ‘The First Night’, The Messingkauf Dialogues (London: Methuen,
1965), pp. 21-30; 50-52.
The other readings for this week are available electronically:
Edward Gordon Craig, ‘The Actor and the Übermarionette’, in Teresa Brayshaw and
Noel Witts (eds.), The Twentieth Century Performance Reader, third edition
(Abingdon: Routledge, 2014), pp. 144-50 (available in EBL books online via the library
‘online resources’ tab).
Filippo Tomasso Marinetti, ‘The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism’, in Bert
Cardullo (ed.), Theories of the Avant Garde Theatre (Plymouth: Scarecrow, 2013), pp.
81-6 (available in EBL books online via the library ‘online resources’ tab).
Week 3. What is a theatre text?
Module Reader:
Marco de Marinis, ‘The Performance Text’, in Henry Bial (ed.), The Performance
Studies Reader, (London: Routledge, 2004), pp. 232-51.
The other reading for this week is available electronically:
David Barnett, ‘Offending the Playwright. Directors’ Theatre and the Werktreue
Debate’, German Monitor, 77 (2013), pp. 75-97 (available on Study Direct as a PDF
File).
Entries for 'readerly/writerly' and 'reader-response theory', in J. A, Cuddon et
al, Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, fifth edition (Chichester: Wiley,
2013), pp. 588-90 (available in EBL books online via the library ‘online resources’ tab)
Week 4. What is theatre (and how is it different to other artforms)?
Module Reader:
Jerzy Grotowski, ‘Towards a Poor Theatre’ in Jerzy Grotowski, Towards a Poor
Theatre (London: Methuen, 1996), pp. 15-25, pp. 23-35.
4
Antonin Artaud, ‘Production and Metaphysics’, in The Theatre and its Double
(London: Calder, 1999), pp. 23-35.
The other readings for this week are available electronically:
David Osipovich, ‘What is a Theatrical Performance?’, The Journal of Aesthetics and
Art Criticism 64, 4 (2006), pp. 461-470.
5.What is a theatre genre? (tragedy, comedy)
Module Reader:
Aristotle, Extracts from Poetics in Classical Literary Criticism, trans. T S Dorsch
(Harmonsdsworth: Penguin, 1985), pp. 31-52.
John Lennard and Mary Luckhurst, ‘Classical Genres: tragedy, comedy, satyr-plays,
and epic’, The Drama Handbook: a Guide to Reading Plays (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2002), pp. 56-67.
Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle, ‘Laughter’ in An Introduction to Literature,
Criticism and Theory (London: Pearson, 2004), pp. 93-102.
Week 6.What is character?
Module Reader:
Peter Hamilton, ‘The Enlightenment and the Birth of Social Science’ in Stuart Hall and
Bram Gieben (eds.), Formations of Modernity (Cambridge: Polity, 1992), pp. 17-69,
here pp. 18-22
Katie Mitchell, ‘Deepening Work on a Character’, in The Director’s Craft (Abingdon:
Routledge, 2009), pp. 68-74
The other readings for this week are available electronically:
August Strindberg, ‘Preface to Miss Julie, in Maggie Gale and John Deeney (eds.), The
Routledge Drama Anthology and Sourcebook (Abingdon: Routledge, 2010), pp. 13846 (available in EBL books online via the library ‘online resources’ tab)
Week 7. Reading week
8. What is acting?
Module Reader:
Konstantin Stanislavski, ‘Emotion Memory’, in An Actor’s Work (Abingdon:
Routledge, 2008), pp. 195-228
5
Vsevolod Meyerhold, ‘The Stylized Theatre’, in Meyerhold on Theatre, ed. by Edward
Braun (London: Methuen, 1991), pp. 58-64
The other readings for this week are available electronically:
Vsevolod Meyerhold, ‘First Attempts at a Stylized Theatre’, in Teresa Brayshaw and
Noel Witts (eds.), The Twentieth Century Performance Reader, third edition
(Abingdon: Routledge, 2014), pp. 338-47 (available in EBL books online via the library
‘online resources’ tab).
Bertolt Brecht, ‘Short Description of a New Technique of Acting which Produces an
Alienation Effect’, in Teresa Brayshaw and Noel Witts (eds.), The Twentieth Century
Performance Reader, third edition (Abingdon: Routledge, 2014), pp. 101-11
(available in EBL books online via the library ‘online resources’ tab).
Week 9. What is performance?
Module Reader:
Marvin Carlson, ‘What is Performance?’, in Henry Bial (ed.), The Performance Studies
Reader (London: Routledge, 2004), pp. 68-73.
Antonin Artaud, ‘The Theatre of Cruelty: First Manifesto’, in The Theatre and its
Double (London: Calder, 1970), pp. 68-78.
The other readings for this week are available electronically:
Antonin Artaud, ‘No More Masterpieces’, in Maggie Gale and John Deeney (eds.),
The Routledge Drama Anthology and Sourcebook (Abingdon: Routledge, 2010), pp.
260-5 (available in EBL books online via the library ‘online resources’ tab)
Allan Kaprow, ‘Assemblages, Environments and Happenings’, in Teresa Brayshaw and
Noel Witts (eds.), The Twentieth Century Performance Reader, third edition
(Abingdon: Routledge, 2014), pp. 277-86 (available in EBL books online via the library
‘online resources’ tab).
Marina Abramovic, ‘Interview’, in Teresa Brayshaw and Noel Witts (eds.), The
Twentieth Century Performance Reader, third edition (Abingdon: Routledge, 2014),
pp. 9-20 (available in EBL books online via the library ‘online resources’ tab).
Week 10. What is a theatre space?
Module Reader:
6
Richard Schechner, ‘Six Axioms for Environmental Theater’, Environmental Theater (New
York, 1994), xix-li.
The other readings for this week are available electronically:
Fiona Wilkie, ‘Mapping the Terrain: A Survey of Site-Specific Performance in Britain’,
New Theatre Quarterly, 18, 2 (2002), pp. 140-160.
Week 11. Theatre and subjectivity: feminism and gender.
Module Reader:
Sue-Ellen Case, ‘Towards a New Poetics’, The Routledge Reader in Gender and
Performance (London: Routledge, 1998), pp. 143-148.
The other readings for this week are available electronically:
Hélène Cixous, ‘The Laugh of the Medusa’, tr. Keith Cohen and Paula Cohen, Signs 1,
4 (1976), pp. 875-893.
Week 12. Essay consultations.
Advice on reading extracts
 When you read the extracts, try to formulate responses to the suggested focus
points.
 Think critically about the theoretical ideas. What are the central tenets of the
theories? What are the limitations of these ideas?
 As the module progresses, try to make links between the readings, and think about
what distinguishes them from one another. How do they conceive of theatre
differently?
 Think about the form the theories take. What view of the theatre text do they have?
Are they scientific and systematic? Are they linguistically experimental? Are they
abstract or concrete, hypothetical or practical?
Two very good reference texts that also contain entries on many of the practitioners and
theorists studied throughout the module can be found in:
Kenneth Pickering. Key Concepts in Drama and Performance. (London: Palgrave Macmillan,
2005).
Michael Huxley and Noel Witts (eds.), The Twentieth Century Performance Reader
(Routledge, London, 2002).
Additional reading on key theorists and practitioners
On Aristotle
Elizabeth S. Belfiore, Tragic Pleasures: Aristotle on plot and emotion (Princeton: Princeton
UP, 1992).
7
G.F. Else, Aristotle’s Poetics: the argument (Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press,
1957).
Stephen Halliwell, Aristotle’s Poetics (London: Duckworth 1986).
Amelie Rorty (ed.), Essays on Aristotle’s Poetics (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1992).
On Stanislavski
Jean Benedetti, Stanislavski (London: Methuen, 1988).
Shomit Mitter, Systems of Rehearsal: Stanislavsky, Brecht, Grotowski and Brook (London:
Routledge, 2002).
James Roose-Evans, Experimental theatre: from Stanislavsky to Peter Brook (London:
Routledge, 1984).
On Grotowski
Shomit Mitter, Systems of Rehearsal: Stanislavsky, Brecht, Grotowski and Brook (London:
Routledge, 2002).
Thomas Richard, At Work with Grotowski on Physical Actions (London: Routledge, 1995).
Lisa Wolford and Richard Schechner (eds.), The Grotowski Sourcebook (London: Routledge,
1997).
On Meyerhold
Edward Braun, Meyerhold: A Revolution in Theatre (London: Methuen, 1995).
Mel Gordon, ‘Meyerhold’s Biomechanics’, in Phillip Zarrilli (ed.), Acting (Re)Considered (two
editions with different bibliographical information are available in the library, both contain
this essay).
Robert Leach, ‘Meyerhold and Biomechanics’, in Alison Hodge (ed.), Twentieth Century
Actor Training (two editions with different bibliographical information are available in the
library, both contain this essay).
Robert Leach, Vsevolod Meyerhold (Cambridge: CUP, 1989).
On Brecht
Laura Bradley, Brecht and Political Theatre: ‘The Mother’ on Stage (Oxford: OUP, 2006).
Bertolt Brecht, Brecht on Theatre, ed. by John Willett (London: Methuen, 1964).
Meg Mumford, Bertolt Brecht (Abingdon: Routledge, 2009).
John Rouse, ‘Brecht and the Contradictory Actor’, Theatre Journal, 36: 1 (1984), pp. 25-42.
8
John White, Bertolt Brecht’s Dramatic Theory (Rochester NY: Camden House, 2004).
On Artaud
Antonin Artaud, The Theatre and its Double (trans. Victor Corti) (London: Calder, 1977).
Martin Esslin, Antonin Artaud: The Man and His Work (London: Calder, 1999).
J. Hirschman (ed.) Antonin Artaud Anthology, 1896-1948 (London: City Lights Books, 1965).
Claude Schumacher and Brian Singleton (eds.), Artaud on Theatre (Chicago: I.R.Dee, 2004).
On Futurism, Dada and the European Avant Garde
Catherine Innes, Avant Garde Theatre – 1892-1992 (London: Routledge, 1993).
Richard Humphreys, Futurism (London: Tate, 2003).
Martin Puchner, Poetry of the Revolution: Marx, manifestoes and the avant gardes
(Woodstock: Princeton University Press, 2006).
Matthew Witkovsky, The Dada Seminars (New York: Distributed Art Publishers, 2005).
On histories of performance, experimental theatre and Live Art (late 1900s to present day)
Andrew Davies, Other Theatres: the development of alternative and experimental theatre in
Britain (London: Macmillan, 1987).
RoseLee Goldberg, Performance Art: from Futurism to the Present (London: Thames and
Hudson, 1988).
Jen Harvie and Andy Lavender (eds.), Making Contemporary Theatre: international rehearsal
processes (Manchester University Press, 2010).
Adrian Heathfield (ed.), Live: art and performance (London: Tate, 2004).
Allan Kaprow (ed. Jeff Kelley), Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1993).
On Performance/Performance Studies
Willa Appel and Richard Schechner, By means of performance: Intercultural studies of
theatre and ritual (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
Henry Bial, The Performance Studies Reader (London: Routledge, 2007).
Jill Lane and Peggy Phelan, The Ends of Performance (New York: New York University Press,
1998).
9
Andrew Parker and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Performativity and Performance (New York:
Routledge, 1995).
Richard Schechner, Performance Studies: an introduction (London: Routledge, 2002).