Course: Eng 184, Contemporary Drama
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Date of Application: October 25, 2013
Name, Department of Proposer: Barry Horwitz
Name of department housing course: English
Name of Chair: Carol Beran
How often is course taught: Yearly
Course prerequisites: None
Unit value of course: 1
Normal class size: 24
Number of sections expected to be taught in Fall 2013: 0
Number of sections expected to be taught in Spring 2013: 1
Is the course appropriate for first-year students: Yes
Relevant Learning Goals: Artistic Understanding
Chair will oversee submission of student work: Yes
Chair will oversee instructor participation in norming & assessment exercises: Yes
TEACHING
How the course will guide students toward achieving the learning outcomes:
1a. Explore works of art.
In "Contemporary Drama," students read, analyze, and discuss recent and contemporary
plays. Playwrights may include: Edward Albee, Lorraine Hansberry, August Wilson,
John Guare, Lanford Wilson, Craig Lucas, Tony Kushner, Suzan-Lori Park, Kristoffer
Diaz, David Henry Hwang, and Sarah Ruhl, among many others. In addition to studying
these playwrights, we analyze recorded past productions, film adaptations, and current
live productions at theaters. We discuss and analyze character development, dramatic
structure, and contemporary themes in each play. Additionally, local directors and actors
may be invited to offer their perspectives on plays, dramatic form, and production
techniques. We also explore academic essays on the plays to enrich the students'
knowledge of a spectrum of critical approaches. A typical assignment would include
written analysis of a daily reading as well as generating questions for discussion.
1b. Analyze/interpret form and meaning:
When students discuss, compare, and contrast the dramatic works in class, they are
preparing to write their own essays on those works. By analyzing the staccato language
of David Mamet in Glengarry Glen Ross, or the interactions of social classes in John
Guare's Six Degrees of Separation; or by understanding the revolutionary dramatic
structure of Suzan-Lori Parks' Venus, and the epic theater techniques in Tony Kushner's
Angels in America, students begin to link formal dramatic structures with modern issues
and ideas. In discussion and in essay writing, students develop an appreciation for the
interaction between experimental dramatic structure and the challenging contemporary
issues and ideas they present to theater audiences. They also interpret the way formal
techniques affect the evolution of meaning from one playwright to the next. We analyze
and clarify formal elements in each play, such as: exposition, climax, denouement, rising
and falling action, character development, and emotional subtext. We link these formal
elements to themes in the plays, including individual, social, and cultural meanings.
1c. Apply discipline-based vocabulary:
In discussing the plays, students will master dramatic terminology, including the fourth
wall, emotional memory, distancing, alienation, epic theater, character arc, beat, climax,
back-story, resolution, reversal, and simultaneous dialogue. They will read critical essays
written both by the writers themselves and by literary critics. By noting and reacting to
the artists' manifestos and the critics' analyses, they will use the terminology used in
theatre criticism. Special attention will be paid to the playwrights' attempts to expand and
adapt their forms to modern conflicts and crises.
1d. Explore the artistic piece's significance within appropriate contexts:
The course focuses on contemporary drama, usually within the last thirty years. Students
will be able to situate works into discrete historical and cultural epochs. For example, in
discussing David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, students will explore and write about
the cut-throat real estate operations in Chicago. The play will open up discussion of
competition, economic boom, social class, and both Christian and Judaic values in 1980s
America.
In addition to exploring American culture, students will analyze plays that explore
European, Japanese, and other cultures as well. Contemporary plays will reflect
significant issues, such as: individual identity, family dynamics, parental relations,
education and opportunity, gender roles, and political perspectives. The artistic elements
of a play will highlight the questions that the playwright is raising in each work and in the
specific culture as a whole. Live productions and films can also help to contextualize and
particularize the historical or cultural significance of plays from a given period or
movement.
LEARNING
How coursework will be used to measure student achievement of the outcomes:
1a. Look at and read works of art:
Students will demonstrate their mastery of each text and related concepts by writing daily
questions and responses to the assigned plays for discussion in class. Plays are typically
broken down into scenes and sections, which can be studied in a series of readings, and
also read aloud in class to study their performance values and techniques. After studying
several texts, students will produce an essay based on their questions, class discussion,
and research in dramatic criticism. These written analyses—along with active
participation in class discussions—demonstrate the student's ability to understand and
interpret the connections between dramatic action, language, and human relations. For
example, in John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation, students will be challenged to
connect individual characters, settings, and dramatic structure to the play's psychological,
cultural, and social conflicts. The student essays will receive constructive comments and
grading based upon the student's ability to effectively articulate connections between
their own insights and the works as a whole.
1b. Analyze/interpret form and meaning:
Students will write essays in which they analyze characters, actions, or themes in the
plays under discussion. Students will consider how the specific structure of individual
scenes affects the meaning of the play. They will learn to interpret the relationship
between dramatic forms and the ideas that emerge from dramatic actions. In their
analytical essays, students will interpret how contemporary dramatic structure advances
both character development and cultural ideas in plays. For example, when writing about
Suzan-Lori Park Venus, students will be required to examine the issue of woman's roles
in modern life and the evolution of feminism. Student essays will provide evidence of an
understanding of cause and effect between formal elements and the individual and social
meanings they convey.
1c. Apply discipline-based vocabulary:
Students will demonstrate their mastery of dramatic vocabulary by employing the
technical language of theater in discussion and writing. This language includes: the fourth
wall, emotional memory, distancing, alienation, epic theater, character arc, beat, climax,
back-story, resolution, reversal, and simultaneous dialogue. Students will be expected to
use the technical language acquired in class and apply it in their written analyses,
explaining the terms, relating them to each play, and using the terms to make connections
between structure and meaning.
1d. Explore the artistic piece's significance within appropriate contexts:
Daily discussions and assignments will explore the multiple origins of each text in its
psychological, historical, and cultural context. Successful students will be expected to
discuss these concepts in relation to both the plays themselves and contemporary
American social issues.
Instructors may ask students to read or perform scenes from the plays under consideration
for greater immersion. Through these readings, students will improve and deepen their
insights into the dramatized personal and political conflicts in the plays. By interpreting
scenes with a partner, they will acquire the ability to identify and empathize with
characters in conflict that will be an asset to them in their own lives.
Students learn that plays are not created in a vacuum; rather significant dramatic works
have been influenced by specific socio-political and ethnic movements. Students will
demonstrate this understanding through their written essays. For example, when reading
Suzan-Lori Parks' Topdog/Underdog, successful students can recognize the
dominant/subordinate relation between African Americans brothers named Lincoln and
Booth; or they can take note of the economic and social disparities between the two
brothers.