ELEMENTS OF THEATRE HISTORY:
AMERICAN THEATRE IN THE
TWENTIETH-CENTURY
COURSE HANDBOOK
Autumn Term, 2011-2012
Module number: DR52017A
Tutor: Niall Munro
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CONTENTS
1. Course aims and content
p.2
2. Course timetable
p.3
3. Assessment
pp.3-4
4. Essay questions
p.4
5. Wiki
p.4
6. Set texts, recommended editions, and key
weekly ideas for each set text
pp.4-11
7. Presentations and texts for presentations
pp.11-14
8. Secondary reading and extracurricular
suggestions
pp.14-15
Elements of Theatre History: American Theatre in the Twentieth Century
Tutor: Niall Munro (niall.munro@gmail.com)
Class time: Tuesdays, 2-4pm
Location: RHB 257
1. Course aims and content
This course is designed to give students a detailed overview of the American theatre in the
twentieth century; its texts and contexts. By looking in depth at nine plays, and through
student-led presentations which will explore nine others, we will gain a sense of how the
American theatre developed over an extended period.
In addition to the plays themselves, we will also look at a number of the key companies,
groups, and practitioners producing work at this time, such as the Provincetown Players, the
Black Arts Movement, and the Open Theater, and examine the importance of Broadway and
Off-Broadway movements in general. As one of the modules in the Elements of Theatre
History series, we will be keenly focussing upon the social, historical and political
backgrounds to this period, and the effects of these upon the texts and groups under
discussion.
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2. Course timetable
In addition to the scheduled dates, there will be an optional weekly gathering to view a film
version of the play being studied that week. This will be arranged in week 1, but provisional
dates for these viewings are in the timetable below.
Wk/date
1 (04/10)
Text
Introduction
2 (11/10)
The Emperor Jones
(1920)
The Verge (1921)
3 (18/10)
Our Town (1938)
Machinal (1928)
4 (25/10)
A Streetcar Named Desire
(1947)
The Little Foxes (1939)
5 (01/11)
Death of a Salesman
(1949)
Picnic (1953)
6 (08/11)
7 (15/11)
READING
A Raisin in the Sun (1959)
WEEK
Dutchman (1964)
8 (22/11)
Who’s Afraid of Virginia
Woolf? (1962)
Fefu and Her Friends
(1977)
9 (29/11)
American Buffalo (1975)
F.O.B. (1979)
10 (06/12)
Buried Child (1978)
Tongues (1978)
11 (13/12)
Angels in America: Part
One, Millennium
Approaches (1991)
Joe Turner's Come and
Gone (1986)
17/01/2011
Presentation
Other
Provisional films
The Emperor Jones.
Quiz #1 (Intro, EJ,
Mach, OT)
Our Town.
A Streetcar Named
Desire.
Quiz #2 (Verge,
Street, LF, Death)
Quiz #3 (Picnic,
Raisin,
Dutchman)
Death of a Salesman.
No film.
A Raisin in the Sun.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia
Woolf.
Quiz #4 (WAoVW,
Fefu, American,
FOB)
American Buffalo.
Angels in America (I).
Quiz #5 (Buried,
Tongues, AiA,
Joe)
Angels in America (II).
4,000 word essay
due
3. Assessment
Assessment for this course will take the form of one 4,000 word essay, due on 17 January.
You will be required to write about at least three plays in your essay.
There will be ongoing (unofficial) assessment in the form of the presentations and occasional
quizzes. These quizzes will draw upon both the main texts, and the texts for presentation and
will generally contain knowledge-based questions. The texts featuring in each quiz are listed
in the timetable above, and there is more information about the presentations in section 7
below.
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So to complete the module, students will be required to do the following:
a) Give a presentation on an assigned play and post their work to the
course’s wiki space
b) Complete set quizzes and make notes on each week’s set of key ideas
c) Submit a 4,000 word essay dealing with three or more plays
4. Essay questions
You will be assessed by one 4,000 word essay, due in on 17 January. A wide choice of
essay titles will be distributed in week 4.
5. Wiki
There is a dedicated wiki space for use by students on this American Theatre History course.
You will have write privileges to this by week 2. Students can consult the pages for
information about the plays and socio-historical contexts, explore links listed on the pages,
and edit the pages themselves. In particular students will be able to upload their
presentations about plays not in the main reading list, and contribute their own comments to
ongoing discussions about the main plays. Please use and contibute to it.
The wiki can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/y9okkgm. Log in at the very top of the page to
gain write access.
6. Set texts, recommended editions, and key weekly ideas for each set text
The texts below are those prescribed for the course. You must have a copy of each of these.
There may be alternative editions available for some of these texts, but the ones listed below
contain the most useful introductions and/or notes. However, apart from the Sam Shepard,
there should be no problem if you purchase a different edition. Indeed, if you are particularly
interested in a playwright's work, you might consider buying a collection of their plays, and
not just individual playscripts. If you want recommendations as to which collection to buy,
contact me.
Most of the texts for the main part of the course and for presentations are freely available in
the usual places like Waterstones (try the largest store on Piccadilly, or the excellent one on
Gower Street), Blackwell's (they have a large store with a good drama section on Charing
Cross Road) and Foyles (also located on Charing Cross Road). The National Theatre on the
South Bank (http://tinyurl.com/2vs3nat) also has a decent selection of drama texts and books
on theatre. You can buy online or, of course, visit.
However, you may wish to save money by purchasing secondhand copies from local stores
and online.
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Secondhand booksellers in London
Skoob Books - by Marchmont Street in Bloomsbury
Judd Books - also on Marchmont Street
These stores may also offer a discount to students - ask before paying.
Online sellers
Apart from Amazon, you can also find some good secondhand copies at the following:
Abebooks
The Book Depository
Green Metropolis
Betterworld Books - only order from here if there are a few weeks until the text is to be used
in class, since their books ship from the U.S.
This site offers a useful price comparison of the main stores: http://www.bookfinder.com/
Wherever you buy the texts, do your best to get hold of the recommended editions, listed
below.
Each week, some key ideas are listed for you to consider whilst you are reading the
play or when you have finished it. Make notes on each idea, and bring those notes to
class. You may be required to consult some secondary reading.
Week one: Introduction
Key ideas to consider (consult secondary reading or websites on the wiki if necessary)
1) What fundamental problems with the modern theatre led George Cram Cook and his
followers to found the Provincetown Players?
2) Make some notes about Susan Glaspell’s role within the Players.
3) Get a sense of the range of the Players’ interests and politics by finding out a little more
about another one of them (e.g. George Cram Cook, John Reed, Louise Bryant, Hutchins
Hapgood).
Key secondary reading for this week (see main secondary reading section on wiki for more
general introductions to American theatre)
Berkowitz, Gerald M., American Drama of the Twentieth Century, Longman
Literature in English Series (Harlow, Essex: Longman, 1992), chapter 1,
‘Introduction’, pp.1-10, and chapter 2, ‘1890-1930: The Beginnings’, pp.12-42
Bigsby, C.W.E., ‘Provincetown: the birth of twentieth-century American
drama’, chapter 1 of A Critical Introduction to Twentieth-Century American Drama, v.
1: 1900-1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), pp.1-35 [812.509 BIG]
Evans Bryan, Mark, American Drama, 1900-1915, chapter 2 of A Companion
to Twentieth Century American Drama (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007), ed. by
David Krasner, pp.3-17 [812.509 COM]
Gelb, Arthur and Barbara, O'Neill (London: Cape, 1962), chapters XXVI-XXVII, pp.3035
337 [812.5 On/GEL]
Robinson, Marc, The American Play, 1787-2000 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press,
2009). Chapter 3, ‘Realism against Itself’, pp.106-156, has sections about Margaret
Fleming and David Belasco. [812.509 ROB]
Week two: The Emperor Jones by Eugene O'Neill (1920)
Recommended edition: Anna Christie and The Emperor Jones (London: Nick
Hern Books, 1991), 98pp, ISBN: 978-1854591012
Also suitable: Three Great Plays, containing The Emperor Jones, Anna Christie and The
Hairy Ape (London: Dover, 2009), 144 pages, ISBN: 978-0486442181
We only have the space to look at one O’Neill play, but given his significance, you are highly
encouraged to look at other work by him, in particular The Iceman Cometh (1939) and Long
Day’s Journey Into Night (1939-1941) – both are published by Nick Hern Books in the same
series as The Emperor Jones, and available in the library. Filmed versions of these two plays
are also to be found in the library – see O’Neill secondary reading for details.
Key ideas to consider (consult secondary reading or websites on the wiki if necessary)
1) What was Expressionism, where did it come from, and how does it feature in The Emperor
Jones?
2) What perspectives upon the black man within society does O’Neill offer in the play?
3) How effective do you find O’Neill’s use of extended monologues? Give examples that you
find effective or not, and say why.
4) Draw a sketch of the stage set for one of the eight scenes as you imagine it should be.
Key secondary reading (see main secondary reading on the wiki for more texts)
Bigsby, C.W.E., ‘Eugene O’Neill’, chapter 2 of A Critical Introduction to
Twentieth-Century American Drama, v. 1: 1900-1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1982), pp.36-119 [812.509 BIG]
Krasner, David, ‘Eugene O’Neill: American Drama and American
Modernism’, chapter 10 of A Companion to Twentieth Century American Drama
(Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007), ed. by David Krasner, pp.142-158 [812.509
COM]
Manheim, Michael, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Eugene O’Neill,
Cambridge Companions to Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1998) [812.5 On/CAM]
Week three: Our Town by Thornton Wilder (1938)
Recommended edition: Our Town and Other Plays, Penguin Modern Classics
(London: Penguin, 2000), 288pp, 978-0141184586
Key ideas to consider
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1) How would you describe the Stage Manager’s function in the play?
2) How does the third act affect your understanding of the previous two?
3) Wilder said of the play: ‘[Our Town is about] the trivial details of human life in reference to
a vast perspective of time, of social history and of religious ideas’. Give examples from the
play which support his analysis.
Key secondary reading (see main secondary reading on the wiki for more texts)
Bigsby, C.W.E., ‘Thornton Wilder’, chapter 8 of A Critical Introduction to TwentiethCentury American Drama, v. 1: 1900-1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1982), pp.256-273 [812.509 BIG]
Haberman, Donald, ‘Our Town’: An American Play, Twayne’s Masterwork Studies, No.
28 (Boston: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1989)
Grebanier, Bernard, Thornton Wilder, Pamphlets on American Writers (Minneapolis,
Minnesota: University of Minnesota, 1964) [812.5 Wi/GRE]
Week four: A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams (1947)
Recommended edition: A Streetcar Named Desire, Penguin Modern Classics (London:
Penguin, 2009), 128pp, 978-0141190273
You are highly encouraged to read beyond this edition to sample other Williams plays such
as: The Glass Menagerie (1945), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), and Suddenly Last Summer
(1958). Filmed versions of the former two are available in the library – see the extended
secondary reading list below.
Key ideas to consider (consult secondary reading or websites on the wiki if necessary)
1) What kinds of sexual desires are on display in Streetcar?
2) How are the worlds of the (Southern) aristocracy and the working class shown to clash in
the play?
3) By what means does Williams present the atmosphere of New Orleans?
Key secondary reading (see main secondary reading on the wiki for more texts)
Boxill, Roger, Tennessee Williams, Modern Dramatists (London: Palgrave Macmillan,
1987) [812.5 Wi/BOX]
Roudané, Matthew C., The Cambridge Companion to Tennessee Williams (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1997) [812.5 Wi/CAM]
Stanton, Stephen S., ed., Tennessee Williams: A Collection of Critical Essays, 20th
Century Views Series (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1978) [812.5 Wi/TEN]
Week five: Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (1949)
Recommended edition: Death of a Salesman: Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts
and a Requiem, Penguin Modern Classics (London: Penguin, 2000), 112pp,
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978-0141182742
You are also highly encouraged to read more Miller plays, in particular: All My Sons (1947),
The Crucible (1953), A View from the Bridge (1955), and Broken Glass (1994).
Key ideas to consider
1) Miller has said that one of the ideas that sparked Salesman was: ‘The image of ferocity
when love has turned to something else and yet is there, is somewhere in the room if one
could only find it.’ How does the play give expression to this idea?
2) In an early version of the play, Willy tells Biff that ‘Ambition is things. A man must want
things, things.’ How does Miller make this sentiment clear in the final version of the play?
3) Note down one way in which Miller uses the tools of the theatre to express Willy’s
conflicts, and explain why you find it effective.
Key secondary reading (see main secondary reading on the wiki for more texts)
Bigsby, Christopher, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller, Cambridge
Companions to Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997) [812.5
Mi/CAM]
Bigsby, C.W.E., ‘Arthur Miller: the moral imperative’, in Modern American Drama: 19451990 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp.72-125 [812.509 BIG]
Koon, Helene Wickham, ed., Twentieth Century Interpretations of ‘Death of A Salesman’:
A Collection of Critical Essays (London: Prentice-Hall, 1983)
Week six is Reading Week
Week seven: A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (1959)
Recommended edition: A Raisin in the Sun, Methuen Modern Plays (London: Methuen,
2001), 144pp, 978-0413762405
Key ideas to consider
1) Who makes progress in understanding and determining their identity in this play?
2) Christopher Bigsby contends that this play was perfect for Broadway, because politically
and dramatically it does not challenge the status quo. Why do you think he suggests this,
and do you agree with him?
3) An early draft of the play is said to have concluded with the Younger family in the new
house, waiting for their white neighbours to attack. Would this have been a more effective
ending to the play?
Key secondary reading (see main secondary reading on the wiki for more texts)
Bigsby, C.W.E., ‘Black theatre’, chapter 14 of A Critical Introduction to
Twentieth-Century American Drama, v.3: Beyond Broadway (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1985), pp. 375-415 [812.509 BIG]
Cheney, Anne, Lorraine Hansberry, Twayne’s United States Authors
Series, No. 430 (Boston: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1984) [812.5 Ha/CHE]
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Wilkerson, Margaret B., ‘From Harlem to Broadway: African American
women playwrights at mid-century’, in The Cambridge Companion to American
Women Playwrights, ed. by Brenda Murphy (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1999), pp.134-154 [812.509 CAM]
Week eight: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee (1962)
Recommended edition: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (London: Vintage Classics,
2008), 144pp, 978-0099285694
Key ideas to consider (consult secondary reading or websites on the wiki if necessary)
1) Note down two sections of the play which demonstrate Albee’s control of dramatic tension,
and explain how he controls it.
2) What does the play tell us about how valuable or damaging language can be?
3) In its use of fantasy and reality, would you describe Virginia Woolf? as an Absurdist
drama? (See Martin Esslin’s book on Absurd drama in the main secondary reading list.)
4) What is the funniest joke in this play?
Key secondary reading (see main secondary reading on the wiki for more texts)
Amacher, Richard E., Edward Albee, Twayne’s United States Authors Series, No.141,
revd. edn. (Boston: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1982) [812.5 Al/AMA]
Bigsby, C.W.E., ed., Edward Albee: A Collection of Critical Essays, 20th Century Views
(London: Prentice-Hall, 1975) [812.5 Al/EDW]
Bottoms, Stephen, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Edward Albee, Cambridge
Companions to Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005)
Week nine: American Buffalo by David Mamet (1975)
Recommended edition: American Buffalo, Methuen Modern Plays (London: Methuen,
1984), 112pp, 978-0413574503
Key ideas to consider
1) Consider how Mamet’s characters display their masculinity.
2) What does the play have to say about the nature of business and capitalism?
3) Note down an instance where language seems to: a) assist the progress of the plot; and
b) hinder its progress.
Key secondary reading (see main secondary reading on the wiki for more texts)
Bigsby, C.W.E., David Mamet, Contemporary Writers series (London: Law Book Company,
1985) [812.5 Ma/BIG]
Bigsby, Christopher, ed., The Cambridge Companion to David Mamet (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2004)
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Haedicke, Janet V., ‘David Mamet: America on the American Stage’, chapter 25 of A
Companion to Twentieth Century American Drama (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing,
2007), ed. by David Krasner, pp.406-422. [812.509 COM]
Week ten: Buried Child by Sam Shepard (1978)
Highly recommended edition: Sam Shepard: Plays 2, Faber Contemporary Classics
(London: Faber and Faber, 1997), 320pp, 978-0571190744
We will also use this edition to look at another plays in the volume: Tongues, so do buy this
Plays 2 text if at all possible.
Shepard revised Buried Child in 1996. You might find it interesting to buy or get hold of a
library copy pre-1996 and compare the two versions before we look at the play.
Key ideas to consider
1) Shepard has asserted that ‘everybody’s caught up in a fractured world that they can’t even
see’. How is that idea exemplified in Buried Child?
2) How would you describe the characters’ relationships with the land? Choose two or three
characters to investigate.
3) In what ways does the play explode the myth of a traditional American family?
Key secondary reading (see main secondary reading on the wiki for more texts)
Callens, Johan, ed., Sam Shepard : between the margin and the centre, special issues of
Contemporary Theatre Review: an international journal, 8:3 and 8:4 (1998), parts 1
and 2 [812.5 Sh/SAM]
Mottram, Ron, Inner landscapes: The Theater of Sam Shepard, A Literary Frontiers
edition (Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1985) [812.5 Sh/MOT]
Roudané, Matthew, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Sam Shepard (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2002)
Week eleven: Angels in America: Part One, Millennium Approaches (1991)
Highly recommended edition: Angels in America: Part One, Millennium Approaches & Part
Two, Perestroika (London: Nick Hern Books, 2007), 288pp, 978-1854599827
Although we will only study Part One, Millennium Approaches in class, you should also read
Part Two, Perestroika, and so this is the best edition to buy.
Key ideas to consider
1) What kinds of struggles does Kushner depict in the play?
2) What effect does the split scene structure of the play have on its meaning?
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3) In what ways does Kushner use humour to tell his story? Find some examples of humour’s
different effects.
4) Angels in America is subtitled ‘A Gay Fantasia on National Themes’. What connections
are drawn in Millennium Approaches between ‘Gay’ and ‘National’?
Key secondary reading (see main secondary reading on the wiki for more texts)
Bloom, Harold, ed., Tony Kushner, Modern Critical Views (Philadelphia: Chelsea House
Publishers, 2005) [812.5 Ku/TON]
Geis, Deborah R., and Steven F. Kruger, eds., Approaching the Millennium: Essays on
‘Angels in America’ (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1997) [812.5
Ku/APP]
Nielsen, Ken, Tony Kushner's ‘Angels in America’, Modern Theatre Guides (London:
Continuum, 2008) [812.5 Ku/NIE]
7. Presentations and texts for presentations
Every student will be required to take part in small group presentations on other important
twentieth century American plays. Presentations will be given at the start of each class. Texts
for presentations appear below with their relevant library shelfmarks – though students are
encouraged to buy their own copies wherever possible. As with the main texts, look at the
recommended bookshops and online sellers list in section 6 above for guidance if required.
The presentation should:
1) Give a very brief summary of the play, and – if necessary – an even more brief
summary of the playwright’s biography and other works. Very little time should be taken up
with recounting the writer’s life history unless it has a direct bearing on the play.
2) Offer an analysis of the play, relating it to
a) the socio-historical context in which it was written;
b) the dramatic context;
c) the cultural context;
d) the course context: how it relates to other plays we have studied.
Thus, if you were doing a presentation on O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones, you would be
expected to consider: the place of the black man in 1910s/1920s society (socio-historical),
how the play draws on Expressionism (dramatic), the play’s connections with the
Provincetown Players (cultural), and how it relates to other plays that we have studied, such
as Machinal (course).
3) Give a sense of the way the play is written by having at least one reading of a key
section of the play. This reading should not last more than three or four minutes.
You are encouraged to use audiovisual resources in your presentation, and you
should e-mail Niall a copy of your presentation either before or after you present it.
This can take the form of prose, but might be better as detailed notes. In addition, you
should post a copy of this to the wiki.
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You are also encouraged to use secondary material (see the main secondary reading list on
the wiki) wherever possible, but the majority of the presentation should consist of your own
response to, and analysis of, the play.
Each presentation should last NO MORE THAN TEN MINUTES, and commentary on the
play should be divided between the group as equally as possible.
Texts will be allocated to groups in week one, and secondary reading for these texts appears
on the wiki.
Week two: The Verge by Susan Glaspell (1921)
This play (and other plays by Glaspell) is available online from the Chadwyck-Healey
Literature Collections. Visit the library website and search for ‘The Verge’ to find the
link to electronic access, or go to:
http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.882003&xri:pqil:res_ver=0.2&res_id=xri:ilcs&rft_id=xri:ilcs:20drama:Z000842640
Things you might like (but don’t have) to consider when reading or presenting this text
1) Glaspell once wrote of the ‘shock of new forms, and hence awareness of all form, the
adventure of the great new chance for expressing what has not yet been formed’. How does
this play exemplify Glaspell’s ideas about art?
2) How does Glaspell present ideas about freedom and imprisonment in this play?
Week three: Machinal by Sophie Treadwell (1928)
4 copies in Goldsmiths library at 812.5 Tr (London: Nick Hern Books, 1993).
(1 on 7-day loan.)
Things you might like (but don’t have) to consider when reading or presenting this text
1) Connections between the Expressionist mode of this play and The Emperor Jones.
2) The Stephen Daldry production of the play at the National Theatre in 1993. (See Susan
Glaspell and Sophie Treadwell: American Modernist Women Dramatists in the secondary
reading for more details.)
Week four: The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman (1939)
3 copies of Six Plays (New York: Vintage Books,1979) at: 812.5 He
Also: see the secondary reading list for details of the library copy of the filmed version
of this play.
Key ideas to consider (consult secondary reading or websites on the wiki if necessary)
1) How the play explores the ‘Southernness’ of the characters.
2) Why Hellman chooses the verse from the ‘Song of Solomon’ in the Bible as the epigraph
for the play and as the source of her title.
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Week five: Picnic by William Inge (1953)
2 copies of Four Plays (New York: Grove Press, 1958) at 812.5 In.
2 further copies in the reserve stack of the library (you may have to order these up)
at: 812.5 In
Also: see the secondary reading list for details of the library copy of the filmed version
of this play.
Things you might like (but don’t have) to consider when reading or presenting this text
1) Connections between Inge’s work and that of Tennessee Williams.
2) How effective you think Act Three, Scene Two is in concluding the play.
Week six is Reading Week
Week seven: Dutchman by Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) (1964)
9 copies of Dutchman and The Slave: two plays (New York: Perennial, 2001) in the
library at: 812.5 Jo (1 is reference only, 3 are 7-day loans, 5 are 3-day loans)
Also: see the secondary reading list for details of the online filmed version of this play.
Things you might like (but don’t have) to consider when reading or presenting this text
1) Clay’s monologue towards the end of the play.
2) Baraka’s essay ‘The Revolutionary Theater’ (see secondary reading list).
Week eight: Fefu and Her Friends by María Irene Fornés (1977)
4 copies in the library at: 812.5 Fo (New York: PAJ Publications, 1990) (1 reference
copy, 1 on 7-day loan, 2 copies on ordinary loan)
Things you might like (but don’t have) to consider when reading or presenting this text
1) Whether you agree with critics who label Fornés a feminist, and why/why not.
2) The shift in staging in Part II from a single room to different spaces.
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Week nine: FOB by David Henry Hwang (1979)
4 copies in the library at 812.5 Hw (FOB and Other Plays; New York: New American
Library, 1990).
Also in New Plays USA, ed. by James Leverett (New York: Theatre Communications
Group, 1982). 1 copy in the library at: 812.508 NEW
Things you might like (but don’t have) to consider when reading or presenting this text
1) Why Hwang chooses to use stories about Chinese gods in the play.
2) How Hwang uses language to show the differences between the characters.
Week ten: Tongues by Sam Shepard and Joseph Chaikin (1978)
In Sam Shepard: Plays 2 (Faber Contemporary Classics, 1997 – see main list above)
Things you might like (but don’t have) to consider when reading or presenting this text
1) Connections between this work and Buried Child.
2) Details of how the collaboration came about.
Week eleven: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone by August Wilson (1986)
2 copies of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (New York: New American Library, 1988),
in the library at: 812.5 Wi. 1 other is reference only.
1 copy of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (New York: Theatre Communications Group,
2007), also at: 812.5 Wi
Things you might like (but don’t have) to consider when reading or presenting this text
1) How Wilson uses travel and movement to express the ideas of the play.
2) The roles that religion and ritual play in the lives of the characters.
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8. Secondary reading and extracurricular suggestions
An extensive list of secondary reading is available on the wiki (http://tinyurl.com/y9okkgm),
broken down by author/play, subject, and also includes a general list. Where it is available in
the Goldsmiths library, the shelfmark is given [in square brackets], and texts which are
particularly recommended are in bold type. In addition, you should consult the module wiki
for websites and online references. If there is no shelfmark listed, the book can almost
certainly be found in the British Library: http://catalogue.bl.uk/F/?func=file&file_name=loginbl-list There is information about how you become a member here:
http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/inrrooms/stp/register/howreg/howtoregister.html
You are highly encouraged to use online databases like JSTOR to search for journal articles.
To access these, have a look at the library’s electronic resources page for Drama:
http://www.gold.ac.uk/library/subject-guides/drama/ E-mail Niall if you’re not sure how to
access articles.
V&A Theatre Collections
You might also benefit from visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Theatre Collections at
the V&A in South Kensington, the national collection of material about live performance.
More details about it can be found here:
<http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/theatre_performance/>, and you can find details of
resources here:
<http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/theatre_performance/resources/index.html>
See the module wiki for more up-to-date information about productions. If you attend any of
these shows, please do post some comments/a review on the discussion section of the
‘current and upcoming theatre productions’ page of the wiki.
You should also consider joining the Facebook pages and following the Twitter feeds for
certain London theatres, as well as subscribing to their e-mail mailing lists. These theatres
frequently send out special ticket offers. Look up in particular: the National Theatre (which
has a student mailing list), the Barbican, the Old Vic, the Donmar Warehouse, the Almeida,
the Tricycle, and the Orange Tree.
Sign up here: <http://www.offwestend.com/index.php/pages/under_26_theatre_fix/> for
special offers from OffWestEnd.com
The Barbican also runs a series of valuable workshops (‘Bite Weekend Workouts’), intended
for university and drama school students, and connected with upcoming shows in the Bite
(Barbican International Theatre Events). Look up <www.barbican.org.uk/bww> for more
details.
The Barbican also has its own membership scheme for 16-25 year olds called ‘FreeB’, which
enables members to claim free tickets for music, theatre, film, art, and dance at the Barbican.
More information here: <www.barbican.org.uk/freeb>
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