Syllabus
History of Theatre I THTRE 465
Iowa State University
Fall 2012
Course:
Time:
Room:
THTRE 465 (3 credits)
11:00 AM – 12:15 PM, T-R
Pearson 2158
Instructor: Matt Foss
Office:
2236 Pearson
Office Hours: TBA
Email:
mfoss@iastate.edu (quickest and most efficient way to get in contact with me)
Course description:
Theatre history from ancient times to 1800.
Learning Outcomes:
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
Develop and understanding of the development of theatre and its history through
the context of play reading and primary texts.
Build and strengthen play reading and analytical skills that have practical
implications for the student’s theatrical imagination.
To begin the formation of a student’s individual articulated dramaturgy through
the examination world texts and theatremakers.
Required Texts:
The Norton Anthology of Drama, Volume One—Antiquity through the Eighteenth
Century. eds. J. Ellen Gainor, Stanton B. Garner Jr. & Martin Puchner.
ISBN: 978-0-393-93281-2
The Empty Space. Peter Brook. ISBN: 9780684829579
Theatre/Theory/Theatre: Major Critical Texts. ed. Daniel Gerould.
ISBN: 9781557835277
Foss 2
Assignments and Grading:
All assignments go towards your total points for the semester. The estimated percentage
of how daily and semester assignments comprise your grade are as follows:
Daily Writing Assignments and Attendance
(Outlines/Responses and Dramaturgy Casebook)
70%
Exams and Casebook
30%
Assignment Guidelines:
Instructions and expectations for writing assignments will be discussed during
class, with handouts outlining each specific assignment attached to this
syllabus.
All outline and response assignments are to be written in blue or black ink in a standard
composition book like the one pictured below:
Though it may appear a dated form of evaluation and note taking, this
particular step’s necessity will be discussed during the first class period.
All late submissions are reduced to 50% of their available points. Missing
assignments will receive a zero.
Classroom Policies:
Attendance: Attendance and promptness are a requirement for all theatre classes. The
collaborative nature of theatre requires commitment of all individuals to the group.
Punctuality is also key to the health of your career in the professional theatre. Attendance
is taken for every class. You are allowed two absences without penalty (Two tardies are
equivalent to one absence). Every absence after the third will result in an automatic
reduction of one letter grade for the class. Six total absences will result with you being
asked to drop the course.
All assignments will be turned in on time. Assignments received late will have grades
lowered by one half grade for each class session past due date.
Foss 3
Cell Phones: All phones are to be turned off. Failure to comply will result in
loss of Class Participation points. If the problem persists, you will be asked to
leave the class for that day and counted absent.
Academic Integrity: All work should be your own. Penalties for academic dishonesty
may range from failure of the assignment to dismissal from the university. Acknowledge
all sources in your writing.
Schedule: (proposed schedule and is subject to change based on the needs of the course.)
Date
Class Work
Work Due
Assigned
Tue. 8/21
CLASS INTRODUCTION
Thu. 8/23
Deadly Theatre
Tue. 8/28
Agamemnon and Poetics-Part 1 Outline #1Agamemnon
Response #2Poetics: I-VI
Oedipus the King
and Norton Online:
Poetics: VII-XVI
Thu. 8/30
Oedipus the King
Outline#2Oedipus the King
Response #3Poetics VII-XVI
T/T/T: “Poetics
of Aristotle” –
Castelevetro &
“Politics of
Theatre Theory” –
Gerould
Tue. 9/4
Oedipus Part II
Response #4
Poetics and Theory
Theatre/Theory/
Theatre:
Of the Three Unities
of Action, Time and
Place (Corneille)
And Lysistrata
Thu. 9/6
Lysistrata and Poetics-Part III
Outline #3Lysistrata
Response #5Corneille’s Unities
Empty Space-Holy
Theatre
“Deadly Theatre”Empty Space
Response #1Deadly Theatre
Norton Online
Poetics (Book I-VI)
Norton:
Introduction-Greek
Theatre (pg 1-12)
Agamemnon
Foss 4
Date
Class Work
Work Due
Assigned
Tue. 9/11
The Holy Theatre
Response #6–
Holy Theatre
Norton Online:
Violence and the
Sacred (Girard) and
The Bacchae
Thu. 9/13
The Bacchae
Response #7 –
Violence and the
Sacred (Girard)
Outline #4 –
The Bacchae
EXAM #1Norton Online: The
Art of PoetryHorace
(English
Paraphrase-Russell)
Norton: Roman
Theatre (pg 12-16).
Tue. 9/18
Roman Theatre
Response #8 –
Art of Poetry &
Roman Theatre
Pseudolos
Thu. 9/20
Pseudolos
Outline #5 –
Pseudolos
Norton: Classical
Indian TheatreJapanese Theatre
(pg 16-25)
T/T/T:
“Natyasastra”,
“On the Art of No
Drama” and
“Casual Expressions
of Idle Feelings.”
And EXAM #1
Tue. 9/25
Eastern Dramaturgy
Response #7 –
The Little Clay
Eastern Dramaturgy Cart
EXAM #1 (handed in
at the beginning of
class.)
Thu. 9/27
The Little Clay Cart
Outline #6 –
Snow in
The Little Clay Cart Midsummer
& Atsumori
Foss 5
Date
Class Work
Work Due
Assigned
Tue. 10/2
Snow in Midsummer &
Atsumori
Outline #7 –
Norton: Medieval
Snow in Midsummer European Theatre
& Outline #8—
Astumori
Thu. 10/4
Medieval European Theatre
And Dramaturgy Casebook
Introduction
Response #8 –
Medieval European
Theatre
The Empty
Space—Rough
Theatre
Tue. 10/9
Rough Theatre
Response #9 –
Rough
Theatre
Everyman
Thu. 10/11 Everyman
Outline #9 –
Everyman
Norton: Theatre in
Early Modern
Europe (pg. 31- 42)
Norton Online:
Will
in the World
(Greenblatt)
T/T/T—“The
Defense of Poesy.”
Tue. 10/16 Early Modern Europe
Response #10 –
Early Modern
Europe
Dr. Faustus
(Marlowe)
Thu. 10/18 Dr. Faustus (Marlowe)
Outline #9 –
Dr. Faustus
Norton Online:
Preface to Troilus
& Cressida
(Dryden) & Preface
To Shakespeare
(Johnson), T/T/T:
“An Essay of
Dramatic Poesy”
And “Shakespeare
Once Again.”
Tue. 10/23 Shakespeare
Response #11 –
Shakespeare
Hamlet
Thu. 10/25 Hamlet
Outline #10 –
Hamlet
The Empty Space:
Immediate Theatre
Foss 6
Date
Class Work
Work Due
Assigned
Tue. 10/30 Immediate Theatre
Response #12Immediate Theatre
Twelfth Night
EXAM #2
Thu. 11/1
Twelfth Night
Outline #11 –
Twelfth Night
EXAM #2
Tue. 11/6
Dramaturgy Casebook
Introduction Part II
EXAM #2
(due beginning
Of class)
Norton: Spanish
Theatre (pg 42-45)
T/T/T: “The Art
Of Writing Plays.”
Thu. 11/8
Spanish Golden Age
Response #13 –
Spanish Golden
Age
Fuenteovejuna
Tue. 11/13 Fuenteovejuna
Outline #12 –
Fuenteovejuna
T/T/T:
“Hamburg
Dramaturgy”
Thu. 11/15 Hamburg Dramaturgy
Response #14—
Hamburg
Dramaturgy
Casebook Part #1
Tue. 11/19 – Thu. 11/23 THANKSGIVING BREAK
Tue. 11/27 Casebook Discussion
Part 1
Norton: French
Theatre (pg. 45-48)
T/T/T: “The Whole
Art of the Stage”
& Tartuffe
Thu. 11/29 Tartuffe
Outline #13 –
Tartuffe
Phaedra
Tue. 12/4
Outline #14 –
Phaedra
EXAM #3
Phaedra
Thu. 12/6 Casebook Discussion
Tue. 12/13 – Thu. 12/15 FINALS WEEK
FINAL EXAM- EXAM #3 and Dramaturg’s Casebook due at beginning of class.
Foss 7
WRITING GUIDLINES
Outlines for Plays:
You are responsible for creating an outline for each play to be completed before class on
the assigned day according the schedule laid out in the syllabus. It is to be handwritten in
your composition book and serve as your notes for both that date’s discussion and study
materials for exams. You are responsible to answer a series of questions and create an
outline of the dramatic action for each play, formatted according the following example:
NAME OF PLAY
DATE DUE
PLAYWRIGHT—Including a biographical summary of the playwright in paragraph
form.
DATE/LOCATION OF WRITING
DATE/LOCATION OF FIRST & IMPORTANT PERFORMANCES
SETTING—Is it one locale? Multiple? Does it provide a specific location or a
generalized idea of place. In short, answer how the idea of place is handled in the play.
TIME—Identify and describe time is dramaturgically handled in the play. Is the plot
linear, chronological, tight, loose, episodic or is it something all together different.
PLOT—Using Aristotle’s definition of plot, describe the play as simple or complex and
identify the events of the play that support your choice.
CHARACTER—Using the terms and understanding gained from our reading, identify
and describe how people in the play are portrayed. Are they realistic/non-realistic?
Psychologically motivated? Archetypes or stock characters? Specific or generalized?
Lyrical or epic?
PROTAGONIST—Identify whom you believe to be the play’s protagonist.
SEED—Identify the central theme/idea/action that is present at the core of every event of
the play.
THROUGH ACTION—Create one sentence that relates the major action of the play that
includes the protagonist as the subject, the conflict and effort by the protagonist as the
predicate and references in some way the seed of the play.
OUTLINE OF THE PLAY EVENTS—Using a traditional, outline formula, outline the
major events, characters and actions of the play, with the major headings of the outline
signifying the major external events—to be explained and demonstrated in class.
Foss 8
The assignment should fit on three complete pages of your composition notebook and is
to be handed in at the end of class and will be available for pick up the next morning.
Please use a sticky note to serve as a bookmark to indicate on what page your assignment
begins for that day’s grading.
Responses to Readings:
You are responsible for creating a written response for each day’s assigned reading
according the schedule laid out in the syllabus. It is to be handwritten in your
composition book and serve as your notes for both that date’s discussion and study
materials for exams. On days when multiple texts, essays and history sections are
assigned, only one closing response is needed but please answer all questions for the
individual authors and essays. All responses should be formatted as follows:
ESSAY/READING TITLE(S)
DATE DUE
DATE/LOCATION OF WRITING—include a summary of the historical and artistic
context in which the essay was written.
AUTHOR—include a short bio of author, their major work, influences and
contributions.
THESIS STATEMENT—Write one summary sentence that clearly outlines the major
idea explored or expressed in the essay.
MAJOR QUESTION—Identify the biggest question you have from the reading.
MAJOR DISCOVERY—Create a one sentence statement on what connection, idea or
realization you gleaned from the reading.
WRITTEN RESPONSE AND REFLECTION:
Your response should be written in complete sentences and discuss, contextualize and
synthesize the readings into both questions, realizations and ideas that develop a point of
vie can support in that day’s class discussion. It should be three complete pages in
length.
Please use a sticky note to serve as a bookmark to indicate on what page your assignment
begins for that day’s grading.
Foss 9
Foss 10
PLEASE ATTACH TO INSIDE COVER OF YOUR NOTEBOOK
Theatre History I Fall 2011 Grade Record
8/23
8/28
8/28
8/30
8/30
9/4
9/6
9/6
9/11
9/13
9/13
9/18
9/20
9/25
9/27
10/2
10/2
10/4
10/9
10/11
10/16
10/18
10/23
10/25
10/30
11/1
11/8
11/13
11/15
11/29
12/4
Response #1—Deadly Theatre
Outline #1—Agamemnon
Response #2: Poetics: I-VI, Introduction and Greek Theatre
Outline #2—Oedipus the King
Response #3: Poetics: VII-XVI
Response #4: Poetics and Theory
Outline #3: Lysistrata
Response #5: Corneille’s Unities
Response #6: Holy Theatre
Outline #4: Bacchae
Response #7: Violence and the Sacred (Girard)
Response #8: Art of Poetry & Roman Theatre
Outline #5: Pseudolous
Response #7: Eastern Dramaturgy
Outline #6: The Little Clay Cart
Outline #7: Snow in Midsummer
Outline #8: Atsumori
Response #8: Medieval European Theatre
Response #9: Rough Theatre
Outline #8: Everyman
Response #10: Early Modern Europe
Outline # 9: Dr. Faustus
Response #11: Shakespeare
Outline #10: Hamlet
Response #12: Immediate Theatre
Outline #11: Twelfth Night.
Response #13: Spanish Golden Age
Outline #12: Fuenteovejuna
Response #14: Hamburg Dramatrugy
Outline #13: Tartuffe
Outline #14: Phaedra
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______