SYLLABUS

Thurs. Sept. 10:  Opening Class

Why do humans (and others) "perform"? Why "act"? Why "play"? What are theaters for? Why and how do we limit the terrain of the "theatrical" in distinction to something that might be termed "reality"? Can something be real and theatrical at once? Or fake and real at once? What are the limits of theatre? The history of the screen is theatre history, as is the history of the computer. What of ancient performance remains in these formations? Are there "universals" of performance? That is, do similar performance behaviors happen all over the world in many different cultures and contexts? What differs? Also, how does live performance transmit itself? What remains of performance after a "show" is over? What can we know of prehistoric practices, for example? And, is theater itself a time machine? The English word “theory” comes from the Greek “theoria,” meaning contemplation, speculation, or sight. It is related to the word “theatron,” or place for viewing. Theater and theory are kin. They are both places to theorize; to visualize; both places to try out an otherwise; to hypothesize: what if the world were this way?
_________________________________
Section 1: What is performance?
_____________________  
Tues. Sept 15: What is performance? Prehistory and Now

Read: "Theatre's Next Act?" in the New York Times, July 8, 2020.
Watch: The Werner Herzog film Cave of Forgotten Dreams linked through Canvas
Read: A section of Richard Schechner, "Toward a Poetics of Performance" in Performance Theory. (note, the underlines are from whoever marked up the library book)
Read: a very short piece by Brown's former Provost, "The Superbowl's Strange Tribe." Recommended: selections from Performance Studies: An Introduction, pages 28-51
total read = 34 pages and one film.
reading response prompts are here.
_________________________________  
Thursday. Sept. 17: What is Ritual? 
Read: selections from Performance Studies: An Introduction, pages  52-86.
Read: Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: "Skywoman Falling" pg 3-10; "An Offering" 33-38; "Burning Cascade Head" 241-253.

Watch this video on social rituals of everyday life.  total read = 58 pages.  
reading response prompts are here.
_______________________________ 

Tues. Sept 22:   Masking 1:  Possession vs. Representation
Read: Jean Clottes and David Lewis-Williams, The Shamans of Prehistory,11-29.  
Read: Chief Robert Joseph, "Behind the Mask," Down from the Shimmering Sky, 18-35.
Read: Cara McCarty, "Offense/Defense" in Masks: Faces of Culture, 275-298.
 total read = 58 pages   
_________________________________

Thurs. Sept 24: Masking 2: Showing Ourselves to Ourselves as Others

Read: Clifford Geertz, "The Cockfight" in The Interpretation of Cultures, 412-453 (cuts have been made, so there are about 20 pages overall).    
Compare and contrast with D. Soyini Madison 's introduction to Arts of Activism, 1-33.
total read= 51 pages. 
________________________________
Tues. Sept. 29:  Masking 3: Theatrical Masking and the Marketplace

Read: Karl Marx, very brief selection from Capital

total read = 23 pages
GROUP ONE  to share documentation of project/scene
______________________________
  Thurs. Oct 1: Performance and Cultural Mimicry 
 Read: Wole Soyinka, Death and the King's Horseman 
 total read = 1 play

________________________________  
 Section 2: Roots of Performance --  Egypt and Greece
________________________________
Tues. Oct. 6-- Ancient Egypt
Read:  The Triumph of Horus    
Read: Ronald J. Leprohon, "Ritual Drama in Ancient Egypt," 259-284.
Read: Jan Assmann, Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt, 349-368
total read = 48 pages   
GROUP TWO to share documentation of project/scene
________________________________ 
Thurs. Oct. 8   The Theatre of Dionysus
Read: Euripides, The Bakkhai
Read: David Wiles, Greek Theater Performance, chapters 1 and 2.

total read = 1 play and 42 pages [heavy reading day, be sure to make time]

GROUP THREE to share documentation of scene between Pentheus and Dionysus
 ________________________________

Tues. Oct. 13: Greek Comedy   Read: Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae 
Read: Wiles, chapters 3 and 4

total read = 1 play and 40 pages [heavy reading day, be sure to make time]

GROUP FOUR  to share documentation of project/scene
  ________________________________
 
Thurs Oct. 15:  Plato and Aristotle on Mimesis 

Read: A, Plato, The Republic: Book 7 (220-251)

Read: B. Plato, The Republic: Book 10 (313-345)
Read C: Aristotle,  The Poetics of Aristotle, 31-68

Super highly recommended: Wiles, chapter 5

Assignment: You will be assigned to closely one of the three (A, B, or C). You should  come to class and be able to illuminate your philosopher's points for the rest of the class. Please also read another of your choice, so that you read your assigned A, then chose from B and C; or assigned C, chose from A or B. You get it!  You can also substitute and read Wiles chapter 5 for your second if you prefer.

total read = some combo of  38,  31, 32

1000- to 1500-word paper due, developed from one of your reading responses or a topic of your choice pertaining to either section 1 or section 2 or a combination.

  ________________________

Section 3:  Roots of Performance  -- Asian and African Performance Traditions
  ________________________
Tues Oct. 20:  Theatre Anthropology and a small taste of Japanese Noh Read: Eugenio Barba, Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology
Read: A very short play from the canon of Japanese Noh Theatre: Dojoji

read = There are so many pictures! 

__________________________  
Thurs. Oct 22:   India: The Performative Bases of Ancient Indian Theatre and Dance    
Read: Bharat-Muni, selections from the Natyasatra, 23-66    
Read: John Emigh, Summary Notes on Bhava and Rasa    
Read: Sreenath Nair, selection from "Introduction" to The Natyashastra and the Body in the Natyasastra" 14-30.
total read = 61 pages
 ________________________  
Tues. Oct 27 India: Kalidasa's Sakuntala    
Read: Kalidasa, Sakuntala in Theater of Memory, Act 1 (whole play recommended)
Read: Barbara Stoler Miller, Theater of Memory, chapter "Kalidasa's World and His Plays"
Assignment: make a gestural sequence you can perform on zoom.
total read: 1 act and 38 pages
  ________________________  
Thurs. Oct. 29  Africa: A Variety of Ritual/Drama/Dance/Orature Traditions 
 Read: Ousmane Diakhaté and Hansel Ndumbe Eyoh, "The Roots of African Theatre Ritual and Orality in the Pre-colonial Period" 
 
Read: M.T. Drewal, Yoruba Ritual pages 1-28.
Recommended:  Doris Green, "Traditional Dance in Africa," 13-26.
total read = 41 pages
  ________________________________
Tues. Nov. 3:  Africa: The Power of Community, the Politics of Performance Space    
Read: Malidoma Patrice Some, Ritual: Power, Healing, Community, 69-91. 
Read: N'gugi wa Thiongo, "Enactments of Power: The Politics of Performance Space," 11-30.    
Read:  David Kerr, African Popular Theatre, 41-58.

total read = 57 GROUPS FIVE and SIX  to share documentation of projects/scenes 

_______________________________    
Section 6: Medieval Europe and the Americas
___________________________    
Thurs,  Nov. 5:  Multiple Medeas 
Read: Euripides Medea Read: Seneca Medea     
GROUP SEVEN  to share documentation of project/scene
total read = 2 plays
 ___________________________

Tues. Nov. 10:  Theatre in the Roman Empire 
Read: Plautus, The Captives
Highly recommended -- read: A. M. Nagler, Sourcebook in Theatrical History, 17-36
total read = 1 play and 19 pages

________________________________

Thurs. Nov 12:  The Holy Roman Empire and attitudes toward theatre
Do early church fathers encourage theatre? Why/Why not?
Read: Saint Augustine's "City of God," 94-99.  (What is  St. Augustine attitude toward theatre?)
Read: and Tertullian's "On the Spectacles,"  85-94.  (What is Tertullian's attitude?)
Early church theatre:
Read: The nun Hrosvit's play Dulcitius, 45-53.
Medieval theatre outside of the church:
Read: John Spaulding Gatton, "There Must Be Blood," 79-89.
Highly Recommended Read: Andrew Sofer, The Stage Life of Props
total read = 37 pages
________________________________
Tues. Nov. 17: Medieval Corpus Christi and the Inka    
Read: Carolyn Dean, Inka Bodies and the Body of Christ, 7-62.
total read = 55 pages.
_______________________________    
Thurs. Nov. 19  Native American Performance and the Power of Vision 
Read: Black Elk and John Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks, 177-212
Leanne Simpson, Dancing on our Turtle's Back, chapter 2 and chapter 5
Recommended: Jacqueline Shae Murphy, The People Have Always Been Dancing

total read =  59 pages
________________________________
Tues. Nov. 24: "Old World" Colonials and the "Baseless Fabric" of Vision
Read Shakespeare, The Tempest 


________________________________________________  

Choice of Final exam, Final Paper, or Final Project



Exam: -- 3 short essay questions from across the semester selected by the professor, chosed from a study guide, and deliverable in 24  hours,

Paper: a final 10-page paper on a topic of your choice (can be developed from one of your prior two papers) . Consider writing about a part of the world we did not study, such as ancient or medieval China, or go intto greater depth on percolonial indigenous performance forms.

Project -- Documentation of a scene inspired by one of the traditional (ancient or medieval or precolonial) forms we studied, accompanied by an annotated bibliography of at least three additional texts used in research toward the project's completion.