Studies in Drama (312-0-20)
Topic
Staging America
Instructors
Nicholas K Davis
847/491-3433
1897 Sheridan, Uh 215, Evanston, IL 60208
Meeting Info
Locy Hall 106: Tues, Thurs 9:30AM - 10:50AM
Overview of class
This class examines U.S. playwriting as not only an august and expansive tradition but also, for the last 100 years, a crucial medium by which production teams, public audiences, and private readers have co-participated in critical self-reflection on what "America" means to them/us. After a three-week unit devoted to plays and writers that hugely influenced the trajectory of U.S. drama (O'Neill, Bonner, Odets, Miller, Hansberry, Baraka, Kennedy), the bulk of the course privileges artists and texts that sustained but also stretched that legacy from the 1980s onward. These writers (Wilson, Kushner, Parks, Hwang, Baker, et al.) often take America as their explicit subject, in emblematic microcosm or as grand-scale macrocosm, in ways this course will unpack with curiosity and nuance. At the same time, we will sharpen our attention to the structures, semantics, styles, and stagecraft that make these plays such compelling objects of literary analysis as well as cultural-historical contemplation.
Teaching Method
Seminar-based discussion.
Evaluation Method
Writing exercises (papers, practice exercises, annotations, etc.), possible group activities or presentations.
Class Materials (Required)
The America Play and Other Works, Suzan-Lori Parks (9781559360920);
Angels in America (Pt. 1 & Pt. 2), Tony Kushner (9781559363846);
The Crucible, Arthur Miller (9780142437339);
Father Comes Home from the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3, Suzan-Lori Parks (9781559365000);
Good People, David Lindsay-Abaire (9781559363938);
John, Annie Baker (9781559365291);
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, August Wilson (9780452261136);
A Raisin in the Sun & The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window, Lorraine Hansberry (9780679755319);
The Red Letter Plays, Suzan-Lori Parks (9781559361958);
Waiting for Lefty, Clifford Odets (9780802132208);
What the Constitution Means to Me, Heidi Schreck (9781559369640);
Yellow Face, David Henry Hwang (9781559363402)
Texts will be available at: All can be ordered at local Evanston bookshops, such as Bookends & Beginnings (on Orrington) or Booked (on Main); at The Understudy, a theater-specific bookstore and coffee shop in Andersonville; or online at Bookshop.org, which exclusively works with independent booksellers. Please support these small businesses if you can.
Class Attributes
Advanced Expression
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area