L203 16276 INTRODUCTION TO DRAMA
Stephen Watt

9:30a-10:45a TR (25 students) 3 cr. A&H.

This course provides an overview of the development of Western drama from the Greek Classical Theatre to the contemporary stage. Playwrights to be discussed include Sophocles, Shakespeare, Moliere, Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekhov, Susan Glaspell, Arthur Miller, Amiri Baraka, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Cherrie Moraga, and D. H. Hwang, among others. Throughout the course the principal emphases will be dramatic form and writing about literature. For this reason, we will use a text that provides not only an overview of Western drama, but also chapters of instruction on writing about drama and on performance. That text will be the paperback edition of Understanding Literature, by Walter Kalaidjian, Judith Roof, and Stephen Watt. Assignments will include several short essays, a longer essay, and mid-term and final examinations. Interested students are certainly welcome to stop by Ballantine 402 and discuss their interests with the instructor.