9:30a-10:45a TR (60) 3 cr.

The readings for this course span the history of American theatre from the Civil War to the present. Early in the term, careful attention will be paid to the development and evolution of dramatic forms: melodrama, realism, expressionism, agit-prop theatre, absurdism, and so on. Toward the end of the term, we will more fully engage the role of drama in American social and political action: the Black Arts movement of the 1960s, the work of El Teatro Campesino, and performance art. Playwrights considered include Dion Boucicault, James A. Herne, Augustin Daly, Susan Glaspell, Eugene O'Neill, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Lillian Hellmann, Amiri Baraka, Luis Valdez, Marsha Norman, Sam Shepard, Cherie Moraga, David Mamet, and Karen Finley. We will also consider Lanford Wilson's play Burn This, which will be staged at IU Theatre's T300 during the semester.

Assignments include a series of short papers, a longer research-type paper (8-12 pages), and a comprehensive final examination.

TEXTS:
Stephen Watt and Gary A. Richardson, American Drama: Colonial to Contemporary.
Lanford Wilson, Burn This.