THTR T775 Sec. 8693 Wainscott

Seminar in Theatre History: Teaching Theatre History

11:00a-12:15p TR 3 cr hrs

This seminar will focus on the teaching of theatre history, one of the primary tasks of most theatre historians and recipients of the Ph.D. at Indiana. We will explore a number of philosophical and practical problems associated with this process:

1) Why do we teach theatre history to undergraduates?

2) What are the needs of undergraduates vis a vis theatre history (majors, minors and students of other disciplines)?

3) What are the responsibilities of the instructor in such courses?

4) What are appropriate and dynamic methods for historical teaching?

5) What are the best ways to use visual, audio and computerized material? 6) Should dramatic literature be taught with theatre history?

7) What is the relationship of personal research and teaching theatre history?

8) How much theory should be incorporated in undergraduate teaching?

9) How should such a course be organized?

10) How do you play to your strengths?

We will also survey all the in-print theatre history texts to explore the strengths and weaknesses of each. What kind of theatre history text do we need?

Each seminarian will have two major projects:

1) Examining a theatre history textbook (either in or out of print) and reporting to the class.

2) Creating a project examining an important issue or problem related to teaching theatre history.

Each student will also create a bibliography related to the subject of the seminar.