Fall 2002 HONR Course Descriptions - HONR 209R

HONR 209R Political Theatre: Changing Minds, Challenging Society
Monday/Wednesday, 2:00-3:15 p.m.
Dr. Carol Burbank and Ben Fisler, Department of Theater

When Bertoldt Brecht said, "Art is not a mirror to reflect society; it is a hammer to shape it," he expressed one of the great puzzles artists face every day. Theatre, the most collaborative of all the arts, magnifies this puzzle in fascinating ways. When we make theatre, we balance so many goals, processes, and people. Add politics into the mix, and you have the recipe for a stimulating seminar about the role of theatre and social change in the United States.

We'll be dealing with a lot of important questions this semester. Most of them relate to different ways of exploring whether theatre can change the world. We'll read plays and essays, study the ways theatre has fit into pivotal moments in history, and explore performance and playwriting in exercises and improvisations. Can political theatre change minds and challenge society, or does the world change first to create audiences and stories for political theatre? What is the relationship between entertainment and political ideology? What do we want our audiences to go home with? Is propaganda bad art? Does changing the form of theatre change its impact? Does telling a different story create new possibilities in society?

In the process of exploring these questions, we'll read several plays that look at political applications of African American theatre, Latino theatre, and Native American theatre, but we'll take a particularly close look at the play, THE LARAMIE PROJECT. This documentary play, which will be the centerpiece of the Theatre Department's season in the fall, tells the story of the town and people of Laramie, Wyoming. In October 1998, Matthew Shepard, a young gay man, was found savagely beaten, tied to a fence and left to die. His death spurred a painful self-examination for the people in this small town, who found themselves suddenly in the national spotlight as they grappled with their values and identity. We will use one unit to discuss, research, and explore this play, which is also the Terrapin Reading Society's selection for 2002-2003.

Students in this seminar can choose a variety of final projects, from research to playwriting and performance. Students will learn about political theatre by reading plays, seeing videos and live performances, discussing important issues in small groups and the class as a whole, researching topics of interest to them, writing their own plays, and performing in classroom improvisations. Everyone has to try everything at least once, but we've designed the course so that students can build on their own strengths and interests. You don't have to be an actor or a playwright to enjoy this class; we welcome everyone--historians, sociologists, scientists, journalists, psychologists, philosophers, skeptics, radicals and conservatives!

Required texts:
Moisés Kaufman, The Laramie Project
Tony Kushner, Angels in America
Amiri Baraka, Subway
Jan Cohen-Cruz, ed., Radical Street Performance

CORE:History or Theory of the Arts [HA] AND Diversity [D]