English 2390-2052                                                                              

INTRODUCTION TO DRAMA                                            

Spring 2005                                                                                        

Mondays 6-9 p.m.

Irby 313                                                                                                          

 

Dr. R.-J. Frontain

Office: Irby 407

Office Hours: M 3.30-6 p.m.

T 3-6 p.m.

W 12-2.15 p.m.

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION     

 

Drama is the most social of the arts, depending upon a community both for its enactment and its enjoyment.  For this reason, theater has been a primary means of a community’s defining itself, and a forum for the discussion of society’s most difficult or ambivalent values.  This course will compare and contrast the use of theater in various cultures and at various times to achieve an understanding of theater’s power and manifold uses.

 

TEXTBOOK

The Longman Anthology of Drama and Theater: A Global Perspective, ed. Michael L. Greenwald et al (Longman, 2001)

  

SCHEDULE OF READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS

 

M 17 Jan.  HOLIDAY

 

M 24 Jan.  Introduction to Course

 

Classroom performance: Amiri Baraka, Slave Ship (1379-87) or John Millington Synge, Riders to the Sea (966-73)

NOTE: Angels in America is being performed Jan. 14-29 at The Weekend Theater, 7th and Chester Streets (across from Vino’s) in Little Rock.  Phone (501) 374-3761 for tickets.

 

M 31 Jan.  Tony Kushner, Angels in America: Millennium Approaches (1689-1724)

 

M 7 Feb.    Pedro Calderon de la Barca, Life’s a Dream (588-616)

 

M 14 Feb.  Wole Soyinka, Death and the King’s Horseman (1301-33)

 

M 21 Feb.   EXAMINATION #1

Film: Shakuntala

 

M 28 Feb.  Kalidasa, The Recognition of Sakuntala (256-306)

 

M 7 Mar.    Rabindranath Tagore, The Post Office (307-20)

SPRING RECESS

 

M 21 Mar.  Ma Chih-Yuan, Autumn in the Palace of the Han and Anonymous, The Qing Ding Pearl (324-56)

Film: Farewell, My Concubine

 

M 28 Mar.  Zeami, Komachi at Sekidera; Namiki Gohei III, Kanjincho; and Kobo Abe, The Man Who Turned into a Stick (360-405)

Film: “Performing Arts in Japan”

 

M 4 Mar.  EXAMINATION #2

 

M 11 Apr.  Derek Walcott, Ti-Jean and His Brothers (1422-51)

 

M 18 Apr.  Caryl Churchill, Top Girls (1600-30)

 

M 25 Apr.   Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, The Divine Narcissus (617-30) and Anna Deavere Smith, Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (1725-57)

 

M 2 May (6-8 p.m.)  FINAL COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION

 

  

OBSERVATIONS

 

1.  Classes which meet only once a week present particular problems and opportunities.  Thus, when a class meets but once a week, a single absence of tardy can have exaggerated consequences.  Students should be careful to schedule work obligations and domestic commitments accordingly.   Class will begin promptly at 6 p.m. every week, so students should be seated and ready to begin at that time.  No one may leave class early.  Students are permitted one absence for the semester and must be present the entire 180 minutes each week in order not to be counted absent.

 

2.  Each class period will start with a 5-7 minute reading quiz on the assignment for that week.  Students who arrive late will not be able to take the quiz.

 

3.   The final grade will be computed as follows:  Exam #1 (20%), Exam #2 (25%), Final Comprehensive Examination (30%), and Quiz Average (24%).  Any penalty for excessive absence or tardiness will be leveraged against the final grace average.