THTR 1081 - World of Drama

Credits: 3
Hours/Week: Lecture 3 Lab None
Course Description: Play texts open up exciting, fictional worlds for the reader, and contain clues to the actual historical and cultural worlds from which they emerged. In this course, a variety of important plays will be read, studied, discussed, written about, and read aloud. The structure and language of plays will be carefully explored. Historical, cultural, and political contexts of plays will be examined and evaluated. Through reading plays, participating in discussions, listening to lectures, engaging in research, and thinking and responding creatively, students can begin to unlock the world of dramatic art.
MnTC Goals
6 Humanities/Fine Arts, 7 Human Diversity

Prerequisite(s): Course placement into college-level English and Reading OR completion of ENGL 0950  with a grade of C or higher OR completion of RDNG 0940  with a grade of C or higher and qualifying English Placement Exam OR completion of RDNG 0950  with a grade of C or higher and ENGL 0090  with a grade of C or higher OR completion of ESOL 0051  with a grade of C or higher and ESOL 0052  with a grade of C or higher.
Corequisite(s): None
Recommendation: None

Major Content

1. For each play, one or more of the following will be explored:
   1. Historical context of a play.
   2. Cultural context of a play.
   3. Political and societal context of a play.
2. For each play, the following topics will be explored/discussed/covered:
   1. Structure/plot of the play.
   2. Use of imagery, metaphor, and theme in the play.
   3. Discovering the authors point of view.
   4. Discovering the students point of view.
3. Overview of the World of Drama
   1. Historical periods
   2. Genres
   3. Cultural contexts
   4. Political contexts
   5. Structures and types of drama
   6. Oral and written traditions
4. Play texts will be drawn from at least eight of the categories listed below. Some texts can relate to two or more categories. Zoot Suit, for example, by Luis Valdez, is both Brechtian and by a Hispanic- American author.
   1. Greek/Roman
   2. Middle Ages
   3. Renaissance (Europe)
   4. Early Realism (Europe)
   5. American Realism
   6. African and/or African American
   7. Asian and/or Asian American
   8. Native North or South American
   9. Hispanic/Latin American
   10. Existentialism
   11. Epic/Brechtian
   12. Absurdism
   13. Postmodernism
5. Point of view/perspective
   1. Discovering the playwrights perspective
   2. Formulating your own point of view on a play
   3. Articulating one or more perspectives
   4. Comparing and contrasting points of view
6. Tools for exploring play texts
   1. Structure/plot components
   2. Literary analysis
   3. Character exploration
   4. Brief look at theoretical lenses (Marxist, Feminist, Psychoanalytic, etc.)

1. analyze a play text for plot structure and character development.
2. employ vocabulary and concepts germane to a deeper understanding of dramatic texts.
3. identify specific uses of imagery, metaphor, and theme by a playwright.
4. describe the values and constructs of the world created within the play text.
5. discuss the influence of history, culture, and politics on playwrights.
6. identify ways in which history, culture, and politics have shaped plays.
7. articulate their responses to plays, and their objective and subjective reasons for them.
8. formulate ideas about how aspects within the play text reflect contemporary society.
9. list the positives and negatives of specific dramatic choices the playwright makes.

06. 02. Understand those works as expressions of individual and human values within an historical and social context.

06. 03. Respond critically to works in the arts and humanities.

06. 04. Engage in the creative process or interpretive performance.
Competency 2 (7-10)
07. 01. Understand the development of and the changing meanings of group identities in the United States’ history and culture.

07. 02. Demonstrate an awareness of the individual and institutional dynamics of unequal power relations between groups in contemporary society.

07. 04. Describe and discuss the experience and contributions (political, social, economic, etc.) of the many groups that shape American society and culture, in particular those groups that have suffered discrimination and exclusion.

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