THTR 1020 - Introduction to Theatre

Credits: 3
Hours/Week: Lecture None Lab None
Course Description: This course introduces the student to the art and craft of theatre. An overview of many aspects of theatre including: design, acting, directing, backstage work, history and plays will be provided. Students also view certain theatrical works using cultural, social and political lenses. A study of the process by which the play moves from printed page to stage is included. This course serves students who are interested in pursuing performing arts, and those who would just like to know more about this unique field. Students may explore practical aspects of theatre by working backstage or in the theatre shops.
MnTC Goals
6 Humanities/Fine Arts, 8 Global Perspective

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. What goes into Theatre? What is the nature of “performing?”
   1. Community, Ritual, Professional/Amateur
2. Theatre Production Process
   1. Design- Stage Design, Costume Design, Lighting Design
   2. Performance- Acting, Directing
3. Theatre History
   1. Origins of Theatre
   2. Greece
   3. Rome
   4. Middle Ages
   5. Renaissance
      1. Origin and Movement Throughout Europe
      2. Shakespeare and Elizabethan England
   6. Realism
      1. American Realism
      2. American realistic play ( example: And the Soul Shall Dance)
         • Traditional Culture as Found in the Play
         • Evidence of Cultural Stresses on the Characters
         • Evidence of Racism in the Play
         • U.S. Race and Cultural Relations Contemporary to the Play
         • Playwright’s Use of Props to Represent Characters
   7. Anti Realism
      1. Dada
      2. Expressionism
      3. Absurdism
         • WWII and Absurdism, Minimalism and Metaphysics, Samuel Beckett, Beckett and the French Resistance
      4. Epic Theatre
         • The Challenge to Aristotle, WWII and Epic Theatre, Bertolt Brecht, Society Can Change
   8. Anti Realistic Play (example: Angels in America)
      1. AIDS and Politics in the U.S. in the 1990s
      2. Gay Culture in the U.S. in the 1990s
      3. Religious Values Present in the Play
   9. Post Modernism
      1. Robert Wilson, Politics and the Funding of Avant-Guard Art
4. Non Western Theatre Forms (At least three areas from this list)
   1. Japan, India, Africa, Peru, Bali, China, Mexico, Native North America
      1. Comparison of Non-Western Forms to Western Theatre Forms
      2. Comparison of Cultural Values Found in Non-Western and Western Forms
5. Dramatic Structure
   1. Play with a traditional dramatic structure (example: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone)
      1. Setting and Historical/Cultural Background (Slavery in the U.S., Jim Crow Laws, etc.)
      2. Protagonist as a Representative of the Cultural, Legal, and Economic Struggles of Black Americans
      3. Dramatic Structure
6. Student Scene Projects
   1. Playwrights of scenes performed
   2. Creating a Ground Plan, Use of Props, Creating Movement, Acting/Performing Basics, Use of Costuming, Rehearsal Etiquette and Expectations

1. analyze theatre to discover cultural, political, societal, and/or historical influences
2. use terminology and concepts relevant to a practical, cultural, dramatic, and historical discussion of theatre.
3. describe relationships between theatre, society, politics, and culture.
4. demonstrate comprehension of factual information in selected areas of theatre history.
5. describe with some detail, what constitutes theatre, as a unique, temporal art. apply theatre concepts to dramatic literature.

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)
08. 01. Describe and analyze political, economic, and cultural elements which influence relations of states and societies in their historical and contemporary dimensions.

08. 02. Demonstrate knowledge of cultural, social, religious and linguistic differences.

08. 04. Understand the role of a world citizen and the responsibility world citizens share for their common global future.

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