Imagining America

Course Description

Summary

Our country is changing rapidly—can a play help us make sense of where we are (gulp), and where we’re headed? In this course, we will read ambitious, formally inventive plays written within the last fifty years that attempt to capture some fundamental truth about the United States: its violence and despair as well its beauty and possibility. Readings will likely include Tony Kushner’s Angels in America (Parts 1 and 2), Heidi Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Purpose, Jordan E. Cooper’s Ain’t No Mo’, José Rivera’s Marisol, David Henry Hwang’s FOB, Will Arbery’s Heroes of the Fourth Turning, Quiara Alegría Hudes’ Elliot Trilogy, and others, as well as some possible short digressions into film and fiction. We will also read material that provides historical context for this art. Our goal will be to investigate varied artistic responses to political and social change in recent United States history, to question whether a play can be “useful” in any meaningful way, and to answer for ourselves what a play written in this moment might have to say about this country. Assignments will include frequent short critical responses and a final essay. 

(Note: this is a play-reading class, not a playwriting class. Students from all academic backgrounds are welcome and no prior theatrical knowledge is assumed.)