Onstage Games: Danger and Revelation

Course Description

Summary

Three-Card Monte. Blind Man's Bluff. Poker. Charades. Chicken. What do onstage games reveal about our characters? Are onstage games always dangerous? How can the play itself become a game played with the audience? In this course, we will read plays in which characters play games onstage (The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter, Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks, The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek by Naomi Wallace, the Rude Mechs' devised play The Method Gun) as well as plays that function like games in their intention to surprise us structurally, establish and then break rules, and unsettle the fourth wall (Caught by Christopher Chen, An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and others). We will consider theory of games, and we will play games in class--looking for moments when we are taken outside ourselves, when we are vulnerable, when we have fun, when we are revealed. Assignments will include short creative assignments, a research presentation about a game of your choice, and a one-act play that features a game or functions as a game. This course is intended for students with some playwriting experience.