Plays About Plays

Course Description

Summary

In this advanced class, we will read and write plays about plays (or in which a play or performance is essential to the plot). Readings will likely include Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Seagull, Jackie Sibblies Drury's We Are Proud to Present, Anne Washburn's 10 out of 12 and Mr. Burns, Alice Childress' Trouble in Mind, David Henry Hwang's Yellow Face, Athol Fugard’s The Island, and others. We will watch films about plays including Drive my Car, Synecdoche, New York and the documentariess OT: Our Town, The Act of Killing, and Spettacolo.  

We will look for answers about the value and uses of theatre, while investigating questions raised about truth and illusion, costumes and disguise, identity and performance. Class assignments will include short creative exercises and analytical responses, as well as a final one-act play that includes a play.