Text Box: Literary Types: Drama Christopher Alexander TTh 2:00 - 3:20 Reg. No. 269025 Text Box: 259 Text Box: We will read eleven plays this semester, ranging from Greek tragedy to contemporary American drama, and touching on the way the English Renaissance and Modern theater from around the world. In order to construct a framework in which to discuss these materials, we will focus in this class on the history of drama, the play as a genre involving conventions of plot, characterization, staging, and dialogue (or not!), and special problems with regard to the study of drama, most notably the related questions of staging and adaptation. Are plays best approached as texts or events? Is the script a final product suitable for literary study without reference to production? How does the collaborative nature of staged drama complicate or contribute to the study of the play as a literary form? How does the construction of drama change over time with regard to changing notions of self and society? What is drama, and what relations has it occupied to the cultures that give rise to it? Since plays, as popular entertainment, are in some sense, the movies of yesteryear--and as they become the movies of today--we will take the opportunity to examine scenes from contemporary film adaptations in order to discuss the choices made by the film-makers and the problems associated with adapting drama to the screen. At least once during the semester, if logistically possible, we will hold our class meeting in the theater at the Center for Fine Arts on UB’s North Campus. Finally, I will attempt to arrange for a working director to visit the class once or twice during the semester and for an online chat session to discuss at least one of our plays with its author. A tentative reading list includes: Aeschylus, Agamemnon; William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Othello; Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House, Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest; Samuel Beckett, Endgame; Amiri Baraka, Dutchman; David Mamet, Glengarry Glen Ross; Marsha Norman, ‘Night Mother; Susan Lori-Parks, The America Play; Kevin Killian, The Vegetable Kingdom; and Carla Harryman, Memory Play. Course requirements: Regular attendance and participation in class discussions and group work--including informal dramatic readings--are basic requirements and will be weighed in determining course grades. In addition, students will be asked to produce weekly response papers treating specific aspects of the plays under consideration; there will be a mid-term examination, and a 5-8 page argumentative essay will be due at the end of the term. Students will be required to attend at least one off-campus performance during the term.