Spring, 2002	Ms. Geis
English 282	Rice 9(440) 775-8579
-01: MWF 11:00-11:50    King 327 -02: MWF 1:30-2:20    King 221	Office Hours: Monday & Wednesday, 2:30-3:45

This course is designed to acquaint students with major playwrights from the ancient Greeks to the present, and with the forms and techniques of dramatic art.  We will read and enact dramatic texts, see plays in production, and develop critical skills in writing and discussing theater.

TEXTS: Please note that the following list is subject to changes and additions.

ATTENDANCE:  Because our time together is extremely limited and because each class session will cover a great deal of material, it is absolutely essential that you attend class regularly, arrive on time with the required material for each session, and participate in class discussions and activities.  A significant percentage of your final grade (see GRADES) will be based on your attendance and participation.  If you miss more than three class meetings (not including any class for which you have a documented medical excuse), it will lower your grade.  If you know that you have conflicts that will prevent you from attending class regularly and arriving promptly, please do not enroll for this course.

LATE PAPER POLICY:   I expect you to hand in all work, prepared according to the format specified for each assignment, on the required due dates.  If you have a good reason for submitting an assignment later than the deadline, please notify me in advance so that we can negotiate a new deadline.  Any late work will be penalized by one letter grade for each weekday past the due date (e.g., a "B-" paper submitted two weekdays late becomes a "C" and so forth).

CONFERENCES:  For help with your work, or if you have questions about anything else, please feel free to meet with me during my office hours.  If my office hours don't fit your schedule, you may also make an appointment with me at a different time.  You are also welcome to contact me by email at any time.  When you make an appointment and are unable to keep it, please notify me in advance.

PLAGIARISM:  Students in this course are expected to follow Oberlin's honor code.  Plagiarism occurs when you use someone else's words or ideas without acknowledging the person and/or source appropriately.  This includes the work of another student as well as any other type of source, including electronic (e.g., internet) sources.  For more information on proper acknowledgment of sources and on the definitions of plagiarism, you can consult a recent edition of any college writing handbook.  If you have any questions about whether your use of material constitutes plagiarism, please don't hesitate to ask me.  If you submit work that appears to be in violation of Oberlin's honor code, it will be submitted to the student honor code committee.  Believe me, plagiarism is simply not worth the risk!

GRADES: Note that you must complete all work to pass the course.

Frankly, I would prefer not to assign you letter grades at all, but I don't have that option.  Please keep in mind that a grade is my evaluation of a specific piece of work, not of "you" or of your background.  Try not to become so anxious about your grade that you lose track of the more important educational aims of the course.

A FINAL WORD:  Contemporary drama often contains explicit or disturbing subject matter.  These playwrights may shock, frustrate, anger, or delight you; do not take the course if you prefer to avoid controversial subjects or "strong" language.  Here's to an exciting and productive semester!

 

Always read ahead on your syllabus and bring the relevant texts to class.  The following is subject to changes and additions as necessary.  Plays listed below are in The Bedford Introduction to Drama, 4^th ed., unless otherwise indicated.  For each of the works that we read in this text, please also read the introductory material about the playwright.

Course Units:

I.	Poetic Drama (2/6 to 2/27)
II.	Political Drama (3/1 to 3/18)
III.	Rise of Modern Drama, late 19th/early 20th century (3/20 to 4/8)
IV.	Postmodern Drama (4/10-4/22)
V.	Race, Sexuality, Postcolonialism (4/24-5/10)

           

Unit I:  Poetic Drama

M 2/4	introduction to the course
W 2/6	introduction to the course, continued; “Introduction: Thinking about Drama,” Jacobus 1-5 and “Drama in the Early and Mid-Twentieth Century,” Jacobus  888-898
F 2/8	William Butler Yeats, Purgatory (handout)
M 2/11	Federico Garcia Lorca, Blood Wedding, in Three Plays; also read the Introduction, ix-xxv in Three Plays and “Federico Garcia Lorca,” Jacobus  1018-1019
W 2/13	Lorca, Blood Wedding
F 2/15	required attendance this weekend at OC production of Blood Wedding
M 2/18	discussion of production of Blood Wedding
W 2/20	Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie
F 2/22	Williams, The Glass Menagerie
M 2/25	Samuel Beckett, short plays (handout)
W 2/27	Beckett, short plays (handout); PAPER #1 DUE [Other works in our text you may wish to read for this unit:  Lady Gregory, The Rising of the Moon; Federico Garcia Lorca, The House of Bernarda Alba; Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman; Samuel Beckett, Endgame]

Unit II:  Political Drama

F 3/1	Aristophanes, Lysistrata; also read “Greek Drama,” Jacobus  29-38
M 3/4	Aristophanes, Lysistrata
W 3/6	Bertolt Brecht, Mother Courage; also read “Commentaries on Brecht,” Jacobus 1088-1095
F 3/8	Brecht, Mother Courage
M 3/11	Tony Kushner, Angels in America Pt. I:  Millennium Approaches
W 3/13	Kushner, Millennium Approaches
F 3/15	Tony Kushner, Angels in America Pt II:  Perestroika
M 3/18	Kushner, Perestroika [Other works in our text you may wish to read for this unit:  Sophocles, Antigone; Luis Valdez, Zoot Suit]

Unit III:  Rise of Modern Drama, late 19^th/early 20^th century

W 3/20	August Strindberg, Miss Julie; also read “Nineteenth-Century Drama through the Turn of the Century,” Jacobus 643-653 and the excerpt from Strindberg’s preface, Jacobus 762-763
F 3/22	Strindberg, Miss Julie (no class 3/25, 3/27, 3/29:  spring break)
M 4/1	Henrik Ibsen, Hedda Gabler; also read Ibsen’s “Notes for Hedda Gabler,” Jacobus 731-734
W 4/3	Ibsen, Hedda Gabler; PAPER #2 DUE
F 4/5	Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard
M 4/8	Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard [Other works in our text you may wish to read for this unit:  Henrik Ibsen, A Doll House; Bernard Shaw, Mrs. Warren’s Profession; John M. Synge, The Playboy of the Western World; Susan Glaspell, Trifles; Luigi Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author]

Unit IV:  Postmodern Drama

W 4/10	Paula Vogel, How I Learned to Drive
F 4/12	Vogel, How I Learned to Drive; required attendance this weekend at OC production of How I Learned to Drive
M 4/15	discussion of production of How I Learned to Drive
W 4/17	Harold Pinter, Betrayal
F 4/19	Pinter, Betrayal
M 4/22	Sam Shepard, True West (required attendance at OC staged reading of Kushner’s Perestroika, 4/25 or 4/26) [Other works in our text you may wish to read for this unit:  David Mamet, Oleanna; Yasmina Reza, “Art”; Martin McDonagh, The Beauty Queen of Leenane]

Unit V:  Race, Sexuality, Postcolonialism

W 4/24	William Shakespeare, Othello; also read “Elizabethan Drama,” Jacobus 240-247
F 4/26	Shakespeare, Othello
M 4/29	Shakespeare, Othello; discuss staged reading of Perestroika
W 5/1	Shakespeare, Othello
F 5/3	Suzan-Lori Parks, The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World; also read “Commentaries on Parks,” Jacobus 1632-1638;  PAPER #3 DUE
M 5/6	Parks, Last Black ManW 5/8  David Henry Hwang, M Butterfly
F 5/10	Hwang, M Butterfly [Other works in our text you may wish to read for this unit:  Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun; Caryl Churchill, Cloud Nine; Athol Fugard, “Master Harold”…and the Boys]
	(take-home final exam during exam week)