English 349

Contemporary Drama

Ms. Tufts	Spring 1999
	Tu 7:00-9:30 p.m.

Office: Rice 105

Phone: 8572

Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday 11:00-Noon,

Tuesday 2:00-3:00, and by appointment

READING ASSIGNMENTS:

I. Considering Cosmopolitanism

Wole Soyinka, Death and the King's Horseman (1975), February 16

David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly (1988), February 23

Terrence McNally, A Perfect Ganesh (1993), March 2

 

II. Restaging Old Stories

Wendy Kesselman, My Sister in This House (1980), March 9

Pam Gems, Camille (1984), March 16

Brian Friel, Dancing at Lughnasa (1990), March 30

Suzan-Lori Parks, Venus (1996), April 6

 

III. Personal / Political

Maria Irene Fornes, The Conduct of Life (1985), April 13

David Hare, The Secret Rapture (1988), April 20

Harold Pinter, Party Time & The New World Order (1991), and David Mamet, Oleanna, April 27

Naomi Wallace, One Flea Spare (1995), May 4

Adam P. Kennedy and Adrienne Kennedy, Sleep Deprivation Chamber (1996), May 11

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS:

Two papers.

First paper (4-6 pages), due March 30.

Final paper (10-12 pages), due May 18.

PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENT: Each student is responsible for a performance in class of a scene from one of the plays we are reading this semester.

NOTE WELL:

BECAUSE CLASS PARTICIPATION IS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THIS COURSE, MORE THAN THREE UNEXCUSED ABSENCES WILL RESULT IN A LOWERING OF YOUR FINAL GRADE. YOU STAND WARNED.

 

IN ADDITION:

PLEASE USE THE BATHROOM BEFORE COMING TO CLASS. WALKING IN AND OUT OF THE ROOM WHEN SOMEONE IS SPEAKING IS BOTH RUDE AND DISTRACTING.

In this time of political correctness, you have to go against the grain. If audiences don't embrace both sides of the issue, there can be no political dialogue. Political correctness is an oxymoron: In my sense of political you can never by politically correct. To be political means to open up a dialogue, not to be 'correct.'

Paula Vogel, playwright