We study the artistry of contemporary theatrical movements as well as American writers from divergent cultural and aesthetic backgrounds. By looking at movements and artists in their cultural and social contexts we explore the sources the aims and the artistic strategies of their works while developing an understanding of important new voices in American Theater. The focus of the class will vary from year to year. May be repeated for credit one time with a different topic.
Looking for August: A Critical Exploration into the Art, Life, and Legacy of August Wilson
African-American playwright August Wilson is perhaps the greatest American dramatist of the 20th Century. His unmatched “Century Cycle” chronicles the African-American experience, and unearths deep-rooted dysfunctions of racism and socio-economic oppression, while at the same time celebrating the joy and resilience at the heart of African-American culture. Wilson was also an arts theorist, bringing to the fore front several explosive and controversial concepts concerning the American theater industry, particularly race-based vs. multicultural based casting. In this engaging course, we will explore Wilson’s epic, ever evolving career. Course participants will collaboratively engage with some of his most iconic characters, in the attempt to re-discover what makes them so impactful and electrifying. We will discuss Wilson’s life trajectory, his roots in Pittsburgh and griot approaches to playwriting, and peer deeply into some of his most iconic works, including Fences, A Piano Lesson, and the often misunderstood Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. We will also examine Wilson’s massive impact on 21st Century playwrights of all nationalities, and attempt to come to some comprehension of Wilson’s almost limitless influence on theater and global culture.
The Black Arts Movement Explored and Deconstructed
An in-depth, intellectually stimulating exploration into the complex and impactful Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Through reading and analyzing the poems, plays and criticism of the time, as well as lectures and small group discussions and “on your feet” performance activities, students will gain insights into the people, the places, and the critical junctures that emerged during this profoundly explosive era of art and culture. Artists explored include Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, Henry Dumas, Audre Lorde, Ed Bullins, Ntozake Shange, and others. Themes/concepts include black identity, the connection between black arts and black power, the rejection of integration as an ideal, LGBTQ and Black Arts, the assassination of Malcolm X, John Coltrane and Sun Ra, black radical thought, the African-American male as a Christ figure, male chauvinism in Black Arts and Black Power, and “future directions,” i.e. the influence of the Black Arts Movement on other cultural movements and American aesthetics.