THR 348 Contemporary Women Playwrights
This course explores very recent plays published and produced in the United States and the United Kingdom, relating these texts to historical, political and theoretical developments of the past fifty years. Work include recently published plays by American playwrights (Eric Lane, Pamela Gien, David Lindsey-Abaire, Teresa Rebeck, Roberto Aguirre-Secasa, Nilo Cruz, John Logan and others), Irish playwrights (Conor McPherson, Martin MacDonough, Marina Carr) and British playwrights (Rebecca Gilman, Rolin Jones). We will focus on experiments with form and content, and of necessity discuss influential playwrights and performance artists such as Tom Stoppard, Harold Pinter, Tennessee Williams, Adrienne Kennedy, Sam Shepard, Tony Kushner, Charles Ludlum, Anna Deavere Smith, and Karen Finley as well as seminal avant-garde theatre groups.