BA Music and Drama

In this module students will examine work by a range of U.S. American playwrights and theatre-makers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Students will conduct in-depth analysis of some of the "classics" of the American dramatic canon, even as they investigate the contested nature of that canon. Students will also engage with more recent plays that invoke or challenge those earlier works or explore related concerns in shifting contexts. The course will provide a strong sense of the formal experimentation that is still apparent in the American theatre, as dramatists seek new ways to address some of the most pressing social and political questions facing their nation (and often, by extension, the world). Students will consider the inherent dysfunction, even violence in the construction of American cultural identity, and how different groups are relegated to the position of the marginal, the Other, and the "un-American."

Pre-requisites:    Any L1 Drama Study or Practical core option

                              Any L2 Drama Study core option - Theatres of Modernity; Screen, 
                                 Culture and Society
 

• To introduce students to the works of a range of U.S. American playwrights, and to provide them with strategies for analysing these works in their theatrical, social, and historical contexts.
• To develop critical understanding of a set of key theatrical, cultural and philosophical debates (and the relationships between these debates).
• To develop a critical framework for thinking about the construction of national dramatic canons.
• To explore how the performing arts engage with issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, and national and cultural identity.

• Demonstrate familiarity with and understanding of a range of plays by 20th and 21st century U.S. dramatists.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the major theatrical, social, cultural and political contexts affecting the production and reception of these works.
• Confidently discuss the relationship between dramatic works, the formation of a canon, and the construction of national and cultural identity.

• Develop sophisticated and coherent arguments and articulate these in both written and spoken work, as demonstrated through a range of assessments.
• Demonstrate facility for rigorous analyses of both dramatic texts and performances that link form, content, and context.
• Responsibly compare and contrast works from different historical moments.
• Contribute to seminars and express themselves effectively.

• Work efficiently as a key member of a small group engaged in research, practical work, and presentation
• Demonstrate advanced skills of independent research and self-directed learning.
• Communicate research material both verbally and in writing.
• Use creative work and techniques to explore and convey critical ideas.

• Demonstrate an advanced ability to self-manage learning – to ask questions independently, identify relevant research material, take initiative, make decisions, and develop independent and sustained responses to complex problems
• Demonstrate an advanced ability to develop sustained arguments and present these effectively in written and oral form