¹û¶³Ó°Ôº

Teaching Delivery: This module is taught in 10 weekly classes, each of which will include a lecture and a workshop. The workshop session will consist of practical exercises that students are expected to participate in. Exercises may include physical and vocal warm-ups, creating a story, building a picture together, improvising words and matching them to movements inspired by their first reading of the play set for that session, and building collective movement and speech through collective understanding of the passage, imagining the setup using the rehearsal space, and other activities that require the use of bodies and voices.Ìý

Content: This module examines ancient Greek and Roman plays from the perspective of dramaturgy, that is, by looking at how they function in performance, historically and currently. During each session, we will examine one aspect of dramatic structure and performance, in the context of a specific play.Ìý

The students will be asked to read the play under discussion in translation and at least two pieces of scholarship on the play from a list provided in advance; look at one existing production of the play from a list provided and think about a set of questions proposed for that week. During class, they will engage in practical exercises and group discussions. These exercises are designed to explore the ways in which these plays may have worked in the ancient Greek and Roman theatre setting and have subsequently been adapted to a diverse range of theatrical traditions, but also to investigate the questions they pose to contemporary audiences and artists as well as the solutions to them. There will be a diversity of voices and perspectives presented in the reading lists, plays studied, and lecture content, including voices and perspectives from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, including those from the Global South.Ìý

Skills: By the end of the module, you will be able to read and interpret ancient Greek/Roman texts with accuracy and confidence; use dramaturgical analysis and research to assess and provide answers to problems arising from the performance of these plays; break down the dramatic structure of a play and its dramatic conventions; think of creative and theatrical solutions to dramaturgical questions posed by an ancient play.

Introductory Reading:

K. Trencsényi (2015), Dramaturgy in the making, London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama

M. Laera (ed.), Theatre and adaptation: return, rewrite, repeat, London: Bloomsbury, introduction only.

J. Barnette (2018), Adapturgy: The Dramaturg’s Art and Theatrical Adaptation, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press (esp. intro, chs. 1, 3, 4).