DRAM 336 - Seminar in Performance Studies

Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)

Selected topics in Western and non-Western performance traditions and literatures.

Topic for 2026/27a: Intercultural Performance. Twentieth, and early twenty-first, century performance theory and practice has been incontrovertibly shaped by the intercultural imagination. From the foundational writings of Bertolt Brecht and Antonin Artaud, to the avant-garde experiments of Eugenio Barba and Jerzy Grotowski, and the post-colonial provocations of Guillermo Gomez-Pena and Ong Keng Sen, theater and performance have become sites of cultural contact, dramatizing not just discrete elements of performance practice or narrative, but often the conflict of contact itself. In this seminar, students read intercultural performance theory alongside seminal theory on the formations of modernity, nationality, and cultural identity, in order to situate both the directionality of exchange (the inter-) and its materiality (the ever elusive ‘culture’). Alongside theory, students consider intercultural theater practice, looking to the output of artists like Peter Brook, Ariane Mnouchkine, Tadashi Suzuki, Julie Taymor, Maya Krishna Rao, and more. Amanda Culp.

Topic for 2026/27b: Imagining Public Performance. What do artists consider when designing performances for publicly shared space? How do performers and spectators co-create meaning through theatrical interactions in these spaces? How might these inquiries be relevant to crafting performance anywhere and everywhere?

A key element of this class is interrogating what is meant by “public space” and “public audience,” including how these concepts are defined in different contexts, and by whom. We consider the lens of the theater artist in exploring inquiries around intention and unpredictability, infrastructure and design, accessibility, negotiations of permission, subversive performance, and performance for “public good.”

Case studies include: immersive, site-specific, street theater interventions, festival, happenings, traveling shows, and performances in parks, plazas and piazzas (among others). Joanna Gurin.

One 2-hour period.

Course Format: CLS