*2007 Bedford : DramLit Master Teachers of Theatre: Observations on Teaching Theatre by Nine American Masters by Burnet M. Hobgood; Southern Illinois University Press, 1988

Introduction
The Mission of the Theatre Teacher

Hundreds of books and articles concerning the theatre reach publication every year in the United States alone, but only a tiny portion of that impressive output deals with one of the largest enterprises generated by the American stage: the teaching of theatre...

Bernard Beckerman * On Dramatic Literature

... From its very beginning, the study of dramatic literature was the study of play texts. Teachers assumed, so firmly that few thought to question the assumption, that the text was a stable entity, an object students could take for granted. This is not so any longer. Many teachers now realize that students must think not only of what they are reading but also of the relationship of their reading to both the process by which the text came into existence as well as the approach through which it could be given new life onstage. Faced with this array of possibilities, each teacher individually has to come to terms with the kind of authority found in a dramatic text. Whose work is it? What does it represent? The playwright's vision? Or the collective results of a theatrical enterprise? Most important of all, what do students as readers and prospective theatre workers owe it? Is it something they can freely manipulate? Or does it contain an idiosyncratic character that they must get to know?

Oscar Brockett On Theatre History :

Since the 1970s two views of theatre history have coexisted. One, the older and more established view, sees theatre history as a body of information (extending chronologically from the Greeks to the present) with which all theatre students should become familiar (at least in broad outline). It sees theatre history as being concerned primarily with knowledge -- as analogous to pure research. The second view sees theatre history as pertinent insofar as it serves the needs of specific productions -- as analogous to applied research. According to this second view, the script, the directorial approach, and the production team determine what historical information (theatrical, socioeconomic, political, religious, philosophical, etc.) is needed and pertinent. Neither of these views invalidates the other; they are complementary, representing as they do differing emphases: one is general and scholarly in orientation, the other is specific and practical in orientation.

The second view owes much to the growing interest in the dramaturge. The dramaturge's role has been an accepted part of German theatre since the eighteenth century, but it is only during the past two decades that it has been recognized in the United States. As yet, there is no clear agreement in America about the dramaturges role. It may include some or all of these functions: reading and evaluating new scripts; recommending plays for production; making or acquiring adaptations; assessing translations; collaborating in the formulation of a production concept; undertaking (or supervising) production (including historical) research; providing information for news releases and publicity; assembling material for the printed program supplied to audiences; writing essays about or related to specific productions; acting as in-house critic. The dramaturge, then, usually is an integral part of the production team. Theatre history is only one of his or her many concerns, most of which are more nearly related to criticism than to history. In fact, the dramaturges role requires the breaching of boundaries between a number of functions and areas of knowledge. Several theatre departments have altered their programs to provide training specifically for dramaturge.

[ Dramaturg Page @ Theatre Theory ]

Script Analysis: Pinter - Homecoming
Theatre UAF * Fall.06 Brecht and Beckett -- and the choice from the contemporary writers for final paper. [?]

Bedford : must have in each class!

"Reader Theatre" and "Stage Reading Techniques"

[ must refer to in your papers ]

... history.vtheatre.net

...


Bedford Intro to Drama 2004
Fifth Edition * Lee A. Jacobus (U. of Connecticut)

[Preface for Instructors] website * http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/jacobus/default.asp

intro: Thinking about Drama
What Is Drama?
Drama and Ritual
Drama: The Illusion of Reality
Seeing a Play Onstage
Reading a Play
The Great Ages of Drama
Genres of Drama
Elements of Drama (Aristotle)
[Lady Gregory, The Rising of the Moon]

THR 215/413 Overview : DramLit & Playscript Analysis

PLAYS
Hamlet
first -- early modern age

RENAISSANCE DRAMA
    Italian Drama 
    Elizabethan Drama 
    Spanish Drama 
    Renaissance Drama Timeline 
    William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream
       A Midsummer Night's Dream in Performance 
       COMMENTARIES ON A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
       Enid Welsford, 
Masque Elements in A Midsummer Night's Dream 
       Linda Bamber, On A Midsummer Night's Dream 
       Peter Brook, The Play Is the Message . . . 
       Clive Barnes, Review of A Midsummer Night's Dream 
    Othello
       Othello in Performance 
       COMMENTARIES ON OTHELLO
       A. C. Bradley, Othello's Character 
       Virginia Mason Vaughan, Macready's Othello 
       John Holstrom, Going It Alone: A Review of Olivier's Othello 
    A CULTURAL CASEBOOK: The Issue of Race and Othello
       Sir John Mandeville, From Mandeville's Travels 
       Richard Eden, From Decades of the New World 
       Leo Africanus and John Pory, 
From A Geographical Historie of Africa 
       G. K. Hunter, From "Othello and Color Prejudice" 
       Margaret Webster, Shakespeare without Tears 
    Ben Jonson, The Masque of Blackness
       The Masque of Blackness in Performance 
       COMMENTARY ON JOHNSON
       Eldred Jones, Africa in English Masque and Pageantry 

Oedipus
tragedy -- antiquity

GREEK DRAMA
    Origins of Greek Drama 
    Genres of Greek Drama 
    The Great Age of Greek Drama 
    Greek Drama Timeline 
    Sophocles, Oedipus Rex 
(translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald)
       Oedipus Rex in Performance
       Commentaries on OEDIPUS REX
       Aristotle, Poetics: Comedy and Epic and Tragedy 
       Sigmund Freud, The Oedipus Complex 
       Claude Lévi-Strauss, From The Structural Study of Myth 

Antigone (translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald)
       Antigone in Performance
       COMMENTARIES ON ANTIGONE
       Oliver Taplin, Emotion and Meaning in Greek Tragedy 
       Jean Anouilh, From Antigone 
    Aristophanes, Lysistrata (translated by Dudley Fitts)
    
    ROMAN DRAMA
    Indigenous Sources 
    The Greek Influence 
    The Roman Stage 
    Roman Drama Timeline 
    Roman Dramatists 
    Plautus, Excerpt from The Twin Menaechmi (Act III) 
    Terence, Excerpt from The Brothers (Act V) 
    Seneca, Excerpt from Thyestes (Act V, Scene ii) 
    
    MEDIEVAL DRAMA
    The Role of the Church 
    Miracle Plays 
    Mystery Plays 
    Morality Plays 
    The Medieval Stage 
    The Actors 
    Medieval Drama Timeline 
    Hrosvitha, Dulcitius (translated by K. M. Wilson)
       Dulcitius in Performance 
       COMMENTARIES ON HROSVITHA
       Marla Carlson, Reading Hrotsvit's Tormented Bodies 
       Sue Ellen Case, Re-viewing Hrotsvit 
   *Zeami Motokiyo, Lady Han (Hanjo) 
(edited and translated by Royall Tyler) 
       Lady Han in Performance
    Everyman
    Everyman in Performance 

[ LATE SEVENTEENTH- AND EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY DRAMA
    The Restoration: Rebirth of Drama 
    Theater on the Continent: Neoclassicism 
    Theater in England: Restoration Comedy
    Late Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Drama Timeline 
    Molière, The Misanthrope (translated by Richard Wilbur)
       The Misanthrope in Performance 
       COMMENTARY ON MOLIERE
       Lionel Gossman, Alceste's Love for Célimène 
   *Chikamatsu Monzaemon, The Love Suicides at Sonezaki
       The Love Suicides at Sonezaki in Performannce
    A CROSS-CULTURAL CASEBOOK:
    Kabuki, J-oruri, and Bunraku Theater
       Jacob Raz, The Genroku Period -- The Golden Age
       Faubion Bowers, Return to the Puppets
       Tsuruo Ando, The Playwright Chikamatsu
       Donald H. Shively, The Development of Theater Buildings
       Earle Ernst, The Evolution of the Kabuki Stage
       Benito Ortolani, Background of Kabuki and J-oruri]

Cherry Orchard
drama -- high modernism

NINETEENTH-CENTURY DRAMA THROUGH THE TURN OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
    Technical Innovations 
    Romantic Drama 
    Melodrama 
    The Well-Made Play 
    The Rise of Realism 
    Nineteenth-Century Drama Timeline 
Naturalism : Henrik Ibsen, A Doll House (translated by Rolf Fjelde)
       A Doll House in Performance 
       COMMENTARIES ON A DOLL HOUSE
       Henrik Ibsen, Notes for the Modern Tragedy 
       Bernard Shaw, A Doll's House 
       Muriel C. Bradbrook, A Doll's House: Ibsen the Moralist 
    August Strindberg, Miss Julie (translated by Harry G. Carlson)
       Miss Julie in Performance 
       COMMENTARY ON Strindberg
       August Strindberg, From the Preface to Miss Julie 
    Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest: 
A Trivial Comedy for Serious People
       The Importance of Being Earnest in Performance 
       COMMENTARIES ON WILDE
       Peter Raby, 
An Unpublished Letter from Oscar Wilde on The Importance of Being Earnest 
       Peter Raby, The Origins of The Importance of Being Earnest
    Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard (translated by Ann Dunnigan)
       The Cherry Orchard in Performance 
       COMMENTARIES ON CHEKHOV
       Anton Chekhov, From Letters of Anton Chekhov 
       Maxim Gorky, From Recollections 
       Virginia Woolf, On The Cherry Orchard 
       John Corbin, Review of The Cherry Orchard 
       Peter Brook, On Chekhov 

DRAMA IN THE EARLY AND MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY
    The Heritage of Realism 
    Realism and Myth 
    Myth and Culture 
    Poetic Realism 
    Social Realism 
    Realism and Expressionism 
    Antirealism 
    Epic Theater 
    Absurdist Drama 
    Early and Mid-Twentieth Century Drama Timeline 
    Susan Glaspell, Trifles
       Trifles in Performance 
       COMMENTARY ON GLASPELL
       Christine Dymkowski, On the Edge: The Plays of Susan Glaspell 
    Luigi Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author: 
A Comedy in the Making (translated by Edward Storer)
       Six Characters in Search of an Author in Performance 
       COMMENTARY ON PIRANDELLO
       John Corbin, Review of Six Characters in Search of an Author 
    Eugene O'Neill, Desire under the Elms
    Bertolt Brecht, Mother Courage and Her Children: 
A Chronicle of the Thirty Years' War (translated by John Willett)
       Mother Courage in Performance 
       COMMENTARIES ON BRECHT
       Bertolt Brecht, The Alienation Effect 
       Bertolt Brecht, Notes for Mother Courage, Scene 12 
    Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie
       The Glass Menagerie in Performance 
       COMMENTARIES ON THE GLASS MENAGERIE
       Lewis Nichols, Review of The Glass Menagerie 
       Donald Spoto, Laurette Taylor in The Glass Menagerie 
       Benjamin Nelson, Problems in The Glass Menagerie 
    Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman
       Death of a Salesman in Performance 
       COMMENTARIES ON MILLER
       Arthur Miller, In Memoriam 
       Arthur Miller, Tragedy and the Common Man 
       Michiko Kakutani, A Salesman Who Transcends Time 
   *Samuel Beckett, Happy Days
       Happy Days in Performance 
       COMMENTARIES ON BECKETT
      *Deirdre Bair, The French Production of Happy Days
      *Sidney Holman, Happy Days: Creation in Spite of Habit
      *Eugene Webb, On Happy Days
    Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun
       A Raisin in the Sun in Performance 

Endgame -- postmodern


CONTEMPORARY DRAMA
    Experimentation 
    Experimentation within the Tradition 
    Contemporary Drama Timeline 
    Athol Fugard, "MASTER HAROLD" . . . and the boys
       "MASTER HAROLD" . . . and the boys in Performance 
       COMMENTARIES ON FUGARD
       Heinrich von Staden, Interview with Athol Fugard 
       Athol Fugard, From Notebooks
    August Wilson, Fences
       Fences in Performance 
       COMMENTARIES ON WILSON
       David Savran, Interview with August Wilson 
       Frank Rich, Review of Fences 
    Paula Vogel, How I Learned to Drive
       How I Learned to Drive in Performance 
       COMMENTARIES ON VOGEL
       Christopher Bigsby, Paula Vogel 
       David Savran, Paula Vogel 
       Jill Dolan, Review of How I Learned to Drive 
   *Suzan-Lori Parks, Topdog/Underdog
       Topdog/Underdog in Performance 
       COMMENTARY ON PARKS
      *Joshua Wolf Shenk, Beyond a Black-and-White Lincoln
   *Nilo Cruz, Anna in the Tropics
       Anna in the Tropics in Performance 
       COMMENTARY ON CRUZ
      *Christine Dolen, Anna in the Tropics Shines on Broadway

Appendices
    Writing about Drama
    Why Write about Drama? 
    Conventions in Writing Criticism about Drama 
    Approaches to Criticism 
    From Prewriting to Final Draft: A Sample Essay on The Rising of the Moon 
    How to Write a Review 
     
  Glossary of Dramatic Terms
  Selected Bibliography [biblio]
  Selected List of Film, Video, and Audiocassette Resources
2005 Paperbound 900 pp. (approx.) ISBN 0–312–41439–0

The fullest complement of editorial features -- providing more resources for students.
* Writing about drama. Class-tested material offers coverage of every stage of the writing process, a complete student paper, and a section on writing a theater review.
* History of drama. The book also includes a general introduction to the great ages and the major genres of drama; introductions to the periods, plays, and playwrights that constitute a succinct but thorough history of Western drama; a performance history for each play; and a timeline for each period.
* Additional resources include a glossary of dramatic terms, selected bibliographies, and an annotated list of film, video, and audiocassette resources.

vtheatre.net

script.vtheatre.net

THR413 Playscript Analysis (2nd reqired textbook) -- Modern Theories of Drama: A Selection of Writings on Drama and Theatre 1850-1990 by George W. Brandt (Editor) 0198711395 Oxford University Press (November 1, 1998) 334 pages $41.12