Drama 3201 - Concepts in Theater Architecture and Performance Space

Institution:

Washington University in St Louis

Subject:

Description:

Can a cloakroom or a stairwell become a theater? How do site and placement affect the meaning potential of performance? How does contemporary environmental staging conjure a world different from that of the modern box set, the baroque perspective stage, or Shakespeare's Globe? We engage such questions by drawing on theory, history, and hands-on creation to examine historical, actual ,and potential performance spaces. Readings in architectural and dramatic theory, theater history, performance studies, and philosophy provide both a critical descriptive vocabulary and a conceptual repertoire for use in creative class assignments-both informing students' investigations of actual theaters or other performance-ready spaces and provoking their creation of experimental performance spaces. Readings cover semiotic, materialist, and situationist approaches to space, as well as concepts including site specificity, space vs. place, framing, perspective, miniature, the door, the curtain, the cloakroom, and the monument.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.wustl.edu

Phone Number:

(314) 935-5000

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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