FRSEM-UA 351 - Documentary Theatre

Institution:

New York University

Subject:

Description:

Explores the subject matter, history, and theoretical discourses surrounding the global occurrence of contemporary theatre of the real, also popularly known as documentary theatre. By analyzing the content, structure, and dramatic devices of a number of plays, we will look at the problems and possibilities of the ways in which theatre that cites reality portrays a range of human behavior from everyday life to important political events in the attempt to create and recreate personal, political, and historical realities. Documentary theatre both acknowledges a positivist faith in empirical reality and underscores an epistemological crisis in knowing truth. We read plays about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, terrorism, the Holocaust, racial clashes, the deposition of Cardinal Law, Oscar Wilde, the murder of Matthew Shepard, Lebanese suicide bombers, the open murder of demonstrators in Greensboro, the cover-up of industrial accidents in Poland, honor killings in Holland, and accompanying theoretical essays, as well as look at some performances on video. The questions we will consider include: Can theatre effectively critique social and moral values? What are the implications of the blurring of art and life? Are fiction and nonfiction adequate terms for considering the idea of truth? How might we consider theatre of the real from the vantage point of the contemporary collapse of the distinction between the real, the simulated, and the virtual?

Credits:

4.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.nyu.edu

Phone Number:

(212) 998-1212

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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