Performance Historiography

Course Description

Theatre practice and scholarship involves not only the analysis of textual sources (i.e., plays, critical reviews, correspondences, etc.) but also consideration of oral narratives, archival documents (such as performance histories, dramaturgical casebooks, art historical or design materials), and various media archeologies (e.g., recordings of performances in various forms). This graduate course will teach students how to do theatre history. Emphasis will be directed towards learning how to contextualize and situate sources within their historical and cultural frameworks. Some basic questions to be addressed are: what are the historian’s methodologies, critical and otherwise, that may be used to conduct research in the fields of theatre and performance studies? What assumptions or interpretations are made in the process of doing theatre history? How does the research of theatre history influence our practical work as directors, dramaturges, designers, and performers? How does one decide what matters in an archive? How does archival or primary document research become evidence for and argument or thesis?

Code

TH 670

Credits

3

Subject

Theatre

Programs That Include This Course

• Doctoral Doctor of Philosophy in Theatre Performance
• Master's Master of Arts in Theatre Performance