Cirrus@Austlit

Dramaturgy A introduces the performance student to fundamental concepts of the text. It will provide students with an overview of theatre history from classical Greek drama to post-dramatic theatre, and familiarise students with the application of cultural/-literary theory (semiotics, post-colonial, feminist) in theatre studies and the development of performance theory.

Subject Objectives:

On successful completion of this subject students will be able to apply key theoretical concepts in the analysis of theatre texts; identify major developments in theatre history, and in particular the foundational principles of Tragedy; articulate the way in which theatre seeks to respond to cultural developments social, philosophical and political.

Dramaturgy E will analyse the development of comedy from Greek and Roman traditions through to commedia dell’arte, Shakespearean comedy, Restoration comedy, and the manifestation of comic traditions and modes of performance in a contemporary cultural context. It will examine the social and political role of comic forms of theatre and consider theoretical approaches to the study of comedy.

The broad field of practice termed contemporary ‘performance’ and more recently theorised as post-dramatic theatre will be examined as a partial re-invigoration of avant-garde forms by artists interested in addressing recent developments in philosophy, changes in everyday culture and different conceptions of social and political expression. Particular emphasis will be placed on the shift from dialogue on stage to the dialogue between the performer and spectator that characterises ‘new’ approaches to the theatre medium. In addition, the subject will consider the criteria used to address recent forms of expression in journalism and other forms of commentary.