THEA 100 On and Beyond the Stage: Introduction to Theater and Performance Studies
This course will look at the pivotal beginnings of the performance studies field, its roots in various disciplines, and will explore its evolution over the past 50 years. We will begin by asking, “What is performance studies?” and "How does it connect with theater studies?" Each week we will look at different answers to this question as we read and discuss the work of various artists and theorists to see how their work illuminates the question. These readings will be complimented by viewings of performances so that we can engage the questions on both a practical and theoretical level and demonstrate the critical entanglement between performance theory and practice. As scholars and practitioners we too will experiment with praxis by activating each section with our own performance experiments. As much as this class is a historical survey of the field, it is also a laboratory where we will explore how we can perform in order to understand theory and how we can use theory to understand performance.