Courses:

Theater and Cultural Diversity in the U.S. >> Content Detail



Study Materials



Readings


Amazon logo When you click the Amazon logo to the left of any citation and purchase the book (or other media) from Amazon.com, MIT OpenCourseWare will receive up to 10% of this purchase and any other purchases you make during that visit. This will not increase the cost of your purchase. Links provided are to the US Amazon site, but you can also support OCW through Amazon sites in other regions. Learn more.



Required Texts


Amazon logo Castillo, Ana. Psst... I Have Something To Tell You, Mi Amour. Preface by Sister Dianna Ortiz. San Antonio, TX: Wings Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780916727208.

Amazon logo Uno, Roberta, and Kathy A. Perkins, eds. Contemporary Plays by Women of Color. New York, NY: Routledge, 1996. ISBN: 9780415113779.



Calendar of Reading Assignments


SES #TOPICSREADING ASSIGNMENTS
1-3

Unit I: Introduction and overview


What is culture? And how do we identify culture and performance in American theater? A sharing of family traditions and the creation of "stereotypical" history of immigration to the United States. This unit will provide students with a general overview of basic concepts such as theater, movement, culture, diversity, and composition.

Amazon logo Schechner, Richard. "What is Performance?" In Performance Studies: An Introduction. 1st ed. New York, NY: Routledge, 2002, pp. 1-21. ISBN: 9780415146210.

4-9

Unit II: African American theatrical traditions


What are African American traditions of theater? How do music and dance figure in the construction of African American experience on stage? How is the "dancing black body" represented on stages?

Jones, Lisa. "Combination Skin." In Contemporary Plays by Women of Color.

Amazon logo Shange, Ntozake. For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf. New York, NY: Scribner, 1997. ISBN: 9780684843261.

10-13

Unit III: Latino/a and Chicano theatrical traditions part I


What sorts of Chicano and Latino/a American theatrical traditions have emerged in the past century? A focus on the plays of Miguel Piñero.

Amazon logo Agarin, Miguel, and Miguel Piñero, eds. "The Book of Genesis According to Saint Miguelito," "La Metadona Está Cabrona," "There is Nothing New in New York," "No Hay Nada Nuevo en Nueva York," "Runnin' Scared," "A Poem for Joey's Mami's Struggle," and "Seeking the Cause." In Nuyorican Poetry: An Anthology of Puerto Rican Words and Feelings. New York, NY: William Morrow & Company, 1975, pp. 62-75. ISBN: 9780688079666.

Amazon logo Piñero, Miguel. Short Eyes. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1975. ISBN: 9780374521479.

14-17

Unit IV: Asian American theatrical traditions


How can theater express Asian American cultural heritage? What sorts of stories do Asian diaspora playwrights chose to tell? A consideration of David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly.

Son, Diana. "R. A. W." In Contemporary Plays by Women of Color.
18-21

Unit V: Latina/Chicana theatrical traditions part 2


Visiting Artist Ana Castillo will come work with us on her play.

MLK Visiting Professor Ana Castillo is a novelist, poet, essayist and painter who has used every means necessary—the clack of typewriters, the flap of mimeograph machines, the thwip of copiers, the tick of e-mail and her personal blog—to tell the tales that had to be told.

Castillo, Ana. Psst... I Have Something To Tell You, Mi Amour.
22-23

Unit VI: Reaching beyond diversity


How can we reach beyond the rubric of diversity to explore particular histories and theatrical methodologies?

Amazon logo Donkin, Ellen. "Black Text, White Director: Issues of Race and Gender in Directing African American Drama" In Upstaging Big Daddy: Directing Theater as if Gender and Race Matter. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1993, pp. 79-87. ISBN: 9780472065035.

Amazon logo lê thi diem thúy. "The Bodies Between Us." In The Color of Theater: Race, Culture, and Contemporary Performance. Edited by Roberta Uno. New York, NY: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005, pp. 322-343. ISBN: 9780826478818.

24-25Final group projects

 








© 2010-2021 OpenCollege.com, All Rights Reserved.
Open College is a service mark of AmeriCareers LLC.