Axis of Evil
This course aims to introduce directing students to the power of public
performance as a cultural tool in addressing international issues. The five
plays introduced in this course represent plays from the Arab world. The
course invites students to collaborate with Middle Eastern Studies students to
work as dramaturges for their final projects. Along with directing the
plays, students will create installations that represent his/her directing
style and display it for a public viewing on campus. In addition, each
production will also include talk backs to open up discussion with the audience
about the play as well as the relationship between the US and the Arab
world. The course asks the students to. The course will end with an
extravaganza of Arabic plays.
Texts:
-
Where
the Power Lies,
Yusuf al-'Ani
-
Pleasure
Club 21,
Walid Ikhlasi
- The Traveler Sultan, Raymond Jbarra
-
The
Mask,
Mamduh Udwan
-
The
King's Elephant,
Sa'dallah Wannus
Approaching the Classics
This course
aims at pushing the students to consider alternative performative styles while
approaching the classics. Each student will pick a scene from a classic
play and direct it using an innovative artistic style. Some examples
include directing a scene from Hamlet through the use of Arabic shadow
theatre technique, directing The Miser through the use of Middle Eastern
storytelling tradition, or approaching the Doll’s House through Theatre
of the Oppressed exercises. The course aims at establishing at creating a
critical mentality that will enable them to look at well established concepts
in a different way.
-
Oedipus
Rex,
Sophocles
-
The
Miser,
Moliere
- Uncle Vanya, Anton Chekhov
-
Hamlet, William Shakespeare
-
The
Doll’s House,
Henrik Ibsen