English students,

The Theatre School at DePaul and the English Department want to alert you to several Fall 2016 Theatre courses, open to non-Theatre majors, that focus on dramatic literature. The courses don’t count for ENG credit, but might make for appealing open electives. It’s a great opportunity to study among the students and professors of one of the world’s best schools of theater. See the descriptions below, and please note that if you’d like to enroll you’ll need to contact Jeanne Williams, the TS Coordinator of Academic Services, at jwilli79@depaul.edu.

THE 434-101: TOPICS IN DRAMATIC LITERATURE: IN YER FACE THEATRE (BARRY BRUNETTI)
In-yer-face theatre is a phenomenon of theatre in the UK in the 1990s as a response to the form of traditional British drama of the 70s and 80s, as a criticism of Thatcher’s England, and as a means of taking theatre and performance to a visceral and visual level. The course examines plays written by those generally acknowledged to be in-yer-face playwrights. Establishing a definition of in-yer-face theatre is the overriding goal of the course. Note: Plays that are labeled “in-yer-face” are often plays that contain adult language, adult situations, and violence.

THE 434-102: TOPICS IN DRAMATIC LITERATURE: THEATRE, ART, AND IDENTITY (DAVID CHACK)
The course will investigate traditional and non-traditional texts —including drama, solo performance, performance art, museum theatre, and visual arts— for purposes of uncovering the identity, heritage, and culture within these texts for performance. The
course is both a traditional class to learn tools for analysis and a studio lab to create, develop, and devise new works.

THE 434-103: TOPICS IN DRAMATIC LITERATURE: CHEKHOV AND BECKETT (RACHEL SHTEIR)
Separated by half a century, these two writers seem on the surface near opposites but in fact they share worldviews. Both write plays about regular people–not kings– doing regular things and suffering in regular ways. Both writers challenged conventional
ideas of theatre in their era, including ideas about how time, space, and action should work on the stage. Both writers defied conventional ideas about genre–the idea that comedy should be funny and tragedy should be sad. Both writers created entirely
new forms of dramatic writing. This class will introduce students to the theatres of these two genius writers.