What is performance? Is it an event or an action? Is it what happens on a stage or in your living room? Furthermore, what does performance have to do with our understanding of how race, gender, sexuality or community function both historically and in the present? This course approaches theater and performance as both a critical lens for viewing social and cultural life, and as a creative practice of worldmaking. Students will be introduced to the theoretical, critical, and creative field of performance studies. Pulling from anthropology, theater, dance, queer studies, critical race theory, and linguistics, we will look at performances ranging from the play "Fairview" by Jackie Sibblies Drury, to "Fires in the Mirror" by Anna Deveare Smith, to the punk performance work of Sister Spit, and the story weaving work Spiderwoman Theater. In this writing-intensive course we will pay particular attention to queer artists and artists of color. |