Courses
I am comfortable leading conventional and expanded courses on theater and performance histories; practical classes in playwriting, dramaturgy, devised theater, and solo performance; and literary studies of medieval drama, European Modernisms, and Latinx / Latin American theater and performance (contemporary and historical).
Introduction to Theater
Through the study of play texts, theoretical treatises, and relevant criticism, this course promotes the curiosity, sense of wonder, and passion for pattern vital to an understanding of theater arts. The first unit offers methodologies for beginners to engage various theater texts and theatrical productions likely to appear in U.S. and global repertories, while the second unit demystifies the procedural aspects of the artform: how is it made, who makes it, and for whom?
Using an inductive dramaturgical approach derived from contemporary practice and scholarship, Introduction to Theater increases students’ capacity for critical thought and asks them to consider the radical potential of this ancient craft to strengthen social bonds, interrogate the status quo, and affect meaningful change.
Survey of Theater and Performance Practices
Split into two academic terms, Survey of Theater and Performance Practices mines global history for relevant and varied examples of theatrical practice across ancient and modern periods. Rather than observe theater practice laid out on a timeline, the course views its vestiges from a practitioner’s perspective, organizing content based on a simple set of questions: who, what, for whom, where, when, and why? By engaging theater and performance as a living artform, the course makes active connections to the past, enlivening our understanding of history and of what’s possible on stage, without neglecting the specific social, political, economic and cultural contexts that shape practice.
The first part of the courses focuses on who or what performs, what they perform, and for whom they perform. The second part of the course focuses on where, when, and why performance takes place. Both courses culminate in small performances based on class material so students can answer questions these materials ask of contemporary investigators: they will embody the historical archive in order to understand it better.
Contemporary Theater and Politics in Latin America
This class looks at contemporary theater and performance in Latin America and its relationship to pressing political issues—racism, homophobia, misogyny, dictatorial violence, neoliberalism, and land theft. Throughout, the course interrogates theater’s capacity to enact social change. By observing diverse dramaturgical and political strategies across Latin America, the course aims to outline the variety of approaches Latin American theatermakers have taken to talk about ongoing issues in their respective countries and the regions as a whole. Ultimately, after a semester-long study of the class materials, students will create theatrical-political interventions of their own on campus.
Latinx Theater and Performance
A survey of U.S.-based Latinx theater and performance from the mid-twentieth century today, this class discusses important artists, productions, aesthetics, themes, companies, and theorists within the field. Throughout, students will consider the sociopolitical contexts that surround and shape the arts and peoples they study.
Since a Latinx identity is neither singular nor monolithic, the class aims to notice differences among thinkers/makers. What kinds of latinidades do these plays and performances explore and enact? In what ways is Latinx a helpful umbrella category? In what ways is it limited? How do Latin American national and cultural identities interact with the material and its U.S.-ness? To facilitate nuanced discussions about the material’s simultaneous diversity and cohesion, the class sorts it into similar themes and theories that promote debates over definitions and distinctions among these categories.
Ultimately, the course asks students to consider the politics of identities in a Latinx context and how these identities come to be. Because theater and performance give us insight into process, they offer us a privileged position from which to analyze this becoming. That is, the class uses theater and performance as a way to examine how Latinx identities are exercised, developed, and contested. What does it mean to declare an identity, and what’s at stake in belonging to one in the first place?
Staging Rites: Faith, Mystery, Change, Initiation
This class examines religious ceremonies and dramas of spirituality in order to address the relationship between ritual, theater, and performance. Through a combination of research methodologies derived from anthropology, philosophy, theater, music, dance, performance, and religion, Staging Rites investigates what happens when humans embody their beliefs and cosmologies. What keeps faith in place? What awakens us to mystery? And what happens when rituals change? Students will read case studies in theater and performance history surrounding religious rituals and dramas of spirituality, and stage their own rites by the end of the term.