Theatre Histories

In this subject, we will engage with a number of significant theatrical moments, from Ancient Greece, Egypt, and India, to the medieval period in Asia and Europe, to pre- and post-colonial encounters in Africa, Australia, and the Americas. We will move through these contexts thematically (and occasionally chronologically), examining problems and questions, themes and practices, anxieties and enthusiasms that echo across historical and geographical distance. In some cases, this will mean tracing cross-cultural influence, while in others it will mean attending to the ways in which similar economic or political conditions in otherwise disparate contexts might give rise to similar concerns and practices. Many of the practices we will cover stretch, in one form another, into the present, and we will consider what this means for our study of them. Students will engage in original research with cultural collections, theatre companies, and online materials while developing a critical narrative about what constitutes a global theatre history.

• 1Understand how material culture has shaped the aesthetics of theatre in a selected range of cultural and historical settings
• 2Be able to identify and use critical ideas and historical practices in order to locate theatre production within specific social, historical and theoretical contexts
• 3Be able to conduct independent research using online resources, theatre programs and bibliographical indexes.