Australian Theatre and Performance

This subject is a study of the Australian performing arts from 1960 to the present with a special focus on the shift from national drama to diversity, and from the sole-authored play to devised and collaborative theatre. The study is framed by the changing landscape of Australian culture and the key insights of modernism, postcolonialism, feminism and gender theory. Students will read selected plays in relation to context, genre, and performance history; view DVDs of live performance; engage in online and library-based archival research; and undertake detailed textual and performance analysis; and investigate the role of performance as a medium of cultural life. The subject is arranged in sections including single-author or theatre maker studies; the New Wave of the 1970s; Indigenous dramatists; and performance and live art. There will be scope to develop specialist studies of dramatists, theatre companies, and the performing arts industry.

探讨澳大利亚戏剧的历史、发展、主要剧作家和表演实践。

• 1Discuss Australian theatre and performance in relation to the intersections of Indigenous history, colonial culture, and a culturally diverse modern nation
• 2Explain how works of theatre and performance studied in this subject involve encounters among embodied performers and audiences in time and place
• 3Apply interdisciplinary methodologies to understand the dramaturgical, technological, cultural, social and environmental perspectives that intersect in the making of dramatic literature and performance
• 4Describe how Australian theatre contributes to culture and society
• 5Identify how theatre relates to storytelling, history and community.