A discussion of contemporary theatre & performance for the Senior Seminar course in Theatre & Performance Studies at Kennesaw State University.

1. TPS 4999 (Senior Seminar)
Fall 2012
Kennesaw State University

2.  Book of Mormon by Parker, Lopez & Stone
• 2011 Best Musical Tony Award; 2012 opening #
 Cock, by Mike Bartlett
• at the Duke (Broadway)
 Ruined by Lynn Nottage
• at the Geffen (LA)
 once
by Enda Walsh (book) & Glen
Hansard/MarkétaIrglová (music/lyrics)
• 2012 Best Musical Tony Award

3.  Lisa D’Amour
• & Katie Pearl
 Detroit
@
Steppenwolf Theatre
• also at KSU!
 Anna Bella Eema @
Catastrophic Theatre
(Dallas)

4.  Michener Center for
Writers (Texas)
 former FSU prof,
headed MFA
 Humana Festival
• Lobster Boy
 Jerome Fellow @
Guthrie
 Clementine in the
Lower Nine
 Person of Interest
(CBS)

5.  Minneapolis (Guthrie Theatre)
• Appomattox, by Christopher Hampton
• Clybourne Park, by Bruce Norris
 2012 Tony, Pulitzer Prize
 response to A Raisin in the Sun
 Chicago (Steppenwolf, Lookinglass)
• Piven Theatre Workshop:Tusk Tuskby Polly Stenham
• Neofuturists
 Austin (RudeMechs, Salvage Vanguard)
• Method Gun, Get Your War On, Lipstick Traces, I’ve
Never Been So Happy (in development)

6.  Actor’s Express
• Wolves
• Bloody Bloody Andrew
Jackson
 The Alliance
• Next to Normal
• What I Learned in Paris
 7Stages
• Angry Fags
 Theatrical Outfit
• My Name is Asher Lev
 The Goat Farm
• Tanz Farm

7.  Théâtre du Soleil
 Theatre collective
 Eastern influences
• Kabuki (Japan)
• Kathakali (India)
 Actorsfrom over 21
countries

8.  JointStock
Company
 English Stage
Company (ESC)
 Materialist feminist
 Cloud 9 (1979)
 Top Girls (1982)
 A Number (2002)

9.  Indonesian, Balinese influences
 Costume and mask designer
 The Lion King (1998: Tony)
• New Amsterdam Theatre: Disney Corp.
• Direction, costumes, masks
 Titus(film, 1999), with Anthony Hopkins
 The Green Bird (2000, Broadway)
 The Tempest (2009, film)
• Prospera in/o Prospero (Helen Mirren)
 Spiderman, The Musical

10.  Saratoga International Theatre Institute
(SITI) with Tadashi Suzuki
 Viewpoints
• Sampling
• Movement, space
 e.g.South Pacific in clinic for “emotionally
disturbed war veterans”

11.  Topdog/Underdog (2001): Pulitzer prize
• Lincoln and Booth as brothers/hustlers
• Jeffrey Wright (L); Don Cheadle (B)
 365 Days/365 Plays (Nov. 2007, KSU)
 “discontinuous, postmodern ruminations”

12.  Post-modern: mix high/low, east/west,
then/now, genres, etc.
 Deconstruct: undermine logic of opposition
in texts; to undo
• Jacques Derrida (philosopher)
 The Wooster Group (Elizabeth LeCompte)
• Route 1 & 9 (1981); L.S.D. (1983)
 JoAnne Akalaitis: Beckett’s Endgame
 Robert Wilson: “nothing to understand, only
things to experience”

18.  Lee Breuer, JoAnne
Akalaitis
 collaborative
 Influence of
Grotowski,
absurdism
 Gospel at Colonus
(1984)
 DollHouse

20.  Questioning Authority
• Of the law, of the text, of the power
 Life/Art, Personal/Political
• Theatre/performance as weapon
 Collaboration
• Collectives and communes
 Juxtaposition
• Postmodernism, deconstruction

21.  Melissa James Gibson & Cubism
• check out the wiki page Non-Textbook Readings
 Wiki entry # 2: what inspires you to create
(consider your TPS “fertility”)?
 Check out new page on
wiki:Contempotheatre
 add to it!!! make it better!!! 