Catalog Course Search Details

 Department:    DRMA&

 Course #:    101

 Credits:    5

 Variable:     No

 IUs:    5

 CIP:    500501

 EPC:    n/a

 REV:    2018

 Course Description  

An introduction to the art, craft, and history of the theater. The process of play production will be studied from the points of view of the playwright, actor, director, and designer.

 Prerequisite  

Prerequisite: Grade of 2.0 or higher in ENGL 097, or AESL 098, or appropriate test score.

Contact Hours (based on 11 week quarter)

Lecture: 55

Lab: 0

Other: 0

Systems: 0

Clinical: 0

Intent: Distribution Requirement(s) Status:  

Academic Humanities  

Equivalencies At Other Institutions

Learning Outcomes

After completing this course, the student will be able to:

1. Understand the origins and development of theater in both the entertainment tradition (Europe, USA) and the ritualistic tradition (Asia, African, indigenous populations).
2. Understand the role of the artist as a reflection of society including the exclusion/inclusion of women and artists of color and the relationships of minority artists with majority culture.
3. Understand the political nature of the arts and how the theatre has been used to both promote the understanding of and demonize groups based on gender, race, class, and sexual orientation.
4. Analyze a play as a director, actor, playwright, and designer.
5. Understand the collaborative nature of theater, both in theory and practice.
6. Understand the relationship between the theatre and the other arts.

General Education Learning Values & Outcomes

Revised August 2008 and affects outlines for 2008 year 1 and later.

0. Application and Integration

Definition: Applying information from one or more disciplines and/or field experiences in new contexts (Outcome 0.1); developing integrated approaches or responses to personal, academic, professional, and social issues (Outcomes 0.2-0.5).

Outcomes: Students will be able to . . .
0.3 Identify and evaluate the relationships among different perspectives within a field of study and among different fields of study.

2. Critical Thinking

Definition: The ability to think critically about the nature of knowledge within a discipline and about the ways in which that knowledge is constructed and validated and to be sensitive to the ways these processes often vary among disciplines.

Outcomes: Students will be able to . . .
2.1 Identify and express concepts, terms, and facts related to a specific discipline.
2.2 Analyze issues and develop questions within a discipline.

3. Communication

Definition: Understanding and producing effective written, spoken, visual, and non-verbal communication.

Outcomes: Students will be able to . . .
3.1 Recognize, read, and comprehend academic and/or professional writing.

4. Community & Cultural Diversity

Definition: Recognizing the value of human communities and cultures from multiple perspectives through a critical understanding of their similarities and differences.

Outcomes: Students will be able to . . .
4.1 Identify and express concepts, terms, and issues associated with the diverse perspectives of race, social class, gender, sexual orientation, disabilities, and culture.
4.2 Understand, value and respect human differences and commonalities as they relate to issues of race, social class, gender, sexual orientation, disabilities and culture.
4.3 Understand the historically and socially constructed nature of—and the meanings attributed to—human differences.

7. Aesthetics & Creativity

Definition: Interpreting human experience through engagement with creative processes and aesthetic principles.

Outcomes: Students will be able to . . .
7.2 Demonstrate knowledge of aesthetic principles.
7.3 Use knowledge of creative processes and aesthetic principles to understand humans and the world around them.
7.4 Demonstrate an understanding of the role of arts and creative expression in societies.

Course Contents

1. Play construction and genre.
2. Playwrighting in different eras.
3. The history of directing, design, and acting theory and styles.
4. Basic acting techniques.
5. The origins of theater in ancient ritual.
6. The development of the theater arts from the Golden Age of Greece to the present.
7. Theater as a social/political statement.