Reading Theater

THEATRST 187S

Spring 2025

Reading Theater

Mondays, Wednesdays 11:45 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Page 106 (West Campus)

Professor Esther Kim Lee

The course introduces students to major elements of theater by examining six plays drawn from different periods in history. By closely reading and viewing productions of the plays, students will gain the knowledge to interpret and analyze plays both as texts and as staged artform. Visiting theater artists will acquaint students with the principles of playwriting, designing, directing, and acting, and course assignments will give students the opportunity to explore the elements of theater as researchers and artists. 

In the theater, what we read on the page is an artifact of performances that once happened as well as a blueprint for stage performances yet to come. In this course, we work as archeologists to explore the meanings of the artifact and as creators—on our feet and with our bodies—to unlock the potential meanings of the blueprint. The course focuses on six plays, drawn from different periods in history and different countries, and includes non-European and non-white perspectives.

Notes

187S Reading Theater (and its New York-based version, 187A Reading Theater in New York) can be taken as an Area 2 or Gateway class, but not both.

Prerequisites

Not open to students who have taken Theater Studies 115.

Public Domain image of painting by Honore Daumier "Theater." Painting shows the audience's perspective of a dramatic scene lit by footlights.
Curriculum Codes
  • CCI
  • ALP
  • CZ
Cross-Listed As
  • ENGLISH 187S
Typically Offered
Fall and/or Spring