Number and Title of Course:     English 231, an introduction to dramatic forms and conventions

 

Length of Course:     One semester  ( Fourteen weeks )

 

Classroom Hours Per Week:     Four hours

 

Number of Credit Units:    Three credits

 

Prerequisites:     Six credit hours of post-secondary English with at least a C+ average, three or more must be 110, 121, or 131

 

Description of Course:     A study of the major dramatic forms of the twentieth century. Playwrights whose work will be considered include Anton Chekhov, Henrik Ibsen, George Bernard Shaw, August Strindberg, Bertolt Brecht, Harold Pinter, David Mamet, John Osbourne, Tom Stoppard, Tennessee Williams and Sharon Pollock. As well as the dramatic literature, the course also considers changes in acting and staging techniques and conventions, theatrical architecture and social content. The course will include theatre-going and film-viewing.

 

Written Assignments: Students will complete two short in-class essays (of about 600 words) and one longer take-home essay (of about 1500 words)

 

 

Textbooks:     Six Great Modern Plays, Dell, 1967; Individual editions of additional plays selected; The Theatre of Revolt, Robert Brustein.

 

Additional readings:   The Poetics, Aristotle; The Theatre and its Double, Antonin Artaud; The Life of the Theatre, Julian Beck; The Actor at Work, Robert Benedetti; The Life of the Drama, Robert Bentley; The Theatre: An Introduction, Oscar Brockett; The Empty Space, Peter Brook; The Theatre of the Absurd, Martin Esslin; The Making of Modern Drama, Robert Gilman; Towards a Poor Theatre, Jerzey Grotowski; An Actor Prepares, Konstantin Stanislavski; Building a Character, Konstantin Stanislavski

 

Transferability:  UBC English (3) second year, SFU English (3) second year, UVic

English 200 level

 

Steve Barnes , B.Sc. (Alberta), M.A. (British Columbia)
Zeferino Cabrita, B.A., B.F.A., M.A. (British Columbia)
Dilek Cansin, B.A. (Macalester College), M.A. (British Columbia)
Debra Clarke, B.Sc., M.A., TESL Cert (British Columbia)
Leah Kaser, B.A. (British Columbia), M.Ed. (Lesley College)
Angela Lavery, B.A., B.Ed., (Toronto), M.A. (British Columbia)
Nicola Maher, B.A. (British Columbia), M.A. (Sussex)
Leslie Mercer, B.A.(British Columbia), M.A. (University College Dublin)
Denis Roberts, B.A., P.D.P., M.A. (Simon Fraser)
Jim Smith, B.Ed., M.Ed. (British Columbia), M.A.(Simon Fraser)
Gary Swanson, B.A. (Simon Fraser), M.A. (British Columbia)