Intermediate Playwriting: Documentary Methods

Student performance at Pete’s Candy Store

Course Description

Building off Foundations of Playwriting, this class centers on dramatic storytelling through an exploration of character, language, nonlinear plotting, and spectacle, using documentary theatre methods. Students write plays and build effective research and writing practices, and develop a pedagogy of reception for their work. They discuss the craft of writing theatre through reflecting on the work of practitioners, and experiment with techniques such as juxtaposition, satire, mélange, fragmentation, displacement, collage, pastiche, and others.   

Key Questions

·      In our world: How, as theatre makers, can we respond to / participate in / critique the culture of “now”?

·      In our art: What do I, as a maker, want my work to do for / to / with an audience?  What is my pedagogy of reception?   

·      In our selves: How do I want / need to grow as a theatre maker?

·      In our craft: What is a document? What is truth, or true? How, when, and why can we claim the words of others, or not? How is a body a text? How is voice a document? How is a place a document? What are the ethical considerations in the encounter of the work? What are the tools of our craft that can help us explore these questions?