SPN 412 - Early Modern Spanish Drama & Performance

1 course unit

This course is an introduction to early modern Spanish drama from a performance-based approach. Students will read, analyze and interpret some of the most important plays produced during the so-called Golden Age in Spain (sixteenth-seventeenth century) by authors like Cervantes, Lope, Tirso, or Calderón. We will focus on text analysis and performance as two fundamental elements in the understanding and appreciation of Spanish theatre. Students will have access to the plays from different angles: 1) as texts to be studied analytically; 2) as cultural and historical exponents of a specific period; 3) as objects of literary and theatrical research; and 4) as would-be productions waiting to be staged. After an introductory account of early modern Spanish theater and comedia performance then and now, classes are organized around three phases resembling those of theater production: text analysis, pre-production workshop, and staging. Note: By the second part of the semester students will need to schedule additional time outside the classroom to rehearse and complete the production of a short play or scenes for the stage. Class is conducted in Spanish.
Prerequisite(s): SPN 304 - Advanced Spanish Conversation & Composition .
Meets general academic requirement HU.