Studies in Drama: Stoppard and Company

Calendar

SES #	TOPICS	KEY DATES
1	Introductions; British comedy and you
Travesties and Traditions
2	Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1966 / 67).
3	Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, across media.	Preliminary self-assessment due; Waiting for Godot report due; attend MIT DramaShop’s production of Arcadia.
4	The Real Inspector Hound (1969 / 70).
5	Travesties (1974 / 75); discussion of Aracdia in performance; exchange of essay on Travesties with a partner.	Essay on Travesties due; exchange essay with a partner.
6	Presentations of one another’s ideas about Travesties, with commentary.	Partner exchange reader’s report on Travesties essay due; Dadaism report due.
7	Travesties and Top Girls (play first performed in 1982).	Brechtian and feminist theater report.
Serious Comedy
8	Scenes from an Execution (1985 radio version; 1990 staged).
9	Scenes from an Execution and Serious Money (1987).
10	Serious Money; exchange of essay on Serious Money with a partner.	Draft thesis-driven analytic essay due; exchange essay with a partner.
11	Hapgood (1988); exchange of reader’s report on partner’s essay on Serious Money.	Partner exchange reader’s report due.
12	Hapgood and Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (1994).
13	Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992.
Imagining Beyond
14	Arcadia (1993).	Revised thesis-driven analytic essay due.
15	The Invention of Love (1997).
16	Class discussion
17	Class discussion
18	Labors of love, where we’ve arrived.
19	From Kohout to Cahoot, from Wittgenstein to Dogg.
20	Class discussion
21	Rock ’n’ Roll (2006); voluntary sharing of students’ Stoppardian scenes.	Stoppardian scene due.
22	Rock ’n’ Roll.
23	Exchange of reader’s report on partner’s major essay / project.	Draft major essay / project due; exchange essay with a partner.
24	A Number (2002).	Partner exchange reader’s report due.
25	Student presentations on major project
26	Student presentations on major project (cont.)	Final self-assessment due.