{"id":166185,"date":"2023-12-01T10:23:39","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T15:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=166185"},"modified":"2023-12-04T17:04:08","modified_gmt":"2023-12-04T22:04:08","slug":"syllabus-unexpected-dramaturgy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/01\/syllabus-unexpected-dramaturgy\/","title":{"rendered":"Syllabus: Unexpected Dramaturgy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

LYNN NOTTAGE IN REHEARSAL FOR THIS IS READING<\/em> (2017) AT THE FRANKLIN STREET RAILROAD STATION IN READING, PENNSYLVANIA, 2017.<\/p><\/div>\n

In an interview<\/a> in the<\/em> Review‘s new Fall issue, the playwright Lynn Nottage describes the way one of her classes at Yale would open: with a trip to the Coney Island Circus Sideshow. “Most academics and practitioners weren\u2019t acknowledging the different forms of theater happening all over New York City, and how those forms were in conversation with the way we as playwrights make our work,” she tells Christina Anderson. Her class also visited vogue balls, megachurches, trials, and wrestling matches. “What I\u2019ve witnessed is that, by the end of the course, all the students, even if they began as very naturalistic, structurally conservative writers, are making work that is more playful, inventive, and open,” she says. We asked Nottage to provide us with a syllabus of sorts\u2014and she sent a reading list of plays that can also teach us to look at drama and narrative structure from a similarly wide range of vantage points.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As a playwright, I’m interested in what happens when I enter my craft from differing perspectives, as an anthropologist, an athlete, an activist, a con artist, a criminal, a prosecutor, an exhibitionist, an archivist, a visual artist, a musician, a mystic, or a healer. What can we learn about dramatic structure and storytelling from observing the way theater, and performance, occur outside of a traditional theatrical setting? I’ve gravitated toward the following plays for their ability to raise this question, to engage unexpected dramaturgy, and to bend and twist the architecture of narratives to arrive at a piercing truth.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\nCircle Mirror Transformation<\/em> by Annie Baker<\/p>\n

Well<\/em> By Lisa Kron<\/p>\n

Forever <\/em>by Dael Orlandersmith<\/p>\n

Appropriate<\/em> by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins<\/p>\n

Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde <\/em>by Mois\u00e9s Kaufman<\/p>\n

Indecent<\/em> by Paula Vogel<\/p>\n

The Christians<\/em> by Lucas Hnath<\/p>\n

Is God is<\/em> by Aleshea Harris<\/p>\n

School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play<\/em> by Jocelyn Bioh<\/p>\n

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot <\/em>by Stephen Adly Guirgis<\/p>\n

Passion Play<\/em> by Sarah Ruhl<\/p>\n

Topdog\/Underdog<\/em> by Suzan-Lori Parks<\/p>\n

The Whale<\/em> by Samuel D. Hunter<\/p>\n

The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity<\/em>\u00a0by Kristoffer Diaz<\/p>\n

Saved <\/em>by Edward Bond<\/p>\n

The Lily’s Revenge<\/em> by Taylor Mac<\/p>\n

Art <\/em>by Yasmina Reza<\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lynn Nottage’s plays include<\/em> Ruined, <\/em>Intimate Apparel, <\/em>Sweat, <\/em>and<\/em>\u00a0Clyde’s. She<\/em>\u00a0is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201dAs a playwright, I’m interested in what happens when I enter my craft from differing perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2432,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68590],"tags":[425,67827,16806],"class_list":["post-166185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-syllabi","tag-drama","tag-featured","tag-syllabus"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSyllabus: Unexpected Dramaturgy by Lynn Nottage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"December 1, 2023 \u2013 \u201dAs a playwright, I'm interested in what happens when I enter my craft from differing perspectives.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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