COMT101: Introduction to Theatre
Section: E59     (eLearning)

http://www.bucks.edu/academics/courses/syllabus/index.php?lookup=COMT101

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My name is Cooper Robb and I am the instructor for your eLearning course. I realize that many of you considering the course may have some questions about its content and perhaps about my experience as well. I hold a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from Temple University and a Master of Arts in Theatre from Villanova University. I work full time as the theatre critic at the Philadelphia Weekly in addition to writing about theatre for several other local and national publications.

The course is an overview of Theatre from the Greeks through the present day stressing the relationships between the different periods and the plays of the world's greatest dramatists. We will begin with the Greek tragedians before exploring Shakespeare's Elizabethan Theatre. We will then move on to Italian Commedia dell'Arte, Seventeenth-Century France, Romanticism and the Realism of Ibsen. Our historical overview will conclude with the modernist temperament of Eugene O'Neill and Bertolt Brecht, the poetic imagery and symbolism of Tennessee Williams, Samuel Beckett's absurdist theater, the diversity of contemporary theater and finally a brief examination of world theatre.

In addition there will be a section on theatre artists including actors, directors and designers. You will attend a local professional production to review for your final assignment. If their schedule permits we will have a local theater artist as guest speaker to discuss their work.

We will be using two compatible texts for the course: Essential Theatre and Plays for the Theatre from Oscar G. Brockett and Robert J. Ball. If you have never attended a theater performance or have performed on stage dozens of times, the course is designed for anyone interested in theater. I very much look forwarding to teaching the course and exploring the world of theatre with you.

Sincerely,

Cooper Robb