Semester:
Offered:
Instructor: Laura Quinton
Meeting time: Thursday, 9:45-11:45 am
Even before the curtain drops, the show is disappearing: in this moment alone, individual performers and wide-eyed spectators come together for an unrepeatable experience. This course offers an introduction to methods for researching and writing about the living, ephemeral arts of theater and dance. Along with reading foundational historical and theoretical scholarship on performance, we will examine how a variety of primary sources – such as critical reviews, images, set designs, digital recordings, interviews, and memoirs – allow us to reimagine a range of past performances. What are the intellectual, practical, and ethical challenges, as well as the creative possibilities, of researching histories of dance and theater? And how do performing arts stage cultural values and speak to ideas about national, racial, and gender identities in particular contexts? We will spend time outside of the classroom, discovering performance at Houghton Library, the Harvard Art Museums, and the Museum of Fine Arts. We will also attend and write about multiple live shows in the Boston area.