Courses in London
London as Visual Text
Instructor: Andrew Kennedy
Required course, 4 semester credits
Click here to see a course syllabus
This course will examine the art and architecture of London while considering the political, religious, economic and social forces that shaped their creation and current function. Discussion of historical texts and visits to important buildings, neighborhoods and museums will trace the development of the English city from its ancient roots to the 20th century. By the end of the course, students will be able to readily distinguish between Medieval Gothic and Gothic Revival buildings, as well as identify Elizabethan, Classical Revival and Postmodern architectural styles and recognize the role that each played in London’s history. While the main focus of the course will be architecture, other arts such as portrait painting and tomb sculpture will also be addressed.
Embodying Spaces: Contemporary English Theatre in its Historical, Architectural, Cultural, Geographic, and Moral Settings
Instructor: Mark Z. Muggli, Luther College, English
Required course (Spring 2013), 4 semester credits
Click here to see a course syllabus
The English theatre is probably the richest in the world in its range and depth. In this course, students will attend plays, discuss them, read them, write about them, and occasionally perform parts of them. By becoming more aware of the historical moment the plays dramatize, and the architectural, cultural, and geographic worlds that surround them, students will increase their understanding of the complex moral stories that the English theatre tells.
Theatre in London: the Art of Adaptation
Instructor: Steven Marc Weiss, Coe College, Theatre Arts
Required course (Spring 2014), 4 semester credits
Click here to see a course syllabus
This course will provide both an in-depth examination of the astonishing variety of theatre offerings available in London during each seven-week term and an equally penetrating look at the literary (or other) source materials that, directly or indirectly, inspired each production. As we consider various ways in which most theatrical productions are developed—either based on other source material or on writers’ original ideas—our ongoing focus of study will be on the intertextuality between the page (drama) and the stage (theatre).
“Adaptation” is the key concept underlying the investigation, and the term will be broadly defined to include: (1) how playwrights sometimes adapt non-dramatic source materials (historical events, narrative fiction, etc.) into dramatic texts; (2) how theatre collaborators sometimes attempt to adapt for viable stage production dramatic source material from another medium (film, for instance); (3) how playwrights sometimes adapt existing, older playtexts to craft more contemporary “versions” of them; (4) how contemporary playwrights sometimes, either consciously or inadvertently, alter playtexts they “translate” from other languages; (5) how theatrical practitioners “translate” words on a page into action on the stage after carefully studying the texts for clues that will help them conceptualize and eventually actualize productions based on those clues; and (6) how playtexts are, by necessity, “adapted” by directors, designers and actors to “work” for the space(s) in which they are presented. These six criteria are not mutually exclusive and any combination of them may coexist within a single theatrical production. We will search for signs of them in all of the theatre and drama we study.