Committee on Theater and Performance Studies

TAPS 30370. The Lost Plays Workshop: Recovering Shakespeare's Stage. 100 Units.

There are roughly 500 complete playscripts from England's theatrical golden age- the period that begins with the establishment of the first public theatre in 1576 to the closure of the playhouses in 1642. Scholars estimate that five times that amount have disappeared, most without a trace. However, there are some tantalizing remainders. In this seminar-studio workshop, we will work collaboratively to piece them back together, and in the process, gain new fluency in the theatrical idioms and practices that defined Shakespeare's age. Participants should anticipate taking on many roles in this pursuit. As dramaturgs, they will familiarize themselves with the works of the major and minor dramatists of Shakespeare's age, as well as its chief dramatic sources. As theatrical detectives, they will track down and assemble examples of the gestures, props, costumes, and representational conventions that might have shaped a given work. As author-poets, they will script selected scenarios in the form and fashion of the time. And as actors, they will search out and perform the theatrical business appropriate to each scene. Coursework will take the form of weekly assignments blending historical theatre practice and research. The course will culminate in a presentation of scenes. In addition to Cardenio, Shakespeare's missing dramatization of Cervantes' Don Quixote, we will choose 3 or 4 more plays to partially reconstitute.

Instructor(s): Ellen MacKay     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 30370, ENGL 20370, TAPS 20370

TAPS 30390. Dramaturgy Cohort. 100 Units.

Interested in peaking behind the curtain of a professional theater company? Follow along with the conceptual questions and artistic decisions for two productions, one at Court Theatre and one at Steppenwolf. Activities will include visiting rehearsals, meeting with artists, and providing dramaturgical research and discussion for upcoming productions of Miss Julie and Catch As Catch Can. We will also experiment with active dramaturgy methods ourselves. This course is aimed at students who want to put theories of performance into practice in real time, alongside a professional production process.

Instructor(s): M. Fenley     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 20390

TAPS 30513. Theater of Premodern South Asia. 100 Units.

This course will cover the history and poetics of the stage play in premodern South Asia, which was, according to the eighth-century theorist Vāmana, "the best among the types of literature." The play, according to many premodern critics, was uniquely capable of bringing about a profound aesthetic experience because of its integration of diverse forms of art - plot-driven narrative, poetry, acting, and music. We will read a variety of plays in translation, including works by Bhāsa, Kālidāsa, Bhavabhūti, and Murāri, as well as selections from technical literature such as the Treatise on Theater (Nāṭyaśāstram). We will also watch a number of modern performances. Besides discussing individual plays, we will cover the following topics in detail: the different genres of the stage play; the theory of plot construction; the theory of aesthetic experience (rasa); the languages of the theater; the role of music, dance, and gesture; theater and ritual; and the performance tradition of Kūṭiyāṭṭam.

Instructor(s): Andrew Ollett     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): No prior knowledge of South Asian languages is required. Students who can read Sanskrit, however, are strongly encouraged to take an accompanying reading course.
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 30513, SALC 20513, TAPS 20513

TAPS 30590. Sense and Sensation in Premodern Japanese Theater & Literature. 100 Units.

Each week will focus on a particular sense or sensation (sound, touch, horror, wonder, etc.) in works of premodern Japanese theater and fiction, paying particular attention to performance (broadly defined to include noh, kabuki, and puppet theater as well as comic storytelling and spectacle shows) as a public site for the exploration of intimacy and alienation, the circulation of feelings, and the staging of somatic difference. Considering, for example, anti-theatrical bias and discourses of contagion, scenes of possession and physical transformation, and the psychologizing of emotion and the senses, the course will engage with theories of embodiment, emotions, disability, and wonder. All readings will be available in English. Previous experience in Japanese literature or history is not required. Open to both undergraduate and graduate students. Students taking the Literary Japanese sequence will be encouraged to complete complementary primary source reading and a final translation project as part of the course.

Instructor(s): M. Van Wyk     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): EALC 34215, TAPS 20590, EALC 24215

TAPS 30705. Dramaturgy: Theory & Practice. 100 Units.

This course is a deep investigation into the possibility of dramaturgy as intrepid and curious storytelling and the role of the dramaturg in building worlds with playwrights, inhabiting worlds with productions, and cultivating worlds with audiences and institutions. We will think across discipline about the methodologies that make dramaturgy a heuristic knowledge practice. We will think critically about existing genealogies, best practices, and innovations in the theatre industry. Most importantly, we will engage in our own civic-minded dramaturgical practice and how engaged, thoughtful storytelling might have impacts beyond the walls of the classroom and the theatre. This course can fulfill the Drama requirement in the English major.

Instructor(s): G. Randle-Bent     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 20707, TAPS 20705

TAPS 31500. Advanced Acting. 100 Units.

This advanced acting course builds upon fundamental acting training and develops advanced skills for the performer. The focus will be on acting methods that are useful for multiple types of material; best practices in monologue, scene study, and ensemble work; and multiple approaches toward rehearsal processes. In preparation for weekly in-class performance work, students will be required to collaborate with scene partners outside of class and to dedicate themselves to a disciplined practice of self-study. For enrollment in this course, please submit a Statement of Intent at this link: https://forms.gle/KduDPpafN58XcRnw8. Questions? Email vwalden@uchicago.edu.

Instructor(s): M. Lyons     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Previous acting experience is encouraged.
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 21500

TAPS 31730. Movement for Actors. 100 Units.

This course will explore how an actor uses movement as a tool to communicate character, psychological perspective and style. The foundation of our movement work will center on the skills of balance, coordination, strength, flexibility, breath control and focus. Building on the skills of the actor both in terms of naturalistic character work and stylized theatrical text. Students will put the work into practice utilizing scene work and abstract gesture sequences through studying the techniques of Michael Chekov, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Anne Bogart, Complicite and Frantic Assembly.

Instructor(s): D. de Mayo     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Attendance at first class session is mandatory.
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 21730

TAPS 31860. Songwriting for Musical Theater. 100 Units.

This course is a practical introduction to the art and craft of songwriting for musical theater. Students will analyze and practice song form, storytelling through music, and the writing of lyrics and melody for character and tone. In addition to sharing and workshopping new song material weekly, students will learn about orchestration, arrangement, and the structure of the theatrical score by discussing standout examples of the genre. Students will develop a catalog of character- and story-driven songs to be presented at the end of the quarter. A basic knowledge of music theory is expected; experience in songwriting is not required.

Instructor(s): S. Elmegreen     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): MUSI 24321, MUSI 34321, TAPS 21860

TAPS 32315. Performance Art Installation: Imagining the End. 100 Units.

Perhaps the most important American play dealing with the prospect of the end of the world is Thorton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth (1942). This class will use this strange and remarkable play that moves through human and geological time to explore contemporary concerns about the end of life as we know it. Our work will culminate in a site-specific performance piece making use of the skills, talents, and experience of the members of the group.

Instructor(s): P. Pascoe     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 30945, ARTV 20945, TAPS 22315

TAPS 32318. Music and Disability Studies. 100 Units.

This course studies the ways that attitudes toward disability are constructed within a cultural sphere. From the perspective of disability studies, bodies and minds have many kinds of differences, but what is considered "disability" is determined by culture, not given by nature. Music, as well as film, literature, visual art, theatre, and so on, participate in the complex process of constructing and modulating attitudes toward disability. In this course, we will examine the interaction of disability and music in several ways: composers and performers whose creative production is shaped by bodily difference and disability; opera and film characters who embody and stage disability for our consumption; and more abstractly, music whose formal, sonic unfolding seems to engage issues of disability, even in purely instrumental art-pour-l'art works. We will read from the disability studies literature that critiques and theorizes disability themes in literature, film, and visual art, as well as musicology, music theory, and ethnomusicology literature that shows how disability themes are crucial in music. In this interdisciplinary class, students will gain a much more intimate understanding of the ways that attitudes toward abilities and bodies are constructed in art works, as well as be able to think, analyze, critique, write, and create with this understanding in mind. It is not necessary to read music notation for this course.

Instructor(s): Jennifer Iverson     Terms Offered: Spring,TBD
Equivalent Course(s): MUSI 22318, MUSI 32318, TAPS 22318

TAPS 32360. Advanced Musical Theater Writing. 100 Units.

This course is an advanced, project-oriented writing workshop with an emphasis on dramatic structure, storytelling through music, and the exploration of character as practical matters. Each student will propose a new, full-length musical and will work towards the creation of a first draft over the course of the quarter. In addition to presenting and workshopping new scene or song material weekly, students will study, discuss, and draw inspiration from standout examples of the genre. Students will present excerpted readings from their musicals at the end of the course. Some experience in writing for musical theater is expected.

Instructor(s): S. Elmegreen     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 22360, MUSI 24322, MUSI 34322

TAPS 32505. Community Engagement and Transformative Education: The Practice of Teaching Artistry. 100 Units.

This course will explore the role of the teaching artist with a focus on school and community-based arts education, arts integration, teaching practice and curriculum design. Students will research the field of teaching artistry, explore models for arts education, and develop and implement plans for teaching a specific art form in a community setting. The course will carefully consider cultural competence, collaborative learning, and approaches to teaching practice.

Instructor(s): E. Hooper Lansana     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 22505, CHST 22505

TAPS 32550. Performing Nature. 100 Units.

What is it like to be a bat? A tree? A slime mold? Art that attempts to represent non-human experience helps to orient environmentalism around radical and highly personal moments of inter-species empathy. Portraying non-human perspectives, we escape the abstraction of environmental data, and instead approach ecological entanglement on the level of individual imagination. Giving voice and human embodiment to nature is a theme in much 19th, 20th and 21st century creative writing (fiction/nonfiction) and performance work (theater, dance, puppetry). Accordingly, this class offers a broad survey of non-human representation in these arts with special attention to first-person narratives and embodiment of flora and fauna. The course draws on philosophers of mind (i.e. Shaviro's 'Discognition') and nature-science writing, plus contemporary performance projects and digital works by art/technology companies who deploy virtual reality and electronic media to explore the points of view of natural beings and systems. Reading about anthropomorphization and the problem of the subject in nature writing from Erasmus Darwin to the present will allow students to adopt a critical as well as appreciative eye toward this field of study and expression. Creative writing assignments will ask students to write (and perform) monologues from nonhuman perspectives.

Instructor(s): S. Bockley     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CEGU 22550, TAPS 22550

TAPS 32670. Queer Performance. 100 Units.

This seminar examines the field of queer theory and its intersections with performance studies. We will consider the many meanings of queerness and multiple modes of queer performance, analyzing dance, dramatic literature, music, film, digital media, and performance art alongside queer nightlife, activist street protest, public health discourses, and underground culture. Looking at processes of identity formation and expression through the body, we will investigate how queerness interconnects with other axes of social difference, including race, class, citizenship, and ability.

Instructor(s): E. Mercer     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 32670, TAPS 22670, GNSE 23163

TAPS 32680. Queering the American Family Drama. 100 Units.

This course will examine what happens to the American Family Drama on stage when the 'family' is queer. Working in dialogue with a current production at Court Theatre, we will move beyond describing surface representations into an exploration of how queering the family implicates narrative, plot, character, formal conventions, aesthetics and production conditions (e.g. casting, venues, audiences, marketing and critical reception). Texts will include theatrical plays and musicals, recorded and live productions, and queer performance theory. This course will be a combined seminar and studio, inviting students to investigate through readings, discussion, staging experiments, and a choice of either a final paper or artistic project.

Instructor(s): L. Buxbaum     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 20116, SIGN 26080, TAPS 22680, ENGL 22680, AMER 22680

TAPS 32690. (re)Queering the American Musical. 100 Units.

In this combined studio and seminar course, we explore a selection of musicals (tentatively including Fun Home, Falsettos, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, A Strange Loop, and Indecent) considering their dramatic structure, character construction, performance norms, and musical conventions. In what sense(s) are these works "queer"? Students will investigate course materials through readings, discussions, staging experiments, and a choice of either a final paper or an artistic project. Open to advanced undergraduates and graduate students. Previous experience in theater, music, and/or film analysis or production is preferred but not required; an interest in detailed textual analysis, rigorous discussion, and focused creative engagement is essential. Team-taught by Leslie Buxbaum (Professor of Practice in TAPS), Erin McKeown (Visiting Gray Center Fellow and composer of the musical "Miss You Like Hell"), and David Levin (Professor in TAPS, CMS, Germanics, and Sr Advisor to the Provost for Arts) as part of their collaborative Gray Center fellowship "An Un-dosical" which seeks to explore the norms of the American musical.

Instructor(s): L. Buxbaum, E. McKeown, D. Levin     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): MUSI 32622, MUSI 22622, TAPS 22690, GNSE 32690, GNSE 22690

TAPS 33130. Director as Creative Leader. 100 Units.

Directors in the contemporary theater and other creative spaces are responsible for leading teams and individuals through complex production processes. A director must inspire, give space to, manage, and guide production teams, designers, technical staff and actors to create collaboratively. This course will focus on how directors LEAD. We will explore leadership strategies in the theater and in other managerial fields such as sports, business, non-profits, and other creative disciplines. We will dig deep into the director's work as a coach for actors with a focus on creating space for emotional vulnerability, risk-taking, and empowerment in and outside the rehearsal room. Directors in the class will guide others in complex, emotional, dramatic texts to uncover strategies for handling interpersonal challenges. This class requires no previous experience but students must be willing to lead the room and receive feedback on how they do it.

Instructor(s): D. de Mayo     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 23130

TAPS 33910. Advanced Playwriting Workshop. 100 Units.

The goal of this playwriting workshop is for each student to end the quarter with a first draft of a full-length play. In addition to generating new material on a weekly basis, students will be expected to attend two Chicago-based productions for in-class discussion and criticism.

Instructor(s): C. West     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Attendance at first class meeting is mandatory
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 23910

TAPS 33915. Playwriting: Queer Form & Court Theatre's New Musical. 100 Units.

Students will write short plays or one longer play that experiment(s) with queer form. We will consider linear and non-linear structures, disrupting expectations, subverting conventions, and shifting between the fictional world of the play and the real-time presence of the audience. We will focus on how form is integral to queer content. Students are welcome to bring in projects in progress or the germ of an idea, including original stories, adaptations or autobiographical material. Designers interested in 'writing' from a designer perspective are also welcome. Our work will be in dialogue with the new musical Out Here at Court Theatre, for which instructor Leslie Buxbaum is the book writer & co-lyricist. Students will meet production collaborators and be invited to production activities that fall within winter quarter.

Instructor(s): L. Buxbaum     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 20163, GNSE 30163, TAPS 23915

TAPS 33930. Fundamentals of Playwriting. 100 Units.

This workshop will explore the underlying mechanics that have made plays tick for the last 2,500 odd years, from Euripedes to Shakespeare to Büchner to Caryl Churchill, Susan Lori-Parks, and Annie Baker, etc. Students will be asked to shamelessly steal those playwrights' tricks and techniques (if they're found useful), and employ them in the creation of their own piece. Designed for playwrights at any level (beginning or advanced), the workshop's primary goals will be to develop a personal sense of what "works" on stage within the context of what's worked in the past, and to generate a one act play, start to finish.

Instructor(s): M. Maher     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): ATTENDANCE AT FIRST CLASS IS MANDATORY.
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 23930

TAPS 33950. Latin American Women Perform. 100 Units.

This course examines the ways women from Latin America and the Caribbean wield performance art to engage their social realities and to engage questions of race, gender, and sexuality. How do women both produce and disidentify with constructs of womanhood on stage? How do they use performance to explore the ways histories of genocide, dictatorship, and imperialism shape constructs of gender? We examine the works of performance artists Congelada de Uva, Fomma, Regina Galindo, Nao Bustamante among others.

Instructor(s): D. Roper     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Taught in English. Basic knowledge or comprehension of Spanish is strongly recommended.
Equivalent Course(s): SPAN 33950, LACS 33950, GNSE 33950

TAPS 33980. Writing the Short, Short Play: Investigations in Micro-Drama. 100 Units.

Never in the history of western theater has brevity gotten so much attention. Festivals around the world are devoted to plays five minutes in length or less; perhaps the most revered playwright of the 20th century, Samuel Beckett, guided his career towards the writing of smaller and smaller works; Chicago's Neofuturists have profitably run their show of "thirty plays in sixty minutes" for over thirty years; Twitter accounts disseminate multiple two to three line scripts daily; and sketch comedy continues to evolve and thrive. This course will give an overview of the development of the very short play over the last one hundred and twenty years, but will primarily focus on the writing and development of same, asking students to complete - through workshop prompts - 20 to 30 scripts by end of quarter. A particular effort will be made to bring "traditional" elements of standard-length plays - character, arc, anagnorisis, pathos, backstory, etc - to these miniatures, to test and expand their assumed limitations.

Instructor(s): M. Maher     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Attendance at first class is mandatory.
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 23980

TAPS 33990. Playwriting and Performing with Non-Fiction Sources. 100 Units.

Students will write original performances based on non-fiction sources. How does a writer approach an actual event or someone else's experience? What are methods for collecting and adapting non-fictional material for performance? How do you navigate the blurred boundaries between what's 'real' and what's 'fiction', the inherent biases of interpretation, the stakes of performing as oneself and as other people, and the ethics of turning lived experience into staged performance? This is primarily a writing workshop and studio course with accompanying readings and viewings on documentary, verbatim, and ethnographic performance approaches. Course texts might include Tectonic Theater's The Laramie Project, Anna Deavere Smith's Twilight: Los Angeles 1992, the musical London Road, essays on performance ethnography and related topics by D. Soyini Madison, E. Patrick Johnson, and others. Students will work individually and collaboratively. The final project will be a short-form non-fiction performance piece with options for a written submission, staged reading, or performance presentation.

Instructor(s): L. Buxbaum     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 23990

TAPS 34050. New Play Development: Playwrights and Dramaturgs. 100 Units.

This class explores the new play development process from first to second draft and will culminate in a staged reading at the end of the quarter. All the roles of a traditional production process will be a part of this class, with students serving as: playwrights, directors, actors, and dramaturgs. What happens once the playwright is ready to invite in collaborators to develop a script? How does each person bring their unique point of view to the play? How can this process serve both the play and the artists involved? The class is studying the art, theory and process of development as well as working on our feet to try our hands at what we are discovering. We will work to develop student plays in which a first draft is already written. Playwrights with a complete, first draft of a play are encouraged to submit their work for this course and will be selected the quarter before this course is offered. To apply, please send your script and note of introduction to ddemayo@uchicago.edu. Students interested in taking on any of the other designated roles of a production team (actors, directors, dramaturgs) should select either TAPS 20450 New Play Development: Playwrights and Dramaturgs OR TAPS 20451 New Play Development: Directors and Actors. Once enrolled, course instructors will assign tasks taking into consideration student interest. For further information on the course or how to enroll, please contact ddemayo@uchicago.edu.

Instructor(s): Elizabeth Edele (Calamity West)     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 24050

TAPS 34051. New Play Development: Directors and Actors. 100 Units.

This class explores the new play development process from first to second draft and will culminate in a staged reading at the end of the quarter. All the roles of a traditional production process will be a part of this class, with students serving as: playwrights, directors, actors, and dramaturgs. What happens once the playwright is ready to invite in collaborators to develop a script? How does each person bring their unique point of view to the play? How can this process serve both the play and the artists involved? The class is studying the art, theory and process of development as well as working on our feet to try our hands at what we are discovering. We will work to develop student plays in which a first draft is already written. Students interested in taking on these designated roles of a production team (actors, directors, dramaturgs) should select either TAPS 20450 New Play Development: Playwrights and Dramaturgs OR TAPS 20451 New Play Development: Directors and Actors. Once enrolled, course instructors will assign tasks taking into consideration student interest. For further information on the course or how to enroll, please contact ddemayo@uchicago.edu. Playwrights with a complete, first draft of a play are encouraged to submit their work for the companion course TAPS 24050 and will be selected the quarter before this course is offered. To apply, please send your script and note of introduction to ddemayo@uchicago.edu.

Instructor(s): Devon de Mayo     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 24051

TAPS 34080. New Musical Development. 100 Units.

This class explores and replicates the professional theatrical process of new musical development, beginning with the concept for a show and ending with its premiere performance as an invited staged reading. Students will serve as book writers, lyricists, composers (Writing Team), and/or directors, music directors, actors, singers, and dramaturgs (Artistic Team) as they work together to craft and polish a new and viable work of musical theater. This class studies the art and theory behind theatrical storytelling, songwriting, directing, and originating new roles as actors, and students will work on their feet each week to bring their unique perspectives and skills to the creation of a new musical script, score, and performance. Creators with any amount of material towards a new musical (a full-length draft, a portion of a script and score, OR an outline) are encouraged to submit their work to selmegreen@uchicago.edu and lbdanzig@uchicago.edu beginning in Spring Quarter 2024, before this course is offered in Fall 2024. Students interested primarily in writing and/or composing should enroll in TAPS 24080 New Musical Development: Writing Team, while students primarily interested in acting, directing, music directing, and dramaturgy should enroll in TAPS 24081 New Play Development: Artistic Team. Questions? Curiosities? Please contact Scott Elmegreen (selmegreen@uchicago.edu) and Leslie Buxbaum (lbdanzig@uchicago.edu). Consent required.

Instructor(s): S. Elmegreen     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 24080, MUSI 24080

TAPS 34081. New Musical Development: Artistic Team. 100 Units.

This class explores and replicates the professional theatrical process of new musical development, beginning with the concept for a show and ending with its premiere performance as an invited staged reading. Students will serve as book writers, lyricists, composers (Writing Team), and/or directors, music directors, actors, singers, and dramaturgs (Artistic Team) as they work together to craft and polish a new and viable work of musical theater. This class studies the art and theory behind theatrical storytelling, songwriting, directing, and originating new roles as actors, and students will work on their feet each week to bring their unique perspectives and skills to the creation of a new musical script, score, and performance. Creators with any amount of material towards a new musical (a full-length draft, a portion of a script and score, OR an outline) are encouraged to submit their work to selmegreen@uchicago.edu and lbdanzig@uchicago.edu beginning in Spring Quarter 2024, before this course is offered in Fall 2024. Students interested primarily in writing and/or composing should enroll in TAPS 24080 New Musical Development: Writing Team, while students primarily interested in acting, directing, music directing, and dramaturgy should enroll in TAPS 24081 New Play Development: Artistic Team. Questions? Curiosities? Please contact Scott Elmegreen (selmegreen@uchicago.edu) and Leslie Buxbaum (lbdanzig@uchicago.edu).

Instructor(s): L. Buxbaum     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 24081, MUSI 24081

TAPS 34090. Celebrity Cultures: Divas, Queers, and Drags in Latin America. 100 Units.

This course takes students on a journey into the dazzling world of divas, queers, and drag performers who reshaped Latin America's cultural, social, and political repertoires. From Eva Perón's iconic political mythology and María Félix's femme fatale allure to the radical defiance of Pedro Lemebel and the cosmic magnetism of Walter Mercado, we will explore how these larger-than-life figures resisted and undermined heteronormative and misogynistic regimes. Engaging critical theory, queer studies, and aesthetic analysis, the course invites students to engage with the commodification of celebrity in the culture industry, the performative dynamics of identity, and queer culture's fascination with camp, glamour, and abjection. Revisiting concepts like the society of the spectacle and hyperreal personas, students will uncover how these icons transformed the public sphere and disrupted hegemonic power structures. The course also examines celebrity labor as affective production and the participatory cultures that turn fandom into a consumer community, and into a nostalgic and repetitive ritual in the context of digital neoliberalism. Through discussions, close readings of critical texts, and multimedia explorations of films and performances, students will learn how divas, queers, and drag performers redefined aesthetic innovation and became fearless agents of political subversion in the region and beyond. The course will be taught in Spanish and English.

Instructor(s): Carlos Gustavo Halaburda     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Prerequisite(s):
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 30158, SPAN 34990, TAPS 24090, SPAN 24990, GNSE 20158

TAPS 34118. Scores and Graphic Performance. 100 Units.

The performance score is a visual/textual work unto itself. Scores also provide performers and audiences with a language to understand the work. In this way, scores are documents of performative world-building while at the same time offering pathways into those worlds. This is a course about producing writing, drawing, and trace-making for the purpose of some other action - the performance of some unknown. Students will consider, in particular, how diasporic artists and writers have used writing, drawing, and mark-making as tools for inhabiting and re-enlivening performances of the past, theoretical performances, and those performances difficult to transcribe or translate. Students will have several opportunities over the course of the term to create and perform scores including their own in various media.

Instructor(s): A.M. Whitehead     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): PQ: ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 24118, MUSI 24118, CRWR 26342, ARTV 24118, ARTV 34118

TAPS 34410. Transmedia Puzzle Design & Performance. 100 Units.

This course will introduce students to the burgeoning field of immersive puzzle design. Students will develop, implement and playtest puzzles that are suited for a range of experiences: from the tabletop to the immersive, from online puzzle hunts to broad-scoped alternate reality games (ARG). Students in this course will work directly with master puzzler, Sandor Wiesz, the commissioner of The Mystery League.

Instructor(s): S. Weisz     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): MADD 24410, TAPS 24410

TAPS 34460. Playable Theater and Transmedia Games. 100 Units.

Over the 21st century, the internet has shifted from an information exchange platform to a performance medium. Especially following the pandemic, the landscape of live performance and interactive art has also changed. This course invites directors, designers, performers, and writers to explore theater experiments in digital and networked environments. The term "playable theater" highlights a new constellation of participatory, interactive, immersive, site-specific, and technologically-augmented performance events in which audiences have substantial agency and can actively influence elements or outcomes of a performance. Together, we will examine the transition from traditional stage performance to interactive online experiences, highlighting the potential of various forms such as netprov, alternate reality games (ARGs), online live-action role-playing (LARPs), live-streaming performance, interactive theater, and even video games. By integrating popular social media platforms, from Instagram to TikTok, students will push the boundaries of storytelling and audience engagement. Students will engage in a series of hands-on workshops, lectures, and design sprints as well conversations with guest artists. Work will involve short-form, interactive original works shifting between in-person and online platforms. No prior experience with coding or video production is required, making this course accessible to all creative and collaborative minds.

Instructor(s): Patrick Jagoda, Heidi Coleman     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): PQ: Third or fourth-year standing
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 24460, ARTV 20875, ENGL 48760, MADD 20750, ENGL 28760, BPRO 28750, ARTV 30875

TAPS 34720. Medea and the making of theater. 100 Units.

This class on Euripides' Medea will work in lockstep with an upcoming production at the Court Theatre of the Luis Alfaro's Mojada, a Medea that will be set in the Chicago neighborhood of Pilsen, which examines the tragedy of the American immigration system through the story of one family from Mexico. We will discuss the construction of the play through its performance, both in its original setting and each time it is adapted and staged, and will examine the circumstances of immigration in American portrayed by Luis Alfaro, who will be involved in the course as well as the production. We will attend rehearsals and talk to the director, crew and performers of the play as the production takes shape and will also attend the play at the end of the term. Readings will include Medea by Euripides, as well as a number of adaptions and critical texts. (No knowledge of Greek is required for the course, but those who wish to take it as a Greek course will have additional reading assignments in Greek.)

Terms Offered: Winter. Winter 2027
Prerequisite(s): No knowledge of Greek is required for the course, but those who wish to take it as a Greek course will have additional reading assignments in Greek.
Equivalent Course(s): GREK 28926, TAPS 24720, CLCV 28926, CLAS 38926, GREK 38926

TAPS 34770. Digital Media Aesthetics: Interaction, Connection, and Improvisation. 100 Units.

This course investigates the ways that digital and networked media have changed contemporary aesthetics, forms, storytelling practices, and cultures. Along the way, we will analyze electronic literature, Twine games, interactive dramas, video games, transmedia narratives, and more. Formally, we will explore concepts such as multilinear narrative, immersive and navigable worlds, network aesthetics, interactive difficulty, aleatory poetics, and videogame mechanics. Throughout the quarter, our analysis of computational media aesthetics will be haunted by matters of race, gender, sexuality, class, and other ghosts in the machine. Students need not be technologically gifted or savvy, but a wide-ranging imagination and interest in new media cultures will make for a more exciting quarter. (20th/21st)

Instructor(s): Patrick Jagoda     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 67870, CMST 37870, ENGL 34770, GNSE 34770

TAPS 34801. Contemporary Opera I (Theory) 100 Units.

TBD

Instructor(s): Hans Thomalla     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): MUSI 28701, MUSI 38701

TAPS 34802. Contemporary Opera II (Performance) 100 Units.

TBD

Instructor(s): Hans Thomalla     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): MUSI 38702

TAPS 35001. Theatricality in Modern Art from 1700 to the Present. 100 Units.

We examine the dramatic dimension of art in the modern era broadly speaking, paying attention to recurring themes like the Aristotelian theory of acton, the Diderotian theory of acting, and the linguistic theory of speech acts, as well as to momentous historical events like the French Revolution, the rediscovery of antiquity, and the advent of photography and motion pictures. Paradigms that have been influential in one or another discipline like Michael Fried's theory of theatricality (in art history), Heinrich Kleist's theory of puppets (In German literature and theatre theory) and Friedrich Nietzsche's theory of tragedy (in music and philosophy) and will also be scrutinized.

Instructor(s): Andrei Pop
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 35001, SCTH 35001

TAPS 35050. Adaptation Laboratory: Staging Berlin at Court Theatre. 100 Units.

From 2000-2018, the graphic novelist Jason Lutes published Berlin, a sprawling, formally inventive, & idiosyncratic account of life in the German capital city during the years just prior to National Socialism. Court Theatre, the Tony award winning professional theater on the UChicago campus, has commissioned the playwright Mickle Maher to prepare an adaptation of Lutes' novel for Court's 2024-25 season; David Levin is the collaborating dramaturg. This interdisciplinary team-taught seminar invites students into the process of adaptation, exploring a range of practical, conceptual & artistic challenges. The course will take place in two locations: at Court Theatre (where we will attend rehearsals for the world premiere production, from first rehearsal through opening) and in a theater lab on campus, where we will consider a range of critical and creative materials - e.g., Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori's adaptation of Alison Bechdel's graphic novel Fun Home or Walter Ruttmann's 1927 film "Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis" - to establish a dialogue between Lutes' novel, its progenitors, and the work in Court's rehearsal room. An additional & significant component of our work will involve creative exercises. Students will prepare adaptations of their own - first, of Lutes' novel, then of works of their own choosing. Artists from Court's production will join us for workshop sessions. The seminar aims to serve as a creative and critical forum, exploring the challenges of adaptation.

Instructor(s): David Levin and Mickle Maher     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): An interest in the graphic novel and/or 20th century German history & culture is welcome but not required. An active interest in – and a willingness to think critically and creatively about – the practices of interpretation on stage is essential.
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 35050, CDIN 25050, CDIN 35050, ARTV 20807, TAPS 25050, ARTV 30807

TAPS 35100. Religion and Performance. 100 Units.

This course explores the intersection of religion and performance/theatre through the lenses of performance studies that highlight religious practices, investigate worship practices that incorporate theatrical modes, and examine representations of religion and faith practices in and through secular performances. We will study disparate performances of religion (such as prayer, dances, stage plays, music, and art) that involve major religions of the world and some minor ones. Performance activities allow the experimentation and embodied expressions that can authorize normativity as well as enable transgressions. What this homology of religion and performance ultimately shows is a recognition of their mutual expressive force, infinite creative potential, and the power of human imagination. Students will learn practices of meaning that play on all the chords of the sensorium from where cognition and experience emerge or co-arise.

Instructor(s): Abimbola Adelakun     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates may petition to enroll.
Equivalent Course(s): AASR 35100, RAME 35100, HCHR 35100

TAPS 35170. Pro Show. 100 Units.

Students who are participating in the TAPS Pro Show as either performers or design/production assistants may opt in for course credit after securing approval from the Director of Performance and completing additional assignments.

Instructor(s): D. de Mayo     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring. This course may be repeated for credit.
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 25170

TAPS 35214. Theater in East and Central Europe: Between Power and Powerlessness. 100 Units.

National independence movements, revolutions, authoritarian regimes, and the decline of empire: playwrights in East and Central Europe wrote major works of world literature in response to these events - and sometimes in prescient anticipation of them. This seminar introduces students to the plays that, from Chekhov to Havel, shaped the fates of nations. Topics include: the avant-garde, theater of the absurd, acting methods, performance art, and documentary theater.

Instructor(s): Ania Aizman     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 26040, REES 24404, TAPS 25214, REES 34404

TAPS 35805. Blackness in Latin America: Popular Culture, Performance and Visual Art, and Discourses of Mestizaje. 100 Units.

The course examines how blackness has been both constructed and reimagined across Latin America and the Caribbean through an exploration of the performance and cultural practices of Afro-Latin communities. We treat popular and performance traditions as a crucial terrain for discerning how Black people across the region navigate discourses of racial democracy, mestizaje, multiculturalism, and racial fraternity even as they faced the realities of racism in individual nations. The course examines imaginations of blackness in hip hop, reggaetón, rumba, folklore, carnivals, and visual art in varied sites such as Cuba, Puerto Rico, Peru, Colombia, and Brazil. Grounded in Black and Diaspora Studies, the writings of Frantz Fanon, W.E.B. Dubois, Paul Gilroy and others will serve as theoretical touchstones for placing these forms and lived realities in diasporic context. We will also engage the work of noted and upcoming Black artists from the region.

Instructor(s): Danielle Roper     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates must be in their third or fourth year.
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 25805, SPAN 34550, LACS 24550, RDIN 24550, LACS 34550, SPAN 24550, RDIN 34550

TAPS 35910. Racine. 100 Units.

Racine's tragedies are often considered the culminating achievement of French classicism. Most famous for his powerful re-imaginings of Greek myth (Phèdre, Andromaque), his tragic universe nevertheless ranged considerably wider, from ancient Jewish queens to a contemporary Ottoman harem. We will consider the roots (from Euripides to Corneille) of his theatrical practice as well as its immense influence on future writers (from Voltaire to Proust, Beckett, and Genet).

Instructor(s): Larry Norman     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Prerequisite(s): At least one French literature course, 21700 or higher.
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 28476, FNDL 25910, FREN 35910, FREN 25910

TAPS 35950. Beckett and Media. 100 Units.

Though best known for a single play, Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett was a poet, novelist, short-story writer, playwright, translator, and critic with a voluminous output. This course introduces students to the variety and influence of one of the central figures in twentieth-century literature and theater by considering Beckett's better-known plays-both on the page and in recorded performances-alongside select novels, criticism, film, radio, and television pieces. Among the questions we will ask are: What can Beckett's experiments across media teach us about the presumed and actual limits of form? What happens when a medium becomes the means of its own undoing? What can we learn from Beckett's career about cardinal developments in twentieth-century drama, literature, film, and television? (20th/21st, Drama)

Instructor(s): John Muse     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): FNDL 26960, TAPS 25950, ENGL 26960, ENGL 35950

TAPS 36170. Dance Pro-Show. 100 Units.

This course gives students the opportunity to learn repertory and new works by professional guest choreographers and faculty, culminating in a weekend of performances at Logan Center for the Arts. Within an immersive quarter-long production schedule, students will be exposed to a wide array of movement vocabularies, choreographic methods and performance aesthetics, while also gaining practical skills within the many facets of professional production work. Readings, viewings, and weekly journals will supplement studio and production work, connecting each student's experience to broader conversations within dance and performance studies. With a range of performance and production opportunities, this course will accommodate and challenge both trained dancers and movement-curious beginners.

Instructor(s): J. Rhoads     Terms Offered: Winter. This course may be repeated for credit.
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 26170

TAPS 36205. Dance Improvisation in Theory and Practice. 100 Units.

This course has a strong component of movement practice and is open to students of any experience level who are willing to move with creativity and generosity. The course takes a broad look at dance improvisation, exploring in equal parts key theoretical readings, historic and contemporary performance examples, and movement practices in the classroom. On its surface, improvisation is often understood to be based on total freedom or openness, where any movement choice can be made. Here, the notion of freedom in improvisation is reconsidered through the sociopolitical realities of how dancers' bodies move through society, and across the studio or stage.

Instructor(s): R. Russell     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 26215

TAPS 36212. Dancing South Asia. 100 Units.

This course introduces students to a range of dance and performance practices from the region of South Asia and its related diaspora. Throughout, we will explore critical examinations of South Asian dance and performing arts to consider history, identity, politics, and creativity. This course combines both theoretical study and movement practice and will investigate a range of research approaches and movement styles. No prior dance or performance experience is required.

Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 26212, SALC 26212, SALC 36212

TAPS 36220. Dance, Identity, and Appropriation. 100 Units.

This survey course will look at the ways that dance-across genres, geographies, and histories-has negotiated, challenged, and complicated ideas of identity and authority. Grounded in histories including the 1893 World Columbian Exposition, where Swedish-American Christine Olson performed Turkish dance on the Midway, as well as modern dance pioneer Ruth St. Denis' imitation of the Indianness she encountered on a cigarette ad, we will explore case studies including American minstrel traditions, hip hop dance, the Nutcracker and other classical ballets, dance tourism like Hula and West African forms, viral K-pop dance tutorials, and more. These case studies will be used to discover how dance, and the dancing body, performs and problematizes appropriation. Part seminar/part practicum, assignments will include short written papers and performance projects including dance reconstructions.

Instructor(s): E. Leopold     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 26220, RDIN 36220, RDIN 26220

TAPS 36225. Dancing Chicago. 100 Units.

With the publication of Dancing on the Third Coast: Chicago Dance Histories as text (University of Illinois Press, eds. Susan Manning and Lizzie Leopold), this course takes students out of the classroom to experience, historicize, and critically engage with dance across the city. Students will ask how social and theatrical dancing has shaped the city, and how the city in turn has shaped dancing bodies-in nightclubs and in settlement houses, at world's fairs and in theaters, on film and in the street. With the new historical perspective and critical view, students will produce a dance event as a final project.

Instructor(s): J. Furnans     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CHST 26225, TAPS 26225

TAPS 36235. Gender and the Dancing Body. 100 Units.

This course explores the relationship between dancing bodies and gender identity in locations such as the stage, nightclubs, on social media, in film, and on the streets. Anchored in intersectional perspectives, the course examines dance as a site of personal and cultural history, resistance, and protest, while also considering its connections to nation and race. The aim of this course is to explore how ideas about gender and sexuality have shaped formal and aesthetic approaches to dance, even as dance serves as a space for contesting normative ideologies. This discussion-based seminar includes film screenings, guest artist sessions, and a final creative project. No previous dance experience required.

Instructor(s): E. Kilmurray     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 26235, GNSE 12145

TAPS 36240. Black Experimentation in Dance. 100 Units.

In this course, experimentation is explored as a choreographic approach to dancing and making dances. Grounded in process, practice, inquiry, and improvisation, experimentation has a long history in Black expressive culture. This class pairs readings at the intersection of Black performance theory, feminist and queer of color theory, and Black dance studies with examples of dance performances and artists interrogating topics such as the problem of aesthetic categorization, navigating racial visibility/invisibility onstage, and the politics of Black dancing bodies. The class focuses on concert dance in the United States, but may cover examples from social dance, popular entertainment, performance art, and global contexts.

Instructor(s): Tara Aisha Willis     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 36240, TAPS 26240, GNSE 26240

TAPS 36260. Katherine Dunham: Politics in Motion. 100 Units.

This course traces the creative, political, and scholarly legacies of Katherine Dunham (1909-2006), exploring the immeasurable impact of her career as a dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, activist, and creator of the Dunham Technique. Students will merge embodied practice with in-class discussions of theoretical texts, questioning the role of Black dance traditions of the 20th century in helping shape transnational and Black diaspora studies. In keeping with the geographic scope of Dunham's practice and research, we will engage Black dance and social movements of the Caribbean, Latin America, the United States, and beyond. Central concepts of performance ethnography, Caribbean studies, and Black feminisms will anchor an investigation of dance as an intellectual process and as social action. We will contemplate the methods of artist-activists and artist-scholars in traversing disciplines and foregrounding new fields of thought. This course will balance training with a certified practitioner in Dunham Technique with field studies, archival research, and short choreographic experiments while taking advantage of concurrent city-wide events celebrating Dunham's legacy. No previous dance experience is required, and students should be prepared to engage through the body as well as intellectually in each class.

Instructor(s): R. Russell     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CHST 26260, TAPS 26260, RDIN 26260

TAPS 36265. Dance, Labor, Economics. 100 Units.

What is a dance worth? This course offers a critical look at practical skills and structures, with an aim to understand how embodied art is valued (both culturally and financially). How have art markets and cultural ideologies collided within the performing body itself? Case studies come from taxes levied against strip clubs, museum acquisitions of conceptual and choreographic art, artistic estate planning, performance licensing and copyright, and twentieth century mail-order dance instruction. Students take on both historical case studies and tackle contemporary questions of nonprofit management, performer compensation, and market valuation. Students will engage these questions through readings, viewings, and discussion, as well as practical exercises.

Instructor(s): E. Leopold     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 26265

TAPS 36275. Embodied Histories. 100 Units.

When does history require "more than words"? Are there histories that our bodies express that are not easily accessible through texts? This course explores relationships between the body, movement, and history, with a focus on dance. Co-taught by a dancer (Meredith Dincolo) and historian (Tara Zahra) we will combine weekly studio practice and seminar-style discussion. Subjects will include how human bodies archive history and can serve as sources for historians, the history of embodied knowledge, and the challenges of archiving and reconstructing dance. We will also consider how social and concert dance represent and reflect history. Assignments will include readings as well as viewing choreographic works on video; discussion of texts and videos; writing analyses of dances informed by the readings; attending relevant performances in Chicago and participating in a weekly studio-based class session in which we explore, through movement, the themes under consideration that week. Finally, each student will complete a final project in which they develop and share an embodied biography or personal history. You do not need to have any dance experience to take this course, but you must be willing to move!

Instructor(s): T. Zahra and M. Dincolo     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CHST 29406, HIST 29406, HIST 39406, TAPS 26275

TAPS 36280. Site-Based Practice: Choreographing The Smart Museum. 100 Units.

This course gives students the unique opportunity to create a collaborative, site-based work that culminates in a final performance at UChicago's Smart Museum of Art. Using embodied research methods that respond to site through moving, sensing, and listening, we'll explore the relationship between the ephemerality of movement and the materiality of bodies and place, and consider how the site-based contexts for dance shift how it is perceived, experienced, and valued. Our quarter-long creation process will begin with a tour of the Smart Museum, guided by curators and members of the Public Practice team, that will provide context to the museum's exhibitions, programming, and its relationship to geography and community. Assigned readings, viewings, and conversations with guest artists will delve into the relationship between dance and the sites where it happens, including museums-from the material relationship between bodies, objects, and architecture to the digital flows of choreography online.

Instructor(s): J. Rhoads     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 30027, ARCH 26280, ARTV 20027, CHST 26280, TAPS 26280

TAPS 36285. Site-based Practice: Choreographing the Logan Center. 100 Units.

Students will be given a unique opportunity to create a collaborative, site-based work that culminates in a final performance at UChicago's Logan Center for the Arts. Using embodied research methods that respond to site through moving, sensing, and listening, we'll explore the relationship between the ephemerality of movement and the materiality of bodies and place, and consider how the site-based contexts for dance shift how it is perceived, experienced, and valued. Our quarter-long creation process will begin with a tour of the Logan Center that will provide context to the building's departments, exhibitions, programming, and its relationship to geography and community. Assigned readings, viewings, and conversations with guest artists will delve into the relationship between embodied performance and the sites where it happens-including multidisciplinary community-oriented spaces such as the Logan Center-and will consider the material relationship between bodies, objects, and architecture as well as the digital flows of choreography projected on buildings and exchanged online.

Instructor(s): J. Rhoads     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ARCH 26285, ARTV 30628, TAPS 26285, ARTV 20628, CHST 26285

TAPS 36290. Mapping Black Social Dance: Hip Hop and House in the Community and Onstage. 100 Units.

This hybrid studio/seminar course offers an overview of the formal techniques, cultural contexts, and social trends that shape current Black social and vernacular dance practices. Modules will be built around Black social culture by looking at key histories and theories around Black dance, music and other cultural aesthetics from hip hop to house. As part of our exploration, we will cover themes such as: the Great Migration, the range of Black social dance forms from blues, jazz, disco, and dancehall that have influenced the evolution of hip hop and house on global scale; and the spectrum of social spaces from clubs to lounges and public events that have been critical to preserving Black cultural heritage and creating safe spaces for belonging and flourishing. Selected readings and viewings will supplement movement practice to give historical, cultural, and political context.

Instructor(s): M. McNeal     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CHST 26290, RDIN 36290, TAPS 26290, RDIN 26290, MUSI 23620, MUSI 33620

TAPS 36350. Wagner's "Ring" in Performance. 100 Units.

Offered in conjunction with Lyric Opera's production of "Siegfried", this course considers Richard Wagner's tetralogy "The Ring of the Nibelung" by examining its musical language, scenic terms, political aspirations, and production history. While we will consider "The Ring" in its entirety, we will focus on "Siegfried" complementing our readings and discussions with field-trips to rehearsals at Lyric Opera, seeking to understand the Chicago production in a broader context of stage productions prepared over the course of the past 50 years.

Instructor(s): David Levin, Steven Rings     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): No prerequisites
Note(s): An interest in one or more of the following is preferable: opera, musicology, German studies, theater & performance studies.
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 29350, MUSI 25918, MUSI 35918, TAPS 26350, GRMN 39350

TAPS 36511. Opera without Borders. 100 Units.

Opera without Borders" explores how markers of race, indigeneity, and other identities blur historical time and disrupt geopolitical space on the operatic stage. How does opera operate in the new arenas of cosmopolitan citizenship during our present historical moment, when the unitary monoliths of nations, citizens, and identities are no longer firmly in place and means of travel and communication are quickly transforming? How and why have patterns of exploration, trade, and migration, forced and voluntary, colonial and decolonial, generated new operatic genres, new means of operatic production, and new kinds of opera producers (librettists, composers, directors, choreographers, dramaturgs, etc.)?  Among our cases are the Royal Shakespeare Company's Orphan of Zhao (2012); the Paris Opera's hiphop staging of Rameau's Les indes galantes (2019); Schikaneder and Mozart's Magic Flute (1791) reimagined as Impempe Yomlingo (2007-2011) by the township artists of Capetown; and circulations of Cantonese opera in Chinatowns from Vancouver and San Francisco to New York and Honolulu.

Instructor(s): Martha Feldman and Judith Zeitlin     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): EALC 34022, EALC 23022, MUSI 34022, TAPS 26511, MUSI 24022, GNSE 24022, GNSE 34022

TAPS 37850. Immersive Sound Design for Live Performance. 100 Units.

In film, sound design is expressive, immersive, and dense, but once complete it's fixed in time forever. This course will explore ways to translate the technical and narrative approaches of cinematic sound design to the dynamic context of live performance (dance, theater, puppetry, etc.). Using a variety of tools and practices from Ableton Live to field recording, students will learn how to create cinematic sonic experiences that are responsive to and imbued with liveness. Final projects will culminate in an evening of live sound-based performances.

Instructor(s): B. Kaufmann     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 27850, MUSI 27850, MADD 20850

TAPS 38010. Stage Design: Worldbuilding. 100 Units.

Stage Design: Worldbuilding explores various forms and processes of designing scenery for live performance. Emphasizing a cohesive reading of text, contextual and historical research, and visual and thematic analysis, the course also covers the documentation required to realize a production. Students will learn how to create and present key deliverables including storyboards, models, drafting, and paint elevations. The course examines diverse approaches and aesthetics in theater, dance, opera, and devised work. Conversations with guest artists will illuminate personal and cultural aesthetics and assigned readings will introduce major trends in modern stage design.

Instructor(s): R. Davonté Johnson     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 20813, TAPS 28010, MADD 21010

TAPS 38320. The Mind as Stage: Podcasting. 100 Units.

Audio storytelling insinuates itself into the day-to-day unlike other narrative forms. People listen to podcasts while they do the dishes, drive to work, or walk the dog. In this hands-on course, we will learn to produce a podcast from idea to final sound mix, and explore the unique opportunities that the podcast form affords the storyteller. Students will complete several short audio exercises, and one larger podcast project.

Instructor(s): S. Geis     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Attendance at first class session is mandatory.
Equivalent Course(s): MADD 23820, TAPS 28320

TAPS 38330. Oral History & Podcasting. 100 Units.

This class explores the potential of the podcast as a form of ethical artistic and social practice. Through the lens of oral history and its associated values - including prioritizing voices that are not often heard, reciprocity, complicating narratives, and the archive- we will explore ways to tell stories of people and communities in sound. Students will develop a grounding in oral history practices and ethics, as well as the skills to produce compelling oral narratives, including audio editing, recording scenes and ambient sound, and using music. During the quarter, students will have several opportunities to practice interviewing and will design their own oral history project. This class is appropriate for students with no audio experience, as well as students who have taken TAPS 28320 The Mind as Stage: Podcasting.

Instructor(s): S. Geis     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CHST 28330, TAPS 28330, MADD 23833

TAPS 38360. Screendance: Movement and New Media. 100 Units.

This course will explore the evolving relationship between moving bodies and video technologies. From early filmmakers using dancers as test subjects, to movie musicals and contemporary dance for the camera festivals, mediatization of the body continues to challenge the ephemerality of live dance performance. This course focuses on the growing field of screendance, videodance, or dance-on-camera, working to define this hybrid genre and to understand the collaborative roles of choreographer, director, dancer, cameraman, and video editor. This course is both a practical and scholarly approach to the genre of screendance, each component essential to a full understanding and mastery of the other. Course work will be divided between the studio and the classroom. For the studio component, students will learn basic video editing and filming techniques. For the classroom component, students will be asked to watch screendance and read a cross-section of criticism. Assignments will be both technological and choreographic (making screendance) and scholarly (written reflections and a seminar paper).

Instructor(s): L. Leopold     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Attendance at first class is mandatory.
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 28360, CMST 28360, MADD 23860

TAPS 38373. US Imperialism and Cultural Practice in Latin America. 100 Units.

This course examines the ways histories of US intervention in Latin America have been engaged in cultural practice. We assess the history of US intervention by reading primary documents alongside cultural artifacts including film, performance and visual art, song, music, and poetry. The course begins with the Cuban revolution and ends with the ongoing crisis in Puerto Rico.

Instructor(s): Danielle Roper     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): SPAN 35660, TAPS 28473, LACS 25660, SPAN 25660, LACS 35660

TAPS 38421. Theater for Social Change. 100 Units.

Augusto Boal argues that theatre is "rehearsal for the revolution." Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed provides key strategies for collaboratively crafting dramatic narrative. These strategies challenge the conventional Aristotelian structure that privileges a single protagonist and subordinates other stories. Instead, Boal structures a poetics in which the "spect-actor" contributes their voice. Students will engage in devising and embodiment exercises in Image Theatre, Newspaper Theatre, Forum Theatre, and more, by interpreting texts, (e.g., religious texts, constitutional documents, or political manifestos), interrogating current events, exploring public narratives, and valuing diverse learning styles. Students will contextualize destinations for the course material according to the aesthetic and academic questions that they bring into the classroom. To consider ethical concerns surrounding participatory theatre, we will examine arts groups past and present that employ the techniques of the Theatre of the Oppressed. Readings include Boal, Freire, Jan Cohen-Cruz, Michael Rohd, bell hooks, and Knight and Schwarzman.

Instructor(s): D. Serna     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Attendance at first class is mandatory
Equivalent Course(s): RDIN 28421, TAPS 28421

TAPS 38470. Molière: Comedy, Power and Subversion. 100 Units.

Molière crafted a new form of satirical comedy that revolutionized European theater, though it encountered strong opposition from powerful institutions. We will read the plays in the context of the literary, dramatic, and theatrical/performance traditions which he reworked (farce, commedia dell'arte, Latin comedy, Spanish Golden Age theater, satiric poetry, the novel), while considering the relationship of laughter to social norms, with particular emphasis on sexuality, gender roles, and cultural identities.

Instructor(s): Larry Norman     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Prerequisite(s): FREN 20500 or FREN 20503.
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 28470, FREN 35000, FNDL 25001, FREN 25000

TAPS 38478. Molière Embodied. 100 Units.

This course will use Molière-the most famous French classical playwright and the most studied one outside of France-as testing grounds for some of the most exciting theoretical frameworks focusing on embodiment that have emerged in literary studies and cultural studies over the last few decades. What happens when we start thinking through the aversion to physicians and the distrust of medicine for which Molière's comedies are known with the help of Disability studies and Medical Humanities? What becomes visible about Molière's participation in the invention of racial whiteness in seventeenth-century Europe when we read his plays of conversion to Islam and enslavement in the Mediterranean through the lens of Premodern Critical Race Studies (PCRS)? How can the concerns and tenets of Queer studies enrich and complicate the more established feminist accounts of Molière's place in "la querelle des femmes," his ideas about gender and sexuality, and his embrace of the normative violence of comedic laughter? What new dimensions does Molière's keen interest in transformation and transcendence in the latter half of his career take on when we rethink it in light of Trans studies' epistemological tools? By applying the theoretical frameworks of Disability studies, Critical Race studies, Queer studies, and Trans studies to Molière's plays, and by comparing those plays to the source texts from which Molière was drawing to compose them, we will ask new questions.

Instructor(s): Larry Norman, Noémie Ndiaye     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): RDIN 25550, FREN 25550, RDIN 35550, TAPS 28478, FREN 35550, GNSE 35551, GNSE 25551

TAPS 38480. The Worlds of Harlequin: Commedia Dell'arte. 100 Units.

This course is an introduction to the Italian art of theatrical improvisation or commedia dell'arte, a type of theater featuring masked characters and schematic plots. We will look at the influence of Boccaccio's Decameron on the formation of stock-characters, the introduction of women into the realm of theatrical professionalism, the art of costume and mask making, and the Italian knack for pantomime and gestural expression. Readings include such masterpieces in the tradition of comic theater as Machiavelli's The Mandrake and Goldoni's Harlequin Servant of Two Masters, as well as their renditions in film.

Instructor(s): Rocco Rubini     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 39601, TAPS 28480, ITAL 29600

TAPS 38481. Machiavelli: Politics and Theater. 100 Units.

Arguably the most debated political theorist of all time due to The Prince, Machiavelli genuinely aspired to be remembered for his creative prowess. He explored various literary genres, such as short stories, dialogues, satirical poetry, letter writing, and, notably, theater, where he demonstrated mastery with The Mandrake, an exemplary Renaissance comedy. This course aims to reintegrate these two aspects of Machiavelli: the serious politician and the facetious performer, a Janus-faced figure who serves as a precursor of both Hobbes and Montaigne. We will revive the image of this "Renaissance man," and, through him, shed light on his era and fellow humanists by restoring their intellectual unity of prescription and laughter. Indeed, we will discover that Machiavelli encourages us not to take things, including him and ourselves, too seriously! Taught in English.

Instructor(s): Rocco Rubini     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 25550, ITAL 25550, TAPS 28481, CMLT 35550, FNDL 29305, ITAL 35550

TAPS 38702. Italian Comic Theater. 100 Units.

A survey of the history of Italian theater from the Erudite Renaissance Comedy to Goldoni's reform. We will pay particular attention to the tradition of commedia dell'arte (scenarios, stock characters, and plot formation), ancient and medieval influences, evolution and emancipation of female characters, and the question of language. Readings include works by Plautus, Ariosto, Machiavelli, Angelo Beolco (Ruzante), Flaminio Scala, and Goldoni. Toward the end of the course we will consider the legacy of Italian Comedy in relation to the birth of grotesque and realist drama in Pirandello.

Instructor(s): Rocco Rubini     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 38702, TAPS 28702, ITAL 28702

TAPS 40500. Adaptation Laboratory: Staging Berlin. 100 Units.

From 2000-2018, the graphic novelist Jason Lutes published Berlin, a sprawling, formally inventive, & idiosyncratic account of life in the Weimar Republic. Court Theatre has commissioned the playwright Mickle Maher to prepare an adaptation of Lutes' novel; David Levin is the collaborating dramaturg. The production is slated for Court's 2023-24 season. This interdisciplinary seminar invites students into the process of adaptation, exploring a broad range of conceptual & artistic challenges. We will consider works in a host of genres - e.g., Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori's adaptation of Alison Bechdel's graphic novel Fun Home or Walter Ruttmann's 1927 film "Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis" - to establish a dialogue between Lutes' work, its progenitors, and a range of theoretical materials. An additional & significant component of our work will involve creative exercises. Students will prepare adaptations of their own - first, of Lutes' novel, then of works of their own choosing. We will invite collaborators from the production to join us for workshop sessions. The seminar seeks to serve as an adaptation laboratory, exploring & investigating theoretical stakes and practical problems while seeking to reshape those stakes and problems into diverse forms of practice.

Instructor(s): David J. Levin and Mickle Maher     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): An interest in some combination of theater & performance practice, translation, adaptation, German culture and/or German history would be welcome. Note: Undergrads admitted by permission
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 40500, CDIN 40500, ARTV 33834, GRMN 35523

TAPS 41401. Opera Film: China / Europe: Thinking Media Hybridity across Cases. 100 Units.

This seminar will explore the mutual attraction of cinema and opera across the two vast operatic cultures of Europe and China in order to interrogate the many cross-cultural issues that their media encounters produce and accentuate. Such issues include changing relations to myth, ritual, history, and politics; cross-dressing and gender-bending; closed forms or open; stock characters wand plots or narrative fluidity. We will ask why in both China and Europe, opera repeatedly became the conflicted site of nationalist and modernizing aspirations, reiterations of tradition, and attempts at avant-gardism. When the presumed realism of film meets the extravagant hyperperformativity of opera, the encounter produces some extraordinary third kinds-media hybrids. Film repeatedly wrestled with the inherent histrionics of opera through the use of such devices as close-ups, camera angles, shot reverse shot, displacement of sound from sight, acousmatic sound, and trick photography. Such devices were generally meant to suture the supposed improbabilities of the operatic art form, incongruities often based on extravagant and transcendent relationships to realism. Such cinematic renderings of opera are highly revealing of fundamental faultlines in the genres themselves and revealing of the cultures that produced them.

Instructor(s): J. Zeitlin and M. Feldman     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 44601, ITAL 41419, EALC 41401, CDIN 41401, MUSI 45019

TAPS 41450. Peach Blossom Fan: Theater, History, and Politics. 100 Units.

This seminar probes the interplay of history, politics, and theatricality in Kong Shangren's Peach Blossom Fan, his dramatic masterpiece of 1699, which brilliantly depicts the fall of the Ming dynasty in 1644-1645 on multiple social, cultural, and ritual fronts, from the pleasure quarters and the imperial court to the Confucian Temple and the battlefield. Issues to be addressed include: the representation and reassessment of late Ming entertainment culture--courtesans, actors, storytellers, musicians, booksellers, painters; metatheatricality; memory and commemoration; props and material culture; the dissemination of news and (mis)information; the reenactment of the past on the stage, as we contextualize Peach Blossom Fan within the early Qing literary and theatrical world in which it was created and performed. We'll also examine the interplay of history, politics, and theatricality in the modern reception of the play by analyzing its modern and contemporary incarnations in spoken drama, feature film, and different operatic genres.

Instructor(s): J. Zeitlin     Terms Offered: Winter `
Note(s): Reading knowledge of modern and classical Chinese is desirable but not required. The course is open to MAPH students as well as Phd students.
Equivalent Course(s): EALC 41450

TAPS 41455. Music and Sound in Chinese Literature. 100 Units.

This course examines key texts from antiquity through the 18th century related to music and sound. "Literature" is construed broadly to include the many genres in which music or sound play a principle part: philosophical and scientific essays; anecdotes, biographies, and tales; poems and informal essays; songbooks, formularies, and scores; encyclopedias and manuals. The course will be organized historically and thematically. Some of the issues we hope to investigate: the role of music in ritual and governance; theories of the voice and sound production; the translation of sound into words, and what is lost and gained; the pictorial representation of sound and listening; the relation between music and emotion; the social roles of musicians and entertainers; and the cultural significance of musical instruments. Advanced undergraduates with instructor's permission.

Instructor(s): J. Zeitlin     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): No PRQ but some familiarity with Music or Chinese literature and history would be helpful. All materials will be available in English but students with classical Chinese will be encouraged to read materials in the original when feasible.
Equivalent Course(s): MUSI 45521, EALC 48088

TAPS 42020. The Cabaretesque in Music. 100 Units.

We explore a global range of genres that combine music and the intimate stage through the theoretical formulation of the cabaretesque. The performance practices we examine combine music and theater in ways that are historically and culturally diverse, ranging from medieval and early modern European genres such as mystery plays or Purimspiele to commedia dell'arte and operetta to modern musicals and cabaret itself. We also search for similar forms of intimate musical theater in cross-cultural Asian performance, such as Persian siah-bazi, South Indian kathakali, Korean p'ansori, and Japanese chindon-ya. The genres of music on the intimate stage that underlie the history of cinema (e.g., the first synchronized sound films, The Jazz Singer and Der blaue Engel) will be a consistent focus throughout the seminar. To understand the cabaretesque in opera performance we shall look especially closely at the transformation of Berlin's Komische Oper in the twenty-first-century, applying close readings to several recent productions. Together, we seek to develop the theory of cabaretesque as an approach to understanding complex social and political relations across the fault lines between self and other. Taking Mikhail Bakhtin's concept of the carnivalesque as a point of departure, we shall read widely in modern writing on the cabaret as a performance practice that turns the world on its head and history inside-out.

Instructor(s): Bohlman     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): MUSI 42020

TAPS 42021. Music, Colonialism, and Nationalism. 100 Units.

In this seminar we examine and disentangle the triangulated historical and cultural spaces that form through the complex interaction of the three larger subject areas: music, colonialism, and nationalism. Colonial encounter because audible to the extreme when sound is unleashed as the language of control and resistance by the colonizer and colonized alike. Music, as the amalgam of sonic difference, opens the metaphorical and material spaces in which the struggle for power is also articulated as the aesthetic expression of sovereignty. Song sounds linguistic and geographic borderlands, transforming them into the contested boundaries of nations both in ascendancy and in decline. In the course of the seminar, we seek the ways in which music and sound articulate the counterpoint between colonialism and nationalism, yielding one of the most forceful narratives for understanding the history of the present. We shall draw upon diverse resources and approaches throughout the seminar. We shall devote attention to specific repertories and genres that have the power to represent the colonial and national interests. In addition to reading critically important works on colonialism and nationalism, we shall also listen widely and to different types of sound material, ethnographic and commercial, classical and popular, in literature and in film. It will be our goal to bear witness to the shape of the music-colonialism-triangle in as many shapes as possible.

Instructor(s): Phil Bohlman     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Students from many departments and centers are welcome in this seminar. Extensive analytical work with music is not required.
Equivalent Course(s): MAPH 42021, MUSI 42021

TAPS 43326. Love / Music: Reflections from Greece and the Mediterranean. 100 Units.

This co-taught, in-person seminar will take up the philosophical, social, and political problem of how love relates to music as both experience and idea with a focus on Greece and the wider Mediterranean. Whether staged and performed, publicly shared, or privately consumed, love and music pervade time and place, shaping diverse genres, engaging different media, and articulating numerous domains of human life and the public sphere. Yet the mediation of love experiences through music remains radically undertheorized. The seminar "Love/ Music" will think about what the love/ music nexus demands as an object of ethnographic and historical study and as a theoretical entity. The course has a binary scope, being both theoretical and hands-on ethnographic (including historical ethnography). Thus its syllabus includes sessions addressing seminal theoretical readings alongside sessions structured as "ethnographic workshops" variously addressing the problematic of the "love / music relation."

Instructor(s): Dafni Tragaki, University of Thessaly Martha Feldman, University of Chicag     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This seminar will meet twice weekly for five weeks on Mondays 1:30-4:20 and Thursdays 2:00-4:50 from April 20 until May 18. A tenth session held on Thurs. May 21 will be devoted to student presentations. Students are required to attend all sessions in person. Additionally, on Friday, May 15, students will participate in a workshop of the multi-year international project “Love / Music: Problematics of a Relationship.” The workshop, held under the sub-rubric of “Methodologies from across Disciplinary and Practice-based Terrains” and hosted by the Franke Institute for the Humanities, will focus on how different disciplines, diverse in their methods for dealing with love, have been approaching the love /music nexus as a disciplinary issue, and might reconsider it in empirical and theoretical terms.
Equivalent Course(s): LING 43326, MUSI 43326

TAPS 44016. Modeling the Voice. 100 Units.

Equivalent Course(s): MUSI 44016

TAPS 44021. Music Spectralities. 100 Units.

The uncanny, the ghostly, the spectral, the dead: terms like these, often housed under the umbrella of "spectrality," have lately haunted the borders of music history. This is especially true where its disciplinary objects-sounding music, listeners, histories, technologies--cannot easily be defined but also cannot be reduced away. They have forced music studies toward a reckoning with its past certainties, challenging its canons but also furnishing new modes of analysis and criticism for refractory sites of research. Most particularly, spectrality has emerged prominently in considerations of race and gender. This seminar will read recent literature, musicological and non, to ask how spectrality as a conceptual paradigm mediates anxious musical relationships to race, gender, and sexuality by focusing on death and mortality, including music's own vanished pasts. Our inquiries will engage the sonic analogues to visibility / invisibility and presence / absence paradoxes conjured by death and haunting in the forms of inaudibility / audibility and silence / noise, especially as they pertain to phonography, film, and other media. We will find that far from circumventing the realms of the material and technological, the seemingly immaterial realms of spectrality turn out to engage and perpetuate them.

Instructor(s): Martha Feldman     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Spectrality and Music History has adjacencies with my 2020 seminar on Errant Voices inasmuch as it aims to prepare graduate students for the conference of that title (now slated for April 28-30, 2022; see the conference website at https://voices.uchicago.edu/errantvoices/, password <errantry>). Students from departments outside Music are welcome in the seminar and can write research papers that draw on their own skills and interests as relevant to our themes.
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 44021, MUSI 44021

TAPS 44023. Love and Song: Under-examined Affairs. 100 Units.

Love and Song: Underexamined Affairs" will take some less traveled paths on the otherwise well-traveled ground whereon song has long been married to love. We will begin with the courtly Provencal love song cultivated by Petrarchans in late medieval and early modern Europe as foundational to amorous tropes for suffering lyrically. From there we will quickly move to lyric in the age of capitalism, technology, and contemporary geopolitics, considering (among others): Nancy J. Vickers's writings on Petrarch in the video decade, James Baldwin's theory of love, music, and "the beat"; Martin Stokes's work on intimate Turkish publics; Dafni Tragaki's writings on atmospheres and the postpolitical in Greek popular song and rebetiko; Kara Keeling's theories about love, errantry, and the refrain; and my own work on the unsentimental, together with other writings that tie love song to citizenship, abjection, madness, and histrionics. In addition to the writers named above, we will read from Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Lauren Berlant, John Freccero, Josh Kun, Roland Barthes, Alain Badiou, Fred Moten, Elizabeth Povinelli, David Hesmondhalgh, and Eric Lott. We will also build our own collective shared archive of love songs complementing our readings and listenings. This seminar is open to graduate students from all disciplines. Students will write final seminar papers of circa 15-20 pp., drawing on their own skills and interests relevant to the seminar.

Instructor(s): Martha Feldman     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): MUSI 44023

TAPS 44420. Practices of Classicism in the French Seventeenth Century. 100 Units.

This seminar has two goals. One is to combine the text-based tradition of French literary studies with the image-based, comparative tradition of art history-and, in so doing, to change the taxonomies of both. The other is to re-evaluate French Classicism by attending to practices of reading, writing, performing, looking and making. The seminar's breadth is designed to appeal to all students interested in the theory and history of aesthetics, and the interleaving of visual and literary evidence. Looking will be no less important than reading, as we will conduct sessions with original objects in the Art Institute and in Regenstein Special Collections. Authors studied will include Corneille, Molière, La Fontaine, Pascal, and Descartes; among the artists, Poussin, Claude Lorrain, La Tour, and Callot. Critical readings will range from Leo Spitzer to Louis Marin and Foucault.

Instructor(s): Larry Norman and Richard Neer     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructors required for all students. For French credit, FREN 20500, 20501 or an introductory-level literature course taught in French is also required. The seminar will be conducted in English; all primary texts will be made available in both English translation and, for those with reading knowledge, in the French original. This seminar will travel to Paris during exam week (March 2027); airfare and lodging covered by university.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 45885, CDIN 44420, CDIN 24420, FREN 34420, TAPS 25222, CMLT 44410, FREN 24420, CMLT 24420

TAPS 45020. Errant Voices: Performances Beyond Measure. 100 Units.

Listening to trans*, raced, and castrato voices, "Errant Voices: Gender and Performances beyond Measure" will explore voices that escape their confines perforce or by choice, trying to make sense of resistant, insurgent, and resilient voices. Students from various disciplines are invited to join the seminar, thereby helping to advance its themes but working from their own strengths and orientations. Our common goal will be to develop shared theoretical language among differing cases that can lead to new insights into wider paradigmatic shifts across gender and race in our historical moment. The project turns on performances inasmuch as they reveal the workings of bodies, intentions, and interactions. It depends on collective thinking because it is intersectional and thus concerns emergent shared languages developed by encountering questions collaboratively.

Instructor(s): Martha Feldman     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 45020, MUSI 45020

TAPS 46202. Performance Theory: Action, Affect, Archive. 100 Units.

This seminar offers a critical introduction to performance theory organized around three conceptual clusters: a) action, acting, and forms of production or play, in theories from classical (Aristotle) through modern (Hegel, Brecht, Artaud), to contemporary (Richard Schechner, Philip Zarilli, others); b) affect, and its intersections with emotion and feeling: in addition to contemporary theories of affect and emotion we will read earlier modern texts that anticipate recent debates (Diderot, Freud) and their current interpreters (Joseph Roach, Erin Hurley and others), as well as those writing about the absence of affect and the performance of failure (Sara Bailes etc); and c) archives and related institutions and theories of recording performance, including the formation of audiences (Susan Bennett) and evaluating print and other media recording ephemeral acts, including the work of theorists of memory (Pierre Nora) and remains (Rebecca Schneider; Mark Fleishman), theatre historians (Rose Bank, Ellen Mackay etc) and tensions between archive and repertoire (Diana Taylor).(20th/21st)

Instructor(s): Loren Kruger     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Note: This course is intended only for those who have completed their undergraduate degree.
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 46202, ENGL 46202, CMST 38346

TAPS 48017. Phaedras Compared: Adaptation, Gender, Tragic Form. 100 Units.

This seminar places Racine's French neoclassical tragedy Phaedra within a wide-ranging series of adaptations of the ancient myth, from its Greek and Latin sources (Euripides, Seneca, Ovid) to twentieth-century and contemporary translations and stage adaptations (Ted Hughes, Sarah Kane), read along with a series of theoretical and critical texts. Particular attention will be paid to critical paradigms and approaches in the evolving fields of classical reception studies, theater and performance studies, and gender studies. Reading knowledge of French strongly preferred.

Equivalent Course(s): CLAS 48017, FREN 48017, CDIN 48017, GNSE 48017, CMLT 48017

TAPS 49000. TAPS Proseminar. 100 Units.

This course is restricted to TAPS PhD students.

Instructor(s): T. Post     Terms Offered: Spring

TAPS 49700. Performance Practice as Research. 100 Units.

This course explores what we mean by "performance practice as research" by experimenting with its possible forms. We will explore various existing definitions and instantiations (in writing, in discussion, in practice) while also proposing definitions and instantiations of our own (in writing, in discussion, in practice). The course will take the form of a seminar/workshop: we will at times convene at a seminar table and at other times be up on our feet. In the process, students will be expected to refine their capacities to think with and through performance. Because the course seeks to explore its constituent terms, it is ideally suited for doctoral students who are excited by both conceptual analysis and creative exploration (although students need not be equally adept at both). Put otherwise, the course is intended for students seeking to understand and develop the relationship (and non-relationship) between arts practice and academic research without insisting on a particular approach or outcome - but while insisting on the importance of lively exchange, rigorous analysis, and sharing work in progress. Through readings, case studies, discussions, and artistic experiments, students will puzzle through their own and each other's idiosyncratic constellations of methods and interests. The course is designed for TAPS PhD students, but other PhD students who find this mode of performance-based inquiry relevant to their work are welcome.

Instructor(s): David Levin     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Interested students should email the instructor for permission to enroll. This course is offered in alternate years.

TAPS 49750. SLIPAR (September Lab in Performance as Research) 100 Units.

SLIPAR is an intensive laboratory for creativity and critique, comprising studio time, training sessions, consultations with a variety of professional mentors, seminar meetings, and faculty-led critique. It will culminate in a public presentation at the start of autumn quarter. SLIPAR is required for all TAPS PhD students under the current (beta) requirements, and is typically taken before the beginning of year 3. TAPS 49700 Performance Practice as Research (PPAR) is a prerequisite for SLIPAR. PhD students in other departments who have taken PPAR and are interested in participating in SLIPAR should reach out to Leslie Buxbaum Danzig lbdanzig@uchicago.edu.

Instructor(s): J. Rhoads; D. Levin     Terms Offered: Summer. Offered in the September session
Prerequisite(s): TAPS 49700 Performance Practice as Research

TAPS 49900. Reading and Research. 100 Units.

This is a reading and research course for independent study.

TAPS 51420. The Literary and Visual Worlds of Xixiang ji. 100 Units.

This course examines the most influential Chinese drama of all times, the Xixiang ji (Romance of the Western Chamber) in light of its multiple literary and visual traditions. Over 100 different woodblock editions, many of them illustrated, were published during the Ming and Qing dynasties alone. The focus of the class will be on close readings of the original texts in classical and early modern vernacular Chinese. We will concentrate on the earliest extant edition of 1498 and Jin Shengtan's annotated and abridged edition of 1656, along with important sets of woodblock illustrations of the play. PQ: good reading skills in both classical and modern Chinese. Advanced undergrads admitted with consent of instructor.

Instructor(s): J. Zeitlin     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): EALC 51420