English 90tc. Selfies: Solo and Verbatim Performance

Instructor: Elizabeth Phillips
Thursdays, 9:45am-11:45am| Farkas Hall 303
Enrollment: Limited to 15 students

This course will explore performances of the self--both storytelling and the first personal monologue, and documentary theater and third person verbatim performances. Each seminar will be divided between theoretical and critical discussion of plays and performances--with particular attention to themes of gender and sexual identity, race, community building, and US politics--and a studio practicum in which students will perform their own stories and the stories of others. For the final assignment, students will create either a one-act length verbatim/documentary performance or a one-act length solo show. Course materials will include plays and performances by artists including Heidi Schreck, Anna Deavere Smith, Alan Rickman and Katherine Viner, Erin Markey, Diana Oh, Lily Tomlin, Moises Kaufman, Doug Wright, Joe Salvatore/NYU Verbatim Performance Lab, and The Civilians.