Note: A placement exam will be required when you arrive on site.

High Intermediate

This course is designed for students who have completed or tested out of a minimum of three semesters (or five quarters) of college-level Spanish. However, students must take a placement exam to determine the course level into which they will be able to enroll.

OBJECTIVES

This course proposes a deeper understanding of contemporary art through the theater arts. The student will have experiences of the theater throughout the development of the class’ thematic units. This course will study, in different semesters, the different important playwrights in today’s theater.

THEMATIC UNITS

1. What are the key components of contemporary theater arts. Their relationship with the other arts.
2. The influence of playwrights from previous centuries on today’s theater.
3. The relationship that exists between the Classical Greek theater and contemporary theater.
4. Alfred Jarry and the beginning of contemporary theater.
5. Ramón María Del Valle-Inclán:
a. Valle-Inclán, Spanish playwright: his validity and transcendence.
b. The study of some of the fragments of his most important works.
c. Dramatized reading of “The Head of the Baptist” de R.M. del Valle-Inclán.

SYNTHESIS OF THE THEMATIC UNITS

The purpose of this seminar-workshop is not only to be informative about the different currents affecting the theater in our time, but, through them, that university students may gain a vision of art in general and of men and women as human beings immersed in a world that is on a journey from a chaos to becoming a cosmos. In this sense, Valle-Inclán is a visionary not only of the theater, but also of today’s world and the world that is to come.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Mi vida en el Arte. C. Stanislawsky.
El Arte Teatral. Gastón Batty y René Cavase.
Teatro Completo. R.M. Del Valle-Inclán
Obú Rey. A. Jerry.