English 246: Romantic Drama and Theater



English 246: Romantic Drama and Theater

Professor Gamer

Students:

Claire Constantine dcc@sas.upenn.edu

Julie Garson juliekg@sas.upenn.edu

Ann Imbesi ann.imbesi@trincoll.edu

Colin McDonald colinmcd@wharton.upenn.edu

Lisa Rothfarb LisaRoth@sas.upenn.edu

Dana Shaked dshaked@sas.upenn.edu

Allison Smith acsmith@fas.harvard.edu

Aisha Tariq aishat@sas.upenn.edu

Jennifer Weiss weiss@sas.upenn.edu

Amy Woodbridge amywoodb@sas.upenn.edu

Text: The Broadview Anthology of Romantic Drama (Broadview Press, 2003)

Questions to think about while you do the reading: For each play, you should read the introductory headnote first, as well as whatever prefatory material the playwright provides. Then read the play. Most important, read the reviews and supplementary materials in the Appendix closely, since they will be your primary way of understanding how the play you're reading was actually received by audiences and readers at the time it was published or produced.

In addition, as you read, I'd like you to think about how the play would work in a real theater. For that purpose, write down some short notes about how the play would be affected by each of these things:

1. Place of performance (where in London it is showing): where is the theater? Is that a good part of London or a bad one?

2. The performance space itself (size of stage, size of theater, etc.): is this a theater where people can hear a normal spoken voice easily? Is it a small theater or an intimate one? If large, how does the playwright exploit or fill the space? and with what?

3. The institutional status of the place of performance: is this a Theater Royal? a summer theater? a theater not licensed to perform legitimate (i.e. spoken) drama?

4. The set: does the play require new scenery? does it have elaborate machinery?

5. Lighting and sound effects: does the play have music? full orchestra? special lighting effects?

6. Costumes: does the play have new or special costumes? period costumes? do we know what the actors are wearing?

7. The cast: who is playing what role? What do we know about each of the actors. Are these star turns? Is there a relation between the identity of the actor and the character played?

8. Size of cast: is this a huge production or a small one? Are there large processions? spectacles? musical numbers?

9. Non/text and directorial interpretation: are there many stage directions or non-verbal acting, such as acrobatics, pantomime, or stuntwork? Does the playwright depend a lot on stage direction? To achieve what?

Graded Work for the Course: The Journal (33%) and the Revised Journal (67%):

Week-to-week, I'd like you to keep a journal in which you respond to the reading and to the whichever of the nine questions above (see first page of syllabus) you find pertinent and interesting. At some point in your journal, I would like you to write about all nine questions.

A couple of times during the course, I'll collect the journals and provide some feedback on what might prove good fodder for an essay. I will keep track of the progress of your journal as part of gauging your participation and engagement in the course. The quality of your journal

The final, revised version of the journal, however -- that is, the one I grade -- will be handed in on September 1st. You can either mail it to me at Department of English, 3624 Market St., 5th Floor, University of PA, Philadelphia, PA 19104, or else you can send it to me via electronic attachment at mgamer@english. The latter is probably the easiest way.

In the revised journal, you should write no more than 1,000 words on each week's reading. That's five short essays. You don't have to write about everything; you can concentrate on one play or on more than one play. What I'm interested in is your exploring an aspect of the reading that interests you, and in producing a compelling short essay on it. Please do not pad these essays; make them dense and efficient, and make them ask a question or pose a thesis. Please note that quotations do not count as words in the 1,000-word limit.

Attendance: We only meet 10 times for this course. Please make all the meetings. If you are really ill, then of course do not come to class. More than one absence will lower your grade. More than 4 absences will result in failing the course.

Syllabus:

First day of class: Please read the introduction to the anthology and A Bold Stroke for a Husband, along with the supplementary materials on that play.

Week 1: Comedy. For this week, let's discuss Hannah Cowley's A Bold Stroke for a Husband (1783) and Elizabeth Inchbald's Every One Has His Fault (1793). Also have a look at the reviews for both of these plays (in the Appendix) and do read the short biographies in the Actors' Glossary. Questions: Think hard about how these plays

Week 2: The coming of Melodrama and Spectacle. For this week, let's discuss George Colman the Younger's Blue-Beard, Matthew Lewis's Timor the Tartar, and George Colman the Younger's Quadrupeds of Quedlinburgh. Be sure to read the material on these plays in the Appendix closely, since we'll be talking as much about the reception of these plays as about the plays themselves.

Week 3: Tragedy. This week we'll discuss Joanna Baillie's Orra and Percy Shelley's The Cenci. For the first class meeting of this week, read the essays by Baillie -- particularly the extracts from her "Introductory Discourse" -- and the reviews. For our second meeting of the week, read the Shelley and the reviews of it.

Week 4: The dramatic closet and the whole show. For this week, we'll finish any business we have with Cenci. We'll spend the majority of our time, however, discussing Remorse and Harlequin and Humpo. I'd like you especially to think about the relation between these two plays, and what it would be like to see both in the same night.

Week 5: Romanticism and "Mental Theater." For this week, we'll finish by discussing Lord Byron's Sardanapalus, and conferring about paper topics. When you read Sardanapalus, keep track of the cuts that were made to that play for its hit 1834 production. What kind of play is left? What is left out?

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