American Theater Since 1950

In the second half of the twentieth century and the first quarter of the twenty-first, drastic technological, artistic, and social shifts have played out on the American stage. From national events such as the Civil Rights Movement and the end of the Cold War to technological innovations in film, television, and computers, American theater artists in the past seventy-five years have explored an ever-wider range of issues across ever-expanding modes of performance. In this course, we survey an array of dramatic works and playwrights, including Tennessee Williams, Luis Valdez, Sam Shepard, Tony Kushner, Suzan-Lori Parks, and Kristoffer Diaz as they experiment with ways to stage the American experience in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Our focus is primarily on non-musical works, though we also include a few major works of musical theater, as we explore how theater has responded to American history and what it might mean for future Americans.