Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

1. Articulate how attending a theatre production challenges one's own lived experience, in relation to the playwright’s lens of the world.
2.  Analyze the experience of attending a live theatre production using criteria from the course.
3. Relate historical themes and cultural ideas presented in production to real life problems and situations.
4. Differentiate  the shared experience of being an audience member to a live theatrical production from other narrative art forms.

Theatre Appreciation is a course which includes attendance at live  theatre productions, small group  projects, and in-class discussions of viewed productions. It may include the reading of plays as well as guest speakers, slides and video to supplement such discussions. This course is transferable to four year educational institutions and may be taken to satisfy a General Education Arts and Letters requirement.
   Suggested Textbook:   Some instructors might  benefit from contacting a publisher to create a custom version of a book that they find useful from larger textbooks used for longer Theatre Appreciation courses.

Students are expected to complete several papers, detailing their critical evaluation of theatre productions following a format provided by the instructor.  The assessment of these will be based on the criteria provided and discussed in class. 

For Outcomes #1 & 2

Written play critiques and evaluations. These will be graded, and the criteria will be both discussed as well as handed out in class.  With each critique the student is asked to step deeper into their inquiry, evolving from description to analyzation to synthesis.

The assessment of Outcomes 3 &4 are generally ungraded, but will be done through the following: 

Small group problem solving or interactive discussion of a critical question, with instructor time for further discussion or suggested refinement.

Oral presentations based on group projects or individual inquiry, based on prompts from the criteria  (facilitated by the instructor)

At the beginning of the course, the instructor will detail the methods used to evaluate student progress and the criteria for assigning a course grade. 

Class discussions will review the information and students will be asked to contribute to the discussions with their ideas based on the criteria given.

Theatre as a social and cultural event

• The concept of otherness.
• Cultural appropriation vs cultural synthesis
• The other world of the theatre

The styles of drama and their reflection in life

• Tragedy as it celebrates to the human capacity to persevere
• Comedy as the commentary on the absurdity, randomness or order of cultural norms.

Theatre as a collaborative art

• Playwright as the original artist
• Directors/Actors as interpreters
• Designers and the concept
• Technicians
• Audience as the final contributor

COMPETENCIES/SKILLS:

• Identify and describe basis theatrical terminology.
• Identify the various artists who contribute to the theatrical event.
• Apply understanding of live performance to live productions attended by written critiques and verbal discussion.
• Illustrate and demonstrate the job of the actor, playwright, director, technical designers.
• Apply understanding of the playwright's language by examining and explaining such language.
• Identify and explain the uses of various theatrical spaces.
• Illustrate the difference between comedy, tragedy, tragi-comedy and farce.
• Describe and identify the role of the audience in theatre.