History of Theater I: Origins to Renaissance

THR 227 traces how theater evolved as a cultural institution from Greek ritual through Shakespeare's stage, treating each era's performance practices as products of the society that made them rather than isolated literary artifacts. You'll read plays alongside Brockett's history, sit through lectures and discussions on staging conventions and audience-performer dynamics, and take two midterms plus a final, with weekly reading keeping pace through Athens, Rome, the medieval cycles, Italian Renaissance, and Elizabethan drama. As the autumn half of a two-semester required sequence, it builds the historical foundation Performing Arts students draw on in later dramaturgy, directing, and acting coursework.