Contemporary Women Playwrights

The course will include readings and discussion of the work of a number of the most influential and interesting American, Canadian, and European playwrights of the 1970s to the present. Authors to be explored include: Maria Irene Fomes, Caryl Churchill, Suzan-Lori Parks, Adrienne Kennedy, Ntozake Shange, Judith Thompson, Naomi Wallace, Shelagh Stephenson, and others. The playwrights' concerns range from the domestic to the apocalyptic, and their stylistic choices are equally wide ranging. In addition to the study of individual works, the course will also include an overview of the authors' relationships to the culture and to the art form. 3 hrs. lect.