FRS 002G — Sec. 001 — (2 unit) — CRN 45502 — T 4:40-6:30pm — 225 Wright
Campus Community Book Project Seminar: Everyday Life Performance

Instructor: Jon Rossini Department of Theatre & Dance, College of Letters and Science

Description: This class will explore the possibilities of everyday life as a generative space for performance. Using Anna Deavere Smith’s Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 and Moisés Kaufmann and the Tectonic Theatre Project’s The Laramie Project, the seminar will explore what it means to use “non-fiction” and interviews as a basis for theatrical performance. In order to fully experience the process, the class will work collaboratively (in one or more groups depending upon enrollment) to use the interview method to develop material for a piece centering on an issue or event of crucial importance (to be negotiated with the students). At the conclusion of the seminar students will ideally be empowered to think about the possibility of creating art from found language, to be willing to engage with issues of importance to them, and to understand the difficulties of creating an artistic work from the material of everyday life. In doing so they will ideally pay more attention to natural language and to the ways that people demonstrate their character through the performance of language.

Format: A portion of each meeting will be devoted to close attention to the text under consideration, a portion will be devoted to the ethics and mechanics of creating a work from ordinary language and a portion will be devoted to working on the collaborative project. Students will be expected to read and participate in discussions of Twilight; they will be expected to view the PBS production of Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992; they will be expected to read The Laramie Project, watch the HBO version, attend the UC Davis production, and discuss it in class. There will also be two or three other brief essays dealing with everyday life performance and the specific works under discussion. Students will complete the readings for the course and participate actively in discussion. As individuals they will complete a short analysis (2pp.) of a portion of one of the written works in order to help them think about how language can be shaped, write a review of The Laramie Project (2 pp.), and collaborate with their group on the creation of a short original work based on their own interviews and observation. Grading: Grades will be 1/3 for the written work, 1/3 for participation and 1/3 for the collaborative, original work (evaluated for effort and care rather than “success”).

About the Instructor: Professor Rossini teaches courses on Performance Studies, History of Theatre and Dance, and Race and Performance in the Department of Theatre and Dance. His primary research is in the intersections of ethnicity and theater, specifically contemporary Latina/o Theater, and he is fascinated by the intersections of identity, politics, and performance, on stage and in everyday life. He is currently completing a book on Latina/o Theater.