This class was an introduction to critical analysis in theatre. We explored a number of contemporary methods for analyzing drama and performance, as well as the larger philosophical assumptions underlying these methods. We studied the ways that critics and practitioners theorized about theatre. This meant reading a whole lot of articles and essays, and reading plays that we could then apply the analysis strategies to. We learned many different methods and worked to understand their place in history.
The final project for this class was a drama analysis of The Flick by Annie Baker. We were allowed to use any method we had learned in order to analyze the play. This essay ended up being my favorite essay I've ever written. I chose to use a structuralist method to explore how Baker used pauses. The images above show how I broke down the script. I took a very mathematical and visual approach to my initial analysis to break down the script and understand what the pauses meant. It took a lot of work and I filled almost a hundred pages in the spreadsheet. I made a graph as well, which isn't something you often see in literary analysis.
But I found that this helped me understand the play so much better. Before I set off doing that work, I didn't know what I would write about, but when I finished I immediately knew what I needed to write. I was able to also do a lot of interesting research into topics like Slow Cinema and 間. This ended up being some of the best analysis writing I've ever done and I was able to learn more about the play as I wrote. It was amazing.
