This class is the last in the theatre history series. It was taught by a new young professor who I have so much respect for and did an incredible job. The subject matter was a lot more contemporary and she had a strong emphasis on race and identity within the plays and movements we studied. Because of this class I think I have a much better understanding of just how much form is influenced by context. I’d seen it before in the other theatre history courses but I think because those courses span so much time it’s hard to really see that influence exactly. Because this course is such a small time frame, it really allowed me to see those changes as concurrent results of political and social changes. I remember the last day of class when we were reflecting about the course as a whole one of my classmates said, “The political is personal and the personal is political.” I really like that statement and I think it does relate really well to the course. Seeing the power and purpose behind all of the art we’ve discussed in this course drives that idea home so well.
The final project for this class was very open. I chose to do a set design based on one of the plays. It was sorta an excuse to do some design work since I didn't have anything else creative this quarter. I went through my normal design process but also worked to apply what I'd learned about forms and research. I was actually really surprised how much the scholarship inspired me. I always do a lot of visual research and I always write down visual images I find in the script from stage directions or dialogue. But what I hadn’t realized was that I could do the same in my academic research. The phrases in the scholarship I found were just as inspiring to me as some of my images. I found the words “fragment” and “collage” repeated across multiple sources. The use of “collage” inspired me to look into collage artists who ended up really inspiring the visual shape of many aspects of my design. And with “fragment,” having so many articles and essays all agree on one incredibly visual word to describe the main character, a word that I myself also thought of immediately, made it very clear that it was worthy of attention in my design.
I decided that my final product was going to be a set model. I spent about 20 hours in total working on the model. I haven't been able make a model during school yet so I jumped at the chance. The play is incredible and I really loved the metaphors I chose to pursue. I am so proud of the final pictures that came out of it.
