Documentary Drama
In this course, we
will examine contemporary dramas that make use of documentary materials, such
as investigative transcripts, interviews, offical records, testimony, diaries
and journals. In some versions of documentary drama, a playwright uses
historical records, often quoting directly from them, to construct a play. Such
is the case with Michael Murphy’s broadway play, The Conscientious Objector,
which focuses on Martin Luther King Jr’s decision in 1967 to oppose the Vietnam
War. Such plays make extensive use of, but need not be entirely conceived from
archival material. In other dramas, known as “verbatim theatre,” the
playwright(s) will interview people related to the play’s subject and use those
interviews to construct the play, often juxtaposing voices and perspectives of
the topic. In these plays, only the recorded words of the subjects are
presented, and the playwright does not include additional materials or scenes
to create a coherent narrative; instead these plays are essentially a set of
collated and collaborative materials meant to set different voices in
juxtaposition to one another in order to elucidate the effects or consequences
of a crime, or controversial issue. Such
dramas often have an explicitly activist focus and attempt to intervene in
national debates around race relations (Anna Devere Smith’s work on race riots
of the early 1990s in NYC and Los Angeles), or the death penalty ( Jessica
Blank and Eric Jensen’s long-running project to end the death penality by
focusing on those exonerated of capital crimes), or homophobia (Moise Kaufman’s
The Laramie Project; Dustin Lance Black’s 8; and Murphy’s Sin: A Cardinal Deposed).
Foreign policy and human rights
abuses have also been the focus of a number of documentary plays such as My Name Is Rachel Corrie, based on the emails of its titular
character, a US college student killed by Israeli soldiers as she protested
their bulldozing of Palestinian homes to make room for more settlements.
Several attempts to stage this play in New York City were shut down because of
its explicit criticism of US support for Israel. Guantanamo: Honour Bound to
Protect Freedom similarly attempts to intervene in human rights violations and
US and British foreign policy by focusing on the British citizens detained in the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. We also consider the use of documentary drama in the theatrical walking
tours of Mai Poina, here in Honolulu, which focus on events like the overthrow
of the Hawaiian monarcy and the annexation of Hawai’i.
Reading critical work
along side the plays, interviews with the playwrights, and existing interviews
or criticism of the plays by some of their subjects/interviewees we will ask
after the ethics of staging the life stories contained in these plays, and what
it means to damn or exonerate people through their own words. What context drops away when
an attention to dramatic effect must be one guiding principle for shaping such
plays? What expectations and responsibilities do such plays place on the
viewer, who also serves as a kind of witness, or quasi-jury member? In many
cases, but not all, proceeds from the performances go to surviving family
members, subjects interviewed, or non-profit organizations allied with the
playwright; thus another question we might ask is of what benefit are these plays to the people whose lives they represent?
In addition to addressing questions of genre and representation, this class is Writing Intensive. You will be expected to write a minimum of 4000 words, or about 16 pages. We will spend some class time going over not just the mechanics of writing and proper use of citations, but how to develop clear arguments and stage in writing how that argument can be developed. You will receive both oral and written feedback from me and your fellow students on your drafts, and we will also use informal forms of writing to encourage discussion and debate about the many topics covered by this course.
Texts:
Books will be available through Revolution Books
Michael Murphy, Sin
(A Cardinal Deposed) and The Conscientious Objector;Anna DeVere Smith, Twilight, Los Angeles 1992; Fires in the Mirror, Crown Heights, Brooklyn;Jessica Blank and
Eric Jensen, The Exonerated;Moise Kaufman, The
Laramie Project;Dustin Lance Black, 8Alan Rickman and
Katharine Viner, My Name Is Rachel Corrie;Victoria Britten and Gillian Slovo, Guantanamo: Honour Bound to Defend Freedom
Secondary, critical readings will be available on Laulima
Assignments
Bi-weekly postings to
class blogs 10%
Midterm 20%
Final 20%
Short paper (5 – 7
pages) or creative option, a scene based on documentary materials 20%
Final Research Project (12-15 pages) 30%