When American theatre goes international, things can get quite exciting. It's no secret that other countries like England, home of the Bard himself, are truly cultured in the art. Thus, I am quite excited to share this news with you.
The theatre department here at Towson University has been involved with Russian directors and translators for a few years now, and these relations have been steadily improving. With that came the idea for a new interdisciplinary project in the structure of a class. It's called Russian Theatre and Politics, and I am currently enrolled.
Russia has had considerable political turmoil until only recently, and so they are entering a new era of freedom in the theatre. With that in mind, the premise of the class is that students from both the theatre department and the political science department (as well as a few international studies majors) have the chance to take this class together, each to learn about the discipline they know least about. It's taught by two instructors, Dr. Robyn Quick from the theatre department and Dr. Alison McCartney from the political science department. The coursework involves reading Russian plays and examining them in their contexts as part of Russian political culture. It's both a history lesson and a look into an art that is emerging as an important cultural aspect in the largest country in the world.
This also means that, as students in this experiment, we are going to be the first Americans to read new and still-in-the-works translations of some of these plays. How exciting it is that we are part of Russian theatrical history!
Because of the groundbreaking work we're doing in the class, we have been invited to attend a Russian Ambassador's speech next week at the World Trade Center in downtown Baltimore. I'll be sure to report back here after it's over. I hope to make this experiment part of a series of posts here.
Fine arts have such power to open doors and to cross cultures, and that's true now more than ever before.
I remain your Drama Queen.
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I've had the privilege of attending several shows at the Center for the Arts. The theater department always surprises me with fresh new ideas and productions. I'm excited to hear more about this new experiment.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment! Actually, the TU Theatre Department will be performing some of the Russian plays we're reviewing in class in the next season, beginning in the fall. I'll write more about it in a future post.
ReplyDeleteKeep coming out to shows, we love and appreciate support from students outside of the program!