PERFORMING IDENTITIES by Dr. Meiling Cheng
THTR 405m/63003R/4 Units/2012 M/W 3:30-4:50pm: THH 119 Office: MCC, 2nd Fl. E: [email protected] Tel. (213) 740-1496 Office Hrs: Fri. 10-noon. By Appointment Only.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course explores the live performance medium as a creative means of social redress and personal expression. It engages with the medium's potentials to reflect, critique, construct, and enact a performing artist's emergent identities. Course materials range from solo shows in the early twentieth century, contemporary dramatic texts for ensemble work, to the recent genre of self- performance, in addition to numerous theoretical essays and videotaped performance documents. Equal emphasis will be placed on the aesthetic dimension and the cultural and historical backgrounds of selected performance texts. In our globalized era, the course encourages the students to recognize and appreciate both the challenge and pleasure of experiencing diversity in interpersonal encounters.
PURPOSE OF THE COURSE
"Performing Identities" fulfills the diversity requirement for the undergraduate general education.
Examining the interrelation between live performance and identity expressions, the course analyzes an important facet of sociocultural existence in a multiethnic nation such as the United States. The planned reading and writing assignments, interactive class discussions, and solo or ensemble performance presentations address all aspects of perceived human differences, including those based on age, race, ethnicity, class, gender, language, religion, education, politics, sexual orientation, physical ability, nationality, and/or immigration status.
The civil rights movement in the 1960s, the feminist movement in the 1970s, and the multicultural awareness in the 1980s have inspired many contemporary artists to turn to live performance as both a dramatic mode of public address and a readily accessible civic forum. They use live performance to investigate their subjectivities, to voice their ethical concerns, to confront sociocultural prejudices, and to celebrate diversity. At a moment when the electronic media and social networking websites have remodeled the concepts of individual identities and cultural communities, this course takes a proactive approach to tackle the interdependence between art and social progress, between creative expression and individual wellbeing.
THTR 405m/Cheng/2012--1 SYLLABUS
M 8/27 Introduction. Identity; Diversity; Performance. View: YouTube: Janis Ian, At Seventeen (Live 1976)—5:00 Lady Gaga, Bad Romance (Lyrics on screen, Official Music Video HD)--5:07. Today Now! By The Onion, Hot New Relationship Book Warns Women: "Wake Up! He's a Shapeshifter" [2:51]
W 8/29 What Is Identity in an Online World? Read: "Prologue," in N. Katherine Hayles, How We Became Posthuman (1999), xi-xiv.* Ref: Pramod K. Nayar, "Posthumanism, Informatics, and the Body," in Virtual Worlds, 217-223.
M 9/3 Labor Day Holiday. No Class.
W 9/5 Laughter as Social Therapy: Satirical Humorists. Take One. Read: Beatrice Herford; Jackie "Moms" Mabley; Ruth Draper in Extreme Exposure. View: YouTube: Good Old Days--Moms Mabley [4:23] MOMS MABLEY – IT'S YOUR THING. LIVE TV PERFORMANCE 1970 [1:24] Moms Mabley [5:21] Dramatist Ruth Draper Vintage Movie 1937 [0:37]
M 9/10 Laughter as Social Therapy: Satirical Humorists. Take Two. Read: Brother Theodore; Lenny Bruce in Extreme Exposure. View: YouTube: Brother Theodore – Monologue 1 [1:52] Brother Theodore - Food Sermon [9:42]. Lenny Bruce on Stage Just Before He Died [5:15]. Lenny--Lenny Bruce hard words [Dustin Hoffman portraying Bruce] [1:56].
W 9/12 Laughter as Social Therapy: Satirical Humorists. Take Three. Read: Reno, in Extreme Exposure. View: Reno-Rebel without a Pause [LVYDVD 4280]
M 9/17 SCP #1 (Solo or Collaborative Presentation): Satirical Humorists.
W 9/19 Theatrical Mimics: Embodying Others as Self-Expansion. Take One. Read: Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner in Extreme Exposure. View: Lily Tomlin-The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe. [LVYVID1837] YouTube: One RingyDingy [3:00] Joan Rivers Interview Lily Tomlin as Ernestine YouTube [9:26].
M 9/24 Embodying Others as Self-Expansion. Take Two. Read: Whoopi Goldberg in Extreme Exposure. View: Whoopi Goldberg. [LVYVID782] YouTube: Whoopie Goldberg -"Back to Braodway" Stand Up [9:56]. Whoopie Goldberg's opening monologue at the 71st Academy Awards [2:55]
W 9/26 Embodying Others as Self-Expansion. Take Three.
THTR 405m/Cheng/2012--2 This session will be led by our Assistant Instructor, Kirsa Rein. The professor has been invited to participate in a conversation performance as part of Indelibles (2012) by Chinese artist Liu Ding in the 2012 Taipei Biennial. Read: Eric Bogosian in Extreme Exposure. View: Harmonius, performed by Eric Bogosian [4:00]. Eric Bogosian "Medicine" (1994) [4:17]. Molecules [6:01]. M 10/1 Enacting Hip Hop Identities. Generation Rap. Danny Hoch; Sarah Jones. Read: Danny Hoch in Extreme Exposure. Ref.: Danny Hoch, "Towards A Hip-Hop Aesthetics: A Manifesto for the Hip-Hop Arts Movement," self-download from http://www.dannyhoch.com/works.html View: Some People [LVYVID 2058] YouTube: Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop – Trailer –TWN – YouTube [2:17] Def Poetry: Sarah Jones, 'Your Revolution' (Official Video) [3:16].
W 10/3 SCP #2: Theatrical Mimics; Spoken Word Theatre.
DUE: The First Set of Comments (5 Entries: Select from Hayle to Hoch/Jones)
M 10/8 Midterm Exam.
W 10/10 Feminist Politics: "The Personal Is the Political." Read: Sojourner Truth, "Ain't I a Woman?"* Josephine Withers, "Feminist Performance Art: Performing, Discovering, Transforming Ourselves," in The Power of Feminist Art, 158-73.* Alice Walker, "Womanist," in In Search of Our Mother's Gardens (1983), xi-xii.* View: Sphinxes without Secrets: Women Performance Artists Speak Out (1991) [AFADVD 820] PPt slides: Feminist Art and Performances.
M 10/15 Surveying the Master's Tools. Read: Audre Lorde, "Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference," in Sister Outsider (1984), 114-123.* Ellen Pence, "Racism--A White Issue," in All the Woman Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave (1982), 45-47.* Adrian Piper, "Ideology, Confrontation and Political Self-Awareness," in The Citizen Artist (1998), 87-92.* Ref: Amber E. Kinser, "Negotiating Spaces for/through Third-Wave Feminism," NWSA Journal 16.3 (Autumn 2004): 124-53.*
W 10/17 The Matrix of Identities. Read: Cherríe Moraga, "La Güera" (27-34); and Gloria Anzaldúa, "La Prieta" (198-209), in Moraga and Anzaldúa, eds., This Bridge Called My Back (1983).* Marga Gomez in Extreme Exposure. View: Marga Gomez, Gay Fruit Flies [1:58] Marga Gomez: Fidel Castro and Yoga [4:24] Marga Gomez: My Dad's Army Story [2:38]
M 10/22 Review of the Matrix of Identities. THTR 405m/Cheng/2012--3 SCP #3: Feminist/Womanist Identities; Dissecting Prejudices.
W 10/24 Breaking the Silence. Read: Wakako Yamauchi, 12-1-A (1992), in The Politics of Life (1993), 45-100.*
M 10/29 Voicing Traumas. Read: Dawn Akemi Saito in Extreme Exposure. Haerry Kim, Face (2009).* View: PPt slides: Wang Chuyu, Samsara (2006)
W 10/31 Dispelling Internalized Demons. Read: Kim, Face (cont.) Guest Lecture: Natsuko Ohama (if available).
M 11/5 Dispelling Internalized Demons. Read: Dael Orlandersmith, Yellowman (2002).
W 11/7 SCP #4: Reconstructing Identities Out of Traumatic Memories.
M 11/12 Enacting Multiple Selves: Sarah Jones. Read: Meiling Cheng, "Self Performance."* "Sarah Jones: Work," http://sarahjonesonline.com/work/ "Sarah Meets with Survivors of Sexual Exploitation during WWII (so-called "Comfort Women") and other Feminist Activists in South Korea," http://sarahjonesonline.com/news/ View: YouTube: Sarah Jones: One Woman, Eight Hilarious Characters [21:00] Sarah Jones as Rashid [5:57] Sarah Jones as Bella, WMC Celebrates Gloria Steinem [3:11]
W 11/14 Immigrant Subjects and Border Identities. Read: Shishir Kurup, "In Between Space," in Let's Get It On: The Politics of Black Performance (1995).* Guest Lecture: Shishir Kurup (if available). View: Assimilation (1991) Ref: Meiling Cheng, "A Hetero-locus in Process," in In Other Los Angeleses: Multicentric Performance Art (2002), 174-233.*
M 11/19 Performing Genders, Sexualities: Queers, Mutables, and Vanguards. Read: Luis Alfaro in Extreme Exposure. Guest Lecture: Luis Alfaro (if available).
W 11/21 Thanksgiving holidays (21-25 Nov.)
M 11/26 Performing Genders, Sexualities: Queer Fantasia and Lesbian Noir. Read: Tim Miller in Extreme Exposure. Holly Hughes, Dress Suit to Hire (1988), in C. Martin, ed., A Sourcebook of Feminist Theatre and Performance (1996), 267-292.* View: My Queer Body [4:34]. Ref. Rebecca Schneider, "Holly Hughes: Polymorphous Perversity and the Lesbian Scientist (An Interview)," in A Sourcebook of Feminist Theatre and Performance (1996), 239-53*
THTR 405m/Cheng/2012--4 W 11/28 Queer Fantasia and Lesbian Noir (Cont.) Read: Hughes, Dress Suit to Hire. Holden, Stephen. "Theater: 'Dress Suit'," The New York Times (3 Feb. 1988).*
M 12/3 Liberation for Transgender, Transsexual, and Intersexed Bodies. Read: Ken Cooper, "Practice with Transgendered Youth and Their Families," Journal of Gay and Lesbian Social Services 11.3 (2000): 111-29. [pdf] Ethan Zimmerman, "Transie," in J. Nestle, et. al., eds., Gender Queer (2002), 190- 193.*
W 12/5 SCP #5: The Politics of Gender + Race + Class + Ethnicity + Sexuality + GeoPolitical + Etc. Differences.
DUE: The Second Set of Reading Notes. (5 Entries: Select from Truth to Zimmerman)
M 12/10 DUE: The Final Project.
M 12/17 Final Examination (2-4PM)
TEXTS I. Bibliography of Required Texts (in the order of appearance in our class) Bonney, Jo, ed. Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century (Theatre Communications Group, 2000).
Hayles, N. Katerine. "Prologue." In How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics (The University of Chicago Press, 1999), xi-xiv.
Truth, Sojourner, "Ain't I a Woman?" Online.
Withers, Josephine. "Feminist Performance Art: Performing, Discovering, Transforming Ourselves." In Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard, eds. The Power of Feminist Art (Harry Abrams, 1996), 158-73.*
Walker, Alice. "Womanist." In In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose. Harcourt Brace & Company, 1983 [1967], xi-xii.
Lorde, Audre. "Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference" (1980). In Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde. The Crossing Press, 1998 [1984], 114- 123.
Pence, Ellen. "Racism--A White Issue." In But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women's Studies. Ed., Gloria T. Hull, Patricia Bell Scott, and Barbara Smith. The Feminist Press, 1982, 45- 47.
Piper, Adrian. "Ideology, Confrontation and Political Self-Awareness." In Linda Frye Burnham and Steven Durland, eds. The Citizen Artist: An Anthology from High Performance Magazine 1978-1998. Critical Press, 1998, 87-92.
THTR 405m/Cheng/2012--5 Cherríe Moraga. "La Güera." In This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, 1983 [1981]), 27-34.
Anzaldúa, Gloria. "La Prieta." In This Bridge Called My Back, 198-209.
Yamauchi, Wakako. 12-1-A. In Velina Hasu Houston, ed. The Politics of Life: Four Plays by Asian American Women (Temple University Press, 1993), 45-100.
Kim, Haerry. Face (2009) -- An unpublished script given by the artist. No redistribution outside of our class.
Orlandersmith, Dael. Yellowman (Vintage Books, 2002).
Jones, Sarah. Sarahjonesonline.com/ [The Artist's Website.]
Cheng, Meiling. "Self performance." Excerpt from "Highways, L.A.: Multiple Communities in a Heterolocus." Theatre Journal 53 (Oct., 2001): 429-454.
Kurup, Shishir, "In Between Space." In Ugwu, Catherine, ed. Let's Get It On: The Politics of Black Performance (Bay Press, 1995), 210-221.
Hughes, Holly. Dress Suit to Hire. In Carol Martin, ed. A Sourcebook of Feminist Theatre and Performance (Routledge, 1996), 267-292.
Holden, Stephen. "Theater: 'Dress Suit'," The New York Times (3 Feb. 1988).*
Ken Cooper, "Practice with Transgendered Youth and Their Families," Journal of Gay and Lesbian Social Services 11.3 (2000): 111-29.
Zimmerman, Ethan. "Transie." In Gender Queer: Voices from Beyond the Sexual Binary. Ed., Joan Nestle, Clare Howell, and Riki Wilchins. Alyson Books, 2002, 190-193.
II. Reference Texts (Not required, but helpful with your assignments.) Nayar, Pramod K. "Posthumanism, Informatics, and the Body." In Virtual Worlds: Culture and Politics in the Age of Cybertechnology (Sage, 2004), 217-223.
Danny Hoch, "Towards A Hip-Hop Aesthetics: A Manifesto for the Hip-Hop Arts Movement," self-download from http://www.dannyhoch.com/works.html
Kinser, Amber E. "Negotiating Spaces for/through Third-Wave Feminism." NWSA Journal 16.3 (Autumn 2004): 124-53.
Cheng, Meiling. "A Hetero-locus in Process." In In Other Los Angeleses: Multicentric Performance Art (University of California Press, 2002), 174-233.
Schneider, Rebecca. "Holly Hughes: Polymorphous Perversity and the Lesbian Scientist (An Interview)." In C. Martin, ed. A Sourcebook of Feminist Theatre and Performance (Routledge, 1996), 239-253.
III. Ordered Texts:
THTR 405m/Cheng/2012--6 The following texts have been ordered through the USC Bookstore. They are also available via the USC library: 1. Bonney, Jo, ed. Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 2000. [1-55936-155-7]
2. Orlandersmith, Dael. Yellowman. New York: Vintage Books, 2002. [1-4000-3206-7]
IV. Reserved Texts: All books are available via USC library, either on reserve at Leavey or accessible through the Ares electronic reserve system. Please bring your laptop or your copies of these texts to class, so we may discuss them together.
V. Intra-Class Shared Texts: The texts marked with * currently available in the USC library collection will be posted on Blackboard for intra-class sharing, not for public circulation.
THTR 405m/Cheng/2012--7 COURSE REQUIREMENTS Explanations of Grading System and Written Assignments The evaluation of your course performance will include your attendance, your eagerness to be involved in the class activities, and the quality of your efforts and written works. You will fail the class if you only come for the mid-term and final exams without fulfilling all other requirements.
There will be numerous written assignments, one presentation/performance assignment, and two scheduled examinations. You will be graded for the level of your understanding, for the ingenuity of your plan, for the coherence of your organization, and for the soundness of your argument. I assess your ability to support the analysis and interpretation with specific examples from written and performed texts, and your skills in synthesizing various ideas from lecture, research, and discussion. Originality as well as diligence will be rewarded.
Note: (1) The written assignments should be typed and double-spaced. The margins of your papers should be kept at 1 inch; the size of your letters should not exceed 12-point font.
(2) According to the School of Theatre policy, no late paper will be accepted, unless permission is granted prior to the due date.
(3) Close Reading: Your are strongly urged to read the text required for each class before the lecture, so that you may contribute sensibly to class discussions. Please bring your copy of the relevant text to each class. Be prepared that the Professor may call on you to read selected scenes and passages in class. Your willingness to serve as a volunteer reader will count favorably toward your Participation grade.
I. Participation: 15% The participation grade is not guaranteed by mere attendance. It's evaluated in two parts. • The first part is a reward/discipline section for class behavior and attendance records. (5%) You will earn up to 5% points for this section if you behave as a responsible citizen of the class. If you disrupt the class order, you will lose 10 points with every written warning from the Professor. In addition, unexplained absence from the class will adversely affect your participation grade. Usually you lose 6 points with an unexcused absence, and 3 points with an excused absence. • The second part of the participation grade is decided by your intellectual engagement. (10%) You may earn up to 10% by your active participation in class discussion and in-class projects. Your efforts to engage in the on-going process of learning and thinking in class will be valued as much as the quality of your participation. Courage, discipline, determination, thoughtfulness, and the adventurous spirit will speak well for you in this class.
II. Ongoing Commentaries: 30% Due: October 3 (15%); December 3, 2012 (15%). For each class, you are required to bring in one discussion topic in response to the readings. From among these discussion topics, you will pick ten topics, develop them as typewritten responses, and turn them in as two sets of commentaries, with five entries for each set. When there is a selection of
THTR 405m/Cheng/2012--8 reading assignments, you may choose to focus on one particular text for your entry or summarize your responses to all the texts required for that class.
These commentaries may be composed of a series of provocative questions compiled into paragraphs, a series of ideas, analyses, or drawings and images. Each entry should be around one-page long. The most important criterion is that the commentary is perceptive and substantial and that it may provoke deeper questioning of the issues under investigation.
III. Solo or Ensemble Presentation: 20% Due: The scheduled date.
You are required to do either a solo project or a collaborative project for the semester. Providing that we have enough time, you are allowed to do more than one presentation to increase your participation grade.
There will be five solo presentation/ensemble performance slots for the whole semester, roughly corresponding to the topics we are exploring. You should sign up in advance which slot and what kind of project (solo or collaborative) that you are going to do. If you want to change your plan, you must do so at least a week in advance. Consult the Professor for the signing sheet.
Both types of presentations are regarded as performances. An individual presentation should last about five to seven minutes. An ensemble or collaborative performance should last about ten to fifteen minutes. As a rule, an ensemble should include no more than three members.
These projects can be either academic or creative, or both. It's your choice to design the format and direction of your presentation. You can perform as a commentator, a theatre student, or a dramatic character, etc., in your solo or ensemble work. Remember: a project's duration has little to do with its quality—longer doesn't make it better!
You will receive an individual grade for your solo project. Your will receive a group grade for the ensemble project—the same grade for each member of the ensemble.
IV. Final Project: 15% (7-10 pages) Due: December 10, 2012. This assignment aims to train your research ability. Thus, you have to draw at least two outside critical or journalistic sources, in addition to the references made from the original text. You lose "5 points" for every missing source. A minimum of 8 pages is required for the paper. You lose "5 points" for each page less than the minimum requirement. The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers is recommended for the editorial format. Be sure to document your sources properly. Option 1--Critical Paper: The critical paper will analyze in depth one of the plays/performance texts that we study during the semester. You may choose to do more than one play/performance texts. Choose a subject that interests you the most, focus on a particular thesis, and develop your own interpretation based on a close reading of the play and an examination of other critical sources. You have to carefully document your sources and present a synthesis of your discoveries. The objective of the paper is to demonstrate your analytical insight, your skill at formulating an argument, and your ability to incorporate examples from the play with critical research. THTR 405m/Cheng/2012--9 Option 2--Dramaturgical Newsletter: The dramaturgical newsletter will deal with one of the plays/performance texts that we cover during the semester. It will introduce the artist/playwright's life and works, offer a detailed analysis of the particular play that you recommend for a new production, explain the reasons for your recommendation, survey at least two past productions, and describe your own particular version of production. The purpose of the newsletter is to inform your reader about the artist/playwright and the performance/play, to clarify your individual approach to the artwork, and to persuade your reader that the production is worth seeing.
V. Mid-term Exam (10%) and Final Exam (10%) You will take a mid-term and a final examination (open-book, open-channel exams). The final examination must be taken at its scheduled time. According to the USC policy, the final examination cannot be given at any other time unless a student is suffering from illness or there is a death in the family or some other critical emergency. These excuses must be formally documented.
Grading Scale:
All assignments and examinations will be graded on a percentage (100 points) scale system. The grades will then be calculated into a final point total, which will be converted into a final letter grade.
A+: 100-97; A: 96-94; A-: 93-90; B+: 89-87; B: 86-84; B-: 83-80; C+: 79-77; C: 76-74; C-: 73-70; D+: 69-67; D: 66-64; D-: 63-60; F: Below 60.
School of Theatre Grading Criteria Letter grades and marks are defined as follows: A work of excellent quality B work of good quality C work of fair quality for undergraduate credit D- work of minimum passing quality for undergraduate credit F failure
Procedures and Agreement:
I. How to schedule an individual conference. If you want to have an appointment with me, talk to me after class, or email me at
II. How to arrange for academic accommodation. Students requesting academic accommodation based on a disability are required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP when adequate documentation is filed. Please be sure the letter is delivered to the Professor as early in the semester as possible. DSP is located at the USC Center for Academic Support,
THTR 405m/Cheng/2012--10 http://sait.usc.edu/academicsupport/centerprograms/dsp/home_index.html; the office's phone number is (213) 740-0776; email [email protected].
III. How to receive early notification of grades at the end of the term. You may email the Professor to get your grade. For the sake of confidentiality, no grade postcard will be sent, nor any grade sheet posted.
IV. How to have an absence excused. Attendance is mandatory for both lecture and discussion. When you need to be absent, you should email the professor and bring in a written note, documenting the date and the reasons for your absence, when you return to class. If you need to miss more than three consecutive classes, you need to supply a letter from a guardian or parent that contains a telephone number so that the Professor or the TA/AI may contact your guardian when necessary. Note: There will be a signing-sheet passed around for attendance record. It’s your responsibility to make sure that your signature is on the attendance record. Please note also that a telephone message will not be sufficient to have your absence excused.
V. Cheating or Plagiarism. Dishonesty in any form harms the individual, other students, and the School of Theatre. Therefore, USC policies on academic integrity will be enforced in this course. Papers suspected of containing plagiarized material (the unacknowledged or inappropriate use of another's ideas, wording, or images) will be verified for authenticity through turn-it-in.com, an Internet service subscribed by SOT. I expect you to familiarize yourself with the academic integrity guidelines found in the current "SCampus" www.usc.edu/dept/publicatiohns/scampus).
VI. Code of Conduct regarding in-class behavior. Any talking, eating, newspaper reading, Internet or cell phone browsing, or unruly behavior that disrupts the lecture and the discussion/presentation is unacceptable. You should leave the classroom if you need to talk in private. If you persist in interrupting the class, you will be referred to the Office of Student Judicial Affairs and Community Standards.
VII. About the Syllabus. The syllabus is subject to change.
THTR 405m/Cheng/2012--11