Provost.richmond.edu

Proposed Field of Study: Field of Study Visual and Performance Arts (FSVP)
Course Number: THTR 239

Course Title: Latinas/os On Stage: From the Barrio to Broadway
Catalog Description:
This course examines the evolving formation of Latina/o identity in theatre and popular culture
with special attention to globalization, migration, and transculturation. Lecture/discussion format
with creative projects. No prerequisite. 1 unit.
Course Prerequisite(s): No prerequisite.
Number of Credit Hours: 1 unit
Typical Estimated Enrollment: 16
How often and by whom the course will be offered? Every other year. taught by
Patricia Herrera, Assistant Professor of Theatre
Staffing implications for the school / department / unit: None
Adequacy of library, technology, and other resources: Adequate. Note: this course was
approved by Academic Council on 9/13/11 with all sign-offs received.
Any interdepartmental and interschool implications: AMST & WGSS attribute
Contact Person: Patricia Herrera
How Proposed Course Will Fulfill Field of Study Requirement Visual and Performing Arts

Latinas/os On Stage: From the Barrio to Broadway will fulfill the requirement in the field of
visual and performing arts as students gain an understanding of Latino theatre and performance.
In this course students will analyze Latino-centered works produced on the Broadway stage and
community theatres. We will begin with the 1920s and culminate with recent award-winning
plays and explore a range of theatrical genres such as plays, actos, musicals, and performance art.
While understanding the historical context and analyzing the dramatic text are central
components of the class, incorporating the elements of performance are as generative to the
learning experience. We will therefore attend performances or events that specifically deal with
Latino issues and write critiques to discuss how speakers or practitioners represent and stage the
Latino body. Most importantly, we will also be performing excerpts of the texts discussed in
class. For their final project students will be assigned to groups and they will perform a scene
from a play discussed in class. What are the social, political, and artistic implications of students
embodying and performing Latino characters? These performance projects reveals the
complexities of Latino identities when they are asked to embody the characters as well as allows
students to understand the collaborative nature of theatre making.
Latinas/os On Stage: From the Barrios to Broadway
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:00-4:00pm and by appointment.
COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This course provides students with a historical and theoretical framework to understand
the politics of representing Latinas/os on stage with special attention to feminism, globalization, migration, and transculturation. We juxtapose Broadway productions with community theater from the late 1930s to the present (1) to explore the role theatre and performance have played in the creation of Latina/o identities and communities and (2) to examine the ways Latina/o practitioners use theater and performance as a space to resist normative standards and generate alternative narratives of belonging. We will explore a range of theatrical genres such as plays, actos, musicals, and performance art to understand how theatre and performance are employed by practitioners to represent, address, and comment on the socio-political realities experienced by Latinas/os. The course will examine the evolving formation of Latina/o identity throughout history by engaging with theoretical concepts such as borders, hybridity, and homeland. This course is open to all students with or without a background in theater. Special note: final project requires participation in performance of excerpted works.
REQUIRED TEXTS:
The books for this class are on sale at University of Richmond Bookstore. Nilo Cruz, Anna in the Tropics and A Bicycle Country Kara Hatzler, No Roosters in the Desert Cherríe Moraga, Watsonville/Circle in the Dirt Jon Rossini, Contemporary Latina/o Theater: Wrighting Ethnicity José Rivera, References to Salvador Dalí Make Me Hot Luis Valdez, Zoot Suit and Other Play Quiara Alegría Hudes, Elliot: A Soldier’s Fugue
REQUIRED EVENTS:
• ¡RETUMBA! Echoes of Hip Hop's Deeper Roots • The Alchemy of Blood: The Role of Personal Experience in Critically Reading Trauma and Violence in U.S. Latina/o Drama and Performance Dr. Tiffany Ana López Carole Weinstein International Center Commons • Throughout the semester there will be several events for Latino Heritage Month. You will be required to attend one additional event. Information will be provided to you about other events by the second week of class.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AT A GLANCE:

COURSE REQUIREMENTS & EVALUATION:
Active Participation and Attendance (10%): Because our class is conducted in a lecture-seminar style with a focus on group work, class discussions and workshops, your attendance and active participation is required. Attending class goes beyond just warming up a seat. You are expected to be both physically and mentally present, ready to engage with the course material, actively listen, and offer thoughtful and informed contributions. If you are having a hard time participating in class, In consultation with the professor, students will work in groups of two to co-lead a class discussion. As a discussion leader, your responsibility is to guide your classmates through a discussion of the material assigned for that day. The point of class discussion is to provide opportunities for students to exchange opinions, interpretations, and ideas about the form, content, and social efficacy of works under consideration. You are encouraged to organize your presentation to be lively and interactive as well as informative. Unless there
is an emergency, the Discussion Leader assignment cannot be made up. If you miss
the day you are scheduled, you will receive a zero (0) for this assignment. Discussion
leaders who say that they are not prepared or didn’t understand will be penalized. Be prepared. Come see the instructor if you need assistance or to talk over ideas. • Prepare by reading, listening, or viewing the assigned material. Make sure you understand the assigned material. If you have trouble understanding the assigned material, do some research or make an appointment to discuss it with the professor. • Prepare a list of questions designed to provoke discussion on the readings. Questions should not be limited solely to assigned materials, but should also consider the broader implications/significance of the topics covered in the readings as well as relevant past and/or current events. • Plan an activity that might move the discussion forward. For example, you might come up with questions for small groups. You might simply prepare a short mini-lecture. You might
lead a large group discussion. You decide, but you are responsible for at least thirty
minutes of class time. Try to think of things to do that will keep your classmates engaged
and participating for that time. (Also, remember that you will want classmates to participate
when you are in charge, so you should do them the same courtesy and participate when they
are leading.)
• Submit outline, discussion questions, or any information you used to lead discussion. Discussion leaders will be graded on: (1) clarity of content (3 points); (2) overall organization of class discussion (3 points); (3) engagement with classmates (2 points) and (4) ingenuity (2 points). Students not leading discussion are encouraged to raise their own questions during the course of the class and actively engage in the conversation. I will provide specific prompts on blackboard on the readings. You are required to post seven weekly responses. After posting your response, you are required to comment on at least one respond. Main responses (minimum of 400 words) are due at 8am of the assigned date. Peer responses (minimum of 200 words) are due by the following class. Late For your main response, you’ll want to give some context clues to let us know which passage(s) you are referring to, but don’t summarize the reading. The most important part of your response should be devoted to analyzing and synthesizing the information you have read, listened, or viewed by highlighting examples from the assigned materials. You may also connect assigned materials to your own knowledge or experience with Latino culture. I will evaluate your main and peer response using the following guidelines: Response
For Reading
Response
Response
Response develops a clear and insightful argument, marshals clearly the relevant ideas and provides supporting evidence. The ideas and argument are fairly clear and match the writing task, provides some supporting evidence. The ideas and argument are somewhat vague or only loosely related to the writing task, provides very little or irrelevant supporting evidence. Response offers simplistic or undeveloped argument, does not provide any supporting evidence for the ideas. There are major weaknesses in the argument and use of evidence or no argument is discernible. Throughout the semester you will be working on three papers. In the first paper you will use the play as your primary text to discuss how a dramatist reflects on, critiques, and/or alters colonial paradigms. In the second paper you will conduct archival research on one of the four musicals we discuss in class to understand the ways Latinos are represented on the Broadway stage. Using one of the theoretical concepts we discuss in class, your last paper will compare and contrast two dramatic works. Detailed guidelines will be provided For your Final Group Project you will perform an excerpt from one of the plays, musicals, or poems discussed in class and then write an individual (3 pages) or group paper (5 pages) reflecting on the process of this theatre production and addressing what theoretical concept(s) or themes you engaged with to develop and perform your character and scene. COURSE SCHEDULE FOR
LATINAS/OS ON STAGE: FROM THE BARRIOS TO BROADWAY
CLASS TOPIC
READINGS & OTHER ASSIGNMENTS
THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY AND PERFORMANCE
1 Th Aug. 25 What is in a name? • Sandoval-Sánchez, “José, Can You See?” 3-17. (BB) • Lopez, Detained in the Dessert (BB) • Reading Response #1 Due
Reading, Listening, • Weinert-Kendt, “Mexican? American? Call Her A Writer,” Latina/o Theater • Sandoval-Sánchez, “Rehearsing Transculturation,”14-39. • Peer Response #1 Due
HISTORY, MEMORY, AND COLONIZATION
• Bring paper topic & thesis to share with class Fusco, “The Other History of Intercultural Performance, Taylor, “The Act of Transfer,” 16-33. (BB) Taylor, “Scenarios of Discovery,” 53-78. (BB) Reading Response #2 Due
• Culture Clash, Excerpt from “A Bowl of Beings,” 68-74. (BB) • View http://cultureclash.com/category/cc-clips • Peer Response #2 Due
Attend Pop Master Fabel’s demo-performance workshop ¡RETUMBA! Echoes of Hip Hop's Deeper Roots, The Pier, 9-11pm LATINOS ON BROADWAY
Lecture on Latinas/os on the Silver Screen Paper #1 Due
• Read and View West Side Story. (BB) Sandoval-Sánchez, “A Puerto Rican Reading of the America of West Side Story,” 62-82. (BB) • Sandoval-Sánchez, “A Chorus Line: Not Such a “One, Singular Sensation” for U.S. Puerto Rican Crossovers,” 83-99. (BB) • Read and Listen to The Capeman • Sandoval-Sánchez, “The Staging of Puerto Rican National Identity as Spectacle and Commodity on Broadway,” Latino/a Popular Culture, 147-161. COURSE SCHEDULE FOR
LATINAS/OS ON STAGE: FROM THE BARRIOS TO BROADWAY
CLASS TOPIC
READINGS & OTHER ASSIGNMENTS
Sebesta, “Just Another Puerto Rican With A Knife: Racism and Reception on the Great White Way,” 183-197. (BB) • Reading Response #3 Due
DECOLONIAL PROJECT: CREATING LATINA/O IMAGINARIES
• Valdez, “Las dos caras del patroncito” and “Los vendidos,” Early Works, 17-27 and 40-52. (BB) • Huerta, “Of Masks and Moralities,” and “How to Buy a Used Mexican,” Chicano Theater 60-68 and 18-27. (BB) • Peer Response #3 Due
FALL BREAK
Culture Clash, “Nuyorican Stories,” 65-102. (BB) Theater & Poetry • Algarín, “The Sidewalk of High Art,” Aloud, 3-28. (BB) • Pietri, “Puerto Rican Obituary” & “The Spanish National • Laviera, “La Carreta Took a U-Turn” (BB) • Esteves, “Puerto Rican Discovery #3 Not Neither” (BB) • Reading Response #4 Due
Attend Dr. Tiffany Ana López Talk The Alchemy of Blood: The Role of Personal Experience in Critically Reading Trauma and Violence in U.S. Latina/o Drama and Performance` Thursday, October 13, Carole Weinstein International Center Commons, 7-8:30 p.m. • Rossini, “Miguel Piñero’s Theatricality,” 26-53. • Peer Response #4 Due
• Paper #2 Due
I will be presenting at the American Studies Association Conference in Baltimore. • Reading Response #5 Due
• Fornes, The Conduct of Life (BB) López, “Maria Irene Fornes: The Conduct of Life,” 77-90. • Peer Response #5 Due
Cruz, “Fur” and Miriam’s Flower (BB) • López, “Violent Inscription,” Theatre Journal, 51-66. Rossini, “Cherríe Moraga and the Wrighting Community,” • Reading Response #6 Due
• Rivera, “References to Salvador Dalí Make Me Hot” • Rossini, “Jose Rivera’s Aesthetics of Wrighting” Peer Response #6 Due
• Cruz, Anna in the Tropics and Bicycle Country • McAuliffe, “Interview with Nilo Cruz” • Reading Response #7 Due
• Díaz, The Entrance of Chad Deity • Hudes, Eliot: A Soldier’s Fugue Peer Response #7 Due
• I will be presenting a paper at the American Society for • Paper #3
Nov. 22 More Recent Plays • Hartzler, No Roosters in the Desert THANKSGIVING BREAK
Final Group Project Performance, 9am-12pm
Final Group Project Paper Due by 5pm

Source: http://provost.richmond.edu/faculty-resources/fac-meetings/pdf/10-18-11/THTR239%20Latino%20Onstage.pdf