This course will look at the social and cultural construction of race in, and as, performance. In the past few decades, through the welling up of research and thinking about race and performance, performance has become a-if not, the-means with which theories about race and ethnicity have been worked out. This course will bring the theoretical debate back into the theater, using plays as an entry point into larger critical thinking about performing difference and challenging our notions of authenticity and embodiment. We will look at how race is constructed or deconstructed, maintained or dismantled, both onstage, in the wings, and in the streets. |