Overview
This course introduces queer drama and performance through historical, theoretical, textual, and embodied study. Students examine plays, performance art, devised theatre, drag, cabaret, queer dance, solo performance, and related forms across diverse cultural and historical contexts.
The course develops critical and practical understanding of gender and sexuality as performance, embodiment, camp, disidentification, spectatorship, intimacy, visibility, archives, chosen family, intersectionality, censorship, public space, and representation. Students undertake close analysis of scripts and live or recorded performances, participate in exercises involving character, voice, gesture, spatial composition, improvisation, devising, and collaborative scene-making, and create an original short performance or dramatic work. Teaching and assessment support consent, accessibility, respectful pronoun use, ethical collaboration, and careful engagement with vulnerable or personally resonant material.
Learning Outcomes
- Analyze how theatrical and performance forms construct, negotiate, and contest identities.
- Situate queer drama and performance within relevant social, cultural, artistic, and intellectual histories.
- Apply queer theory, performance studies, feminist theory, trans studies, critical race theory, and disability studies to textual and embodied analysis.
- Demonstrate ethical, accessible, and collaborative rehearsal practices, including consent-based approaches to performance-making.
- Create expressive performance material using character, voice, gesture, movement, spatial composition, improvisation, and devising techniques.
- Evaluate performances and dramatic texts through informed, specific, and contextually grounded critique.
- Synthesize formal and political analysis in an original performance or dramatic work and its critical reflection.
- Discuss representation with attention to intersectionality, cultural specificity, and the non-singularity of queer experience.
Timetable
| Type | Length | Frequency | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lecture | 2 hours | Weekly | All semester |
| Studio | 2 hours | Weekly | All semester |
| Tutorial | 1 hour | Fortnightly | All semester |
Assessment Schedule
| Type | Description | Weighting |
|---|---|---|
| Assignment | Critical response papers (2 × 10%) | 20.00% |
| Deliverable | Studio practice portfolio | 15.00% |
| Test | Practical performance test | 15.00% |
| Capstone | Original performance or dramatic work with critical reflection | 35.00% |
| Exam | Final analytical examination | 15.00% |
Teaching Staff & Programs
This course is delivered jointly by faculty from the participating programs listed below. In line with the Douchewater Way, the University of Sexology tailors core instruction directly to each cohort's specific discipline — adapting curriculum to program needs rather than forcing students into a one-size-fits-all model. Learn more about our approach at The Douchewater Way.