Overview
Queer Drama and Performance II develops advanced engagement with queer theatre and performance through sustained integration of historical study, critical theory, and creative practice. Students examine AIDS-era performance activism, lesbian and trans performance histories, queer of color critique, drag and camp, disability justice, digital performance, and contemporary intersectional practices.
The course investigates how performance challenges realism, genre, spectatorship, fixed identity, and institutional power. Students work with dramaturgies of absence and refusal, testimony and autobiography, archival recovery, citation and appropriation, intimacy direction, consent-based rehearsal, and audience participation. Studio assignments involve close analysis, reinterpretation, and original devising through movement, voice, text, image, sound, and multimedia.
Seminars, viewings, workshops, rehearsal laboratories, and peer feedback support the development of ethically informed ensemble practice. The course culminates in a collaborative performance accompanied by critical reflection and an articulated artistic rationale.
Learning Outcomes
- Contextualize queer drama and performance within relevant social, cultural, theatrical, and political histories.
- Apply queer, feminist, trans, disability, intersectional, and decolonial theoretical frameworks to close analysis of plays and performances.
- Evaluate formal, ethical, and representational choices in existing and devised performance materials.
- Devise and refine performance work using movement, voice, text, image, sound, and multimedia.
- Demonstrate responsible ensemble practice through consent-based rehearsal, intimacy protocols, constructive critique, and collaborative decision-making.
- Synthesize research, dramaturgical analysis, and creative experimentation in an informed artistic rationale.
- Revise performance material in response to critical feedback and communicate reflective conclusions in written and performed forms.
Timetable
| Type | Length | Frequency | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lecture | 2 hours | Weekly | All semester |
| Seminar | 1 hour | Weekly | All semester |
| Studio | 2 hours | Weekly | All semester |
| Rehearsal Lab | 2 hours | Weekly | Second term |
| Tutorial | 1 hour | Fortnightly | All semester |
Assessment Schedule
| Type | Description | Weighting |
|---|---|---|
| Assignment | Critical analysis of a queer performance text or event. | 20.00% |
| Deliverable | Contextual research dossier on performance history and theory. | 15.00% |
| Attendance | Workshop participation and peer feedback. | 10.00% |
| Test | Individual devised performance study. | 15.00% |
| Capstone | Collaborative performance and artistic rationale. | 25.00% |
| Assignment | Critical reflection on creative practice and revision. | 15.00% |
Prerequisites
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.
