Ronni Lacroute Chair in Theatre Arts | Associate Professor of Theatre Studies

THTR 270: Play Reading and Analysis
Directed reading of classical and contemporary plays. Provides an introduction to dramatic literature and various approaches to play analysis. Various taught with themes of gender and sexuality, or racial justice. 4 credits.

LITR/THTR 272: CONTEMPORARY ARTS IN PORTLAND
In this course, we will read widely in contemporary drama, literature, and arts criticism, and adventure into Portland to experience plays, music, literary readings, and other performances, currently running in the Portland arts scene. We will become arts critics, identifying goals of productions and artists, analyzing how elements of a work of art contribute to those goals, and debating how successfully those goals are realized. We will examine new art, broadly understood, in the context of contemporary social concerns as well as artistic history, exploring the power of theater, dance, music, and literature to stage conflict and resolution. 4 credits

THTR 299: War Stories: From Hamilton to Hunger Games
Examination of representations of war through cultural objects, with particular attention to how we think about war and how we understand humanity, morality, honor, identity, our past, and our future. Focus on questions of representation (what do battles look like?), aesthetic technique, genre, history, and narrative. 4 credits.

THTR 375/MUSC 375: History of the Broadway Musical
Historical, theatrical, musical, and movement analysis of Broadway musical theatre. Focus on plot, character, musical style, and movement. Examination of the ways race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and ability are represented and investigated in musicals. Offered spring of even-numbered years. 4 credits.

THTR 398: Connecting Story to Land: Experiences in Australia and New Zealand
Exploration of the connections among story, creation, land, and culture in New Zealand and Australia. Study of storytelling practices, including Maori Waiata (song), haka (dance), tauparapara (chants), rock carvings and paintings, and mōteatea (poetry); creation of fantasy realms via New Zealand landscape (Hobbiton); and study of New Zealand and Australia’s distinctive postcolonial hybrid artistic identities. Visits to performance spaces, workshops with professional artists, and tours of the land to understand its relation to creation and narrative. By observing and participating in indigenous rituals, tours, and workshops, students will develop an understanding of people outside the US using interdisciplinary approaches. 4 credits

THTR 399: This is America: Law, Culture and Identity in the United States
Explores the question “what is the United States?” through study of its laws, culture (theater, performance, film, television, and music videos), and historic events. 4 credits.

THTR 470: Theatre History and Literature I
The development of Western and major non-Western theatre traditions to the 1700s, including sociological, philosophical, and cultural foundations of each major period and aesthetic movement; dramatic literature; physical stage, and production techniques. 4 credits.

THTR 473: Theatre History and Literature II
Investigates the development of world theatre traditions from 1700 to the present, including sociological and cultural foundations of each major period and aesthetic movement. 4 credits.

COMM 420: Queer Theory and Performativity
This course investigates the trajectory of Queer Theory through study of queer media, aesthetics, performance, and performativity. We will explore Queer Theory as both an academic discipline and a creative practice and approach queerness as a noun and queering as a verb. Objects of study will include theater, film, television, music, dance, and pop culture, along with more local ways of navigating communities. Assignments will involve writing and creative projects as a means to examine what it means to be LGBTQAI+ in the US. 3 credits.

COMM 420: Political and Protest Performance in the US
According to Augusto Boal, author of Theatre of the Oppressed, “All theater is necessarily political.” In this course, we examine plays and performances in the United States that address social, economic, and political issues, from AIDS to labor to war. We’ll read plays, examine the theatricality of political protests and politicians’ performances, and develop our own political performances. Evaluating political theater inevitably raises questions of efficacy: we’ll also delve into what counts as a “successful” political performance, asking how we might take an expansive approach to understanding impact and change. 3 credits.

INQS 125-16: Witches, Big Bad Wolves, and Reimagined Fairy Tales
One of the first ways children learn to make sense of the world around them is through stories—often, fairy tales. These narratives get reinvented over and over again and examining different interpretations can help us understand how we as individuals and cultures have changed. This course examines how representations of race, gender, sexuality, class, age, nation, and power evolve by looking at reimagined fairy tales such as Wicked, Once Upon a Time, and Mulan. 4 credits.

INQS 125 09: War Stories: From Hamilton to Hunger Games
Examination of representations of war through cultural objects, with particular attention to how we think about war and how we understand humanity, morality, honor, identity, our past, and our future. Focus on questions of representation (what do battles look like?), aesthetic technique, genre, history, and narrative. 4 credits.

IDST 007-10
Focuses on the transition to Linfield’s liberal arts environment, the resources of the Linfield community, and the process of setting goals and making intentional decisions.

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