England - Contemporary London Theater and Performance

Location: London, England

Dates: July 14 – August 10, 2024. Dates will be confirmed in Spring 2024. Students should NOT purchase flights until receiving instruction from our office to do so.

Credits Offered: 3 credits

• Undergraduates: ENGL 388.62 (3 credits)
• Graduates: ENGL 780.51 (3 credits)

Application Deadline:
We will continue to consider applications until March 15, 2024 OR until the program fills.
Due to housing constraints, applications will be evaluated on a rolling basis. The program may be filled before the deadline, so we encourage you to apply early!

Program Fee: $3,900 (estimate; will be confirmed late March 2024 with applicants). This information will be updated in January 2024.

The fee will include: housing, welcome/farewell meals, events/activies (including theater tickets), one day trip (transportation and cultural event), one overnight trip (transportation, housing, and cultural excursions), and international health and travel insurance. TUITION and AIRFARE are NOT included in the program fee. All students are responsible for arriving at their study abroad location by the first day of the program; this may mean flying the day before.

Payment Schedule: $350 program deposit is due on or before April 1, 2024. Do not submit your deposit until you have applied and been officially accepted to the program! You will receive an acceptance email from our office to confirm next steps.

$3,550 (program fee balance; estimate) is due on or before April 15, 2024. Payments must be made with certified check or money order. No cash, personal checks, or credit cards. Payments should be made at the Office of Education Abroad during office hours.

Students are responsible for meeting the payment deadline regardless of funding source, i.e. Macaulay Opportunities Fund, scholarships, loans, or any other type of financial aid. Late fees will be applied to all delayed payments.

Financial Aid: Please be sure to meet with the Financial Aid Office to discuss your particular financial aid package.

Scholarships: In addition to applying for the Gilman Scholarship,* students should visit our Scholarships Page for more opportunities.

*Students interested in applying for the Gilman scholarship should email Stephen Lassonde at ops@hunter.cuny.edu.

This three-week course will explore the diversity of theatrical and performance offerings in London as it aims to give students a wide-ranging, diverse, historically rich understanding of British theater and performance as they are practiced today in both traditional and experimental venues.  Depending on the season’s offerings, we will attend 10-12 plays, ranging from performances of Shakespeare and Restoration Comedy to classics of the modern British stage to contemporary works by leading dramatists. We will be especially attentive to the complex ways in which certain British theatrical institutions – The Royal Shakespeare Company, The National Theater, The Old Vic, The Globe, The Haymarket, the Donmar Warehouse, Sadler Wells Theatre – present quite different styles of production based on varying aspirations, from the aesthetic and experimental to the traditional and the political.

In addition to attending performances, the class will meet several times a week to discuss each theatrical production. We will draw on published texts of performed works as well as relevant critical and theoretical writings. Among the topics we will tackle: Can one recreate the experience of the original production of a given theatrical work – and should one aim to do so? What contemporary concerns are brought to bear on performances of Shakespeare? What are the innovations of Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Theater, in which for the first time actresses took on prominent roles as sexually provocative subjects prevailed? How did the socially conscious plays of George Bernard Shaw differ from the mischievous comedies of his fellow Irishman Oscar Wilde? Why did Realism and Naturalism dominate the British stage in the 1940s through early 1960s? How were such traditions challenged in the Absurdist drama of Beckett and in Orton’s antic farces? What was the Angry Young Men movement, and in what ways did feminist playwrights react against such works? What concerns characterize British playwrights today? What is the relationship between British and American theatrical traditions? How do the various elements of a given theatrical production – text, music, props, scenery, choices of individual actors, directorial aims – shape the performance? What does contemporary dance provide that a theatrical experience cannot?

A key feature of the class will be regular engagement with the daily critical reception of current theatrical and dance productions as published in London newspapers and on line, in which heated controversy and lively debate are the norm. (Links and reviews will be posted on our class blog.) The class will participate in guided tours of Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, recreated on London’s South Bank, and of the National Theater, which houses several performance spaces. When possible, we will meet with actors, directors, producers, and critics in order to explore the often hidden mechanics of theatrical production. In London, the summer 2024 theatrical season promises to be an exciting one, whether in the West End (the equivalent to Broadway), repertory (National Theatre, Shakespeare Globe Theatre), festivals (Camden), or the Fringe (similar to New York City’s Off-Broadway). We will attend at least one dance performance the London’s Sadler Wells Theatre in the Islington section of London. Possible productions include works by Shakespeare, Congreve, Wycherley, Friel, Beckett, Shaw, Wilde, Bennett, Armitage, Pinter, Hall, Eldridge, Haley, and Stephens, among others. Students will be expected to come to class with relevant texts and to participate in seminar discussion in an engaged, lively, and informed manner. In order to maximize the cultural experience in London formal written work (which includes three 3-4 page theater reviews and a final 15-page paper) will be due one month after the London part of our class is concluded.

Syllabus

• ENGLISH 388.62

Prerequisites

For undergraduates: ENGL 220; for English majors, also ENGL 252. If the required prerequisites do not appear on your transcript, you may contact the faculty member for a waiver form, which should be submitted with your transcript as part of your application to the Office of Education Abroad.

All applicants must fulfill the general eligibility requirements along with this program’s prerequisites.

Credits & Grades

Students in this program will receive both credits and letter grades. Grades will count toward their Hunter GPA.