Students are invited to experience language learning through performance in our annual springtime offering: GERMAN 304, Contemporary German Play
Deutschsein für Fortgeschrittene: Grenzenlos und Unverschämt
(Being German for the Advanced Learner: Boundless and Bold)
This course provides the unique opportunity to incorporate your personal talents and engage with contemporary German texts by reading, discussing and (re)interpreting them, but most importantly – performing them as one play!
This Spring quarter we will stage poems, hip hop lyrics, monologues and dialogues, as well as short prose that focus on the experience of ‘Anders-Deutsch-Sein’. Afro-German authors and artists (May Ayim, Samy Deluxe, Phillip Khabo Köpsell), as well as texts by other hyphenated Germans with Turkish (Feridun Zaimoğlu), Japanese (Yoko Tawada), or Syrian (Rafik Shami) roots, speak of similar experiences. All of these writers tell stories of peculiar, strange and sometimes unsettling encounters with the so-called ‘German-Germans’. Your task will be to rethink these texts and stage them as one play.
You will gain greater fluency and accuracy in German through a wide range of selected language learning tasks. Improvisation exercises and acting games will further enhance your spontaneity and flexibility in the target language. You will be involved in every aspect of the production as actors/performers, assistant directors, costume designers, stage designers, prop builders, lighting technicians, video technicians, sound engineers etc. Any expertise in these areas will prove useful but is not required. Please note that previous acting experience is NOT a prerequisite.
For the first 2-3 weeks of the quarter, we will read, situate and discuss the texts, and you will be asked to complete short written assignments. The remainder of the quarter will be devoted to staging and rehearsals. The course will culminate in your performance.
Regular attendance, memorization of lines and extra rehearsals (if needed) at the end of the quarter are required. The course will be conducted in German.
Prerequisite: German 203 or permission of instructor.
This will be your chance to be boundless and bold in German. You will become part of the rewarding experience that will help improve your German and your collaboration skills in a fun and constructive environment.