Reenactment and Performance in 20th & 21

Has reenactment, or the practice of “restaging a historical or biographical event” reached an end?  While the idea of historically replicating a past event is quite passé, reenactment is everywhere from verbatim theatrical tribunals to biopics. This class will ask critical questions regarding reenactment as a performance act that crosses temporal, cultural, and discipline-specific boundaries and polarities.  Investigating reenactment’s dynamics, potentials, and failures, we will examine battle reenactments, international theatrical tribunals, Indigenous performance, visits to nuclear disaster sites, autobiographical performance, and method actors. The final project will give the option of developing a research essay or crafting a creative portfolio. No prerequisites.