How can theatrical texts and performances shape the stories of a nation and its people?  This course examines texts and contexts central to American theatre and performance studies.  Throughout the semester, we will be reading and analyzing performance texts and historical happenings from a wide range of cultural traditions in the United States during the 20th Century. Using these texts, we will practice our analytical skills as well as our appreciation for the ways in which performance and culture consistently work together and influence one another. Throughout the semester, we will continually revisit the question of how the study of theatre may provide us with a means to examine American life, and think through its most complex ongoing issues, such as race, culture, health, gender, sexuality, class, and citizenship.