Plan Now for Fall 2022! PMA 4675 Shakespeare in (Con)text & PMA 4681 Cages and Creativity: Arts in Incarceration

Shakespeare in (Con)text

PMA 4675/ ENGL 4210/ VISST 4546 

Course Schedule: Monday, 7:30 p.m. - 9:25 p.m. 
Instructor: Bruce Levitt, bal5@cornell.edu

• ROMEO & JULIET
• LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST
• KING LEAR
• RICHARD III
• MEASURE FOR MEASURE
• MACBETH
• MERCHANT OF VENICE
• HAMLET 

This course focuses on how the texts themselves are blueprints for productions with particular emphasis on the structure, rhythm, staging and acting choices imbedded in the language of the plays by Shakespeare. This course also examines how collaboration among stage directors, designers, and actors leads to different productions of the plays. 

This course fulfills PMA History, Theory and Criticism rubric as well as ALC in Arts & Sciences. 

Cages and Creativity: Arts in Incarceration

PMA 4681/AMST 4681/ CPEJ MINOR

Course Schedule: Monday, 9:05 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. 
Instructor: Bruce Levitt, bal5@cornell.edu 

Cages and Creativity explores the presence of the arts in prisons in the United States and elsewhere and takes up many of the topics raised by Aylwyn Walsh: . . . what is “arts behind bars”? What are some of the intentions, and why would people do it? It also signals the range of practices that are to be found—from the development of needlework in male prisons through to participatory arts projects with young people in prisons to collaborative stage shows. Artists working in criminal justice have a wide range of intentions. For a few, there might be a frisson of the danger and caged energy behind bars that is stimulating to creativity and could add something to their own creative process. The model of art for prisoners—professional artists staging a show or doing an unplugged music event in a prison—can raise the profile of prisons and punishment.   
Using video’s, archival material, reading material from texts and articles from various web sources, and in-person or Zoom interviews, the class examines the increasing scholarship surrounding arts programs and their efficacy for incarcerated persons.  The class will also look at art produced by incarcerated artists as well as art by those who are still practicing after returning home. And finally, the class will explore the increasing scholarship around the impact practicing the arts while incarcerated has on recidivism rates and preparation for re-entry.  

This course fulfills both the ALC distribution requirement and the SSC requirement in A&S. 
History, Theory, Criticism Rubric 

Take a look at our full Fall 2022 course offerings here.