THE5940C - Guided Readings in Theatre

Course Description

Contemporary Play Analysis and Dramatic Reading Workshop

This course invites participants to explore contemporary plays and playwrights through a dynamic, discussion-driven approach that treats reading as an active, embodied experience. Rather than approaching texts as static works, students will engage with drama as a relational and improvisational practice, uncovering how meaning is shaped through interaction, perspective, and performance. No prior theatre training is required, but participants should be prepared for thoughtful reading and active engagement.

Across the course, students will examine pairs of contemporary plays that are intentionally placed “in conversation” with one another. These pairings may connect through theme, structure, cultural context, or ideology, offering a layered approach to analysis. Each week begins with a brief lecture to establish context, followed by guided discussions that emphasize interpretation, dialogue, and exploration of multiple viewpoints. Drawing on drama education theory and literacy research, the course highlights how dramatic methods can deepen comprehension and expand traditional approaches to reading.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:

Robert Caisley is an award-winning playwright whose work has been produced across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, and translated into Italian, French, Estonian, Spanish and Czech. He is the recipient of a 2015–16 Performing Arts Fellowship from the Idaho Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the University of Idaho’s 2015 Excellence in Research and Creativity Award. A three-time alum playwright of the National New Play Network, he has also been a featured playwright at the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference.

Caisley’s play Lucky Me received an NNPN Rolling World Premiere in the 2014–15 season with productions at New Jersey Repertory Theatre, Curious Theatre (Denver), Riverside Theatre (Iowa City), 6th Street Playhouse (Santa Rosa), Oregon Contemporary Theatre, The Modern Theatre (Spokane), Theatre Tallahassee and CAT Theatre (Richmond). The play later toured with Vana Baskini Teater in Estonia during the 2018–19 season and subsequently enjoyed an extended run at Divadlo Ungelt in Prague.

His play Happy, first presented at the 2011 NNPN Annual Showcase of New Plays at InterACT Theatre in Philadelphia, was a 2012 finalist for both the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference and the Woodward/Newman Award. It received an NNPN Rolling World Premiere in the 2012–13 season with productions at New Theatre (Miami), Montana Repertory Theatre, 6th Street Playhouse, New Jersey Repertory and Redtwist Theatre (Chicago). Happy was named one of Chicago Magazine’s “Nine Best Comedies” of the season, nominated for a Bay Area Critics Circle Award for Best Original Script, and received the 2014 SOTA Award for Best Play. Its Spanish-language premiere was staged in 2018 at Teatro Milán in Mexico City, where it earned a 2018 theatre Billboard Award nomination, and the play later ran for more than 100 performances. It is currently running at El Piccolino Teatro in Buenos Aires.

Additional plays include The Open Hand (Clarence Brown Theatre, Phoenix Theatre), A Masterpiece of Comic…Timing (B Street Theatre) and Front. His most recent play, Snow Fever: A Karaoke Christmas, has been produced at B Street Theatre, Oregon Contemporary Theatre and Phoenix Theatre.

Caisley directs the MFA Playwriting Program at the University of Idaho.