Gender & Sexuality in Performance

This spring-term TAPS Arts Core course explores performance practice in dialogue with theoretical frameworks from gender and sexuality studies. How is gender produced and contested through performance? What is at stake in performing a gendered self or character? How can embodiment—including gesture, voice, movement, costume, and repetition—naturalize, exaggerate, or disrupt gender norms? How do gender studies frameworks complicate narrative, character, and dramatic structure? The course mixes seminar and studio practice, including playwriting, acting, dance, improvisation, choreography, solo performance, and/or ensemble creation. Students who have completed the Gender and Sexuality Civilizations sequence or other coursework in Gender and Sexuality Studies will have priority registration for this course; remaining seats will be open to other students. No background in performance required. For more information on the performance practice focus of a particular section, please consult the course notes in the registration system.