ABSTRACT
A selection of plays from Daniel Halpern’s anthology was chosen to address some of the aforementioned concepts, along with some plays from an anthology of Arab-American theatre called Salaam, plus a book on Omani folk tales entitled Halimah and the Snake (Todino-Gonguet 2008), and exercises developed for the students to create their own one-acts. Suffice it to say, there was far more interest in the course than anybody anticipated and the course as designed began with necessary improvisations. Following an initial lecture offering a historical overview of theatre, the remainder of the semester was devoted to discussions of one-act plays, and a range of short exercises that would build towards creating a couple of short—sometimes improvised—plays. With an eye toward the live performances several months down the road, the key elements of the plays were pared down and the performative scaffolding put up week by week, plank by intellectual and emotional plank.
