Occultism in Western Theatre and Performance

Course Code: CD 135 ΝΕ (online-English)

Course Dates: April 4th 2011

Instructor: Jason Lawton Winslade

Course description:

From elaborate public Greek festivals to secret initiation rituals, occult traditions have continually made use of theatrical forms to manifest their stories, teachings, and ideas. This course surveys a broad range of such forms, investigating how theatre practitioners and ritualists have utilized esoteric and occult philosophies in performance throughout various historical and stylistic periods. Using current performance theories, students will evaluate these works and their place in the history of Western esotericism. We will start with ritual performances, festivals and plays in the ancient world, progress through Renaissance drama and masques, and explore the relationship between theatre and esoteric traditions like Rosicrucianism and Anthroposophy. We then consider the turn-of-the-century Symbolist movement in theatre, including various avant-garde practitioners like Antonin Artaud, W.B. Yeats, and Aleksander Blok. Finally, we study the experimental theatre of the 1960s and its link to contemporary performance art and ritual theatre revivals, particularly focusing on interpretations of the Rites of Eleusis.

Required texts (tentative):

From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play, Victor Turner, PAJ Publications, 2001.

The Roots of Theatre: Rethinking Ritual and Other Theories of Origin, Eli Rozik, University of Iowa Press, 2002.

The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, trans. Joscelyn Godwin, Phanes Press, 1991.

The Theater and Its Double, Antonin Artaud, trans. Mary Caroline Richards, NY: Grove Press, 1994.

Western Esotericism in Russian Silver Age Drama: Aleksandr Blok’s The Rose & The Cross, Lance Gharavi. St. Paul, Minnesota: New Grail Publishing, 2008.

Prerequisites: None . This course is a prerequisite for several of our other courses in more specialized areas exploring the manifestations of occult and esoteric motifs in popular culture.

Languages: English only. Our English language requirements do apply to this course.

Delivery: Online only. A substantial amount of reading material will be made available to students through our online learning centre.

Students may also choose to audit this course.
Scholarships apply for this course.

Week 1	-Introduction to performance theory: -The ritual origin theory of theatre. -Performance as transformation
Week 2	Sacred Theatre in the Western World Greek festival and the Rites of Eleusis -Egyptian stage magic, performing the Book of the Dead
Week 3	-Esoteric Drama in the Renaissance and Enlightenment -The Elizabethans – Marlowe, Shakespeare, Dee. -Doctor Faustus, Macbeth, the Tempest - John Dee and Elizabethan Theatre.
Week 4	-Drama and Ritual in Modern Occultism, part I. -Rosicrucians and the Chemical Wedding -Masonic Initiation Ritual and The Magic Flute -The Golden Dawn and the Fin-de-Siecle Theatre
Week 5 Response paper due.	-Drama and Ritual in Modern Occultism, part II -Crowley’s Rites of Eleusis and the Gnostic Mass -Steiner’s Anthroposophical Theatre
Week 6	-Symbolists and Surrealists -Artaud’s Alchemical Theatre -Yeats’ Symbolist Theatre -Russian and French Symbolism
Week 7	-Experimental Theatre in the late 20th Century -Peter Brook and Richard Foreman -Reviving Artaud Grotowski’s Paratheatre
Week 8	-Contemporary Performance Art and Ritual Revivals -Antero Alli, Alex Grey and Alan Moore -Contemporary Ritual Dramas -Initiating the Audience
Week 9	Research Paper due. Final Exam