American drama only put on long pants in 1919. Lacking royalty, the Dirty Dozen on Mount Olympus, and a titled aristocracy, our playwrights swiftly turned to the family living room as the essential locus for dramatic conflict. Watching an American family rehash its past and duke out its present can be as thrilling—and potentially cathartic—an experience as Elektra and Orestes wondering what to do about Mother in The Oresteia. The Pollitts in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, the Masons in Big White Fog, the Hermans in Mother Play, The Hudlockes in The Marriage of Bette and Boo, the Tyrones in Long Day’s Journey into Night, and the “Hamlets” in Fat Ham share time-tested, yet ever-evolving American cruxes: money, property, religion, revenge, alcoholism, addiction, racism, queerness, illness, and madness. How their playwrights stack the deck, stylistically and tonally, more than illustrates Tolstoy’s dictum: “Each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

COURSE FORMAT
This course is an interactive in-person seminar course in Washington D.C.. This course will meet once a week for 6 classes and will be held in-person at the following location: Williams & Connolly Conference Room- 680 Maine Ave. S.W., Washington, DC 20024.

There are no papers or grades. This course does not offer any credits or certificates. This course is intended for learning for the love of learning.

COURSE MATERIALS
This course will have all reading materials supplied by the instructor in .pdf form.
On November 13 there is an option to attend a preview performance of Mother Play at Studio Theatre with a pre- or post-show discussion. Information on tickets will be added when available.

Registrants will receive access to the course website and the zoom links about two weeks before the course starts.

COURSE CANCELLATION POLICY
Registrants can cancel and receive a full refund up to September 22. After September 22, there will be no refunds issued.
Yale Alumni College courses are subject to schedule changes as well as cancellations. If Yale Alumni College must cancel any course prior to its start due to low enrollment, you will be notified of this by the cancellation date. Upon cancellation of a course, registrants may transfer their registration to another available course or have the registration fee fully refunded.

In the event of a disruption to the original course schedule, including but not limited to; Professor absence, hazardous weather conditions, or local travel restrictions, Yale Alumni College will do its best to reschedule the missed class for the week immediately following the original end date at the same course time and day.