From page to stage

Abstract

In many traditional literature classes, students engage with texts primarily through reading and discussion. However, literature, and even drama, can often remain abstract or stagnant on the page without a way to relate it to a tangible, lived experience. This paper explores a hands-on pedagogical approach in which students on a university literature course studied a theatrical work in translation—in this case, Federico García Lorca’s Blood Wedding—but also collaborated with theater students in the process of staging the play. In this course, students assumed a dramaturgical function in which, after close reading and contextual study during the first part of the semester, they participated in table reads and rehearsals, presented interpretive material to the cast and crew, and then attended the live performance of the show. This paper considers the tenants of experiential learning and uses the design of the course to give real-world examples of how experiential learning can be incorporated into a university-level literature class.