Paris has a rich history as a center of theatrical performance going back centuries and continues to be a vibrant home for writers and performers today. In this course, we will use our position in the heart of Paris to explore this history, tradition, and active practice – attending performances, touring theatres, and visiting the sites that inspired these artists. Along the way, we’ll examine a wide range of theatrical styles and genres and deepen our understanding of how the French theatre tradition is intertwined with English language theatre and European theatre more broadly. Our location in Paris will enrich our exploration of these texts at the same time that the culture and history reflected in these plays is enriching our experience together in Paris.

Our lens for this study will be the practice of production dramaturgy. The dramaturg is an amalgam of artist and scholar who researches a play, becoming an expert on the text itself, as well as the social and cultural context in which the playwright created it. They then bring this information to the rehearsal process—sharing with actors, directors, and designers in ways that can inspire and guide their work.

By the end of this course, students will

• Be familiar with a range of French dramatic literature from multiple historical periods.

• Be able to recognize and discuss differing storytelling structures used by theatre artists.

• Be able to recognize the influences that French dramatic literature has had on English-language theatre.

• Be able to connect developments in French theatre with the history, geography, and culture of Paris.

• Have formed (or deepened) a “personal canon” of dramatic literature that they can use to contextualize new plays or other storytelling texts as they encounter them.

• Present research information in a form accessible and useful to actors and other artists.

   

All plays will be read in English translation (no French is needed).

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This course is 3 Rice credit hours.

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This course is currently under review for D1 credit.

Priority Deadline: December 9, 2026
Final Application Deadline: February 15, 2027

For details on these two deadlines, please navigate to the How to Apply section of the Program Information & FAQs page.

For questions regarding the course content, please contact the course instructor (see below).

For questions regarding the program (budget, application process, financial aid, global awards), first read through the Rice Global Paris Summer Program Information and FAQs page on our website. If you cannot find the answer to your question, email us at globalowls@rice.edu.