An Intensive Seminar-Workshop

Athens, Greece, June 1998

Instructor: Despina Kakoudaki

This seminar has both a theoretical and a practical component. In order for participants to get the most out of the workshop format, the following is a list of prerequisite readings and viewings. Participants do not need to have a formal background in the history of film, or in film criticism, but they should have a commitment to explore the possibilities of serious film study for their teaching and theater applications.

1. By the first day of the seminar participants should have seen AS MANY AS THEY CAN of the following films, which will be helpful in discussing film art, and as examples of how to relate film to theater:

Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin (1936)
Singin' in the Rain, Gene Kelly (1952)
Rear Window, Alfred Hitchcock (1954)
Prospero's Books, Peter Greenaway (1991)
Romeo and Juliet, Baz Luhrmann (1996)
West Side Story, Robert Wise (1961)
Strange Days, Kathryn Bigelow (1995)
Beauty and the Beast, Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise (Disney 1991)

Also, if available:
La Jetee, Chris Marker (1962) and Zoot Suit, Luis Valdez (1981)

2. Participants should have read the following plays:

The Tempest, W. Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet, W. Shakespeare
1000 Airplanes on the Roof, D.H. Hwang (text provided by instructor)
M. Butterfly, D.H. Hwang
Top Girls, Caryl Churchill
Cloud 9, Caryl Churchill

3. Participants should bring a list of pedagogical and theoretical questions that they have identified in their experience so far, and which they hope to explore in the seminar. A list of plays/films that they have recently taught or will teach in the next year would also be helpful.

4. Participants should bring 3 visual texts that they intend to use for the workshop sessions, which will establish our understanding of "multi-media":

1. a feature-length film in any genre (musical, action, horror, thriller, science fiction, melodrama, experimental, silent)

2. any other filmed medium of shorter duration (a half hour of recorded television commercials, a documentary film, a home movie, a filmed opera or ballet segment, a sports event, a set of MTV music clips, a news segment, a "National Geographic" nature segment, a cartoon, a video game)

3. any other visual medium (a poster, a painting, a cartoon illustration, a newspaper, a collage, a photograph, a sketch of costume design, a portrait)