Morgan Koerner (Seattle) p.73-83
2004 Issue 1
Abstract
This paper argues that comic metatheater is a genre particularly suited for communicative language learning in project-oriented foreign-language theater courses. My argument draws on experience in teaching an undergraduate seminar at the University of Washington in Spring 2003; this course (German 304: Performing a German Play) resulted in two performances of Ludwig Tieck’s Der gestiefelte Kater. Examples from both the structure of Tieck’s play and my students’ rehearsals and performances illuminate the ludic context that made it possible for students to embrace both language learning and amateur acting as a pleasurable comedy of errors. The paper highlights the emphasis placed on improvisation and hyberbolic acting in course assignments. In the final section of the paper, I discuss the play in the context of cultural and literary-historical learning and examine the pedagogical significance of assignments given to students to update the play’s satire of popular culture. The paper’s evaluation of the different phases of the course, from interpretation and editing to production and staging of the play, culminates in an argument for a playful and improvisational approach to project-oriented foreign-language theater.