Immigration on Stage and Screen

What impact have immigrants had on the development of American theater, television, film, and performance art? How do these performances help us to understand how immigrants form new identities onstage and off? This course considers the immigrant theater and film traditions that flourished in the United States from the turn of the nineteenth century to the present day. Topics include the theater of Irish, Italian, Jewish, Chinese, African, and Hispanic immigrants to the United States, immigration and Hollywood, performance and the construction of identity, and contemporary art about immigration, with a particular focus on theater and film about the Jewish immigrant experience.