Course Description

LS 391: Love, Hell, and Betrayal in French Theater will present an historical and cultural overview of French theatre through a popular medieval farce, Molière's plays and more contemporary plays. It will examine prominent themes of love, betrayal, and hell in classics and modern plays and their lively presence on stage or screen adaptations today in France and around the world. Students will investigate elements of theatre (in Wilson’s textbook Theater: The Lively Art such as acting, stage managing, and directing, the role of the audience, timing, lighting, sound design, costume, and more). Students will also study, analyze, and discuss plays (free online texts) from the various periods in a lively fashion and will complement their reading with viewing relevant scenes. They will consider the impact of theatre on people at different periods and on themselves.

They will develop the skill to become play critics and will create and write a one-act play if they choose to do so (one of the class final projects to choose).

 

Meeting Place and Times

Online

Instructor

I was born and raised in France, studied at the Sorbonne-René Descartes-Paris V and at the Université Paul Valéry in Montpellier where I received a Masters' degree in Sociology/Ethnology. I have also received an online MS in Education from MSU-Bozeman in 2016.

I have lived in Paris and other French cities and developed early on a taste for theatre. The play that made me fall in love with theatre was entitled the Golden Age, directed by Ariane Mnouchkine at the Cartoucherie de Vincennes while in high school in Paris. Since that time, theater has become the performing art I prefer. I see as many plays as I can attend (and afford) when I travel but also in Bozeman, the beautiful city where I chose to live.

As your instructor for LS 391-, Love, Hell, and Betrayal in French Theater, a class I have designed and taught three times for Liberal Studies and your Fine Art degree, I can attest that previous students who had little knowledge of theatre and no knowledge of French theatre “love this course and learned a lot”.

Teaching at Montana State University for over twenty-five years, mostly in Modern Languages and Literatures, but also in the College of Honors and CLS for seminars, is a fun profession to which I am dedicated as I thrive in building and growing an enriching experience with my students. I love to teach in general but adore teaching theatre classes. I have directed and produced 5 full-length French plays back then (20 years ago maybe) with MSU students majoring in French. My students and myself had a “blast” incarnating famous characters and texts.

In 2015, I designed a class called “French on stage” that is now part of our French Curriculum in Modern Language as it is growing as a fun and popular class. Students read and perform in a variety of scenes from the French theatre repertoire. Some of the scenes of plays they performed are plays you will read and discuss in this course.

In LS 391, you will read plays by Molière, Corneille, Beaumarchais, Camus, Sartre, Yasmina Reza, etc. Some of you might have read No Exit or seen plays of Molière at outdoor festivals. Or maybe you have never heard of any of it. Either way, whether you are familiar or not with this art form, you will enjoy discovering all of them and participating in engaging discussions on themes of Love, Hell, and Betrayal in French Theater.

I look forward to meeting you.

 

Tuition and Fees

If you are accepted into a qualified online program, see the  MSU Online Only Tuition and Fee table.

If you are also taking a face-to-face course, please refer to the MSU Fee Schedules.

Required Books/Materials

  •  Wilson. Theater: The Lively Art. 8th edition. 
    • ISBN: 9780073514208

Computer Requirements:

  • Internet access
  • A device and browser that pass the system check for Brightspace LE, MSU's learning management system.

This course uses a learning management system. You will learn more closer to the course start date.

For More Information

For more information about this course, please contact the instructor, Brigitte Morris.

How to Register

You must be accepted as a student to Montana State University to take this course.

Learn how to apply.

After your application has been accepted, you will register via MSU's online registration system, MyInfo.

Registration requires a PIN number. Learn how to find your PIN.

Once you have your PIN, learn how to register through MyInfo.