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Southern Utah University
Southern Utah University
Fall Semester 2026

Shakespeare Unbound (Face-to-Face)

THEA 1303-01

Course: THEA 1303-01
Credits: 3
Term: Fall Semester 2026
Department: Theatre, Dance, & Arts Admin
CRN: 30323

Course Description

Explores Shakespeare’s plays in multiple contexts, using the disciplines of literature, history, and theatre to prepare students to comprehend the plays in relation to their cultures, then and now. (Fall) [Graded (Standard Letter)] Registration Restriction(s): None General Education Category: Humanities

Required Texts


REQUIRED TEXTS & READINGS:
  • Manga Shakespeare: Twelfth Night - Adapted by Richard Appignanesi and Nana Li. Available at the SUU Bookstore or on Amazon or you can read it online on the Digital Theatre+ Database from the SUU Library.
  • Multiple additional required readings will be provided in Canvas.

SUPPLEMENTAL TEXTS & READINGS:
  • Hamlet - Free online versions of all Shakespeare's plays can be found here. This includes a downloadable PDF. You may also purchase a physical copy at the bookstore. I would suggest a free copy, as this will be a supplemental text to our discussion of the manga.
  • King Lear - Free online versions of all Shakespeare's plays can be found here. This includes a downloadable PDF. You may also purchase a physical copy at the bookstore. I would suggest a free copy, as this will be a supplemental text to our discussion of the manga.
  • Various additional required readings will be provided in Canvas.

REQUIRED PERFORMANCES & FILMS:
  • Hamlet Utah Shakespeare Festival - Tickets will be provided at no charge by Jeb for the assigned night. If you do not attend the assigned night, you will still be required to attend the USF production. 
  • Twelfth Night Utah Shakespeare Festival - Tickets will be provided at no charge by Jeb for the assigned night. If you do not attend the assigned night, you will still be required to attend the USF production. 
  • Something Rotten! Utah Shakespeare Festival - Tickets will be provided at no charge by Jeb for the assigned night. If you do not attend the assigned night, you will still be required to attend the USF production. 
  • Sense & Sensibility Southern Utah University Theatre - Tickets are free with current SUU I.D. There will not be an assigned night for this production.

Learning Outcomes


1)    Creative and Critical Thinking:  Students will imaginatively apply creative and critical thinking to evaluate visual, textual, and performative elements of Shakespeare’s work, adaptations of Shakespeare, and Shakespeare’s influence on contemporary society.
2)    Communication: Students will write and speak about Shakespeare’s work, history, and performance. Students will also perform Shakespeare and demonstrate the ability to connect the study of Shakespeare to their own interests, majors, and specific fields of study.
3)    Knowledge of Human Cultures & the Physical & Natural World: Students will derive evidence from primary and secondary sources regarding the work, culture, and society of William Shakespeare and describe how our understanding of Shakespeare is shaped by social, cultural, linguistic, and/or historical circumstances. 

Learning Outcome Alignment USHE Policy R470:
Upon successful completion of the General Education Humanities requirement, students will be able to:

2.2.1. Examine: Examine how humanities artifacts (such as oral narratives, literature, philosophy, media, and artworks) express the human condition.

In other words: Explore how Shakespeare's plays and the many ways we experience them. Including exploring how live performance, graphic novels, visual art, and film express what it means to be human. As we study the plays, you will consider questions about love, ambition, power, identity, family, conflict, morality, loss, and other experiences that connect Shakespeare's world to our own

Think about it this way: What does this work reveal about what it means to be human?

2.2.2. Explain: Explain how humanities artifacts take on meaning within networks or systems (such as languages, cultures, values, and worldviews) that account for the complexities and uncertainties of the human condition.

In other words: Understand that Shakespeare's plays do not exist in isolation. Their meanings are shaped by the language, beliefs, values, politics, social structures, and cultural expectations of the world in which they were created. You will also explore how those meanings can change when the plays are performed, illustrated, translated, or adapted for audiences living in different times and cultures.

Think about it this way: How does the world surrounding a work shape what it means—and why might that meaning change for a different audience or time period?

2.2.3. Analyze: Analyze humanities artifacts according to humanities methodologies, such as a close analysis, questioning, reasoning, interpretation, and critical thinking.

In other words: Learn how to become a careful and curious reader, viewer, and audience member. You will practice looking closely at Shakespeare's words, characters, images, performances, and storytelling choices, while asking questions and developing interpretations supported by evidence. Whether we are watching a performance, studying a graphic novel, or viewing a film adaptation, you will learn to explain how and why a work creates meaning.

Think about it this way: What do I notice, what questions does it raise, what evidence can I find, and what might it mean?

2.2.4. Compare and Contrast: Compare and contrast diverse humanistic perspectives across cultures, communities, and/or time periods to explain how people make meaning of their lives.

In other words: Discover how the same Shakespeare play can mean very different things to different people, cultures, generations, and artists. By experiencing the plays through different performances, adaptations, artistic forms, and historical contexts, you will compare the perspectives and choices that shape each version. You will consider what changes, what stays the same, and what those differences reveal about the people who created and experienced each version.

Think about it this way: Why does this version of Shakespeare look, sound, or feel different from another version and what does that difference tell us about the people who created it?

2.2.5. Apply: Using humanities perspectives, reflect on big questions related to aesthetics, values, meaning, and ethics and how those apply to their own lives.

In other words: Use what you discover through Shakespeare and the Humanities to think about questions that don't have easy answers. What makes something beautiful, disturbing, meaningful, or worthwhile? How should we respond to questions of power, justice, love, loyalty, ambition, responsibility, or morality? You will have opportunities to connect these questions from Shakespeare's world to your own experiences, values, choices, and understanding of the world.

Think about it this way: What does Shakespeare's exploration of the human experience make me think differently about my own life and the world I live in?

Course Requirements

Group Work: This class will have significant group work, including performances. Since your contribution to group work can impact other student's work, failure to contribute will result in significant point loss.

Guest Artists: We will have several guest artists during the semester. You will be expected to come prepared, be attentive, and actively participate when we have guests. 

Readings and Video Viewings: Because much of the learning in this class happens through discussion and processing various ideas raised in those discussions, you need to come to class having completed all assigned readings and videos for each day. You will not be able to adequately participate in class or process ideas if you are not prepared.

Attending Plays: Attendance at plays is mandatory and cannot be substituted with movies, videos, or attending alternate productions.

Course Outline

This course consists of seven modules that each last approximately two weeks.

Module 1: Play Attendance and Participation
This module will run throughout the semester. Students will be required to attend at least three live Shakespeare performances, attend a SUMA exhibit, and visit Special Collections in the library. 

Module 2: Literary Theatre
In this module students learn about the parts of a play and the elements of plot. Most of this information comes from Artistotle's The Poetics. Its original intent was a critical analysis for the theatre (specifically tragedy) but has become one of the foundational theories for analysis of all literature. 

To complete this module students will:
  • Watch Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
  • Read the material provided in Canvas
  • Do the Aristotle's "Poetics" reading with video and quiz
  • Do the Parts of a Play: Reading and quiz
  • Do Elements of plot: Reading and quiz 
 
Module 3: Shakespeare and Elizabethan Period History Overview
This module will consist of several in class presentations and multiple readings and quizzes. It will provide an overview of the history leading up to Shakespeare’s neo-classical period, an overview of the history of the Elizabethan age, an overview of the history Elizabethan theatre buildings, and an overview of the history of the publication of the era including the First Folio. A visit to SUU Special Collections will be required for this module.


Module 4: Twelfth Night Unbound: Disguises, Desire, Multiverses, & Memes
In this unit, we will explore Twelfth Night through multiple versions of Shakespeare's story. We will experience the play as a live performance by the Utah Shakespeare Company and encounter it in graphic form through Manga Shakespeare: Twelfth Night, adapted by Richard Appignanesi and illustrated by Nana Li. We will consider how different artistic forms use different tools to tell the same story and how those choices shape our understanding of characters, relationships, gender, identity, and comedy. We will then see what happens when Shakespeare's story is transformed again in the modern film She's the Man. Along the way, we will explore the "multiverse" of Twelfth Night by becoming interpreters, critics, and creators ourselves.


Module 5: There's Someting Rotten About Hamlet
In this unit, we will explore the satisfyingly rich relationship between Shakespeare's Hamlet and the musical comedy Something Rotten!. After experiencing both productions at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, we will consider what makes Hamlet such an enduring cultural phenomenon and what happens when Shakespeare's tragedy becomes the subject of parody, comedy, adaptation, and even memes. We will think about tragedy and comedy, artistic ambition, celebrity, theatrical conventions, and the question of what makes Hamlet Hamlet. Rather than simply studying Shakespeare as a fixed "classic," we will play with the possibilities of adaptation ourselves through creative pitching and thematic meme-making.

Module 6: Unbinding Tragedy: Sisters, Inheritance, and the Architecture of Genre in King Lear and Sense and Sensibility
In this module, we will explore what happens when Shakespearean tragic structures appear inside a domestic comedy. Although Sense and Sensibility is not an adaptation of King Lear, both works are built on strikingly similar foundations:
  • An unjust inheritance decision
  • Sisters who embody competing emotional philosophies
  • A patriarchal system governed by property and marriage
  • Public humiliation and private suffering
  • A climactic scene of illness or exposure
Yet one story ends in mass death and political collapse; the other ends in marriage and social reintegration.

This unit asks: Is genre simply mood or is it a systemic approach that ultimately determines who survives? By placing these productions in conversation, we will examine how tragedy and comedy discipline emotional excess, regulate female agency, and respond to patriarchal structures differently.

Module 7: Monologue performance—For this modulestudents are going to prepare and perform a Shakespearean monologue. There are six steps/assignments they must complete for this module. They must also provide a scansion of their monologue as well as perform it both in class and in a video. They will rehearse their monologue for both the professor and their class peer group.

 
Final Module: Research, group presentation, and group performance.
Student groups will research what we will call an "original practice" using primary and scholarly sources in the SUU Library. Your group will present your original practice research to the class, and then will perform a scene from a Shakespeare play that illustrates your original practice

Instructor's policies on late assignments and/or makeup work

Late work is generally not be accepted for full credit unless you have made arrangements with me prior to the time it is due but I know that "life happens" so I will leave assignments open for two-to-four days after the due date at which point they will lock. Once something is locked, you will not be able to turn it in and will not receive points. The lock date is not the due date. Things are due when they are due. If treating the lock date as a due date becomes the norm, I will no longer offer this courtesy. It should only be utilized in extenuating circumstances.

Attendance Policy

Attendance at every class period and play is expected and required. You are also expected to actively participate in class while also allowing others the space to participate. Full points for participation and attendance will be awarded to everyone at the start of the semester. Points will be subtracted for absences, tardiness, or failure to participate in the learning process. I recognize that students' learning and participation styles vary and I will try and be sensitive to those differences. 

Attendance at plays is mandatory and cannot be substituted with movies, videos, or attending alternate productions.

Course Fees

There are no course fees.

ADA Statement

Students with medical, psychological, learning, or other disabilities desiring academic adjustments, accommodations, or auxiliary aids will need to contact the Disability Resource Center, located in Room 206F of the Sharwan Smith Center or by phone at (435) 865-8042. The Disability Resource Center determines eligibility for and authorizes the provision of services.

If your instructor requires attendance, you may need to seek an ADA accommodation to request an exception to this attendance policy. Please contact the Disability Resource Center to determine what, if any, ADA accommodations are reasonable and appropriate.

Academic Credit

According to the federal definition of a Carnegie credit hour: A credit hour of work is the equivalent of approximately 60 minutes of class time or independent study work. A minimum of 45 hours of work by each student is required for each unit of credit. Credit is earned only when course requirements are met. One (1) credit hour is equivalent to 15 contact hours of lecture, discussion, testing, evaluation, or seminar, as well as 30 hours of student homework. An equivalent amount of work is expected for laboratory work, internships, practica, studio, and other academic work leading to the awarding of credit hours. Credit granted for individual courses, labs, or studio classes ranges from 0.5 to 15 credit hours per semester.

Academic Freedom

SUU is operated for the common good of the greater community it serves. The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition. Academic Freedom is the right of faculty to study, discuss, investigate, teach, and publish. Academic Freedom is essential to these purposes and applies to both teaching and research.

Academic Freedom in the realm of teaching is fundamental for the protection of the rights of the faculty member and of you, the student, with respect to the free pursuit of learning and discovery. Faculty members possess the right to full freedom in the classroom in discussing their subjects. They may present any controversial material relevant to their courses and their intended learning outcomes, but they shall take care not to introduce into their teaching controversial materials which have no relation to the subject being taught or the intended learning outcomes for the course.

As such, students enrolled in any course at SUU may encounter topics, perspectives, and ideas that are unfamiliar or controversial, with the educational intent of providing a meaningful learning environment that fosters your growth and development. These parameters related to Academic Freedom are included in SUU Policy 6.6.

Academic Misconduct

Scholastic honesty is expected of all students. Dishonesty will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent (see SUU Policy 6.33). You are expected to have read and understood the current SUU student conduct code (SUU Policy 11.2) regarding student responsibilities and rights, the intellectual property policy (SUU Policy 5.52), information about procedures, and what constitutes acceptable behavior.

Please Note: The use of websites or services that sell essays is a violation of these policies; likewise, the use of websites or services that provide answers to assignments, quizzes, or tests is also a violation of these policies. Regarding the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), you should check with your individual course instructor.

Emergency Management Statement

In case of an emergency, the University's Emergency Notification System (ENS) will be activated. Students are encouraged to maintain updated contact information using the link on the homepage of the mySUU portal. In addition, students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the Emergency Response Protocols posted in each classroom. Detailed information about the University's emergency management plan can be found at https://www.suu.edu/emergency.

HEOA Compliance Statement

For a full set of Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) compliance statements, please visit https://www.suu.edu/heoa. The sharing of copyrighted material through peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, except as provided under U.S. copyright law, is prohibited by law; additional information can be found at https://my.suu.edu/help/article/1096/heoa-compliance-plan.

You are also expected to comply with policies regarding intellectual property (SUU Policy 5.52) and copyright (SUU Policy 5.54).

Mandatory Reporting

University policy (SUU Policy 5.60) requires instructors to report disclosures received from students that indicate they have been subjected to sexual misconduct/harassment. The University defines sexual harassment consistent with Federal Regulations (34 C.F.R. Part 106, Subpart D) to include quid pro quo, hostile environment harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking. When students communicate this information to an instructor in-person, by email, or within writing assignments, the instructor will report that to the Title IX Coordinator to ensure students receive support from the Title IX Office. A reporting form is available at https://cm.maxient.com/reportingform.php?SouthernUtahUniv

Non-Discrimination Statement

SUU is committed to fostering an inclusive community of lifelong learners and believes our university's encompassing of different views, beliefs, and identities makes us stronger, more innovative, and better prepared for the global society.

SUU does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, citizenship, sex (including sex discrimination and sexual harassment), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, ancestry, disability status, pregnancy, pregnancy-related conditions, genetic information, military status, veteran status, or other bases protected by applicable law in employment, treatment, admission, access to educational programs and activities, or other University benefits or services.

SUU strives to cultivate a campus environment that encourages freedom of expression from diverse viewpoints. We encourage all to dialogue within a spirit of respect, civility, and decency.

For additional information on non-discrimination, please see SUU Policy 5.27 and/or visit https://www.suu.edu/nondiscrimination.

Pregnancy

Students who are or become pregnant during this course may receive reasonable modifications to facilitate continued access and participation in the course. Pregnancy and related conditions are broadly defined to include pregnancy, childbirth, termination of pregnancy, lactation, related medical conditions, and recovery. To obtain reasonable modifications, please make a request to title9@suu.edu. To learn more visit: https://www.suu.edu/titleix/pregnancy.html.

Religious / Conscience Belief Accommodation

RELIGIOUS / CONSCIENCE BELIEF ACCOMMODATION: In accordance with SUU Policy 6.7 Student Belief Accommodation, students may request, in writing, that their faculty accommodate their sincerely held religious or conscience beliefs. Students should provide their faculty with sufficient advanced notice, if possible within the first five (5) business days of the semester or session, or thereafter with good cause for requesting an accommodation after the first five (5) business days.

Faculty must provide a schedule accommodation or excuse an absence, in any course, for students to observe or participate in religious holidays or an organized activity conducted under the auspices of the student’s religious tradition or religious organization.

In courses that are required for graduation or for an academic major, a faculty member may accommodate a religious or conscience belief by modifying an assignment or examination if its content conflicts with the student’s belief. Faculty may decline the accommodation if it would fundamentally alter the course requirements. If declined, the student may request review by a neutral arbiter using the Belief Accommodation Request Form: https://cm.maxient.com/reportingform.php?SouthernUtahUniv&layout_id=5

Questions go to Assistant Provost Jake Johnson at johnsonj@suu.edu.

Disclaimer Statement

Information contained in this syllabus, other than the grading, late assignments, makeup work, and attendance policies, may be subject to change with advance notice, as deemed appropriate by the instructor.