This course will examine methods and theories related to the ideas of performance, theatre, drama, and acting, primarily in the western European tradition of the 20th century. The course reader will include seminal plays of the 20th century. It will also examine how major acting methods, techniques and systems relate to these works (i.e. Stanislavsky's System and A.P. Chekhov's writing or Brecht's suggestions and his own works etc.) The course will also investigate the relationship of literature and some of the 20th century movements and styles such as Symbolism, Expressionism and Theatre of the Absurd.