A survey of Western theatre production and design spanning Classical Greek to the beginning of the 20th Century. Using extant plays as pieces of archeology, the class explores the genesis of the western theatrical tradition with special attention to the transition from the socio-religious to entertainment to art form via the lens of technological, socio-economic and political forces and how they shaped and informed theatre production. As artists, we use this exploratory approach to theatre history to inform our choices in producing thought, not just consuming of it. Effective Fall 2019, this course is part of a Hub sequence: when taken with CFA TH 556, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy.