This course offers an advanced study of modern and contemporary drama (US and European) through an exploration of pivotal works, influential playwrights, and key movements from the late 19th to the 21st centuries. Students will engage in close reading, performance analysis, and research to understand how drama responds to social changes and participates in aesthetic experimentation. The course will incorporate both conceptual and practical components, including script analysis, performance-based activities, and writing tasks. Through their engagements with and discussions of the course materials, students will form a comprehensive understanding of drama as both a written script and live performance event. Topics covered include: the evolution of naturalism, realism, and modernist experimentation in drama; absurdist theatre and its legacy in contemporary plays; the relationship between theatre and broader social questions regarding gender, race, religion, climate change, and technology.