Theater is uniquely able to show us our world, transformed. This course will explore the ways that great playwrights throughout time have celebrated the human capacity for hope and healing. From the Greeks to Shakespeare to Beckett and on to today, the theater has met its moment, demonstrating how human beings can live, cope, better the world, and heal in the face of seemingly intractable challenges. Students will read plays and watch films and performances to understand how these writers responded to their times and live on in ours. This course fulfills the dramatic literature requirement or LINA requirement for Theater majors and minors.