This course probes the nature and limits of theater by exploring a range of theatrical texts whose relation to performance is either partially or fully virtual. Like the works we will read, the course transgresses disciplinary, generic, and temporal boundaries, bringing together from various centuries philosophical dialogues (Plato), closet dramas, novel chapters in dramatic form (Melville's Moby-Dick, Joyce's Ulysses), radio drama, impossible drama, and new media forms that test conventional definitions of theatrical performance: social media theater, digital theater, algorithmic theater, and trans-media games. (20th/21st)