This course will incorporate a historical overview of gender, sexuality, race, and religion in monster images of literature, theatre, and cinema. Students will look at contemporary adaptations, including The Phantom of the OperaMetamorphosis, and Godzilla. A centerpiece of this course will be the character of King Kong. Students will participate in presenting a production of Chinese American Ping Chong's play Kind Ness, in which a gorilla named Buzz immigrates from Africa to the U.S. Students may participate in the production as actors, backstage workers, and even filmmakers. The play will be accompanied by the screening of a film by an Indonesian American of Muslim heritage, Fatimah Tobing Rony. In addition to screening Rony's film, our multimedia production of Chong's Kind Ness will also incorporate original short films by interested students. With the latest remake of King Kong being released in December 2005, this course will be a timely look at how monsters express social and cultural anxieties. To successfully complete this course, students will actively prepare for and take part in class discussions, read and/or view selected plays and films, write shorter and longer critical writing assignments, participate in the production of Kind Ness and related film screenings, and compile a final portfolio of their course work.