THEATER

CRN	90385	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 101 A
Title	Introduction to Acting
Professor	Lynn Hawley
Schedule	Th 12:50 pm - 2:50 pm

2 credits This course, intended for prospective theater majors, focuses on accessing the beginning actor's imagination and creative energy. Using theater games, movement work, and improvisational techniques, the intent is to expand the boundaries of accepted logic and to encourage risk-taking in the actor. Course work includes intensive classroom sessions, individual projects designed to promote self-discovery, and group projects focused on the process of collaborative work.

CRN	90387	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 101 B
Title	Introduction to Acting
Professor	Erin Mee
Schedule	Mon 10:00 am - 12:00 pm .

See description above.

CRN	90400	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 101 C
Title	Introduction to Acting
Professor	Naomi Thornton
Schedule	Th 3:30 pm -5:30 pm .

2 credits Scene preparation and beginning scene technique. Emphasis on relaxation, breathing, and concentration. Teaching the actor to make choices and implement them using sense memory and to integrate this work with the text. Group and individual exercises and improvisations. Continuous work on the acting instrument stressing freedom, spontaneity, and individual attention. Materials: poems, monologues, stories, and scenes. Reading of American plays, 1930 to the present.

CRN	90405	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 101 D
Title	Introduction to Acting
Professor	TBA
Schedule	Fr 10:00 am - 12:00 pm .

See description above.

CRN	90391	Distribution	n/a
Course No.	THTR 123
Title	Movement for Theater
Professor	Garry Reigenborn
Schedule	Wed 1:10 pm -2:10 pm

1 credit, Basic training in movement, rhythm, development of technique and confidence in space.

CRN	90396	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 131
Title	Voice
Professor	Elizabeth Smith
Schedule	Th 11:30 am -1:00 pm Fr 12:20 pm -1:50 pm

2 credits This course develops awareness of physical equipment, natural pitch, purity of vowels and consonants, tone, inflection, diction, agility, nuance and vocal imagination.

CRN	90403	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 141
Title	Alexander Technique I
Professor	Judith Youett
Schedule	Wed 9:00 am - 12:30 pm .

1 credit A world respected technique for body investigation, alignment, and relaxation, the Alexander Technique is a valuable tool for performers, writers, scholars, and artists. This is a kinesthetic reeducation that provides a means of monitoring and eliminating self-created tension in order not to interfere with creative process.

CRN	90404	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 142
Title	Alexander Technique II
Professor	Judith Youett
Schedule	Fr 9:00 am - 12:00 pm .

1 credit A continuation of the study of body investigation, alignment and relaxation, as begun in Alexander Technique I.

CRN	90401	Distribution	B/C
Course No.	THTR 206
Title	History of Theater I
Professor	Jean Wagner
Schedule	Mon 3:00 pm - 6:00 pm

4 credits This course looks at the major periods and forms of Western dramatic literature from its primal roots, through Greek and Roman Tragedy and Comedy, Medieval Theater, Tudor Comedy, Renaissance Drama, Commedia dell-arte, Elizabethan

Theater, and the Spanish Golden Age. We will read plays from each of these periods as well as theoretical and critical writings which will elucidate the social and aesthetic conditions of the day. This course will provide the student with an understanding of the development of theater as an art form, and explore

how theater relates to and reflects the intellectual, social, political and spiritual climate of the broader culture. This course is open to all students, and a requirement for moderation.

CRN	90389	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 207
Title	Playwrighting I
Professor	Chiori Miyagawa
Schedule	Tu 3:10 pm -5:30 pm .

4 credits An introductory course that focuses on discovering the writer's voice. Through writing exercises based on dreams, visual images, poetry, social issues, found text, and music, each writer is encouraged to find his or her unique language, style, and vision. A group project will explore the nature of collaborative works. Students learn elements of playwriting through writing a one-act play, reading assignments, and class discussions.

CRN	90444	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 207
Title	Playwrighting I
Professor	Dominic Taylor
Schedule	Th 3:00 pm -5:30 pm

See description above.

CRN	90390	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 208 A
Title	Playwrighting II
Professor	Chiori Miyagawa
Schedule	Tu 12:30 pm -2:50 pm .

4 credits This course will function as a writer's workshop. After writing a short play, students focus on developing a full-length play, with sections of the work-in-progress presented in class for discussions. Students grow as playwrights by being exposed to diverse dramatic literature and doing a short adaptation project, either of a classic play or a short story.

Prerequisite: Playwrighting I

CRN	90382	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 209
Title	Scene Study
Professor	Jesse Berger
Schedule	Mon 10:00 am - 12:00 pm .

2 credits A course intended for students who have taken one semester of Intro to Acting and would like to continue their study. The course deals with a movement from a games oriented curriculum into work with theatrical texts and discovery of the processes of scene study.

CRN	90395	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 217
Title	Theater Practicum
Professor	Jeffrey Sichel
Schedule	Tu 4:30 pm -6:00 pm Theater Studio

2 credits This course offers an opportunity for theater majors to receive formal faculty supervision and credit for work that is vital to the study of theater arts and required towards major studies. Theater majors and prospective theater majors are required to perform work outside of the classroom, regular course-work, and in addition to normal homework activities in order to broaden their understanding and appreciation of all areas of theatrical activity. By designing for theater productions and working on crews (costume, scenery, lighting, sound, etc.), students will interact with professional directors, designers, stage managers and crews, working with them in the intense crucible of theatrical activity that surrounds all such artistic production endeavors, and they will receive invaluable hands-on training in the technical aspects of making theater. This practical applied work is not only highly desired, but also required for prospective majors to moderate into the theater department. Professional-student relationships will be determined and administered by the course professor. The course will meet weekly to discuss projects, planning, and problem-solving with the course professor. Not for work associated with moderation or senior projects. Repeatable for credit by special arrangement with adviser and instructor.

Required before moderation.

CRN	90406	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 220
Title	Asian Theater Lab
Professor	Erin Mee / Ruben Polendo
Schedule	Fr 1:00 pm -4:00 pm .

Cross-listed: Asian Studies, Integrated Arts

4 credits In recent times Asian theater has become a notable influence on the work of adventuresome theater practitioners around the world. Asian theater has changed how we think about performance style, duration, rhythm, narrative, movement, costume, lighting, set design, make-up and music. This course

will focus on Kathakali and Butoh, integrating classwork with a production of a stage adaptation of "The Ramayana" as part of the fall Theater season.

CRN	90384	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 225
Title	Opera
Professor	Arthur Burrows
Schedule	Wed 1:30 pm -4:30 pm .

4 credits In this workshop students learn to sing and act parts in opera.

Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor.

CRN	90402	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 227
Title	Neutral Masks
Professor	Shelley Wyant
Schedule	Wed 2:20 pm -5:20 pm

2 credits The roots of masks come from a diverse system of traditions: the Balinese, the great teachers and the theorists Michel St. Denis and Jacques LeCoq, Francis Delsarte. Two courses are intended to be taken in sequence; in Neutral Masks, students learn to identify physical elements that contribute to a range of characters and physical expression.

Prerequisite: Introduction to Acting

CRN	90392	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 303
Title	Directing Seminar
Professor	Jeffrey Sichel
Schedule	Tu 10:00 am -1:00 pm

4 credits A year-long studio course that covers the practice of directing from text analysis, "table work", imagining the world of the play, design, casting, space, rehearsal and blocking in different configurations. The work will proceed from scenes to a full-length work for public presentation. By permission of the instructor.

CRN	90425	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 303CO
Title	Acting Company
Professor	Jeffrey Sichel
Schedule	Th 9:00 am - 11:20 am

4 credits Corresponding with Directing Seminar, this acting company is open to first year students.

CRN	90383	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 307 A
Title	Advanced Scene Study: Acting Shakespeare
Professor	Jesse Berger
Schedule	Mon 12:20 pm -2:20 pm

3 credits. This course will explore different approaches to acting Shakespeare, specifically focusing on Shakespearean verse acting, through work with scenes and monologues from Shakespeare's plays. The course will teach various skills and uses of language and meter to uncover clues to character, themes, objectives, and actions. The student Shakespearean actor will be freed from the search for subtext, and taught to use the text itself as the basis for acting Shakespeare. The course will teach a methodology to acting Shakespeare that melds the uses of meter, language, and imagery with modern acting methods such as objectives, intentions, and physicalization.

Prerequisites: Advanced Scene Study, Voice & Verse.

CRN	90386	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 307 B
Title	Advanced Scene Study
Professor	Lynn Hawley
Schedule	Tu Th 10:20 am - 12:20 pm

4 credits It is important for the actor to be in an intimate studio situation, in the pure process of scene study, to learn how to break down a scene, understand its "beats" and go for emotional depth without concern for the product. This is the actor's research lab. Intended for Upper-College theater students. Repeatable for credit.

CRN	90399	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 307 C
Title	Advanced Scene Study: American Method
Professor	Naomi Thornton
Schedule	Th 1:10 pm -3:10 pm

3 credits Scene technique with work on specific rehearsal tasks as preparation and approach to each rehearsal and practice of their application. Continued work on the acting instrument, understanding the actor as artist and deepening the physical, emotional, and intellectual availability of each actor. Advanced individual exercises, scenes, and monologues from all dramatic literature. Intended for Upper-College theater students. Repeatable for credit.

CRN	90381	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 313
Title	Survey: Büchner & Strindberg
Professor	JoAnne Akalaitis
Schedule	Mon 2:30 pm - 5:30 pm

4 credits Modern drama began with an astounding jolt when the young German playwright Georg Büchner wrote Woyceck - a fragmentary unfinished play - after said to be the first tragedy about a common man and the first modern play. Terse, cinematic, alogical and at the same time emotional, poetic and psychological, he wrote two other plays and a novella Lenz and died at the age of 23. Some said he could have been a new Shakespeare. August Strindberg, "the Swedish Shakespeare", a spiritual descendant of Büchner, he was a painter, novelist, alchemist, journalist, poet, & dramatist. At the center of his work are his plays. He wrote 50 plays, some of which are extraordinary and have influenced almost every modern playwright: Albee, Williams, Pinter, and Becket. He led a tortured life and embraced strange beliefs such as woman are inherently evil. (At the same time, he wrote some great women characters in drama). We will read all of Büchner including his political tract "The Hessian Messenger", a range of Strindberg plays: Dance of Death, A Dream Play, Easter, Ghost Sonata, parts of Inferno, Occult Diary and Getting Married, view films and tapes. Papers and scene work will be part of the course.

CRN	90388	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 314
Title	Survey: Brecht and Pirandello
Professor	Erin Mee
Schedule	Mon 12:20 pm -2:50 pm

Cross-listed: Italian Studies

4 credits, This course focuses on the major plays of Brecht and Pirandello from a theoretical and performance perspective. We will read plays themselves along with Brecht's writing on acting and epic theater, and articles on Pirandello's work. Attention will be paid to the history of these plays in production (for example, to the way that Caucasian Chalk Circle, adapted from a Chinese story and originally staged with an acting style based on Brecht's generative misunderstanding of Beijing Opera, was received in China). Students will write papers and stage scenes from the plays in class. Plays will include: It is So (If You Think So), Sic Characters in Search of an Author, Enrico IV, Mother Courage, Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Good Person of Setzuan, Galileo, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.

CRN	90393	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 325
Title	Site Specific Theater Workshop
Professor	Jeffrey Sichel
Schedule	Wed 10:00 am -1:00 pm

Cross-listed: Integrated Arts

4 credits, In this workshop students will focus on creating unique theatrical experiences inspired by sites on and around the Bard campus. Through a series of weekly assignments focusing on a reaction to the kinetics, space, sound, history, poetry and revelation of the uniqueness of particular sites, students will script, direct, choreograph, perform in and critique each others' works.

CRN	90407	Distribution	A
Course No.	THTR 334
Title	Artists in Education
Professor	Shelley Wyant
Schedule	Tu 1:30 pm -4:30 pm

Cross-listed: Integrated Arts

4 credits This course will be open to all interested Bard students and focus on the theory and practice of being a teaching artist. A work of art created by one of the Division of the Arts programs will serve as the foundation for exploration by the students. The course will study a variety of philosophies and approaches to arts perception including: Carol Gilligan, John Dewey, Maxine Greene, Eric Booth, Jane Remer and Augusto Boal. Visitors from the arts community working in the field and professional teaching artists will present workshops and lecture demonstrations to the Bard students. In cooperation with Red Hook High School teachers, the Bard students will write and execute detailed lesson plans for three classroom visits to the secondary school. The content of the lesson plans will reflect the work of art to be viewed. Students will become familiar with the scope of the field of arts in education, discover first-hand what practical work is necessary to bring live art into the classroom, and learn to utilize their discipline as a teaching tool.

CRN	90397	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 340
Title	Voice in Performance
Professor	Elizabeth Smith
Schedule	Fr 2:00 pm -3:30 pm

2 credits This course is designed for those students who have already had some training in Voice and will concentrate on addressing demands which occur in performance such as speaking over underscoring, sustaining dialogue in fights or dances, and developing power and range. Technical exercises will be used to promote coordination of speech and movement. In addition to these exercises we will work on selections from "Under Milk Wood" and Façade.

Prerequisite: THTR 131; THTR 231-232 or permission of the instructor.