THEATER

CRN

92386

Distribution

F

Course No.

THTR 101 A

Title

Introduction to Acting

Professor

Lynn Hawley

Schedule

Tu Th 10:00 am - 11:30 am AVA

3 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

92387

Distribution

F

Course No.

THTR 101 B

Title

Introduction to Acting

Professor

Todd Jackson

Schedule

Mon Wed 10:00 am - 11:30 am AVA


See description above.

CRN

92388

Distribution

F

Course No.

THTR 102

Title

Introduction to Acting: American Method

Professor

Naomi Thornton

Schedule

Th 3:20 pm - 5:20 pm AVA

Cross-listed: American Studies

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 present.

CRN

92393

Distribution

F

Course No.

THTR 123

Title

Movement for Theater

Professor

TBA

Schedule

TBA .

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

CRN

92391

Distribution

F

Course No.

THTR 131 A

Title

Voice

Professor

Elizabeth Smith

Schedule

Wed Fr 11:30 am - 12:30 pm AVA

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

92392

Distribution

F

Course No.

THTR 131 B

Title

Voice

Professor

Elizabeth Smith

Schedule

Wed Fr 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm AVA


See description above.

CRN

92389

Distribution

F

Course No.

THTR 141

Title

Alexander Technique I

Professor

Judith Youett

Schedule

A) Wed 9:30 am - 11:00 am AVA

B) Fri 9:30 am - 11:00 am AVA

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

92390

Distribution

F

Course No.

THTR 142

Title

Alexander Technique II

Professor

Judith Youett

Schedule

A) Wed 11:00 am - 12:30 pm AVA

B) Fr 11:00 am - 12:30 pm AVA

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

CRN

92399

Distribution

B/C

Course No.

THTR 206

Title

History of Theater

Professor

Jean Wagner

Schedule

Mon Wed 11:30 am - 1:00 pm AVA

Cross-listed: Classical Studies

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

92396

Distribution

F

Course No.

THTR 207 A

Title

Playwrighting I

Professor

Chiori Miyagawa

Schedule

Tu 12:30 pm - 2:50 pm AVA

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

92397

Distribution

F

Course No.

THTR 207 B

Title

Playwrighting I

Professor

Chiori Miyagawa

Schedule

Tu 3:10 pm - 5:30 pm AVA


See description above.

CRN

92398

Distribution

F

Course No.

THTR 208

Title

Playwrighting II

Professor

Dominic Taylor

Schedule

Th 3:10 pm - 5:40 pm AVA

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

92401

Distribution

F

Course No.

THTR 217

Title

Theater Practicum

Professor

Lynn Hawley

Schedule

Th 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm AVA

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

92395

Distribution

F

Course No.

THTR 227

Title

Neutral Masks

Professor

Shelley Wyant

Schedule

Mon 1:10 pm - 4:10 pm AVA

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, or by permission of the instructor.

CRN

92407

Distribution

F

Course No.

THTR 303

Title

Directing Seminar

Professor

Jeffrey Sichel

Schedule

Tu 10:00 am - 1:00 pm AVA

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

92408

Distribution

F

Course No.

THTR 303CO

Title

Acting Company

Professor

Jeffrey Sichel

Schedule

Tu 10:00 am - 1:00 pm AVA

Th 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm AVA

4 credits Corresponding with Directing Seminar, actors work with student directors on scene work for in-class presentation. Open to first year students.

CRN

92402

Distribution

F

Course No.

THTR 307 A

Title

Advanced Scene Study

Professor

Lynn Hawley

Schedule

Wed 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm AVA

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

92403

Distribution

F

Course No.

THTR 307 B

Title

Advanced Scene Study - American Method

Professor

Naomi Thornton

Schedule

Th 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm AVA

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.

SURVEY OF DRAMA

Survey of Drama courses study the major styles and periods in drama from a literary, stylistic, and performance perspective, and are at the center of the Theater Program. They are practical courses, applying text to scene work. All theater majors are expected to take three courses over two years from the Survey of Drama. Each course carries 4 credits.

CRN

92404

Distribution

F

Course No.

THTR 310 A

Title

Survey of Drama:Theater of the Absurd

Professor

JoAnne Akalaitis

Schedule

Mon 1:10 pm - 4:10 pm AVA


In the middle of the 20th century a remarkable and revolutionary group of European playwrights emerged (mostly in Paris) with no collective political or aesthetic agenda. They were lone individuals who were expressing a new theater without conventional storytelling, psychological necessity, logic, or comprehensible characters. They expressed a theater which Camus described in The Myth of Sisyphus as a place where "man feels a stranger." We will read plays and other writings by Eugene Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, Harold Pinter, and Edward Albee. Readings, scene work, presentations.

CRN

92406

Distribution

F

Course No.

THTR 310 C

Title

Survey of Drama:French Neoclassicism

Professor

Jeffrey Sichel

Schedule

Th 10:00 am - 1:00 pm AVA


This course will focus on three major playwrights of the French Neoclassical era, Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, and Moliere (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin). A partial list of plays to be covered include: The Cid, Cinna, and The Theatrical Illusion by Corneille; The Misanthrope, Scapin, and Tartuffe by Moliere; Andromache, Britannicus, and Phaedra by Racine. We will read contemporary commentary on French drama and explore additional written, visual, and musical sources to place the plays in a cultural context. Students will write papers, present projects, and prepare scene work for class.

CRN

92409

Distribution

F

Course No.

THTR 325

Title

Site Specific Theater Workshop

Professor

Jeffrey Sichel

Schedule

Wed 10:00 am - 1:00 pm AVA

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

92410

Distribution

A

Course No.

THTR 334

Title

Artists in Education

Professor

Shelley Wyant

Schedule

Tu 1:10 pm - 4:10 pm AVA

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

92411

Distribution

F

Course No.

THTR 340

Title

Voice in Performance

Professor

Elizabeth Smith

Schedule

Fr 2:30 pm - 4:00 pm AVA

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.