CRN

CRN	93445	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 101 A
Title	Introduction to Acting
Professor	Lynn Hawley
Schedule	Tu Th 10:00 am – 11:20 am

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	93446	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 101 B
Title	Introduction to Acting
Professor	Lynn Hawley
Schedule	Tu Th 11:30 am – 12:50 pm

CRN	93454	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 101 C
Title	Introduction to Acting
Professor	Naomi Thornton
Schedule	Th 3:20 pm – 5:20 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 present.

CRN	93456	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 123
Title	Movement for Theater
Professor	Jean Churchill
Schedule	Fr 10:00 am – 11:20 am

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

CRN	93443	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 131 A
Title	Voice for Majors
Professor	Elizabeth Smith
Schedule	Tu Fri 1:30 pm – 2:30 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. This course is intended for moderated or prospective Theater majors.

CRN	93444	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 131 B
Title	Voice for Non-Majors
Professor	Elizabeth Smith
Schedule	Tu Fri 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm

2 credits This course develops awareness of physical equipment, tone and diction. This course is a general voice and speech class, for non-majors and those not interested in performing.

CRN	93439	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 141 A
Title	Alexander Technique I
Professor	Judith Youett
Schedule	Mon 9:30 am – 11:00 am

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	93459	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 141 B
Title	Alexander Technique I
Professor	Judith Youett
Schedule	Th 9:30 am – 11:00 am

CRN	93440	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 142 A
Title	Alexander Technique II
Professor	Judith Youett
Schedule	Mon 11:00 am – 12:30 pm

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

CRN	93460	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 142 B
Title	Alexander Technique II
Professor	Judith Youett
Schedule	Th 11:00 am – 12:30 pm

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

CRN	93441	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 206
Title	History of Theater
Professor	Jean Wagner
Schedule	Mon Th 1:30 pm – 2:50 pm

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	93447	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 207 A
Title	Playwrighting I
Professor	Chiori Miyagawa
Schedule	Tu 1:30 pm – 3:50 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	93452	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 207 B
Title	Playwrighting I
Professor	Chiori Miyagawa
Schedule	Wed 10:30 am – 12:50 pm

CRN	93450	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 208
Title	Playwrighting II
Professor	Dominic Taylor
Schedule	Wed 4:00 pm – 6:20 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	93438	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 227
Title	Neutral Masks
Professor	Shelley Wyant
Schedule	Mon 1:30 pm – 4:30 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, or by permission of the instructor.

CRN	93442	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 303
Title	Directing Seminar
Professor	Jeffrey Sichel
Schedule	Tu 10:00 am – 1:00 pm Wed 1:00 pm – 2:20 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	93449	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 303CO
Title	Acting Company
Professor	Jeffrey Sichel
Schedule	Tu 10:00 am – 1:00 pm
	Wed 2:30 pm – 3:50 pm

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

CRN	93451	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 307 A
Title	Advanced Scene Study
Professor	Lynn Hawley
Schedule	Wed 1:00 pm – 4:00 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	93453	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 307 B
Title	Advanced Scene Study
Professor	Naomi Thornton
Schedule	Th 1:00 pm – 3:00 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.

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	93455	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 310 A
Title	Survey of Drama: Post-Colonial Theatre
Professor	Dominic Taylor
Schedule	Th 3:10 pm – 5:20 pm

4 credits This course will examine the theatrical works constructed in nations that have suffered from significant periods of colonial rule One of the major points of inquiry will be: how the indigenous performance rituals are folded into Western theatrical forms to construct new hybrids? The authors that the course will examine include Wole Soyinka, Derek Walcott, Athol Fugard among others. This course will require papers as well as a final project.

CRN	93458	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 310 B
Title	Survey of Drama: The American Musical
Professor	Stephanie Fleischmann
Schedule	Fr 1:30 pm – 4:30 pm

4 credits This course will examine the evolution of the musical as a dynamic force in American theater. A vibrant theatricality and frequently, a veneer of nostalgia for a simpler past are inherent to the form. But more often than not, underneath the entertaining surface, lie complex social and political implications. Within the frame of a larger historical context, we will view the history of the musical – from its roots in European ballad opera, and the quintessentially American forms of minstrelsy, vaudeville, burlesque, and venue, to the book musical and beyond. We will discuss works by Kurt Weill, Jerome Kern, Rogers & Hammerstein, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, and others including Gershwin, Comden & Green, and Cole Porter. We will also investigate the work of contemporary artists making music theater outside the Broadway idiom-ranging from Robert Wilson to Meredith Monk to the Wooster Group. The course will look at the intricacies involved in making music theater as well as the dramaturgy of various song/scene structures and the craft of lyrics, or how words sing. Students will explore how they can apply their understanding of the musical and its history to theater of their own making. Source material will include: recordings, videos, book/lyrics, interviews, biography, and criticism. Students will present projects in class, write papers, participate in analytical discussions, and delve into a handful of creative exercises to gain an understanding of the complexity of the collaborative process that is at the core of making music theater.

CRN	93448	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 320
Title	Theater Salon
Professor	JoAnne Akalaitis
Schedule	Tu 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm

4 credits “salon: an assembly of guests in a drawing room, esp. such an assembly consisting of leaders in art.”

Theater salon is an assembly of students in Prof. Akalaitis’ apartment with leaders in the field of theater, directors, actors, designers and playwrights. Each week a reading is assigned to students and the guest artist for discussion (along with discussion of the artist’s work). In the spirit of true salon, an early dinner is served. The readings will be rigorous and eclectic, and not necessarily about theater. Besides dramatic literature some reading might include George Steiner, Calvino, Artaud, Kantor, Benjamin, Foucault. The discussions will have a vast and lively range, including theater, architecture, Futurism and sports. At least one museum visit. Writing is required.

CRN	93437	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 334
Title	Artists in Education
Professor	Shelley Wyant
Schedule	Mon Wed 10:00 am – 12:00 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	93457	Distribution	F
Course No.	THTR 340
Title	Voice in Performance
Professor	Elizabeth Smith
Schedule	Fr 11:00 am – 12:30 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.