Areas
of Study:
The Theater and Performance Program offers courses in Context, Technique,
and Creative Practice and Research, and students are required to take
classes in all three areas of study. Context courses include the history
of theater and performance, contemporary practice, theories of theater and
performance, dramatic literature, world theater. Technique
courses include skills-based classes in playwriting, directing, acting, voice,
movement, dramatic structure, performance, and composition. Creative
Practice and Research comprises productions, performance laboratories,
master classes and specialized workshops.
Moderation
Requirements:
The following 5 courses are required for students wishing to moderate into
the Theater and Performance Program:
1. THTR 145 Introduction to Theater and
Performance: Revolutions in Time and Space
2. THTR 110 Introduction to Acting: The
Actor and the Moment
3. THTR 107 Introduction to
Playwriting: the Theatrical Voice
4.
THTR 244 Introduction to Theater Making (spring semester)
5. THTR
146 Introduction to Theater History
In
addition, students participate in the creation and performance of a
group-devised Moderation project.
Upper Level
Requirements: After
Moderation, students are required to take 2 courses in each of the 3 areas of
study – Context, Technique, Creative Practice and Research – for a total of 6
courses. In addition, students complete
a Senior Project; a group-devised production or performance together with a written
assignment, which carries the equivalent workload and credit of 2 courses.
All
courses carry 4 credits except where
otherwise indicated.
91724 |
THTR 101
A
Acting for Non-Majors |
Naomi
Thornton |
. . . Th . |
3:45 -5:45 pm |
FISHER PAC STUDIO NORTH |
PART |
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. Class
size: 12 TECHNIQUE
91721 |
THTR 107
A
Intro to Playwriting |
Chiori
Miyagawa |
. . . . F |
10:10 -1:10 pm |
FISHER PAC RESNICK |
PART |
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. All students welcome, preference to Theater
majors. (No writing sample
required.) Class size: 12 TECHNIQUE
91722 |
THTR 107
B
Intro to Playwriting |
Jorge
Cortinas |
. . W . . |
1:30 -4:30 pm |
FISHER PAC CONF ROOM |
PART |
See
above. Class size: 12
91723 |
THTR 107
C
Intro to Playwriting |
Jorge
Cortinas |
. . . Th . |
1:30 -4:30 pm |
ALBEE 106 |
PART |
See
above. Class size: 12
91728 |
THTR 110A The Actor
& the Moment |
Lynn
Hawley |
M . W . . |
10:10 - 11:30 am |
FISHER PAC RESNICK |
PART |
In
this class we examine how an actor brings truth to the smallest unit of performance.
The richness of the moment is created by the imaginative, physical,
psychological, intellectual and emotional qualities that the actor brings to
it. We explore ways to gain access to richly layered authenticity through
games, improvisations, individual creations and exercises in given
circumstance. Students are given tools
to transcend accepted logic, embrace risk-taking, and live fully in the
present. Class size: 16 TECHNIQUE
91727 |
THTR 110
B
The Actor & the Moment |
Jonathan Rosenberg |
. T . Th . |
1:30 -2:50 pm |
FISHER PAC RESNICK |
PART |
See
above. Class size: 16
92135 |
THTR 110 C The Actor
& the Moment |
Jeff
Binder |
. T . Th . |
11:50 -1:10 pm |
FISHER PAC STUDIO
NORTH |
PART |
See
above. Class size: 16
91838 |
THTR / DAN 130 The Body on Stage: Movement for the Performer |
Jean
Churchill |
. . . Th . |
10:30 – 12:30 pm |
CAMPUS MPR |
PART |
See Dance section for description.
91399 |
THTR 145
A
Intro to Theater & Performance:
Revolutions in Time and Space |
Gideon
Lester |
. T . Th. . |
4:40 -6:00 pm |
OLIN 201 / FISHER ST. NO |
AART |
This
course introduces a sequence of key concepts and ideas in world
theater, and should ideally be taken at the start of a student’s journey
through the Theater and Performance curriculum.
We will base our discussions on primary and secondary texts and modes of
performance from 2,500 years of world theater,
starting with Aristotle and the Greek tragic playwrights and approaching the
cutting edge of contemporary performance practice. We will ask questions about interpretation, ephemerality, and reenactment, investigate how great
artists from across the centuries have controlled our experience of theatrical
time and space, and examine such topics as the representation of reality on
stage, the relationship between performance and audience, and the constantly
evolving interplay of theater and democracy.
Class size: 25 CONTEXT
91726 |
THTR 145
B
Intro to Theater & Performance: Revolutions
in Time and Space |
Miriam
Felton-Dansky |
. T . Th . |
11:50 -1:10 pm |
OLINLC 115 / FISHER RESNIC |
AART |
See
above. Class size: 25
91730 |
THTR 146 Introduction to Theater History |
Miriam
Felton-Dansky |
M . W . . |
11:50 -1:10 pm |
FISHER PAC CONF ROOM |
AART |
Where
should a study of theater begin, and how did pre-modern models of theater
change, as successive societies revised, rejected, and appropriated the forms
that had gone before? This course will investigate selected periods in world theater, beginning with the massive communal festivals
of ancient Greece and culminating in the philosophical upheavals of the
Enlightenment. Paying close attention to connections between drama, stagecraft,
and modes of spectatorship, we will ask how the theater has shored up political
power; how the stage has served as a scale model for the known world; and what
has been at stake in changing notions of classicism. Through analytical essays,
class presentations, and a final performance project, we will cultivate a
critical vocabulary for discussing theaters of the past—and discover their
often-surprising legacies in modern and contemporary performance.
Class size: 15 CONTEXT
91733 |
THTR 207 Writing
Plays with Demons
and Ghosts |
Chiori
Miyagawa |
. . W . . |
1:30 - 4:30 pm |
FISHER PAC STUDIO NORTH |
PART |
Cross-listed: Asian Studies, Written Arts In this playwriting workshop, students will
write short plays based on the unique structure of Japanese Noh plays and adapt
the original texts from the 14th century that often feature ghosts
and demons. The students will encounter
the basic components of the magic of Noh Theater, including its history, the
craft (masks and kimonos), traditions that accompany this performance practice,
and the concept of karma that infuse the original texts—the Buddhist belief in
reincarnation. The students are
encouraged to use their imagination to transform this encounter with Noh drama
into their own original creations.
Prerequisite: 1 creative writing workshop in any genre.
Students who are interested should email Prof. Miyagawa
at [email protected] a brief paragraph
of interest prior to registration. Class
size: 12 CREATIVE PRACTICE & RESEARCH
91734 |
THTR 229 History of
East Village Performance |
John
Kelly |
. . . . F |
10:10 - 12:30 pm |
OLIN 204 |
AART |
Cross-listed: Art History, Dance, Gender & Sexuality
Studies This course examines the work of performance artists
who emerged from New York’s East Village in the 1980’s and early 1990’s,
straddling the spheres of theater, performance, visual art, dance, and
experimental film and video, including Karen Finley, Jack Smith, Ishmael
Houston-Jones, Charles Atlas, Ethyl Eichelberger,
Klaus Nomi, and Carmelita Tropicana. Through a combination of viewing of visual
and audio documentation, seminar discussions, research and writing, and
interaction with visiting artists, we will attempt to delineate the political,
economic, and cultural conditions that predicated this wide-ranging artistic
movement, how specific variables informed the stylistic range, and how the
legacy of this work fits into the larger context of the history of iconoclastic
performance. Some of the issues or themes that we will explore include:
outsider culture, real estate, and the end of physical Bohemia; ‘Drag’
performance and the blurring of gender codes; the AIDS pandemic, activism, and
the consequences of a lost generation; gentrification and the selling of the
Lower East Side; the shift from analog to digital technology; the hucksterization of ‘hip.’ Students will be required to keep
a weekly handwritten journal (consisting of words and/or drawings); write 2
papers; give a presentation on an artist’s work; and attend a series of field
trips and visiting artist presentations. Class
size: 18 CONTEXT
91403 |
THTR 303 Directing
Seminar |
Jonathan
Rosenberg |
. T . . . |
10:10 -1:10 pm |
FISHER PAC RESNICK |
PART |
Cross-listed: Film &
Electronic Arts This class introduces
students to fundamental practical and theoretical concepts in directing. The
art and craft of the director involves the close analysis of texts, the
conceptualizing of a production, the translation of the text into the language of
the stage, and the work with collaborators including actors and designers. The
exploration in this class includes exercises examining the language of the
stage, analytical and practical work on texts, and an examination of the work
and writings of seminal directors. There will be weekly assignments of work
that will be brought in and examined in class and one longer more substantial
project for the end of the semester. Class
size: 10
TECHNIQUE
91732 |
THTR 307 Advanced Acting:Physical
Comedy and Clown |
Geoff
Sobelle |
M . . . . |
3:00 -6:00 pm |
FISHER PAC RESNICK |
PART |
This
advanced acting course teaches a physical approach to clowning. Through
exercises in movement analysis, we learn concrete tools to discover and identify
physical and psychological idiosyncrasies and embrace them for comic potential.
Through guided improvisation, students create clown characters based on their
own unique qualities, and then learn to write for the clown: to create the “numéro” (number.) Themes we will explore include: rhythm,
timing, the beat, the gaze, complicity, risk, truth and hilarity. Behind the
smallest mask in the world - the red nose, the clown arrives with grace and
stupidity, naivety and genius. A supreme idiot, the clown fails. Through
failure we find our vulnerability - the essential core of an actor’s humanity.
This class will culminate in an evening of clown performance for the
public. Prerequisite: Intro to Acting:
The Actor and the Moment. Class size: 12 TECHNIQUE
91404 |
THTR 308 Advanced
Scene Study |
Naomi
Thornton |
. . . Th . |
1:30 -3:30 pm |
FISHER PAC STUDIO NORTH |
PART |
3 credits Scene Technique with work on specific
rehearsal tasks and practice of their application. Continued work on the acting
instrument, understanding the actor as artist and deepening the physical,
emotional, intellectual connection and availability of each actor. Advanced individual exercises, scenes, and monologues from all
dramatic literature. Intended for Upper College students,
others by permission. Prerequisite: Introduction to Acting. Class
size: 12
TECHNIQUE
91731 |
THTR 310
B
Shakespeare: The Director and
the Text |
Jonathan
Rosenberg |
. . . Th . |
10:10 - 12:30 pm |
FISHER PAC CONF ROOM |
AART |
Cross-listed: Literature A director reads
a play the way a conductor reads a score; not as a work of literature but as a
work to be translated into the language of the stage. In this class we will do
a close reading of several of Shakespeare’s plays, trying to understand how the
information analyzed and then processed through the director’s imagination,
aesthetic, social and political views, emotions and dream life manifests in the
production. We will also examine (through video, pictures and written
descriptions) seminal productions of these plays and discuss how these
directors might have read these texts. Although the primary reading will be of
the plays themselves, there will be additional readings from texts such
as Jonathan Miller’s Subsequent Performances, Peter Brook’s The
Shifting Point and Evoking (and Forgetting) Shakespeare, Bert O. States’ Great
Reckonings in Little Rooms, Jan Kott’s Shakespeare
Our Contemporary, Susan Bennett’s Performing Nostalgia: Shifting Shakespeare
and the Contemporary Past, and Political Shakespeare edited by Jonathan Dollimore and Alan Sinfield. Open
to upperclassmen and qualified sophomores by permission of the instructor. Class size: 15 CONTEXT
91737 |
THTR 324 Visiting
Artist Lab:Composition |
Robert
Woodruff |
. T . . . |
3:10 -6:10 pm |
FISHER PAC RESNICK |
PART |
This
advanced laboratory course will investigate possible sources of inspiration in
creating live performance, and ask fundamental questions about how to make
theatrical compositions using time, space, music, and text. We will consider
historical and contemporary theory, and the work of artists who have become
seminal influences in the development of contemporary performance, such as
Cage, Rothko, Tanzanaki, Cunningham, Godard, Deren, Abdoh, Lupa
and Burden. Each week students will present four minutes of composition
that they have prepared outside class, which will be discussed and critiqued.
Readings will be assigned from multidisciplinary and cross-cultural
sources. This course fulfills a Creative
Practive and Research requirement in Theater
& Performance. Class size: 12 CREATIVE PRACTICE & RESEARCH
91736 |
THTR 328 Visual
Performance |
John
Kelly |
. . . Th . |
3:10 -5:30 pm |
FISHER PAC RESNICK |
PART |
Cross-listed: Studio Art This studio course
in performance art is primarily intended for advanced students in Theater &
Performance and Studio Arts, though is open to all. Working collaboratively or
individually, students will develop performance material based on specific
iconographic characters, such as artists, historical figures, movie stars,
fairy tales, or myths. By identifying, isolating, amplifying, and
re-configuring their essential characteristics, we will aim to give these icons
unanticipated performance life through a unified combination of visuals, text,
movement, video and sound. This process will begin with a research phase, with
group viewing and discussion of performance documentation, imagery, and writing
by performers, artists, creators, and filmmakers who have found inspiration
articulating character from specific sources, including the Wooster Group,
Charles Ludlam, James Franco, Isaac Julien, Kazuo Ohno, and Eleanor Antin, followed by group discussions of this material.
Students will then participate in weekly exercises that will explore how the
primary tools of the performer’s body, with its visual, kinetic, vocal, and
dynamic possibilities, augmented by the addition of production tools such as
props, lighting music and soundtrack, and projection design can create
character through a focused idea. As the development phase continues students
will keep weekly journals and give work-in-progress presentations, and the
class will culminate in a final performance in a black box, gallery space, or
site-specific locations. Class size: 16 CREATIVE PRACTICE & RESEARCH
91835 |
HUM 332 Performing
Arendt |
Robert
Woodruff |
M . . . . . . W . . |
3:00 -6:00 pm 11:50 -1:20 pm |
FISHER PAC RESNICK/ST NO. |
PART |
Cross-listed:
Studio Art, Dance, Human Rights, Music,
Theater This interdisciplinary studio course will
investigate the writings and philosophy of Hannah Arendt and use them as the
basis for the creation of collaborative performance-based projects. The
class meets twice a week: once in a research and study seminar; once in a
creative laboratory. We will draw inspiration from Arendt's texts, as
well as commentaries on her work, historical and contextual documents, and
other writings and artifacts. After a period of immersion in Arendt's
universe, students will be divided into cross-disciplinary groups and will
create original performances. In the second half of the semester, classes
will alternate between performance presentations and critiques.
Students will be required to meet in their groups and develop ideas outside
of class. Open to moderated
students. Class size: 15 CREATIVE
PRACTICE & RESEARCH