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. THTR145 Introduction to Theater and Performance: Revolutions in Time and Space

2. THTR 201 Introduction to Acting: The Actor and the Moment

3. THTR 207 Introduction to Playwriting: the Theatrical Voice

4. THTR 244 Introduction to Theater Making

5. Introduction to Theater Making (spring semester)

6. A theoretical or historical course drawn from elsewhere in the Arts Division, i.e. film, music, dance, art history, photography, studio arts.

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.

Technique Courses:

11730

THTR 101 Acting for Non-Majors

Naomi Thornton

. . . Th .

3:45 pm -5:45 pm

FISH

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

11718

THTR 201 The Actor and the Moment

Jean Wagner

. T . Th .

1:30 pm -2:50 pm

FISH

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

11721

THTR 207 A Intro to Playwriting: The Theatrical Voice

Chiori Miyagawa

. T . . .

4:40 pm -7:40 pm

FISH

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

11723

THTR 207 B Intro to Playwriting: The Theatrical Voice

Jorge Cortinas

. . . Th .

10:10 am -1:10 pm

FISH

PART

See above.

11720

THTR 209 Scene Study

Jonathan Rosenberg

. T . Th .

11:50 am -1:10 pm

FISH

PART

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 movement from a games oriented curriculum into work with theatrical texts and discovery of the processes of scene study. Class size: 16

11729

THTR 233 Speaking Shakespeare

Elizabeth Smith

. . . . F

10:10am - 12:10 pm

FISH

PART

2 credits This course is intended for theater majors who wish to explore Shakespeare's words as actors and are interested in developing their voices to express his complex thoughts and images. We shall concentrate on investigating soliloquies and sonnets with a view to bringing his language to life.

By approval of the Professor. Class size: 12

11728

THTR 234 Basic Vocal Technique

Elizabeth Smith

. T . . F

1:30 pm -2:50 pm

FISH

PART

3 credits This course is designed to develop an awareness of the importance of physical relaxation, breath capacity and control, resonance and placement. There will also be an emphasis on clarity of articulation and the use of vocal range and inflection. This course is intended for moderated and prospective theater majors. Class size: 12

11715

THTR 250 Dramatic Structure

Gideon Lester

. T . Th .

4:40 pm -6:00 pm

OLIN 202

ELIT

Cross-listed: Literature In this seminar we will explore the dynamics, mechanics, and fundamental building blocks of drama, and discover how analysis of a play's structure can be indispensable and revelatory for theater artists and scholars. We will investigate models of dramatic structure from Aristotle and the Greeks, through Shakespeare, neoclassicism, and modernism, to contemporary experimental and "post-dramatic" theatre. We will consider plays, dramatic theories, and performances, as well as practical methods for putting structural discoveries to use in rehearsal and production. Students will become adept at several modes of structural analysis of texts and performance events. Assigned work includes substantial reading, a series of written exercises, and a comprehensive structural map of at least one full-length play with an accompanying written analysis and plan for production.

Class size: 16

11733

THTR 255 Physical Theater

Jack Ferver

M . . . .

1:30 pm -4:30 pm

FISH

PART

Cross-listed: Dance This Technique course gives performers tools to find the truthful physical expression of their characters, and to build strength and mobility as they create powerful and nuanced performances. Our work will consist of several parts: first we will slough off habitual behavior and postural "holds" through a comprehensive warm-up using aspects of Graham, Alexander, and Release Technique; once the body has been strengthened, we will use impulse-based improvisation exercises to build kinetic awareness and hone intuitive prowess; finally we will explore scene work to find a character through movement and to remain present and fully invested at each moment of a performance. Students will be assessed on in-class exercises and participation throughout the semester, as well as frequent technical and practical assignments. Pre-requisite: Introduction to Acting Class size: 16

11727

THTR 307 Advanced Acting

Lynn Hawley

M . W . .

11:50 am -1:10 pm

FISH

PART

This is a studio acting class where students will explore scenes from challenging plays of varied styles. Extensive rehearsal time outside of class is required. Pre-requisites: Intro to Acting and Scene Study, or by permission of the instructor. Class size: 12

11731

THTR 308 Advanced Scene Study

Naomi Thornton

. . . Th .

1:30 pm -3:30 pm

FISH

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

Context Courses:

11725

THTR 145 Intro to Theater & Performance: Revolutions in Time and Space

Miriam Felton-Dansky

. T . Th .

3:10 pm -4:30 pm

FISH

AART

This lecture 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

11643

FILM 203 Electronic Media: Performance & Video

Ben Coonley

. . W . .

1:30 pm -4:30 pm

AVERY 117

PART

Se Film section for description.

11374

RUS 330 Dramatic Difference: Russia and Its Theater

Marina Kostalevsky

. T . Th .

1:30 pm -2:50 pm

OLINLC 118

FLLC

See Russian section for description.

11716

THTR 335 Contemporary Practice in Theater and Performance

Gideon Lester

. . W . .

1:30 pm -3:50 pm

OLIN 205

AART

This advanced seminar is intended for Juniors and Seniors wishing to investigate contemporary theater & performance in greater depth. We will study the work of directors, writers, ensembles, performers, and designers, from this country and abroad, whose practice is advancing the field. The syllabus will be informed by the current season in New York City, and our research will be augmented by several field trips to theaters, museums, and festivals, as well as meetings with leading artists visiting Bard. Discussions and readings will stress the cross-disciplinary nature of theater & performance, and will incorporate perspectives from visual arts, architecture, dance, music, philosophy and new technology. Students will make several written and oral presentations throughout the semester. Open to Upper College Students only. Class size: 12

11724

THTR 353 Performing Queer

Jorge Cortinas

. . W . .

10:10 am -1:10 pm

FISH

AART

Cross-listed: Art History, Gender & Sexuality Studies Theater and performance artists who are interested in upending hetero-normative constructions of gender have long used a powerful array of performance strategies such as camp, cross dressing, cabaret, utopic longing, disidentification and radical re-imaginings of both private and public sex acts. This seminar will conduct close readings of critical readings grounded in feminism, post-colonialism, and queer studies, and then explore how those texts illuminate and complicate the work of artists such as Justin Bond, Split Britches, Taylor Mac, Nao Bustamante and Charles Ludlam. In addition to written and oral assignments throughout the semester, students will complete a final project that unpacks and demonstrates familiarity with these queer performance strategies. The final project may be an academic paper or a creative project. The focus and form of the final project must be approved by the instructor. Open to Upper College Students only. Class size: 20

11726

THTR 360 Going Viral: Performance, Media, Memes

Miriam Felton-Dansky

. . . . F

10:10am - 12:30 pm

OLIN 202

AART

Cross-listed: Art History, Experimental Humanities, Film and Electronic Media Going viral has, in the digital age, become an increasingly central strategy for creating culture: it is how new pop stars are anointed, products are advertised, and sometimes even how powerful regimes are toppled. But the notion that images and ideas can be contagious is much older than it seems, and has since at least the early twentieth century, been deeply intertwined with experiments in performance, media, and spectatorship. This seminar will examine many incarnations of viral and contagious culture in successive ages of new media, from the Futurists' radical use of the radio to contemporary digital art. We will mine pop culture for genealogies of the viral, examine viral media's relationship to capitalism and political action, and ask how viral themes—epidemic, fears of biological warfare—have intersected with viral modes of art making. Projects will include a research paper, a presentation, and collaborative forays into viral art. Open to Upper College Students only. Class size: 15

Creative Practice and Research:

11722

THTR 208 Advanced Playwriting

Chiori Miyagawa

. . W . .

1:30 pm -4:30 pm

FISH

PART

4 credits This course will function as a writer's workshop. 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 developing characters and themes that are sustained through a full-length play. The students will also read a wide range of dramatic literature and be exposed to diverse styles of playwriting. Prerequisite -- one of the following: Playwriting I, Theatrical Adaptations, or Writing Political Theater. Students must consult with Prof. Miyagawa before on-line registration. This course can be repeated for credit. Class size: 12

11732

THTR 241 Performance Composition: Movement and Text

Jack Ferver

. T . . .

10:10 am -1:10 pm

FISH

PART

Cross-listed: Dance A Creative Practice course in which students develop original movement- and text-based performances, using a series of exercises to locate and deepen self-expression. The semester begins with stretch and placement techniques and core work to develop a neutral and ready body, followed by a sequence of impulse-based improvisation techniques enabling students to find authentic movement and push past their physical limitations. These improvisations will lead into original phrase work, training students to develop their own unique choreographic and performance styles. The second half of the semester is focused on writing composition. Students will complete timed writing exercises in class, designed to free the creative voice, and will then be given individual guidance and dramaturgical assignments, leading to the development and performance of an original text and movement score.

Class size: 16

11717

THTR 244 A Intro to Theater Making

Jean Wagner

. . W . F

1:30 pm -2:50 pm

FISH

PART

This course follows "Introduction to Theater and Performance" as the second class in a sequence exploring the intellectual and creative methods of making theater. During the course of the semester all students will take turns working collaboratively as performers, directors, writers, dramaturgs and designers. The work created in this class will be presented at the end of the semester and will serve as the moderation project for students intending to major in Theater and Performance. Class size: 25

11719

THTR 244 B Intro to Theater Making

Jonathan Rosenberg

. T . Th .

10:10am - 11:30 am

FISH

PART

See above. Class size: 25