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.  All courses carry 4 credits except where otherwise indicated.

 

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 (fall semester)

 

TECHNIQUE:

 

12286

THTR 101      Acting for Non-Majors

Lindsey Jean Liberatore Rockett

T        10:10 am-1:10 pm

FISH STUDIO NO.

PA

PART

 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. 

Class size: 12  

 

12287

THTR 107 A  Introduction to Playwriting

Karen Hartman

Th      1:30 pm-4:30 pm

FISH CONFERENCE

PA

PART

 Cross-listed: Written Arts 

 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

 

12288

THTR 107 B  Intro to Playwriting

Karen Hartman

Th    10:10 am-1:10 pm

FISH STUDIO NO.

PA

PART

 See above.

Class size: 12

 

12289

THTR 110 A  The Actor & the Moment

Lynn Hawley

M  W   10:10 am-11:30 am

FISH RESNICK

PA

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

 

12290

THTR 110 B  The Actor & the Moment

Jack Ferver

M  W   11:50 am-1:10 pm

FISH RESNICK

PA

PART

 See above.

Class size: 16

 

12291

THTR 208      Intermediate Playwriting

Nilaja Sun

M         10:10 am-1:10 pm

FISH CONFERENCE

PA

PART

 Cross-listed:  Written Arts Students will initially experiment with different forms and then focus on developing a one-act play (35-45 pages), with sections of the work-in-progress presented in class for discussions. Students will develop characters and themes most effective within the one-act format. The students will also read a wide range of dramatic literature from the twentieth century to the present day, and be exposed to diverse styles of playwriting. Prerequisite -- One of the following: Intro to Playwriting, a screenwriting workshop or a poetry workshop. 

Class size: 15

 

12292

THTR 209      Intermediate Acting:Scene Study I

Jonathan Rosenberg

T  Th 10:10 am-11:30 am

FISH RESNICK

PA

PART

 This is a studio acting class where students will discover their unique process as an actor through rehearsal and performance of scenes primarily from modern and contemporary American Theater. We will explore the different ways an actor approaches a text, and how to mine a text. We will practice effective rehearsal methods, learn how to ask questions about character, how to develop circumstances, and how to tell a story through action. Prerequisite: The Actor and the Moment. 

Class size: 12

 

12293

THTR 243      Voice and Text

Elizabeth Dickinson Lindsey Rockett

T         1:30 pm-4:30 pm

FISH STUDIO NO.

PA

PART

 This course introduces actors and performers to the fundamentals of voice work and its application to text. Students first develop their vocal apparatus by applying a range of techniques (including Fitzmaurice Voicework, Linklater, and yoga) to rid the body of tension and free the authentic voice. From this place of release, students will then learn to safely support their voices, allowing greater range and variety of vocal character. Students will be taught to apply this broadened vocal pallet to the performance of text, discovering the possibilities available through both exploration and conscious shifts in the voice and body. The result will be a profound connection between body, breath, voice and language. Students will also leave with a toolkit of safe warm ups and preparatory exercises that can be used in rehearsals and private practice. While the course is primarily intended for Theater & Performance students, it may be of interest to others who which to develop their public speaking skills. This course fulfills a Technique requirement in the Theater & Performance Program.  

Class size: 14

 

12294

THTR 344      Advanced Acting:Rehearsal Technique

Lynn Hawley

M  W   11:50 am-1:10 pm

FISH STUDIO NO.

PA

PART

 In this studio acting course students will explore rehearsal techniques tailored to specific acting opportunities. How does preparing an audition monologue differ from rehearsing a scene for audition purposes? How does the style of a play dictate the choices made in approaching rehearsal?  Students will learn on-camera acting techniques, how to self-tape, and prepare material from a wide variety of theatrical texts. Individual rehearsal with the instructor will lead to taping and performance in scheduled showings. Prerequisites: introductory and intermediate acting.

Class size: 8

 

 

CREATIVE PRACTICE AND RESEARCH:

 

12296

THTR 244 A  Introduction to Theater Making

Jonathan Rosenberg

T  Th 11:50 am-1:10 pm

FISH RESNICK

PA

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.  Pre-requisite: Either THTR 110 Introduction to Acting: The Actor and the Moment or THTR 145 Introduction to Theater & Performance: Revolutions in Time and Space. 

Class size: 16

 

12297

THTR 244 B  Introduction to Theater Making

Gideon Lester

T  Th  1:30 pm-2:50 pm

FISH RESNICK

PA

PART

 See above. 

Class size: 16

 

12391

THTR 256      Making Theater Out of Trash

Geoffrey Sobelle

M          1:30 pm-4:30 pm

FISH RESNICK

PA

 This class approaches theatrical creation through the plastic arts: how does the material world open new spaces of response, new bodies, new worlds, new narratives?  From keen observation (how does a plastic bag move?) and precise movement analysis (how does the reflective body respond to the natural world?), we will learn fundamentals of corporeal mime to mix with rudimentary puppetry and mask-making.  Students will create work both with their hands and on their feet.  They will learn a movement vocabulary largely inspired by the work of Jacques Lecoq, coupled with puppetry construction/animation made from abandoned materials and natural elements. The course will involve physical exercises, improvisation, outside work, numerous presentations and lots of construction.

Class size: 15

 

12298

THTR 261      Gender Theater

Jack Ferver

T         3:00 pm-6:00 pm

FISH RESNICK

PA D+J

PART DIFF

Cross-listed: Gender and Sexuality Studies How can we use the tools of theater to interrogate the way we perform gender – our own and other people’s? In this creative practice course, students will explore and challenge normative notions of gender to play with and destabilize prescriptive cultural roles. The semester begins with an overview of the impact of gender coding and “type-casting”; where and how theater, television, and film have accepted or refused the categorical branding of identity. Through improvisation and performance exercises, students will examine overt and covert societal rules surrounding the gender binary, and discover how the tools of drag, neo-camp, and hyperbole can enhance and/or subvert the performance of gender. Using their research from the semester, students will create longer final performances.

Class size: 12

 

12299

THTR 310      Solo Performance

Nilaja Sun

M          1:30 pm-4:30 pm

FISH STUDIO NO.

AA

AART

 This course introduces solo performance through the review and discussion of several solo pieces, their unique structures and the performers such as Spalding Gray, Anna Devere Smith, John Leguizamo and Mike Daisy who created them. Through writing, theatre, and improvised exercises, students explore their own stories, those which have been woven into the fabric of their lives and craft a personalized solo piece. Pre-requisite: Intro to Acting: The Actor and the Moment. 

Class size: 12

 

12514

THTR 365      Reclaiming My Time

Emilio Rojas

F     1:30 pm-6:30 pm

FISH RESNICK

PA

PART

 This advanced studio course interrogates the theory and practice of duration, endurance, and meditation in body-based performance and contemporary art.  Students will explore the limits of their practices through time, space, site, repetition and gesture. What does it mean to slow down and in this age of accelaration? How do we prepare our bodies physically, mentally and spirtually to have the discipline to engage in durational works that question the way we perceive ourselves, and  the passage of time and reality? We will study the work of endurance artists such as Tehching Hsieh, Regina Jose Galindo, Chantal Ackerman, Ernesto Pujol, and Marina Abramovic, and read from contemporary theory on durational performance. Through a series of performance workshops, meditations and prolonged exercises students will strengthen and train their focus and abilities to explore and understand their human capacity to endure and persist.  We will learn through making, exploring and failing, each week will build upon the last.  We will explore performance as a practice that blurs the lines between art, life and politics, and study the history of duration, endurance and meditative practices in performance as well as how this works have been documented. The course will culminate in a day-long performance festival from sunrise to sunset.  

Class size: 12

 

12300

THTR 405      Junior/Senior Colloquium

Gideon Lester

W       6:30 pm-8:00 pm

FISH RESNICK

 0 credits The Zócalo is the bi-weekly colloquium for the Theater & Performance Program. It is a forum in which students and faculty share news and ideas of relevance to the field and the Program, and to meet visiting artists and other guests. Several times each

Class size: 30

 

 

CONTEXT:

 

12392

THTR 257      Arendt in Dark Times

Roger Berkowitz Emilio Rojas

W       1:30 pm-4:30 pm

FISH RESNICK

AA D+J

Cross-listed: Human Rights; Political Studies This interdisciplinary studio course will investigate the writings and philosophy of Hannah Arendt on and around the questions of refugees, racism, and nation-states and use them as the basis for the creation of collaborative performance-based projects. Using Arendt’s archives and philosophy, alongside related texts, we will seek to understand the current dark times through the lens of the refugee crisis. We will discuss issues of immigration and refugees, totalitarianism, racism, xenophobia, violence and the human condition through in depth readings of her writings as well as opposing political views. After a period of immersion in Arendt's universe, students will be divided into cross-disciplinary groups and will create original performance using her texts, and learn to read her writings using different voices and gestures. Beyond Arendt’s own work we will read contemporary and 20th century poetry, and explore contemporary performance and artistic practices that respond to the themes of the class.

Class size: 20

 

12295

THTR 317      20th Century Avant-Garde Performance

Miriam Felton-Dansky

Th     1:30 pm-3:50 pm

FISH STUDIO NO.

AA

AART

 Cross-listed: Experimental Humanities "Set fire to the library shelves!" wrote the Italian Futurists in their first manifesto of 1909. With their revolutionary politics, audience provocations, and enthusiastic embrace of the new, the Futurists inaugurated a century of avant-garde performance. This course will investigate that century, tracing the European and American theatrical avant-gardes from 1909 to 1995, including movements and artists such as Expressionism, Surrealism and Dada; John Cage, Allan Kaprow, and Happenings; utopian collectives of the 1960s; Peter Handke, Heiner Müller, the Wooster Group and Reza Abdoh. We will explore questions including: the implications of assuming the mantle of the "avant-garde"; the contested status of the dramatic text in avant-garde performance; the relationship between performance and emerging media forms; and avant-garde artists’ efforts to create radical fusions of art and life. This course will require a research paper, reading responses, and a presentation.

Class size: 15

 

 

Cross-listed courses:

 

12283

DAN 360      Dance History:Right to Dance

Jillian Pena

F     9:00 am-11:20 am

FISH CONFERENCE

AA

AART

Cross-listed: Theater & Performance; Human Rights  Class Size: 15