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 & Performance Program:

1. THTR 145 Introduction to Contemporary Performance

2. THTR 110 Introduction to Acting: The Actor and the Moment

3. THTR 107 Introduction to Playwriting: The Theatrical Voice

4. THTR 244 Theater Making (spring semester)

5. THTR 146 Introduction to World Theater Traditions (fall semester)

 

Technique

 

Course:

THTR 107 A Introduction to Playwriting: The Theatrical Voice

Professor:

Nilaja Sun Gordon  

CRN:

15835

Schedule/Location:

 Tue      10:10 AM - 1:10 PM Fisher PAC STUDIO NO.

Distributional Area:

PA Practicing Arts  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 10

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 short-form play, reading assignments, and class discussions. All students are welcome, with a preference to Theater majors.  (No writing sample required.)

 

Course:

THTR 107 B Introduction to Playwriting: The Theatrical Voice

Professor:

Daaimah Mubashshir  

CRN:

15836

Schedule/Location:

 Tue      1:30 PM - 4:30 PM Fisher PAC STUDIO NO.

Distributional Area:

PA Practicing Arts  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 10

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 short-form play, reading assignments, and class discussions. All students are welcome, with a preference to Theater majors.  (No writing sample required.)

 

Course:

THTR 110 A Introduction to Acting: The Actor and the Moment

Professor:

Jean Wagner  + Jubilith Moore

CRN:

15837

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    1:30 PM - 2:50 PM Fisher PAC RESNICK

Distributional Area:

PA Practicing Arts  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 16

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.

 

Course:

THTR 110 B Introduction to Acting: The Actor and the Moment

Professor:

Bhavesh Patel  

CRN:

15838

Schedule/Location:

  Wed  Fri   11:50 AM - 1:10 PM Fisher PAC STUDIO NO.

Distributional Area:

PA Practicing Arts  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 15

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.

 

Course:

THTR 110 C Introduction to Acting: The Actor and the Moment

Professor:

Bhavesh Patel  

CRN:

16243

Schedule/Location:

  Wed  Fri   3:30 PM - 4:50 PM Fisher PAC RESNICK

Distributional Area:

PA Practicing Arts  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 15

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.

 

Course:

THTR 208  Intermediate Playwriting

Professor:

Daaimah Mubashshir  

CRN:

15839

Schedule/Location:

  Wed     10:10 AM - 1:10 PM Fisher PAC CONFERENCE

Distributional Area:

PA Practicing Arts  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 10

Students will initially experiment with different forms and then focus on developing a long form 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 a longer 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, poetry or fiction workshop.

 

Course:

THTR 209  Intermediate Acting: Scene Study

Professor:

Jonathan Rosenberg  

CRN:

15840

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    10:10 AM - 11:30 AM Fisher PAC RESNICK

Distributional Area:

PA Practicing Arts  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 12

This is the second in the sequence of acting classes in the Theater and Performance Program. In this class the concepts that have been explored in the introductory class -given circumstances, presence in the moment, theatrical imagination, and inhabiting personal truth- are used as a foundation to explore acting in scripts and with characters drawn from the work of contemporary American playwrights. Students will learn, and put into practice, such essential structural tools as script analysis, the use of objectives and actions, physical actions, the construction of character, and the collaborative rehearsal process. In this class students will rehearse and perform two substantial scenes drawn from the plays of a diverse group of contemporary writers including work from the global majority, as well as others from an earlier generation such as Suzan-Lori Parks, Tony Kushner, Diana Son, August Wilson, Arthur Miller, Thorton Wilder, Sam Shepard, Lorraine Hansberry, Clifford Odets, Caryl Churchill and Elizabeth Egloff. In addition, students research, rehearse, and perform a character study, the ‘Ancestor Project’, which allows for the deep exploration of an actor’s transformation into a character. The prerequisite for the class is the successful completion of Introduction to Acting: The Actor and the Moment.

 

Course:

THTR 234  Basic Vocal Technique

Professor:

Lindsey J. Liberatore  

CRN:

15841

Schedule/Location:

   Thurs    3:10 PM - 6:10 PM Fisher PAC RESNICK

Distributional Area:

 

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 14

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.

 

Course:

THTR 219  Introduction to Directing

Professor:

Ashley Tata  

CRN:

15894

Schedule/Location:

 Tue      3:10 PM - 6:10 PM Fisher PAC RESNICK

Distributional Area:

PA Practicing Arts  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 10

Introduction to Directing is offered to students with little or no directing experience but who suspect they may be interested in directing. Over the course of the semester students will approach directing with a focus on different kinds of performance material ranging from texts that have been performed historically, new/contemporary plays that are in development and in generating original works. Through each of these models the student-director will practice beginning and structuring a rehearsal process, working with actors, script analysis, dramaturgy, actioning and visual composition. There will be weekly reading and presentation assignments with time in class to practice the skills being developed and for critique. Substantial time outside of class will be spent organizing rehearsals. The end of semester will culminate in a mini director-fest.

 Context

 

Course:

THTR 145  Intro to Contemporary Performance

Professor:

Miriam Felton-Dansky  

CRN:

15842

Schedule/Location:

 Mon  Weds      10:10 AM - 11:30 PM Fisher PAC RESNICK

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 15

What is live performance, and how are contemporary artists using the space of the stage and the event of live theater to speak to their world today? This course introduces students to modern and contemporary works of theater and performance art, and to complex questions about political performance, the role of the audience, and the onstage relationship between fiction and reality, among others. Through the study of twentieth and twenty-first century artists such as Bertolt Brecht, Yoko Ono, Aleshea Harris, and Faye Driscoll, we will build critical and creative skills for responding to what we see. This course is open to all students with no prerequisite or expectation of prior knowledge, and fulfills a pre-moderation requirement for Theater & Performance majors.

 

Course:

THTR 367  Race, Class, and Gender in Modern Theater: A Public Writing Seminar

Professor:

Miriam Felton-Dansky  

CRN:

15844

Schedule/Location:

 Tue      12:30 PM - 2:50 PM Fisher PAC Sosnoff Balcony

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 12

From reviews to playbill essays to social media posts, modern theater calls upon an ecology of public communication—among audiences, critics, producers, funders, and more. This course invites students to build practical writing skills through the investigation of identity construction in selected twentieth-century plays. Using questions of race, class, and gender as conceptual lenses, we will imagine ourselves as dramaturgs, critics, producers, and art makers, writing and editing collaboratively each week. Our case studies will be international in scope, encompassing modern dramas from Indonesia, Norway, Argentina, and Martinique, as well as U.S.-based musical theater. We will advocate for productions, create contextual materials that invite audiences into theatrical worlds, and engage in public dialogue around theater’s significance as a mode of interrogating identity and situating individuals in communal and collective worlds. Assessment will be based on weekly short-form writing and editing projects.

 Creative Practice and Research

 

Course:

THTR 212  Writing Political Theater

Professor:

Nilaja Sun Gordon  

CRN:

15848

Schedule/Location:

   Thurs    10:10 AM - 1:10 PM Fisher PAC STUDIO NO.

Distributional Area:

PA Practicing Arts  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 15

Crosslists: Human Rights

In recent years, we have been witness to the urgent need to speak up and speak out, especially in our art. This course asks students: “What do you believe?” and “How can you infuse those beliefs into your playwriting?” We will read and study works from playwrights and theatre makers such as Zora Neale Hurston, Caryl Churchill, Tony Kushner, Ayad Akhtar and Jeremy O. Harris who have used political discourse to send their message to the world. Diverse forms of political expression will be consciously considered as we form our own unique voice steeped in the tradition of political theatre writing. Students will write several short one acts and one longer play on issues of their political interest. This is a writing workshop. Pre-requisite: Introduction to Playwriting. Email Prof. Sun at nsun@bard.edu with a brief paragraph of interest in order to register for this course.

 

Course:

THTR 244 A Theater Making

Professor:

Jonathan Rosenberg  

CRN:

15845

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    11:50 AM - 1:10 PM Fisher PAC RESNICK

Distributional Area:

PA Practicing Arts  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 15

This course follows “Introduction to Contemporary 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.

 

Course:

THTR 261  Gender Theater

Professor:

Jack Ferver  

CRN:

15847

Schedule/Location:

   Thurs    1:30 PM - 4:30 PM Fisher PAC STUDIO NO.

Distributional Area:

PA Practicing Arts D+J Difference and Justice

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 12

Crosslists: 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.

 

Course:

THTR 406  Senior Project Colloquium

Professor:

Jack Ferver  

CRN:

15851

Schedule/Location:

    Fri   12:30 PM - 2:50 PM Fisher PAC RESNICK

Distributional Area:

 

Credits: 0

 

Class cap: 25

Senior Project Colloquium is an integral component of the eight credits Theater & Performance students earn for Senior Project. This yearlong course creates a dynamic space to allow for an array of dramaturgical feedback from classmates, advisors, faculty in (and potentially out of) Theater and Performance; as well as maintaining dialogues with Fisher Center and Old Gym staff as Seniors move towards the production of their Senior Project. In a bi-weekly seminar format, Seniors will present their work in progress, inclusive of their research; discuss their projects with their class for moderated feedback; liaison work with advisors, faculty, and production staff; discuss their research papers; and hold post mortems on completed work with their cohorts.

 

Course:

MUS WKSPM  Musical Theater Performance Workshop

Professor:

David Sytkowski  

CRN:

15451

Schedule/Location:

   Thurs    5:40 PM - 8:40 PM Bard Hall

Evenings and Weekends of March 28 – April 10

Distributional Area:

PA Practicing Arts  

Credits: 2

 

Class cap: 12

This workshop will explore solo and ensemble excerpts of works commonly categorized as musical theatre (musicals of all eras, operetta, cabaret, etc.), as well as approaches to performing and storytelling through combinations of text, music, and movement. We will focus on methods of musical and textual preparation to facilitate one's adaptability and presence in live performance. Spring 2022 will culminate in a two-week rehearsal and performance period (March 28-April 10) with a guest director in LUMA at The Fisher Center. Open to all students seeking collaborative performance opportunities working in multiple modes- acting, singing, dancing, directing, accompanying, choreographing, writing, composing, and beyond. Please email dsytkowski@bard.edu for more audition and application information.

Cross-listed courses:

 

Course:

DAN 141A  Alexander Technique

Professor:

Lindsay Clark  

CRN:

15553

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    1:30 PM - 2:50 PM Fisher Performing Arts Center 0

Distributional Area:

PA Practicing Arts  

Credits: 1

 

Class cap 20

Crosslists: Theater and Performance

 

Course:

LIT 353  Shakespeare's Tragedies

Professor:

Adhaar Desai  

CRN:

15730

Schedule/Location:

Mon       3:10 PM - 5:30 PM Olin 309

Distributional Area:

LA Literary Analysis in English  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap 15

Crosslists: Theater and Performance