Courses

Page to Stage: Theatre for a Turbulent World
What gives theatre its perennial power? Can a classic play speak to our dire concerns in 2020? Is a contemporary play a more effective vehicle for our cry for justice? In this introductory course we will investigate eight plays, classic and contemporary, exploring how theatre-makers take the ideas and themes of a play into consideration as they move into the practical realm of production. Readings include Sophocles’ Antigone, Suzan-Lori Parks’ /Topdog/Underdog, David Henry Hwang’s Yellowface, and Jen Silverman’s The Moors. Students will engage in creative problem-solving through different lenses via weekly labs in scenery, props, costumes, hair, makeup, stage management, sound, lighting, projections, and acting. This course will be co-taught by theatre faculty and staff, and it fulfills the crew requirement for Theatre majors.

The Plays of Station Eleven
This course will provide a study of theatrical literature through an interrogation of the specific ways live performance and the human body inform meaning in text-based theatre. We will begin with a reading of the novel Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, the plot of which centers around a traveling troupe of actors performing plays after a plague. After studying the novel and subsequent television series, we will begin a deep reading of the plays depicted within the story, including Shakespeare’s King Lear and Hamlet. Following these tragedies, we will read modern plays that explore different forms, themes, styles, and methods of theatre-making, again led by the evocations of post-pandemic performance. Contemporary plays will include Jonathan Payne’s The Revolving Cycles Truly and Steadily Roll’d, Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Liz Duffy Adams’ Dog Act, Anne Washburn’s Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play, Caridad Svich’s Twelve Ophelias, and Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play.

Theatre and Social Change
In this course we will explore ways in which theatre engages perceptions, behaviors, and social conditions in audiences and practitioners. While historically controversial, the practice of art as an agent of change is increasingly important, ignited by the work of Augusto Boal. We will also explore works presented in a 'conventional' theatrical setting, drama therapy, and creative role-playing in institutional settings (prisons, schools, mental health facilities). Community-based work will focus on issues facing a specific community and the voices of that group. We will read theory and history, engage issues, and build work. No previous theatre experience is required. (Not open to students who have taken FYSE 1334) 3 hrs. lect.

Out on Stage: US Gay and Lesbian Drama
In this course we will study US American gay and lesbian plays from the 1930s through the present day. Our journey will illuminate key moments in the history of homosexuality in the United States: from the dramatization of closetedness and “the love that dares not speak its name” to the Gay Liberation Movement, the AIDS epidemic, and, lastly, the emergence of queer and transgender identities. Students will learn how to analyze the dramatic text as pre-text to a fully embodied event in front of an audience. To that end, in addition to approaching the plays through the lens of theatre praxis, we will watch recorded performances and cinematic adaptations. Secondary readings and research will illuminate the ways in which the works respond to specific historical contexts. 3 hrs. lect.

Contemporary Native American Playwrights
In this course we will study plays and productions by contemporary Native American, First Nations, and Canadian Métis playwrights such as Mary Katherine Nagle, Larissa Fasthorse, Drew Hayden Taylor, and Monique Mojica. We will engage with scripts that reflect Indigenous resistance to settler colonialism, challenge harmful stereotypes, reclaim cultures, traditions, and languages, and celebrate survivance. Conversations with guest artists will enhance readings of critical theory and history that situate theatre as a tool for healing, transformation, sovereignty, and the future of Indigeneity. 3 hrs. lect.

African American Drama
In this course we will respectfully investigate African American performance and theatre history since the late 19th century by exploring works of playwrights such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Amira Baraka, Adrienne Kennedy, August Wilson, and Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins. We will also engage with theoretical essays by Alain Locke, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Patricia Hill Collins and more, that illuminate how, despite centuries of lethal stereotyping, the stage has been and continues to be a forum for self-representation, unification, resistance, and liberation. Guest artists will provide firsthand accounts in conversation with the students. Dramaturgical and critical responses to the materials will strengthen production interpretation and design skills.

Acting III: Scene and Monologue Study
Designed primarily for majors who have had experience on stage or have otherwise demonstrated a serious interest in performance. The skills introduced in Acting I and Acting II are given intensive application to different kinds of dramatic texts, primarily realistic in nature. Attention will be given to expanding the performer's range of emotional and intellectual expressiveness. (Approval required) 4 hrs. lect.

Playwriting II: Advanced
For students with experience writing short scripts or stories, this workshop will provide a support structure in which to write a full-length stage play. We will begin with extended free and guided writing exercises intended to help students write spontaneously and with commitment. Class discussions will explore scene construction, story structure, and the development of character arc. (ENAM 0170 or THEA/CRWR 0218 or FMMC/CRWR 0218; by approval) 2 1/2 hrs. lect./individual labs

Costume Design II: Advanced
In this course we will continue exploration of costume design and figure illustration. Design projects will focus on the further development of students' graphic and conceptual abilities. A range of work will be encountered, including modern dress, period realism, and fantasy. (THEA 0205 or by approval) 3 hrs. lect.

Acting IV: Styles of Acting
The course will expose students to the rigorous physical, vocal, mental, and emotional demands of "non-naturalistic" acting, beginning with the Greeks, continuing through Shakespeare, Restoration, the eighteenth century, and ending with contemporary absurdist playwrights. Emphasis is first upon an intellectual understanding of the texts, then upon their fullest physical, vocal, and emotional expression. The course is designed for students who have had some prior stage experience. (ARDV 0116, THEA 0102 and an additional performance course) 4 hrs. lect./1hr. screen.

Site-Specific Theatre Performance
In this course we will explore methods of creating site-specific theatre performances then work to collaboratively create a performance using these methods. Drawing on the global profile of major practitioners in the field, we will analyze international and US-based productions of note and study key principles of place and space. This class will form an ensemble of site-specific theatre-makers, working together democratically to create several performance pieces in and around campus. Through in-class exercises and readings, we will generate material for a final site-specific performance to be performed publicly.

Introduction to Digital Media
In this course students will develop an understanding of how projections can be integrated into the theatrical space. This course is an exploration into projection design and digital media production. We’ll examine the art, tools and craft of projection design as it relates to live performance. Current practices, equipment, programming, mapping, and masking will all be covered.

Discovering the Clown
In this physical theatre course students will discover the joy of being on stage and screen, develop a personal relationship with the comic world, and find pleasure in a direct engagement with an audience. The study of theatrical clown helps connect students to the spontaneous, vulnerable, and generous impulses of their work. Through games, improvisation, individual and group exercises, personal writing, performance assignments, and readings we will create a supportive ensemble to encourage each student to succeed in their unique way. This is a screen-on-move-around-get-loud kind of class. Failure is encouraged. It's funny. And not funny. But that’s funny, too. (formerly INTD 1219)

Couture Costume
In this hands-on course, students will work on one costume project from concept to execution. Before the start of term, inspiration images and sketches detailing proposed project are expected so that sewing patterns can be provided. The design should be for the whole body and can be anything from formalwear to historical reproduction; casual, sports, and daywear excluded. Skills covered: pattern alteration, couture construction and finishing, working with difficult materials, and fitting techniques. Intermediate to advanced sewing skills, i.e. basic hand and machine sewing, work with sewing patterns (commercial or your own), and have constructed several garments.

Introduction to Corsetry
In this course students will build one basic corset. A corset is a good gateway sewing project because it utilizes relatively simple sewing skills to achieve an end product with “wow” effect. Skills covered: commercial paper pattern use and alteration, basic sewing, setting grommets, and fitting. A history of the corset is included. Because we are remote, beginning machine sewing experience is required. Also, must have access to sewing machine, iron, and ironing board plus basic sewing tools. Each student will be required to purchase materials totaling approximately $90.

Stage to Screen: African American Plays
In Stage to Screen, we will explore how stage plays by African-American playwrights are transformed into films. Playwriting and screenwriting are closely related forms of dramatic writing; students will read 8 plays and examine the differences between each play and its film adaptation. Since this course deals with the black experience, students will investigate the socio-historical and political contexts of the play to see how the intersection of race, class, gender, culture, and politics play a role in the artistic product. Students will evaluate whether each playwright’s vision is reaffirmed, enhanced, or challenged in the transformation of play to film.

Mexican Revolution/Revelation
Using theatrical workshop techniques, students in this interdisciplinary will explore the socio-political-economic history, literature, music, dance, graphic art and architecture that reflect the period of time commonly known as the Mexican revolution. The course will consist of both academic research as well as dramatic and musical performance. The work will center around adapting scenes for the theater from Mariano Azuela’s novel of the revolution Los de Abajo. Students will study, contextualize and incorporate various elements of Mexican folk music into these scenes. The course will culminate in a dramatic presentation of the work.

Speaking from the Stage: Hearing from Contemporary Playwrights
In this course we will explore, through reading, films, and personal performance, a selection of plays (scripted, verbatim, devised) from a range of women and women-identifying writers for the theatre. The focus of the work is both an examination in form and content of the works’ diversity, and an accompanying analysis of any thematic and formal similarities. Course reading highlights texts of the plays accompanied by historical/theoretical readings. Students will produce two brief pieces of written work, one creative and one comparative.
Playwrights will include Adrienne Kennedy, Betty Shamieh, Caridad Svich, Aleshea Harris, Naomi Wallace, Martyna Majok, Jazzmun Nichcala Crayton, Lauren Yee, and Dipika Guha.