Michole Biancosino

Acting I: Beginning Acting
Rigorous physical and psychophysical exercises attempt to break through the cultural and psychological barriers that inhibit an open responsiveness to impulses, to the environment, and to others. Attempt is made to free personal response within improvised scenes and, eventually, within the narrative structure of a naturalistic scene. Attention is given to various theories of acting technique. Students are expected to audition for departmental shows. (First- and second-year students only) 3 hrs. lect./individual labs

Directing I: Beginning
As a group, students will analyze one or two plays to discover the process involved in preparing a script for production. Attention will be given to production and design concepts, textual values, auditions, rehearsals, and the structuring of a performance in time and space. Students will also cast and direct one or more scenes to be worked on and performed in class. The practical work is combined with written analysis. (Approval required; ARDV 0116, THEA 0102) 4 hrs. lect.

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.

Directing and Creating: Textual Work and Devised Work
In recent years the disciplines of directing ‘text-based’ theatre and of creating (or devising) a theatre piece without an initial reliance on a text have built shared approaches to material. Devised work may be composed through vocal or physical improvisation, created through interviews, or collaged from various sources, a text may emerge during the process. Text-based theatre is more traditional in its impetus, but the process of fleshing out a text can be very similar to creating without a text. In this course we will approach both forms of theatre, creating and directing pieces in many forms, and viewing works. Readings include The Viewpoints Book, The Active Text, and The Frantic Assembly Book of Devising Theatre. The course is suggested for actors and designers as well as directors and may be used to fulfill a requirement for senior work in directing or devising. This course is not open to students who have taken THEA 0237 or THEA 0324. (THEA 0102 or THEA 0214 or THEA 0218) 3 hrs. lect.

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.