Through lectures, discussions, hands-on- experiences, master classes with visiting theater professionals, and performances outside of class, this course introduces students to significant texts, ideas, and crafts essential to the study of theater. Projects involve acting, directing, design, and theater criticism; writing assignments familiarize students with the analytic tools and accepted vocabulary of theater scholarship. (Formerly THTR 107) [H]
An introduction to the history, theory, and practice of technical theater, focusing upon stage management, construction, painting, rigging, and electrical practices. Laboratory sessions in the theater shop and backstage assignments ensure hands-on exposure to topics discussed in class. (Formerly THTR 221) [H]
A survey of plays from different eras and performance traditions in diverse cultures; introduces students to evaluating, discussing, and writing about theater from a global perspective. [GM2, H]
This survey of theater history, design, performance, and texts will introduce students to evaluating, discussing, and writing about theater as a global and multicultural form. Students will analyze theatrical conventions over time and space, and will consider the influence of colonialism, racism, sexism, and ethnocentrism. This course covers World Theater from Antiquity through the 19th century. Not open to students who have credit for either THTR 108 or THTR 207. [GM2, H]
Changes in staging, culture, history and politics were almost instantly reflected in the plays of the 19thto 21st centuries. This course examines the history, theory, and texts of plays produced from the age of melodrama through today’s forms, examining how our theater reflects its time, place, and social tensions. Not open to students who have credit for either THTR 108 or THTR 207. [GM2, H]
Available to designated cast and crew members of a faculty-directed Theater Department production. May be repeated up to four times for credit.
Available to designated crew and staff of a faculty-directed Theater Department production. 0.25 credits
Available to designated crew and staff of a faculty-directed Theater Department production. (0.25 credits)
This workshop style course will introduce students to various fundamental techniques of acting and improvisation, with special emphasis on sensory awareness, observation, concentration, body movement and vocal development. Students will develop their imaginations and creative processes through performance situations involving improvisation, scene study and monologue work. Second semester seniors must have permission of the instructor to take the course. [H]
This course focuses on plays that address issues of gender, race, class and ethnicity through the medium of live theater. The course also will examine how cross-gender and cross-cultural casting (sometimes referred to as ''color-blind'' casting) affects theatrical reception and response. Workshops on Theater of the Oppressed and Undesirable Elements will provide students with opportunities to make theater based on diversity issues. [GM1, H, V, W]
This course focuses on art that addresses issues of environment, ecology, and the natural world through the medium of live theater. Topics will include: ethics, environmentalism, capitalism, ecological disasters, land use, climate change, genetic modification, and animal rights. We will also read articles on green theater, criticism and theory. Examining these issues in the context of performance allows us a ringside seat to some of the most important issues and debates of our time. [H, GM2, V, W]
Theatrical design is the practice of crafting staged environments. It is the careful consideration, combination, and implementation of strategies in visual art, stagecraft, and technology to affect a sense of feeling and place for a performance. This course engages with the foundational elements and principles of design and explores their varied applications to the many disciplines involved in theater making, including scenery, lighting, and costumes. [H,V]
Illustration is the act of using applied skills in composition to translate concepts into aesthetic communication. Deeply rooted in classical artistic tradition, today this evolution has progressed rapidly from the physical world into the digital one. This course will engage with some of the most commonly used platforms in digital design and explore their applications to composition creating in theatrical settings and beyond. [H, V, W]
This workshop extends beyond basic action and training to offer a more in-depth study of the craft of acting. Students will utilize exercises, improvisation, and detailed script analysis as they build and develop characters. Students will perform in a range of scenes from modern American realism and from Ibsen, Strindberg, and Chekhov. [H]
Stage Managers run the show, from the initial meeting with design teams to the ultimate striking of the set. This course explores the concepts and techniques of stage management, concentrating on organization, communication, and leadership. We will also discuss script analysis, decision-making, and communication skills as well as the basic practices and protocols of mounting a professional theater production.
This study of musical theater combines a survey of the history and literature of this uniquely American art form with introductory training in its practice and performance techniques. Students will investigate the structure, terminology, practitioners, organization, and conventions of the musical while they explore its repertoire through either preparing scenes and songs for performance or doing dramaturgically based research for presentation. [H]
A detailed study in either a workshop or classroom setting of a particular aspect of theatrical endeavor. Usually offered in conjunction with visiting artists or theater residencies.
Certain phrases continue to ring in our ears long after their speakers have passed into history. This course will focus on the arts of persuasion, teaching you effective speaking strategies for life and for professions, including: analyzing effective speeches; writing and delivering persuasive rhetoric; building authority; mastering argument techniques; assessing journalistic, political, and cultural ethics used over history by candidates, lawyers, newscasters, spin-doctors, and commentators. [H, V, W]
In this course, students will have hands-on opportunities to engage with technologies and systems of control that enable the use of light as an artistic medium, develop language to communicate aesthetic concepts informed by dramaturgical analysis, and create their own instances of artful expression through light. These instances of artistic interpretation will challenge students to construct evaluative artistic responses to narrative concepts including, but not limited to, matters of ethical conduct, identity, and justice. [H, V]
In this course, students will explore the complex relationship between theater and sports, with a particular focus on plays and musicals which feature sports as their subject matter. Students will examine common sports tropes in entertainment, like driven underdogs, and will explore thorny ethical issues related to sports, including doping, cheating and sports betting. Students will also engage with complicated questions about how sports plays engage with gender, sexuality, race and disability. [H, V]
Through applying the methods of dramaturgy to reading and researching selected plays, students compare and examine performances of those plays in differently realized productions on stage, in film, and through adaptations in such genres as opera and dance. Special attention will be given to issues of interpretation, historicity, and conventions in various media. [GM1, W]
This course explores the director's art and responsibility in the theatrical process, including casting, rehearsal, and organizational procedures from script analysis to performance. Discussion and practice in the principles of composition, picturization, movement, and blocking, with attention to issues of style, concept, and stage spaces. Students direct scenes in laboratory and a short play for public performance.
This workshop offers advanced study of acting, with special emphasis on exploring and enacting the theatrical styles and performance conventions from a wide range of periods, genres, and cultures. Students will perform in projects drawn from diverse pieces in a variety of contrasting styles. Emphasis on particular styles is subject to change by semester. May be repeated for credit when offered with different emphasis.
Students explore the practices of theater for young audiences and methodologies of theater in education through readings and research combined with a lab experience in which they either rehearse and perform or provide technical or design support for a play created for young audiences. Students develop educational materials for the production and lead post performance workshops with area school children who attend the production. Rehearsal and performances are scheduled during required laboratory hours. [CBLR]
An in depth study of one or two theater artists, usually in conjunction with a College Theater production showcasing their work. The Theater artists selected vary from semester to semester, and the focus will be announced during the registration period; may be repeated when offered with a different focus. [W]
Advanced study in either a workshop or classroom setting of a particular aspect of theatrical endeavor. May be repeated for credit when offered on different topics.
Practical experience in a professional theater or theater organization. Written reports are required of the student, as is an evaluation of the student by the supervising agency. Although a student may take two theater internships, normally in the junior and senior years, only one may be counted toward the Theater major. Advance approval of the Director of Theater required.
This course traces a production from page to stage, focusing on the dramaturgy for and preparation of a staged production. Students will examine the historical, cultural, and aesthetic context for the selected text, and will involve themselves in all aspects of the production -- design, directing, acting and writing.
Tutorial study in theater practice, initiated by the student and pursued independently under the guidance of an instructor from whom the student has gained approval and acceptance. May be repeated for credit.
Under the guidance of theater faculty and normally during the senior year, the student will undertake an advanced project in one or more specialized areas of theater (e.g., acting, directing, design, criticism). The project will serve to assess the student's theater education and demonstrate the student's potential as a theater artist and/or practitioner.
Tutorial sessions related to the student's investigation of the area chosen for his or her honors essay. Open only to candidates for honors in theater, who take THTR 495 instead of THTR 400. [One W credit only upon completionof both 495 and 496]