The Theater Department is committed to keeping us all safe in the spring, so all of our courses and productions will be offered virtually once again. Whether you are studying from home or here on campus, please know that we strive to provide the same quality and support in an online environment that we do when you are face-to-face in our classrooms, studios, and shops. We miss you all, and hope that the virus will be under control soon so we can return to exploring and creating theater together.
Theater Courses Spring 2021 PDF
Please note: THTR 312 [Plays in Performance] and THTR 369 [Theater Artists in Focus] can be taken more than once providing that the specific topic for the course is not a repeat.
THTR 108 World Theater
TR 9:30-10:45AM O’Neill
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. Attendance at some evening performances is required. [GM2, H]
THTR 130: Acting 1
TR 9:30-10:45AM Lodge
This course will introduce students to fundamental techniques for acting. Students will develop their imaginations and creative processes through performance situations involving improvisation, scene study and monologue work. As this course will be remote in Spring 2021, special focus will be given to audition techniques, including cold readings, and solo performance, in addition to the normally covered topics. Also, some elements of film acting will be integrated into the class. Second semester seniors must have permission of the instructor to take the course. [H]
THTR 207: Theater History
MW 11:00-12:15PM Westfall
In order to create theater, we must learn each other’s rituals, since all theatre emerges from ritual. One of humanity’s most ancient and ubiquitous arts, theater is cultural autoethnography, so understanding theater history in a global context enables us to examine a culture from the inside, as reflected by the writers and performers who attempt to communicate their cultures’ fundamental aesthetics, anxieties, and philosophies in movement, music, storytelling, visual design and language. Re-creation and recreation have always been fundamental human needs, and we will be studying how theatrical techniques, texts, and theories change from culture to culture and era to era, at times normative, at times reflective. We will explore historical contexts, gender and class issues, public/ private binaries, theatrical genres, cultural conventions, styles, and architectures from their ancient origins through colonial and post-colonial confrontations, to the recombinant style of today’s performances. Required for Theater Majors and Minors [GM2, H]
THTR 208 Theater and Diversity
MW 2:45-4:00PM Westfall
Theater has always addressed important social and political concerns. This course focuses on plays that address issues of gender, race, class and ethnicity through the medium of live theater. From ancient Greece, contemporary America, we examine gender roles, feminism, LGBTQ+ issues, ethnicity, and class, in the context of today’s performances. We will also examine how staging – cross-gender and cross-cultural casting (sometimes referred to as “color-blind” casting) affects theatrical reception and response. No Prerequisite. [GM1, H, V, W]
THTR 235 – Musical Theater
TR 11:00-12:15PM Lodge
This broad-based examination of Musical Theater combines an exploration of the history and literature of this uniquely American art form with a practical introduction to performance techniques used in the field. Students will study the structure, terminology, practitioners, organization and history of the musical while exploring repertoire through the preparation and performance of songs from musicals. While there are performance opportunities in this class, there is a musical theater research track for non-singers who wish to enroll. Prerequisite: Introduction to Theater – THTR 107 and/or Acting I – THTR 130 or permission of the instructor
THTR 270: Topics: Arts Management
MWF 10:00-10:50AM Owens
Arts Managers perform the work that is required to bring the arts and cultural programs to audiences, organizing programs such as festivals and exhibits, performing arts events and film screenings. This course will introduce you to the “business of the arts,” providing you with an overview of the careers in arts management, the types of work that arts managers do, and the current issues and trends now affecting arts management professionals.
THTR 280 Speaking Power
01-TR 7:00-8:15PM 02-TR 2:45-4:00PM Wattenmaker
Intending to be a lawyer? Public Relations in your future? Need to master the arts of persuasion? Feeling unconfident while speaking in public? Planning on any career in business that requires speaking with authority? You’ll need to become proficient at rhetorical technique. This course will focus on effective speaking strategies for life and for professions, including: analyzing effective speeches; writing and delivering persuasive rhetoric; building confidence and authority; mastering argument techniques; fostering “presence” for public performances; and channeling anxiety to build focus. No Prerequisite. [V, W, H]
THTR 312 Plays in Performance: Comedy
TR 1:15-2:30PM O’Neill
Often neglected, even disparaged, by theater scholars, comedy remains the only performance genre that persists across cultures and has flourished throughout history. This course will consider comedy from aesthetic, theoretical, and practical perspectives through close readings of diverse comic texts and by interpreting these texts for performance. Readings will include The Birds by Aristophanes, The Brothers Menaechmus by Plautus, The Trials of Brother Jero by Wole Soyinka, The Married Couples by Faisal Nada, The Feigned Courtesans by Aphra Behn, The Country Wife by William Wycherley, Fashion by Anna Cora Mowatt, Private Lives by Noel Coward, The Play’s The Thing by Ferenc Molnar, The Colored Museum by George C. Wolfe, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told by Paul Rudnick, and Cherokee Family Reunion by Larissa FastHorse. Two papers, in class performances, annotated bibliography.Prerequisite: Introduction to Theater – THTR 107 or permission of the Instructor. [GM1, W]
Prerequisite: Permission of Theater Department Head
THTR 120.01: Theater Performance Practicum (Monkey)
THTR120.02: Theater Performance Practicum (The Country Wife)
THTR 121.01: Theater Production Practicum (Monkey)
THTR121.01: Theater Production Practicum (The Country Wife)
THTR 373 Internship
THTR 391.01: Independent Study
THTR 400.01: Senior Project