Performing Arts
Performing Arts at Washington University is comprised of dance and drama.
Dance
Students may select dance as a major through the Performing Arts Department. This course of study combines intensive studio work in the technique and theory of modern dance, ballet, and composition with seminars that examine dance as a global phenomenon containing forms that reflect culturally specific historical, aesthetic, and ethnological features. The program also includes a broad range of courses, such as stagecraft, music resources, improvisation, anatomy for dancers, pedagogy, dance therapy, musical theater dance, world dance forms, jazz, hip hop, and West African. Alternatively, students may choose to minor in dance.
The senior capstone experience is framed in consultation with Performing Arts faculty. In April, prior to registration for the fall semester, dance majors discuss the capstone requirement with their advisors. The dance capstone requirement can be satisfied by a senior honors thesis or a senior dance project. The format may range from a research paper or a written analysis of the student's dance development to a project emphasizing movement expression (e.g., the creation of a video résumé, a performance, or a choreographic project). In all cases, dance capstones have a written component.
Those who study dance at Washington University learn from faculty members who have both professional experience and academic degrees. Students also have the opportunity to study with guest artists-in-residence who teach master classes and set choreography.
Students may audition for the Washington University Dance Theatre, which holds annual auditions for students. Selected students will appear in faculty- and guest artist-choreographed concerts in Edison Theatre. Dance students particularly interested in performance may audition for the student repertory company, Washington University Dance Collective (WUDC). WUDC rehearses throughout the year and performs on campus as well as in venues in the St. Louis area. Students may also participate in departmental drama productions as well as student-directed work in choreography and theater. Further, each year, students have the opportunity to attend the regional American College Dance Conference to adjudicate work, perform, and take master classes.
Dance students may pursue study abroad at the University of Auckland, New Zealand; University of Ghana, Legon; and Roehampton University, London. With approval from the Dance program, courses at these institutions may fulfill dance major and minor requirements. Courses in other disciplines taught at these institutions may also be accepted by Washington University.
Drama
The drama major combines rigorous training in theater and performance studies (world theater history, performance theory, and dramatic criticism) with theater production, including courses in playwriting, acting, directing, devising, design (i.e., set, costume, lighting, and sound), and experimental digital performance.
In this program, students can take a wide variety of courses covering the history of world theater in comparative relation. Ranging from the ritual practices that emerged into the dramas of Ancient Greece to the post-dramatic explorations of habituated movements we make in everyday life, performance is studied as a corporeal practice and material expression of cultural meanings. By understanding performance as both an artistic practice and a sociological phenomenon, students learn to think critically about the complex ways that cultures make meanings in the forms and practices of embodied movement.
In small, individualized classes, professionally and academically trained faculty lead students in practice and discussion, helping them make connections between the study of theater as a liberal art and the application of skills in production. In acting, the department offers four courses that cover scene and character study, acting styles, and solo performance work. Additional courses in movement, voice/speech, and musical theater augment the performance course curriculum. A two-course directing sequence issues into a public showing of student-directed work, and some students have chosen to direct a fully designed production as their capstone or senior honors thesis. Recent graduates of the acting and directing sequence have been placed in prestigious MFA programs, in internships and jobs in regional American theaters, and in various professional schools and graduate programs. Our nationally recognized program in design and technical theater offers students a varied selection of costume, scene, lighting, and sound design courses. Our design faculty regularly facilitates opportunities for design and technical theater students to shadow them in professional design jobs and/or to intern within companies. A highly successful playwriting program, enriched by the annual A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Competition and workshops run by leading American dramaturgs, has produced playwrights whose work is now being performed in nationally recognized venues as well as in film and television.
Since 1991, the Performing Arts Department and the Globe Education Program have collaborated in the teaching of Shakespeare's plays. In either a two-semester first-year seminar or a four-week intensive summer program, students can explore the textual meanings, historical contexts, and cultural significance of Shakespeare's plays both as literature and in performance. Working with Performing Arts faculty as well as Globe personnel, students learn to bring Shakespeare's plays to life in master classes that teach them how to voice Shakespeare's poetry, realize his characters, and perform stage combat. Both course options offer students a summer study abroad opportunity to visit Shakespeare's birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon and the reconstructed Globe Theater in London, culminating in their own performance on the Globe stage.
Contact Info
Phone: | 314-935-5858 |
Email: | pad@wustl.edu |
Website: | http://pad.wustl.edu |
Chair
Julia Walker
PhD, Duke University
(Drama)
Directors of Graduate Studies
Joanna Dee Das
Director of Graduate Studies in Dance (MFA)
PhD, Columbia University
Elaine A. Peña
Director of Graduate Studies, MA in Performance Studies
PhD, Northwestern University
Directors of Undergraduate Studies
Cecil Slaughter
Director of Undergraduate Studies of Dance
MFA, University of Iowa
Andrea Urice
Director of Undergraduate Studies of Drama
MFA, University of Virginia
Department Faculty
Antonio Douthit-Boyd
Professor of Practice in Dance
Distinguished Performing Artist
Zachariah Ezer
Assistant Professor of Performing Arts
MFA, The University of Texas at Austin
Dominique Green
Lecturer in Costume Design
MFA, University of Cincinnati, College Conservatory of Music
Elinor Harrison
Lecturer in Dance
PhD, Washington University in St. Louis
Robert K. Henke
Professor of Drama and Comparative Literature
PhD, University of California, Berkeley
Ron Himes
Henry E. Hampton Jr. Artist-in-Residence
BSBA, Washington University
Elizabeth Hunter
Assistant Professor of Drama
PhD, Northwestern University
David W. Marchant
Professor of Practice in Dance
MFA, University of Iowa
Jeffery S. Matthews
Professor of Practice in Drama
MFA, Virginia Commonwealth University
Robert Mark Morgan
Teaching Professor of Drama
MFA, San Diego State University
Annamaria Pileggi
Professor of Practice in Drama
MFA, Brandeis University
Sean Savoie
Teaching Professor of Design-Technical Theater
MFA, University of Cincinnati - College Conservatory of Music
Claire Sommers
Lecturer in Drama
PhD, City University of New York
William Whitaker
Professor of Practice in Drama
MFA, Florida Atlantic University
Retired Faculty
Mary-Jean Cowell
PhD, Columbia University
Christine Knoblauch-O'Neal
PhD, Texas Woman's University
Henry I. Schvey
PhD, Indiana University
Courses include the following:
Dance
DANCE 1010 Introduction to Dance as a Contemporary Art Form
Introduction to dance as a creative art form. Through practical work in the studio, students gain an understanding of the human body as an instrument of expression and of motion as the medium of dance. Technique, analysis and creative work. Not open to majors. May be repeated once for credit.
Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DANCE 1600 Ampersand: The Body: What Moves US and Other Perspectives on Movement
This course introduces students to the complex neural processes that allow the coordination and integration of thought, action, and perception. We will explore fundamental concepts of motor control including how our central nervous system integrates information to allow us to maintain posture and balance, to coordinate our limbs to external rhythms, and to move our bodies efficiently and expressively through space and time. We will explore theoretical frameworks of motor learning as they pertain to movement. We will delve into the neuromechanisms underlying common tools that skilled movers use to improve motor performance and how they induce neuroplasticity in brain structure and function. Students will gain broad understanding of neurophysiological investigative techniques that allow us to glimpse the complex neural processes that allow the coordination and integration of thought, action, and perception. Prerequisite: first semester of Ampersand The Mind-Body Connection
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 1996 Dance Elective: 100-Level
Course is used for transcribing 1000-level DANCE elective units
Credit 3 units. EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
DANCE 2000 Tutorial
Supplementary work at the low intermediate level in ballet and modern dance at times to be determined. Prerequisites: sophomore standing and permission of the Director of Undergraduate Dance Studies. Credit to be determined in each case.
Credit 6 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DANCE 2010 Theory and Technique of Modern Dance I
Fundamental theory and techniques of American modern dance. Studio work investigating the expressive potential of human movement and developing individual rhythmic and kinesthetic awareness, coordination, and breadth of movement vocabulary. Related reading and video expand on theory embodied in the class work and give an historical overview of modern dance in the U.S. Attendance at two to three performances required. Prerequisite: some previous dance training or permission of instructor.
Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DANCE 2011 Theory and Technique of Modern Dance II
A course for students familiar with the basic concepts and technique of modern dance. Emphasis on expanding individual movement versatility with increasing difficulty of choreographic phrase materials. Related readings and videos, some focused on American postmodern dance. Attendance at 2-3 performances required. Prerequisites: Dance 201 or permission of the instructor.
Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 2020 Composition I
Finding personal movement and transforming it into dance. Through a series of class projects the formal elements of composition are introduced. Prerequisites: Dance 201 or permission of the instructor. Concurrent registration in a technique class required.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DANCE 2021 Composition and Technique
Introduction to dance composition supported by two modern or ballet technique classes each week at the level appropriate to the individual student. Work on composition assignments outside of class will be expected. Prerequisite: Dance 201E or permission of instructor.
Credit 4 units. A&S IQ: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DANCE 2030 Improvisation I
This course will explore the process and art form of creative, expressive, spontaneous dancemaking. Students learn to simultaneously move and respond in the moment, developing skills of communication, observation, performance, and composition in the language of movement. Open to dancers of all levels. Light reading; in class and out of class projects.
Credit 1 unit. Art: HUM
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DANCE 2040 Beginning-Intermediate Hip Hop: Culture and Movement
What is Hip Hop? Is it simply dance and music? Is it something more? This course will be an introduction to Hip Hop dance and its impact on society. Students will explore various foundations of Hip Hop movement through warmup, footwork, body isolations, groove patterns and textures, across-the-floor exercises, choreographic studies, and classroom discussions. Students will then demonstrate their understanding of these foundations through supplemental readings, viewings, and written response papers, students will also gain greater depth and breadth of knowledge about the history and culture of the form.
Credit 2 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall
DANCE 2050 Afro-Modern Dance (Dunham Technique)
This course introduces students to Katherine Dunham's dance technique, which combines ballet, modern, and Afro-Caribbean dance. Dunham Technique is one of the most important foundations for jazz dance and also shares characteristics with West African Dance and several modern dance techniques. Some lectures and occasional short readings will supplement this studio-based course so that students can learn more about Katherine Dunham (1909-2006), one of the great pioneers of dance in America. The class is open to all levels, although at least one semester of previous dance experience is required. Repeatable one time for credit in subsequent semester.
Credit 2 units.
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 2060 Fundamentals of Jazz Dance
This course introduces the basic principles and vocabulary of traditional jazz dance as influenced by American social dances and its relationship to the rise in popularity of jazz music. Both are unique to America and are rooted in African-American and European-American culture.
Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DANCE 2210 Fundamentals of Classical Ballet
Designed for dancers with no previous training or knowledge of the development of ballet in America, a systematic introduction to the ballet technique, including traditional terminology, and introductory readings on American Ballet Theatre as a repository for classical and modern ballet repertoire of both American and European choreographers. Attention to basic anatomical concerns and body alignment as well as to the classical movement vocabulary. Prerequisite: none.
Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DANCE 2211 Fundamentals of Classical Ballet
Designed for dancers with no previous training or knowledge of the development of ballet in America, a systematic introduction to the ballet technique, including traditional terminology, and introductory readings on New York City Ballet as a repository for the choreography of George Balanchine. Attention to basic anatomical concerns and body alignment as well as to the classical movement vocabulary.
Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 2900 Directed Research in Dance
Introduces first-years and sophomores to research by engaging them in ongoing faculty research projects within the department. Under the direction of a faculty mentor, students take part in tasks that contribute to the mentor's research. Through this hands-on experience, students learn about the research process and build foundational research skills that can benefit their future academic experience and development. Faculty mentors provide regular guidance, training, and feedback to support students' understanding and growth. Students are registered by the department after approval from the faculty member leading the research project. The course may be taken for 1-3 credit hours based on the weekly hours required. Credit/No Credit only
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 2901 Dance Theater Production
Experience in technical production. Required stage work includes 2 studio dance productions supervised by faculty. Prerequisite: Dance 212E.
Credit 1 unit. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DANCE 2910 Internship
Students may receive up to 3 units of credit for an approved internship with an organization where the primary objective is to obtain professional experience outside the classroom. Students must file a Learning Agreement with the Career Center, a faculty sponsor and the site supervisor. This must be approved by all three constituencies before proceeding. A final written project is to be agreed upon between the student and faculty sponsor before work begins, and will be evaluated by the faculty sponsor at the end of the internship.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DANCE 2996 Dance Elective: 200-Level
This course is used fir transcribing 2000-level DANCE elective units
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
DANCE 3009 Composition and Technique II
Continuing work in dance composition supported by two technique classes each week at the level appropriate to the individual student. Work on composition assignments outside of class is expected. Prereq: Dance 201, Dance 203, or permission of instructor.
Credit 4 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 3010 Theory and Technique of Modern Dance III
Technique and related concepts for the intermediate-level student. Greater emphasis on the ability to accurately replicate or individually interpret choreographic material. Related reading and video assignments on contemporary dance developments and attendance at two to three performances required. Variable content; may be repeated for credit in a subsequent semester. Prerequisites: Dance 202 or recommendation of the student's previous WU instructor or permission of the course instructor.
Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DANCE 3011 Theory and Technique of Modern Dance III
Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 3020 Composition II
A workshop for students with experience in choreography. Study of approaches to dance composition with related improvisation problems. Work outside of studio hours expected. Prerequisites: Dance 203 and permission of the instructor; concurrent registration in a technique course required.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 3022 Theory and Technique of Modern Dance IV
Continuation of Dance 301. Variable content; may be repeated for credit in a subsequent semester. Prerequisites: Dance 301 or recommendation of the student's previous WU instructor or permission of the course instructor.
Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 3030 Dance Improvisation II
Continuation of Dance 213. Prerequisite: Dance 213 or permission of instructor. Concurrent registration in a dance technique course at the 300 level or higher is required. May be repeated once for credit.
Credit 1 unit. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DANCE 3032 Dance Improvisation: Spontaneous Composition & Performance Techniques
Dance improvisation is a cumulative, integrative practice, applying every skill the performer can bring to the spontaneous present in which creative process and performance is simultaneously one and the same. In this course, students learn and create processes for improvising dance/performance art, with an aim toward developing integrated skill in: dance technique, intuitive movement invention, partnered dancing, collaborative process, performance presence/expressivity, and compositional form. Applications include improvising compositions for theatrical stage, site-specific venues and for camera-based artistic mediums. Meets requirement for dance major. Prerequisite: students must be qualified at 300 level in any genre of dance technique, or obtain special permission of instructor. This course is optimal for students who have previously taken Dance Composition (L29 203/208/303/309), and/or Contact Improvisation (U31 212), though they are not prerequisites. May be repeated once for credit.
Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DANCE 3040 Dance Composition Projects
Choreography juried by dance faculty or supervised choreography on themes assigned by the instructor or formulated by the student and approved by the instructor. Prerequisite: minimum of 1 semester course work in composition or permission of the instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 3041 Accompaniment Techniques for Dance
A wide variety of percussion instruments and techniques are studied to determine what makes effective dance accompaniment. The course includes: examples and discussion of dance musics from western and non-western cultures; basic notation of rhythm and form; demonstrations of musical styles and discussion of social contexts. Students will have opportunities to assist in accompanying modern dance classes. Minimum of 2-3 hours a week of individual practice and/or listening to recordings expected.
Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 3042 Music Resources for Dance
Analysis of western (Europe, America) world (Africa, India, Indonesia) and global popular musics. Emphasis on rhythm/form, style/genre, instrumentation, and function/context. Basic music theory: notation, time signatures, subdivisions and polyrhythms. Major composers for dance (Lully, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Cage, etc.) Introduction to percussion techniques for dance accompaniment using hand drums, drumset and hand-held instruments. Introduction to basic studio techniques including microphones, recording and editing equipment, and the use of synthesizer and drum machines. Prerequisites: For dance students at the intermediate or advanced level.
Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 3060 Jazz Dance II
Intermediate to high intermediate work in jazz dance technique, including choreographic phrases emphasizing stylistic clarity and more complex rhythmic structure. Variable content; may be repeated once for credit in a subsequent semester. Preference given to students registering for the first time. Prerequisite: Dance 297 or permission of instructor.
Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 3070 Modern Dance and the African-American Legacy
This course examines the works of several African-American choreographers and their contributions to the field of modern dance in America. These works are considered modern dance classics and some depict important historical events. Through the medium of dance aided by discussions, video and class reading assignments, the choreographers' works are analyzed for form, content and social relevance. Studio work includes technique to support learning the repertory. Prerequisite: one to two years training in modern, jazz or ballet
Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SC Arch: HUM Art: CPSC, HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DANCE 3090 Histories of Theatrical and Concert Dance
This course is a survey of dance on the stage. It examines the interrelated histories of ballet, modern, jazz, hip hop, and musical theatre dance, and it discusses how these forms have converged in today's contemporary dance scene. It offers an overview of key artistic movements, both mainstream and avant-garde, while examining selected dances through a combination of formal analysis and a consideration of the social and political contexts that contributed to their meaning. Students will learn how to analyze dance using a variety of sources, such as visual art, photographs, film, and written texts. The classroom format will emphasize discussion. Throughout the course, we will interrogate the categories of theatrical dance and concert dance, seeing how the definitions have changed over time to include or exclude certain types of dancing.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DANCE 3120 West African Music and Dance in Context
A West African dance course specifically focused on the Ivorian dance traditions of the Baule, Bete Dan, Lobi, Makinke, and Senufo peoples. The course addresses the relationship between music and dance as well as their social and cultural significance. Study of myths, art, costumes and masks as they relate to various dances and music is also included. A studio course with related reading material.
Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: CPSC, HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 3130 Movement and Meaning: Dance in a Global Context
This course introduces students to various approaches to studying dance in a humanities context. We will explore how people create meaning through dance and how dance, in turn, influences social norms, political institutions, aesthetic ideals and cultural practices. As we compare dance forms across the globe, we will also examine issues of race, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity, analyzing how dance literally embodies identity. At the same time, we will discover how contemporary unequal power hierarchies bear on our designation of some dance forms as Western and others as world or ethnic. Tensions around assessment of authenticity/creativity, adaptation/appropriation, agency/resistance, and cultural hierarchies shift with social and political hegemony and with the individual's position as insider or outsider (a position that can shift depending on context). Throughout the semester, the usual process of the course will be discussion of assigned reading and viewing and analyzing together dance videos shown in class. A few dance workshops will be included (for which no previous dance training is necessary). Required work includes short papers and a final project.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: CPSC, HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DANCE 3170 The Neuroscience of Movement: You Think, So You Can Dance?
Although humans have expressed themselves through movement throughout time, only recently have neurophysiological investigative techniques allowed us to glimpse the complex neural processes that allow the coordination and integration of thought, action, and perception. This course introduces students to the nascent yet growing field of dance neuroscience. In part one of this course, we explore fundamental concepts of motor control, including how our central nervous system integrates information to allow us to maintain posture and balance, to coordinate our limbs to external rhythms, and to move our bodies gracefully and expressively through space and time. In part two, we explore theoretical frameworks of motor learning as they pertain to movement. We delve into the neuromechanisms underlying common tools that dancers and athletes use to improve motor performance and how dance training induces neuroplasticity in brain structure and function. In part three, we explore the neural underpinnings of aesthetic appreciation while watching dance, including the action observation network and affective responses to art. Required work includes short assignments, a final project and presentation on a topic of your choice related to the course focus, and a few movement workshops (for which dance training is not required). Prerequisite: introductory course in dance, biology, or neuroscience, or permission from the instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Art: NSM BU: SCI
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 3220 Intermediate Pointe Technique
This course is designed for dancers with a basic foundation and understanding of pointe technique. The focus of the course is the strengthening of the overall presentation of the pointe technique while additionally developing the performance quality of the dancer. Variable content: may be repeated for credit in a subsequent semester. Co-requisite registration in Dance 3221, 416 or 4291, and permission of the instructor.
Credit 1 unit. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DANCE 3222 Rethinking Ballet in the 21st Century: Decolonizing Narratives and Embracing Diversity
This course embarks on a transformative exploration into the heart of ballet, reimagining its narratives for the 21st century. This course challenges the traditional fabric of ballet, examining and dismantling elements steeped in the racial and gendered logics of 17th-19th century Western Europe. Grounded in the principles of inclusivity, the course encourages students to be architects of change, reshaping ballet stories to reflect the rich tapestry of voices that define our global and contemporary world. In a dance landscape evolving towards equality, we delve into the significance of new voices in ballet and the crucial role representation plays. The course serves as a call to action, inspiring students to rethink, redefine, and reconstruct ballet narratives. Through theoretical discourse, practical application, and dynamic discussions, participants engage in a powerful journey to decolonize ballet and champion diversity, equality, and the vital importance of representation. This course is centered on seminar-style discussions based upon assigned readings and viewings. Movement workshops will be held every two to three weeks to test ideas through embodied investigation.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DANCE 3230 Ballet as Ethnic Dance and Classical Art
This course examines the origins and major developments in ballet theory, technique, and production practice, emphasizing their relationship to concepts of ethnicity and classicism. Issues to be considered include: the influence of classic Greco-Roman theatre on the themes, aesthetic ideals, and theorization of ballet; analysis of ethnic content not only in thematic material but in ballet movement vocabulary and training process; the conscious reformulation in the U.S. of European ballet as an equally American art form; the expansion of Euroamerican classical ballet in the work of Balanchine and Tudor; the appropriation of ballet by non-Western countries (such as China and Japan) and its impact on native dance genres; typical construction of the ballet dancer's body and movement, including gender definition, in relationship to a specific ethnic community context. Seminar format with lectures, discussion, and video materials. Three 5-7 page papers and final. No prerequisites.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, WI BU: HUM
Typical periods offered: Fall
DANCE 3270 Experiential Anatomy and Kinesiology
This combined lecture and movement laboratory course explores anatomical, physiological, and kinesiological aspects of human movement. We will cover skeletal and muscular anatomy, muscle physiology, skeletal alignment, and biomechanical force production. Principles of postural control, body conditioning, and injury prevention will be learned through interactive exercises and will be applied to dance and other forms of exercise. Students will leave with an enhanced understanding of movement efficiency and the ability to adjust movement patterns for better health and performance throughout their lives.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 3310 Classical Ballet: Intermediate I
A course designed for those with a solid foundation in the fundamentals of ballet technique. Related reading and video assignments; attendance at 1-2 ballet performances. Variable content; may be repeated in a subsequent semester. Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor and B+ or better in Dance 221 and 222.
Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DANCE 3311 Classical Ballet: Intermediate II
Special emphasis on the development of adagio, allegro, and turn sequences. Variable content; may be repeated in a subsequent semester. Prerequsite: Permission of instructor and B+ or better in Dance 221 and 222.
Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 3996 Dance Elective: 300-Level
This course is used for transcribing 3000-level DANCE elective units.
Credit 3 units. EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
DANCE 4010 Theory and Technique of Modern Dance V
The course emphasis is on versatility in movement vocabulary and on more complex and intensive technical work with discussion of theory inherent in the studio work, related readings, and projects. Variable content: may be repeated for credit in a subsequent semester. Prerequisite: Dance 302 with recommendation of the student's previous 302 instructor or permission of the 401 instructors.
Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DANCE 4011 Theory and Techniques of Modern Dance IV
Emphasis on more complex and intensive technical work. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall
DANCE 4022 Theory and Technique of Modern Dance VI
This course is a continuation of Dance 401 with emphasis on more complex and intensive technical work. Variable content; may be repeated for credit in a subsequent semester. Prerequisite: Dance 401 with recommendation of the student's previous 401 instructor or permission of the 4021 instructors.
Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 4032 Introduction to Screendance Composition and Performance
Introductory studio workshop in screendance composition and digital performance. For students with experience in choreography or improvisation, Screendance Composition explores the intersection of dance and digital media. Students will learn basic camera and videography skills to create screendance projects and learn about this emerging dance genre that combines the artistry of dance with the visual art capabilities that cameras offer. Methods for improvisation and site-specific performance will also be explored. Group critiques by faculty and students contribute analysis and facilitate dialogue regarding both process and artwork. Prerequisites L29 203, or L29 3110 or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DANCE 4040 Intermediate/Advanced Hip Hop
Over the past fifty years, Hip Hop has transformed not only the professional dance landscape, but also global popular culture. This movement-based studio course expands upon the fundamentals of Hip Hop dance to develop more intermediate and advanced-level technique. Students will develop an understanding of hip hop movement aesthetics and approaches through warmup, across-the-floor exercises, phrase work, choreographic studies, and class discussions. Through supplemental readings, viewings, and written response papers, students will also gain greater depth and breadth of knowledge about the history and culture of the form. Prerequisites: Beginner-Intermediate Hip Hop or equivalent prior experience, with permission from the instructor.
Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 4042 Topics in Dance Techniques
Explores a variety of special interest topics in dance techniques. Consult the course listings for the semester topic.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DANCE 4060 Jazz III
Jazz III is primarily a studio course based on traditional jazz with strong elements of ballet technique, hip hop, Broadway, and street jazz. The main focus of the class will be on increased technical proficiency and development as an expressive performer. The studio work will introduce exercises and movement phrases that challenge the dancer's skill level, and encourage a personal exploration that further enhances the dancer's individual expression and style. Studio work will be supported by individual research on the field of jazz dance. Variable content: may be repeated once for credit. Prereq: High-Intermediate training in jazz dance technique and permission of the instructor.
Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DANCE 4062 Variations in the Ballet
Introduces classical choreography within various ballets. Prerequisites: Dance 321 or 4281 with some pointe training, and permission of instructor.
Credit 1 unit. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DANCE 4070 Modern Dance and the African American Legacy II
This course will focus on works by 2-3 renowned African-American choreographers. The selected choreographers are chosen for their contributions to the field of American modern dance based primarily on their explorations regarding the process and dynamics of building community--the sense of community as experienced through the lens of African-American cultural values and aesthetics and as it pertains to the creative process. Therefore, the course focuses on viewing the body as a site for the exchange of ideas concerning humanity. Students will investigate these choreographers through learning excerpts of their choreography and choreographing personal responses, as well as through related readings, videos, and independent research.
Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SC Arch: HUM Art: CPSC, HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 4100 Pointe Technique
Designed for dancers with a basic foundation in pointe work. Variable content; may be repeated for credit in a subsequent semester. Prerequisite: concurrent registration in Dance 321 or 4281 and B+ or better in 221, 222, 321, 322 and/or permission of instructor.
Credit 1 unit. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM
Typical periods offered: Fall
DANCE 4110 Performing the Political in American Dance
This course is an exploration of the politics of performance and the performance of politics through the lens of American dance in the 20th and 21st centuries. Through readings, screenings, and discussions, we will examine the ways in which American dance developed against and alongside political movements in the United States, particularly ones concerning nationalism, race, gender, and human rights. We will also investigate how the lens of dance and choreography offers an expansive means to conceptualize political questions of citizenship and social protest, broadening our understanding of embodied performance. Guided by several key philosophical texts, this course will focus on the concepts necessary for examining the convergence of performance and politics (e.g., representation, ritual, spectacle, body, mimesis, propaganda) while also paying special attention to the politics of funding and censorship that has governed the creation and presentation of dance in the United States. No dance experience is necessary.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC, WI Arch: HUM Art: CPSC, HUM BU: BA, HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DANCE 4120 Classical Ballet III
Designed for dancers with a solid foundation in beginning and intermediate ballet technique. Related reading, research paper/discussion, video assignments; attendance at 1-2 ballet performnces. Variable content; may be repeated for credit in a subsequent semester. Prerequisite: permission of instructor and B+ or better in Dance 3221 and 415 or 416.
Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DANCE 4121 Classical Ballet IV
A course designed for dancers with a solid foundation in beginning and intermediate ballet technique. Variable content; may be repeated for credit in a subsequent semester. Prerequisite: permission of instructor, and B+ or better in 3221 and 415 or 416.
Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 4130 Dance Pedagogy
In this course students will learn methods of instruction, assessment and how to develop dance curriculum for K-12. Students will design classes based on national standards, grade level expectations and sound dance principles. In the studio they will teach each other sample lessons that they have developed. This class will cover dance competencies required by DESE for beginning teachers of dance. We will pay attention to current trends in arts education. Our discussion will include the diversity of student populations and how to prepare and respond. We will discuss the role of the arts in education and the dance teacher's role as classroom instructor, arts integration instructor, diplomat and arts advocate. Credit may be applied toward the education major and potentially toward state certification. Prerequisite: minimum of two semesters of upper level coursework in dance technique. Prerequisite: minimum of two semesters of upper level coursework in dance technique.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 4140 Performing Gender and Sexuality in America
This course examines how the performance of gender and sexuality has shaped the social, cultural, and political history of the United States from the early nineteenth century to the present. While performance happens in everyday life, we will primarily focus on how the stage has been a potent space to debate issues about gender and sexuality. This course will put forth the argument that the stage has historically not only reflected broader social concerns, but also actively helped to shape those social dynamics. After an introduction to foundational ideas, we will start the semester with minstrelsy, signaling that the performance of gender and sexuality in America is deeply intertwined with race, class, and national belonging. Reading and viewing assignments bring together feminist theory, queer theory, American social history, and performance texts to build robust seminar discussions.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SC Arch: HUM Art: CPSC, HUM BU: BA, HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 4150 Presence in Performance: Alexander Technique and Mindful Movement for Performing Artists
This course provides group and individual instruction in principles and methods from Alexander Technique and other somatic arts for training mindful, embodied presence in performance. Mindful movement techniques are widely used by professional dancers, actors, and musicians to enhance performance skill and to address/prevent injury and chronic pain. Through a workshop process of guided learning, students gain awareness of subtle inefficiencies in coordination and balance that cause pain and limit ability. Students gain ability to self-assess and adjust problematic movement patterns to improve freedom and expression. Alexander Technique works at fundamental levels of movement coordination, and its methods are applicable to all performing art genres. Training is tailored to each individual student's needs, skills and goals. This course involves experiential learning supported with related readings, discussion, personal research projects and presentations. Prerequisites: Graduate standing; also open to undergraduate students studying at the 400 level in their discipline with permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 4240 Pointe Technique
Designed for dancers with a basic foundation in pointe work. Concurrent registration in Dance 322 or 4291 and permission of instructor. Repeatable one time for credit in subsequent semester.
Credit 1 unit. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 4300 Contemporary Ballet
For intermediate and advanced dancers, this course presents a dynamic fusion of classical ballet technique and the expressive, innovative elements of contemporary dance. We will build upon the foundational ballet principles rooted in an art form dating back to the seventeenth century, during the reign of Louis XIV in France. While ballet traditionally prides itself on classicism, the past forty years have seen the emergence of the genre known as contemporary ballet. This genre pushes the classical ballet vocabulary into new thematic and aesthetic territories, placing emphasis on abstraction, complex rhythms, and movement invention. Many of today's leading dance companies focus is on contemporary ballet, making this course a valuable preparation for entering the evolving world of dance. The course places a strong emphasis on practical, embodied work in the studio to foster the development of technical skills, musicality, and artistry.
Credit 2 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall
DANCE 4310 High Intermediate Ballet I
A course designed as preparation for the advanced level. Emphasis on vocabulary review and individual technique assessment, including placement, movement quality and musicality. Related readings and video assignments; attendance at and critical analysis of 1-2 ballet performances. Variable content; may be repeated in a subsequent semester. Prerequisite: B+ or better in 221, 222, 321, 322 and/or permission of instructor.
Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DANCE 4311 High Intermediate Ballet II
A course designed for the high intermediate dancer in preparation for 4281/429. Emphasis on placement, movement quality and musicality. Related readings and projects supplement the classical vocabulary. Prereq: B+ or better in 221, 222, 321, 322 and/or permission of instructor.
Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 4446 The Japanese Theater
An investigation, using English materials, of the major developments and forms of the Japanese theater, from Noh and its antecedents to the rise of a modern drama. In this course we are less concerned with the performative aspects of theatrical arts (though these will be introduced via videos) than with the ways in which dramatic texts influenced and borrowed from the literary tradition. Readings from major theatrical texts, secondary studies on Japanese theater, and literary sources. Prerequisite: junior standing or permission of instructor.
DANCE 4500 The Line of Least Resistance: Embodying Postmodern Dance
This studio course explores concepts of Postmodern dance from the 1960s up to the present day. Course readings and viewings will be explored through a physical, embodied approach. To accompany our viewings, we will learn seminal works by Postmodern choreographers (for instance, Set Reset by Trisha Brown), explore improvisational methodologies, and develop our own choreographic projects in our own voices. Historical and theoretical readings will include topics such as Judson Dance Theatre, African-American dance, European Tanztheater, and beyond. Course concepts will be presented mostly chronologically and be explored through varied lenses including historical and cultural context, artistic and social upheavals, cultural hybridity, and performance and aesthetic theory. Prerequisites: Modern technique III or higher, or permission of instructor. Students interested in taking this course should sign up for waitlist. Enrollment will be determined by instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 4900 Dance Production Projects
Students may receive credit for work on special dance related production projects conceived by students and supervised by faculty. Contracts must be signed by the student, faculty supervisor, and the coordinator of Dance 400 before work on the project commences. Students should register for this course after work is completed. Prerequisite: permission of the dance faculty. Credit to be determined in each case.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DANCE 4910 Dance Repertory
Concert dance performance practicum. Under the direction of faculty, guest or graduate student choreogaphers, students rehearse and prepare for performance in a repertory dance concert or the MFA thesis production. Enrollment by audition. Prerequisite: Permission of the faculty director of an appropriate production. Concurrent registration in a technique class is required. May be repeated once for credit.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DANCE 4911 Dance Repertory
Concert dance performance practicum. Under the direction of faculty, guest or graduate student choreogaphers, students rehearse and prepare for performance in a repertory dance concert or the MFA thesis production. Enrollment by audition. Prerequisite: Permission of the faculty director of an appropriate production. Concurrent registration in a technique class is required. May be repeated once for credit.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 4920 Senior Project
Specialized project in a selected area in dance. The student will work individually under the supervision of a faculty member. Submission of student proposal prior to registration. Final self-evaluation essay required. Prerequisite: permission of the Coordinator of the Dance Division.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DANCE 4921 Composition III
The exploration of choreographic problems for small and large ensembles. Prerequisite: senior standing or permission of instructor. Previous or concurrent registration in Dance 401 or 4021 recommended.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 4922 Composition IV
The exploration of choreographic problems in small and large ensembles. Prerequisite: completion of Dance 303, senior standing or permission of instructor. Previous or concurrent registration in Dance 401 or 4021 recommended.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Spring
DANCE 4930 Study for Honors
An honors thesis or performance and thesis project designed by the student, and supervised and assessed by a faculty committee. Prerequisites: senior standing, grade point of 3.65, and 3.65 in dance classes, and permission of the coordinator of the dance division.
Credit 6 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DANCE 4940 Independent Work
Prerequisite: senior standing and permission of the director of undergraduate dance studies.
Credit 10 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DANCE 4996 Dance Elective: 400-Level
This course is used for transcribing 4000-level DANCE electives units.
Credit 3 units. EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
Drama
DRAMA 1101 First-Year Seminar: What is Art?
Great works of literature, theatre, film, painting, music and dance provide us with new, intriguing-and often surprising!-ways of understanding reality. In this Freshman Seminar, we examine a variety of works in various media, paying close attention to works which have significantly altered or challenged the way we view and interpret reality. In an intimate, seminar setting, we analyze and discuss individual works of art from the Greeks to the present day. The course incorporates attendance at live performances (both on-campus and off), along with Master Classes by artists from the Performing Arts Department. Examining works both classical and the avant-garde, What is Art? forces us to understand and question how art complicates, enriches, disturbs and asks questions-both about ourselves and our world.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: AH, HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 1102 First-Year Seminar: Race and Performance
What does it mean to act Black? What about acting Jewish? This course looks at performances of racial and ethnic identity, mostly in the United States and mostly in the 20th century. We will examine novels (e.g., Nella Larsen's Passing), plays (e.g., Anna Deavere Smith's Fires in the Mirror), and performances of everyday life (e.g., Cowboys and Indians) to investigate the performance of race in public. Once we begin to explore the social and cultural performance of race, will it all turn out to be only an act?
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: BA, HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 1103 First Year Seminar Ideation: Idea Generation
Ideation exists at all phases of a creative process: brainstorming, idea generation, innovation, prototyping, development, and actualization. But Ideation is less like a line and more like a loop from observing to reflecting to making - and back again. It is a rarely-understood, but essential part of any creative or design process. Through collaboration and conversations with classmates, readings on the topic, and group exercises, Ideation is a course that will strive to define and de-mystify what we mean by 'creativity', help students identify their creative strengths and weaknesses, encourage artistic experimentation of new ideas, establish methods of design thinking and make it clear that collaboration amongst varied backgrounds and disciplines is the key to coming up with creative solutions for complex problems. Successful companies like IDEO led by visionaries in the form of Tim Brown and David Kelley have pioneered the notion of Design Thinking: 'Design thinking' is defined as the ability to combine empathy for the context of a problem, creativity in the generation of insights and solutions, and rationality to analyze and fit solutions to the context.This course will encourage students to explore their collaborative talents in new ways that they will find apply to virtually any discipline and career path: from A to Z.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DRAMA 1104 Topics in Drama: FYS: Shakespeare: The Godly and the Grotesque
While Shakespeare is celebrated for his realistic depictions of characters, events, and emotions, his work is filled with other-worldly elements, including sorcery, oracles, myths, and grotesque creatures. This course will explore Shakespeare's use of the fantastic, the unnatural, and the monstrous. Reading a wide selection of comedy, tragedy, and history, we will consider Shakespeare's often contradictory attitude to the supernatural: on one hand, a source of evil, villainy, and perversion, and, on the other, a symbol of the divine and a means of surpassing the humanly possible. We will look at how Shakespeare used monstrous imagery to reflect upon his own work and the nature of theatre itself, paying special attention to how the performance practices of his time impacted his portrayal of the fantastic. At the same time, we will supplement our readings by watching more contemporary performances of Shakespeare's works in order to consider the impact that innovations in theatrical technologies and practices has had on the depiction of the supernatural in these plays. Finally, we will consider how Shakespeare used the unnatural to probe the gender, politics, race, disability, and globalization of his own time and in so doing, we will discover how is work continues to impact our own engagement with these issues-and indeed, our conception of monstrosity itself. Plays and productions studied will include Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Julius Caesar, The Tempest, Richard III, The Winter's Tale, and Othello. Students with no prior knowledge of Shakespeare are welcome to enroll.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM
Typical periods offered: Fall
DRAMA 1191 Ampersand: Shakespeare's Globe: All the World's a Stage
Why-more than 400 years later-do we continue to read the works of William Shakespeare? Why do we continue to stage his plays, identify with his characters, and communicate our thoughts in his language? Why do his poems and plays retain their vibrancy and immediacy, even today? This course invites students to answer these questions by inhabiting Shakespeare's language from the inside and out-breathing in the words of his characters with creative and careful study, while moving out to fully engage the text in performance. Reading plays, watching films, listening to monologues, voicing dialogue, physically enacting fight scenes, and even navigating plots with joysticks, students will develop deep appreciation for the writer who is the original GOAT-the greatest of all time. In this two-semester course, we will read and study Shakespeare's plays in their historical context, learning about the original practices used in performance at both the Elizabethan and Jacobean court theatres as well as the public theatres on the South Bank of the Thames. We will also consider them as adaptable playscripts that have been rewritten over the past 400 years, reinterpreted at different times by different actors in different cultures the world over. Students will contribute to this performance repertoire with their own 21st-century interpretations, striding the stage of the reconstructed Globe Theatre in a capstone experience that concludes the course with a summer trip to London. If all the world's a stage, come be a player in it!
Credit 3 units. Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DRAMA 1192 Ampersand: Shakespeare's Globe: All the World's a Stage II
Why-more than 400 years later-do we continue to read the works of William Shakespeare? Why do we continue to stage his plays, identify with his characters, and communicate our thoughts in his language? Why do his poems and plays retain their vibrancy and immediacy, even today? This course invites students to answer these questions by inhabiting Shakespeare's language from the inside and out-breathing in the words of his characters with creative and careful study, while moving out to fully engage the text in performance. Reading plays, watching films, listening to monologues, voicing dialogue, physically enacting fight scenes, and even navigating plots with joysticks, students will develop deep appreciation for the writer who is the original GOAT-the greatest of all time. In this two-semester course, we will read and study Shakespeare's plays in their historical context, learning about the original practices used in performance at both the Elizabethan and Jacobean court theatres as well as the public theatres on the South Bank of the Thames. We will also consider them as adaptable playscripts that have been rewritten over the past 400 years, reinterpreted at different times by different actors in different cultures the world over. Students will contribute to this performance repertoire with their own 21st-century interpretations, striding the stage of the reconstructed Globe Theatre in a capstone experience that concludes the course with a summer trip to London. If all the world's a stage, come be a player in it!
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 1996 Drama Elective: 1000-Level
This course is used for transcribing 1000-level DRAMMA elective units
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
DRAMA 2051 The Art of Storytelling
As one of the oldest forms of human communication, storytelling is part of both mundane interactions and carefully crafted events. Many of us tell stories regularly in informal settings (e.g., when we tell a friend about an encounter we had in the cafeteria) as well as in professional settings (e.g., class or work presentations). But what, exactly, are the elements of a well-told story? How do we identify powerful storytellers? These questions ground this course, where we will explore stories as forms through which to present oneself and explain an event to others. We will study storytelling from two perspectives. First, we will look at stories through rhetorical analysis: we will focus on various examples of storytelling across different genres (ranging from cultural myths, fables, spoken word, speeches, hip-hop, R&B, and rock lyrics) to understand stories as an artistic practice, a teaching method, an identity shaper, and a conductor of history. Second, we will consider stories through embodied practice: we will perform and present stories in chosen genres to gain firsthand experience in the conventions and forms of the embodiments that complete the act of telling well-crafted stories. At the end of this course, students will have gained theoretical knowledge about storytelling as an art form as well as the practical skills needed to become confident storytellers.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: CPSC, HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DRAMA 2100 Introduction to Theater Production
An introductory study of the major elements involved with mounting a theatrical production. Utilizing guest speakers in both theater arts and theater studies, the course addresses such topics as scenic, costume, lighting and sound design; production management and procedures; and the history and culture of theatrical space and design. Students are required to serve as a crew member on one departmental production and attend productions of the Edison Theatre Ovations series and the Performing Arts Department.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 2101 Introduction to Costume Construction
This course is a hands-on introduction to the sewing and costume-related skills most useful for creating costumes for theatre productions.
Credit 3 units. Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 2102 Portfolio Review
This course is intended to be a one hour credit to meet every Friday for two contact hours. While the main focus of this course will be to dedicate time to learning and preparing a solid professional portfolio, resume and web page, this class will also train the students how to interact and conduct themselves through the interview process. We will review numerous resumes from industry professionals, develop our own, develop both physical and digital portfolios consisting of students' academic and professional work, and culminate in building a strong and evocative web page. Upon completion, the student will have a solid understanding of the theater job market and be ready to face the world.
Credit 1 unit. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 2200 Fundamentals of Acting
This course offers an opportunity to investigate the nature of the theater by way of performance. Students study a variety of theatrical texts in the most direct and experiential way: by acting in them. The course is designed for those who want to understand the interpretive work of the actor. Students are introduced to the practical work of building a character for the stage, and they also gain an understanding of how dramatic texts work both on the page and on the stage. Textual analysis, movement work and vocal production skills are developed using monologues, scene work and exercises. These skills should also provide significant benefits outside of the confines of the class itself, in the professional and personal lives of the students taking this course. No previous training or experience necessary.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 2201 Public Speaking: Embodied Communication
The ability to speak well and to communicate effectively in the public forum is an essential skill for all students. This course aims to offer a comprehensive and wide ranging approach to developing the skills of the contemporary speaker. While acknowledging and utilizing traditional approaches to public speaking, this course will expand its reach to include applicable techniques from the world of the Performing Arts -- especially theatre and dance. The course does not intend to train the student as a dancer or actor, but it maintains that the successful speaker would do well to harness some of the transferable skill sets from these disciplines. The speaker, like the performer, must stand before an audience with an objective to communicate something well. Both should be dedicated advocates for the message. They share the common ground of requiring a strong voice for a sure delivery of the material, and an expressive physicality willing to fully embody and serve the message.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
DRAMA 2202 Improvisation
This course introduces students to the fundamentals of improvisation. Students are provided with the tools and techniques to develop their artistic voice, both individually and within an ensemble, through various theater games, exercises, and techniques. Students will build self confidence, develop creativity, hone presentation skills, and learn collaborative practices for working with others. Students will understand the applied benefits of improvisation toward their professional and personal lives.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Summer
DRAMA 2203 Black Theater Workshop
The Black Theater Workshop is a performance-oriented course with an emphasis on literature by African American playwrights and writers. The course work consists of seeing productions, reading plays, developing monologues and scene work, and doing short performances. Students will also explore the black experience through acting, directing, and playwriting, all to culminate in a final performance that is required and in lieu of a final exam.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SC BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 2204 The American Musical Theater Songbook
From its birth in vaudeville and musical reviews to current future classics such as Hamilton, American musical theater has produced a voluminous catalogue of material referred to herein as the American Musical Theater Songbook. Part survey and part performance, this course will focus on the composers, lyricists, performers and subject matter that have been instrumental in defining musical theater and its role in describing a continually evolving human psychology and sociology. The performance aspect of the course will develop students' existing vocal skills and knowledge of style. As both singing and non-singing students are welcome to participate in the course, adjustments for non-singing students will be accommodated so that they may participate fully in the class. The format of the course will be a seminar of student-generated presentations, discussions, and workshop performances. A sampling of shows from which repertoire will be sourced includes the following: early song-and-dance shows (Girl Crazy, Anything Goes, Kiss Me Kate); Rodgers and Hammerstein (Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific); Stephen Sondheim (Gypsy, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park With George); modern era (West Side Story, A Chorus Line, Cabaret, Hair, Pippin); and contemporary (In the Heights, Caroline, or Change, Kinky Boots, Dear Evan Hansen, Hamilton). This course serves as a prerequisite for L15 372.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DRAMA 2300 Theater Culture Studies I: Antiquity to Renaissance
This course is a survey of ancient, medieval and Renaissance theater and performance: in both the West and in the East, as it both reflects and shapes culture. Coverage will include the following areas: ancient Greece, ancient Rome, classical Sanskrit theater, Yuan China, medieval Japan, medieval Europe, Renaissance Italy, and Renaissance England. Both scripted theater and performance practices will be examined through the lenses of dramatic literature, theater history, performance studies, and dramatic theory. A continual emphasis will be on marginal and underrepresented figures, as we will attempt to excavate forgotten histories from the theatrical past.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 2301 Theater Culture Studies II: From Renaissance to Romanticism
This course provides a survey of theater history from the early seventeenth through mid-nineteenth centuries, covering plays, theories of drama and acting, and the material conditions of theatre production. We will explore events in Asia, the Americas and Europe with particular attention to the Baroque era, Sentimentalism, and Romanticism. The central objectives of the course are 1) to teach students to analyze plays in complex and creative ways, and 2) to cultivate understanding of the ways theater and performance practices reflect the philosophical ideas, aesthetic values, and socio-political realities of their historical context--even as these practices sustained and challenged such ideas, values, and realities.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: CPSC, HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 2302 Contemporary Comedy: Stand-Up, Sketch and Improv
The U.S. is in the midst of a second comedy boom. The first boom, during the 1980s, turned stand-up comedy into a major force in American entertainment, creating stars like Jerry Seinfeld, Eddie Murphy, and Ellen DeGeneres. The second, defined in part by new social media, podcasting, and on-line video, is remaking the way comedians find their voices and their audiences. But even as young comedians chart new paths through a dynamic media landscape, live performance is still the heart of the modern comedy universe. This class is a detailed survey of the contemporary American comedy scene. Pioneering artists from Vaudeville through the 1970s are introduced, the stand-up boom of the 1980s is presented as a formative force in the comedy business, alt-comedy is discussed as a stylistic watershed. Select modern theories of comedy are read and discussed (though we studiously avoid explaining jokes). Short units on Improv and Sketch comedy round out the syllabus. Assignments include practical exercises in performing comedy onstage, and students can choose to perform a short original stand-up set for their final assignment.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 2303 First-Year Seminar: Shakespeare: The Godly and Grotesque
While Shakespeare is celebrated for his realistic depictions of characters, events, and emotions, his work is filled with other-worldly elements, including sorcery, oracles, myths, and grotesque creatures. This course will explore Shakespeare's use of the fantastic, the unnatural, and the monstrous. Reading a wide selection of comedy, tragedy, and history, we will consider Shakespeare's often contradictory attitude to the supernatural: on one hand, a source of evil, villainy, and perversion, and, on the other, a symbol of the divine and a means of surpassing the humanly possible. We will look at how Shakespeare used monstrous imagery to reflect upon his own work and the nature of theatre itself, paying special attention to how the performance practices of his time impacted his portrayal of the fantastic. At the same time, we will supplement our readings by watching more contemporary performances of Shakespeare's works in order to consider the impact that innovations in theatrical technologies and practices has had on the depiction of the supernatural in these plays. Finally, we will consider how Shakespeare used the unnatural to probe the gender, politics, race, disability, and globalization of his own time and in so doing, we will discover how is work continues to impact our own engagement with these issues-and indeed, our conception of monstrosity itself. Plays and productions studied will include Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Julius Caesar, The Tempest, Richard III, The Winter's Tale, and Othello. Students with no prior knowledge of Shakespeare are welcome to enroll.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 2305 Shakespeare: Page to Stage to Screen and Everything in Between
Over 400 years after his death, Shakespeare's plays continue to rank among the most widely read and performed works in the English language. It is perhaps for this reason that Shakespeare's work has continued to shape subsequent theatrical and film productions. This course will examine the recent adaptations of Shakespeare's work that have originated on the Broadway stage and in Hollywood movie studios. We will look at the many alterations that were made to Shakespeare's original plays from shifted settings to changes to the characters' ages and vocations to the addition of music to modernized dialogue. We will consider how these modern adaptations link the early modern period with our own by examining how these theatrical and film productions build upon the plays' engagements with love and family as well as the social issues of race, gender, and social class. We will also draw a connection between these adaptations and Shakespeare's own creative practice of crafting his plays by revising earlier source materials. Most importantly, we think about how these adaptations simultaneously make Shakespeare's plays more accessible and current for a contemporary audience while also serving to certify the timelessness of these stories.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 2402 Acting I: Fundamentals of Acting
This course offers an opportunity to investigate the nature of the theater by way of performance. Students study a variety of theatrical texts in the most direct and experiential way, by acting in them. The course is designed for those who want to understand the interpretive work of the actor. Students are introduced to the practical work of building a character for the stage, and they also gain an understanding of how dramatic texts work both on the page and on the stage. Textual analysis, movement work, and vocal production skills are developed using monologues, scene work and exercises. These skills should also provide significant benefits outside the confines of the class itself, in the professional and personal lives of the students taking this class.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 2900 Theater Projects
Independent study. Students may contract with a faculty supervisor for credit for their work on theatrical productions or research. Contracts must be signed by the student, the faculty supervisor, and the coordinator of Drama 200 before the student's work on the project commences. Credit and grade option to be determined in each case.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 2910 Acting
Independent study.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 2920 Directing
Independent study.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall
DRAMA 2930 Technical Theater
Independent study.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 2940 Voice, Speech
Independent study.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 2950 Literature, Theory, Criticism
Independent study.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 2996 Drama Elective: 200-Level
This course is used for transcribing 2000-level DRAMA elective units
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
DRAMA 3018 Theater Space in Historical Practice
This course examines select theatre spaces from across the globe and from a long span of human history, from caves used in the upper paleolithic era to contemporary digitally-supported sensory experiences. We will treat theatre space as a socially generated phenomenon produced in many cultures that dynamically links performers and audiences. Theatre space will be used as a gathering concept through which many facets of performance culture can be examined, including architecture, scenography, script, and the physical features of embodied communication. Beyond this, theatre space also illuminates myriad aspects of the cultural practice of theatre, including social difference (especially gender and class), economic activity, and political representation. Distinct theories of historical space will be introduced and examples of historical theatre space will include Ancient Greece, Edo Japan, Neo-Classical France, Golden Age Spain, Classical India, and twentieth-century Environmental Scenography. The core of the reading for this course will be representative or exemplary playscripts that help open up interpretive approaches to historical theatre and performance space. This course fulfills the Studies in Historical Practice requirement for Drama majors and minors.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Art: VC BU: HUM
Typical periods offered: Fall
DRAMA 3019 Politics and Performance in Historical Practice
What is political theater? Is it a media stunt, designed to score points with supporters? Is it a form of protest of the status quo? Approached from another direction, we might ask: what theater is notpolitical? This course offers students to think about the role that performance (both on stage and in the streets) has played in the assertion of state power, the constitution of a body politic, the shoring up of consent, the expression of dissent, and as an embodied imagining of another world that might be possible. This course fulfills the Studies in Historical Practice requirement for Drama majors and minors.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 3020 Body Language: Acting, Rhetorical Gesture, and Dance in Historical Perspective
Why do actors in silent films seem to gesticulate so wildly? Who could have ever thought that was realistic? Would time-travelers from the future think actors in our day appear just as ridiculous? If you've ever thought that thought, then you've stumbled onto the fact that-despite its claims to represent the reality of its audience's experiences with the verisimilitude of the actor's body in the here and now-acting is a historical practice. Moreover, it is a culturally-variable practice, with claims to represent the real that are both symbolic and mimetic, and usually both at once. In this course, we will trace the history of acting in five thematic units: rhetorical gestures; representing the collective; festive formations; signs, codes, and animated hieroglyphs; and approaching the real. From the ancient Greeks to digital avatars, we will study how bodies in motion create meanings for their audiences in different cultures and across time. Through kinesthetic, emotional, psychological, and visceral appeals, actors not only represent their audiences as they think they are, but also offer to transform them into whom they think they could be. This course fulfills the historical practice requirement in the Drama major/minor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 3021 Social Identity and Dramatic Character in Historical Practice
This course examines the roles that dramatic characters play within the worlds of the play and performance culture they inhabit. In some cases, we can speak of metaphorical masks presented to the world; in others, the theater may use actual masks. We begin with classical antiquity, examining the differentiation of physical masks and characters in both tragedy and comedy (we will note that the word person comes from the Latin word persona, the word for mask in ancient Roman comedy). We then consider the complex system of types in classical Indian and later Kathakali dance-drama: types that each had specific emotions associated with them. Chinese musical theater of the fourteenth century, with strong ties to a rapidly growing urban environment, had its own distinct types. Following this unit we consider the masked characters of Italian Renaissance comedy (the commedia dell'arte) and its uncanny parallels to the nearby Karogöz, Turkish shadow puppet theater. We next move to the theater of Shakespeare, considering the boy actor and gender fluidity in Twelfth Night. Then we consider the realist playwright Ibsen, in view of the social roles performed by the play's characters. In Cloud Nine, Carol Churchill gives us insights into the performance of gender in modern life. A unit on modern and contemporary African drama examines the performance (or erasure) of political identity in crisis, as we read Athol Fugard's Sizwe Bansi is Dead and also the play Woza Albert! (Mtwa, Ngema, Simon). The course concludes with two African-American plays, August Wilson's Fences and Lynn Nottage's Sweat. This course fulfills the Studies in Historical Practice requirement for Drama majors and minors.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DRAMA 3022 Blood and Magic: Special Effects in Historical Practice
Should Sarah Kane's Cleansed have realistic or symbolic blood? Does The Tempest's Ariel have to fly? This course integrates textual analysis with production to consider depictions of violence and magic in performance across centuries. By examining contemporary and historical staging conventions as well as creating their own scenework, students will consider how violence and magic are cultural constructions and explore how on-stage depictions of these cultural constructions can impact interpretations of the source text. Students will read key plays from antiquity to today and write dramaturgical analyses across multiple assignments. Additionally, in a structure based on director Anne Bogart's legendary Collaboration course at Columbia University's School of the Arts, students will experiment with practice as a way of knowing, as they work in small companies to create, stage, and review short, critically engaged adaptations of each play, every two weeks. Students will also join a Special Interest Group (SIG) based on rotating course themes, which may include Adaptation, Immersivity, Interactivity/Participation, Stage Technology, and Historical Context. This course fulfills the Studies in Historical Practice requirement for Drama majors and minors.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 3100 Production Practicum
Practicum experience in technical theater. Positions such as stage manager, publicist, assistant designer for costumes, sceneryor lighting, or crew head of props, sound and makeup design are available.
Credit 2 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 3101 Digital Media for the Stage
Entertainment technology continues to evolve and push boundaries by taking our imagination and turning it into a version of reality. Digital Media will attempt to explore some of the tools used to bridge the two worlds of thought and sight. We will learn how to think creatively about imagery and how to paint that onto a stage through a different type of light: digital. Using QLab and Green Hippo -- two of the most widely used media control systems in the world -- we will learn how to deliver thought-provoking illusions of light and texture on the stage.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DRAMA 3102 Stage Management
A practical approach to the study of theater stage management focusing on organizational and communication skills. Workshops, lectures and discussion, guest speakers and field trips covering the pre-production, rehearsal and performance periods, labor relations/performing arts unioins, career opportunities and supporting the vision of the artistic team. Prerequisites: Drama 212E and Drama 240E.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 3103 Makeup for the Stage
A hands-on introduction to the makeup techniques most commonly used for theater productions, including basic corrective, age, changing the shape of the face, and special effects, as well as the designing process. Students will apply makeup to their own faces and are required to purchase the makeup kit specified by the instructor.
Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 3104 Costume Rendering and Design
Costume Rendering and Design is an introduction to the skills required for designing costumes for theater productions. Class topics will include duties and responsibilities of costume designers for theatre, elements and principles of design, research methods, drawing the human figure and clothing, various color media, text analysis and creating costume-related paperwork for plays, communicating character with costume renderings, and the time management required to complete designs in a deadline-based industry.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 3105 Stage Lighting
This course will place an emphasis in the aesthetic practice of lighting design through the understanding of technology as it relates to time and space. Early on the student will learn how to properly use and apply designer's tools and then through reading, research and experimentation explore the limitless boundaries of color and texture. This will culminate in a stage design in collaboration with directing or dance class. Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to speak eloquently on design theory and be able to move on to further design study in Advanced Lighting Design: L15 410.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 3106 Scenic Design
An introduction to the process of scenic design, as it relates to aesthetics, dramatic literature, collaboration and production. Projects involve design conceptualization, documentation, graphics and realization.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 3107 History of Western Costume
Of particular interest to fashion, history, anthropology, and performing arts majors, this course is an exploration into the clothing worn by predominantly Western cultures from Ancient Greece through the 1890s. Lectures incorporating images of extant garments, sculpture, art, and photographs will inspire discussion regarding the influences on fashion evolution and the cyclical nature of fashion. Assessment is by exam, the first of which is on the fourth class meeting, so this is not a recommended course to shop. Please note that this class is a prerequisite for History of Western Costume in the 20th Century, which is offered in spring semester.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM, VC BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 3108 History of Western Costume in the 20th Century
History of Western Costume in the 20th Century is a continuation of the themes explored in Drama 396 (History of Western Costume from Ancient Greece Through the 19th Century). Ideally, students will have already taken Drama 396 before enrolling in this course. This is a fast-moving, lecture-style course that examines objects of human apparel from 1900 through the present and analyzes the causes of fashion evolution throughout the 20th century. Students will explore the influence and aesthetics of major designers, and they will observe and discuss the ways in which contemporary interpretations of the past are modified to comply with contemporary modes and expectations. Assessment is through exams and evaluation of a presentation to the class.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM, VC BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 3200 Intermediate Acting: Scene and Character Study
This course expands and develops the work begun in Fundamentals of Acting. The focus is on developing systematic strategies for challenging theatrical texts. Emphasis will be placed on integrating the use of the voice and body as well as the development of character via actions in scene study projects. We will focus on investing fully in the imaginary/given circumstances of the plays we encounter. In addition, students will augment their study of character through audition preparation and monologue techniques. Research and analysis are featured, and students are asked to demonstrate their proficiency in written assignments. Prerequisite: Drama 240E/2401.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 3201 Voice-Speech Laboratory
Fundamentals of speech for the stage focusing on breath support, resonance, articulation, and speech as an expression of an individual's needs. The course includes an introduction to stage dialects. Preference given to majors.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 3202 Topics in Stage Movement
Exploration of a variety of theatrical and movement concepts with emphasis on process rather than product. Concentrates on developing the expressive flexibility of the body and linking the imaginative impulse with physical movement. Preliminary work in relaxation and efficient self-use. Prerequisite: Drama 240E, or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 3203 Advanced American Musical Theater
This course will focus on developing the acting, singing and dancing techniques required for performing in musical theater. The student will develop group pieces and will participate in scenes that explore character within a musical threater context. The class will culminate in a workshop performance. Prerequisite: Drama 221 and permission of instructor, by audition. Repeatable 1 time for credit.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 3204 Fundamentals of Directing
Directing is the most liberal arts of the creative theatre-making areas, drawing analytical, critical thinking, communication, design and actor coaching skills. This course will explore fundamental lessons in some of those areas, including text analysis from a directorial perspective, stage composition, auditions/casting, actor communication, time management and team leadership skills. Major course components will include one extensive script analysis paper and the direction of a scene from a contemporary play. The latter will require outside-of-class rehearsal time. Prerequisites: Drama 212E, Drama 240E/2401, junior or senior standing. Preference given to drama majors. For junior/senior status or grad students only.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DRAMA 3205 Acting for the Camera
This course offers an introduction to the world of on-camera acting, performance skills for media-based work, and industry-related career opportunities. Students will learn the techniques, skills and vocabulary required for actors when performing for the camera and pursuing a profession in front of the camera. The course is designed for students to practice and examine the craft of on-camera performance and, will examine the business of being a film, television, commercial or video actor. Exercises will be designed to gain relaxation and comfortability in front of the camera and will then extend to performance opportunities using commercial, industrial/corporate, television and feature film scripts. Students will also be given insight into the casting process and current industry standards for performers. Actors with live stage experience and training will focus on adapting their craft to the lens, building on the textual analysis, movement, voice and character work education provided by the Performing Arts Department's acting curriculum. Those students with no acting experience will be introduced to the fundamentals of acting in tandem with the pursuit of disciplined, truthful, believable work while in front of a live audience or a camera. All classes will take place in the Harvey Media Center to utilize a professional setting and equipment.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 3207 Shakespeare Globe Program: Acting
This Acting Shakespeare course is paired with Drama 3472 as part of a four-week summer intensive program held at the Shakespeare's Globe Education Centre in London. This course, as well as the companion Text and History course (Drama 3472), is taught by a Washington University faculty member, and the program also heavily draws on British theater professionals and educators from Globe Education, who teach a set of short courses on movement, voice, textual analysis, historical context, monologue performance, and stage combat. Frequent access to the Globe stage allows actors to work in a spatial configuration very similar to that once used by Shakespeare's company itself. The course culminates with performances of scenes and monologues on the Globe stage. Application process must initiate through the Performing Arts Department office.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Summer
DRAMA 3227 Devising, Adaptation, Docudrama
This course explores three ways of theatre-making that have revolutionized the contemporary stage: devising (a collaborative process emphasizing physical techniques to realize ideas), adaptation (the transposition of a narrative from one mode to another), and docudrama (the self-conscious staging of history through the assemblage of documentary records). Beginning with a focus on the current postdramatic theatre and the pre-histories of these contemporary practices, we will engage current scholarship on each form, learning the how and why from contemporary practitioners, while considering the rhetorical structure of each form in relation to the social meanings they generate for their audiences. Divided into 3 units, the course will combine the study of each method with hands-on practice, and will conclude with a showcase featuring an original performance created by the student collective. A theme (variable by semester) will unite the three sections of the course, helping students see how a single topic can be illuminated in different ways through these three methods of creating performance.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 3300 Theater Culture Studies III: Melodrama to Modernism
The third in the department's three-course history sequence, TCS III surveys the dramatic literature and cultural history of the modern theater. Beginning with Romanticism's self-conscious break with the past, we'll study the rise of bourgeois melodrama with its intensely emotional rendering of character and spectacular effects. We'll consider how those effects were made possible by advances in industrial stage technology which reproduced the everyday world with unprecedented verisimilitude, and how playwrights responded to those technologies by calling for the theatre to become either a total work of art--plunging its spectators into a mythical realm--or a petri dish--analyzing the struggles of the modern individual within his or her modern milieu. Exploring a range of aesthetic modes--including Realism, Naturalism, Symbolism, Expressionism, the Epic Theatre, and the Theatre of the Absurd--we will read classic plays by modern playwrights to consider how the modern theatre helped its audiences understand as well as adapt to the rapidly changing conditions of the modern world.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DRAMA 3304 Contemporary American Theater
This course is a focused investigation of the aesthetic, political, and urban landscapes of the contemporary American theatre. We will read published and unpublished plays, familiarize ourselves with the country's most important companies, festivals, and institutions, and discuss issues facing the American theatre now. We will explore the role of the arts in urban planning and development, and address the relationship between higher education and arts institutions, paying particular attention to ideas of community engagement and social justice work undertaken by both. Artists to be studied may include Tony Kushner, Suzan-Lori Parks, Caryl Churchill, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Lynn Nottage, Young Jean Lee, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. This course will include a mandatory class trip at the end of March to the Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville, Kentucky. Students will prepare for this trip by reading the works of featured playwrights and establishing a research project that will be carried out on-site. Findings from the research project will be presented upon the return to St. Louis. Admission to the course is by instructor permission only; an application form will be sent to all registered students at the conclusion of the registration period. In consultation with and with the permission of the instructor, this course may fulfill the Fieldwork requirement for American Culture Studies majors.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: CPSC, HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 3305 Immersive Story Studio
What possibilities and pitfalls do immersive practices create for live storytelling? How do the affordances of a digital tool amplify or suppress aspects of a source story? What new insights into familiar stories can we generate with radical adaptation? To engage these questions, this studio seminar blends humanistic scholarship with critical making, theatrical practice, and interdisciplinary, team-based agile development processes. Each two-week sprint engages a different immersive, theatricalized context, asking students to envision how the tools utilized therein might illuminate latent aspects of familiar stories. Topics include spatial computing/AR/VR/ XR, immersive theatre, theme parks, and cultural institutions/ museums. Additionally, this course utilizes critical making as an epistemology, wherein the site of knowledge creation is the process of devising an object, tool, performance, or installation in conversation with a discipline's critical apparatus. Accordingly, course-long projects will find students selecting and using immersive tools-digital, analog, or both-to radically adapt a familiar story, broadly construed. Importantly, while technological skills are welcome, they are not required. Students are encouraged to envision gloriously and scope effectively as they design a hypothetical or prototyped research project and complementary critical engagement. This course may be repeated for credit for students who wish to design and execute a more robust project.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 3306 Writing for and About the Theater
In this course, students will learn to write for and about the theater, exploring different forms of dramaturgical and scholarly research as well as journalistic and academic writing. To build skills in both critical analysis and synthesis, students will learn how the key elements of the playwright's text (e.g., language, character, plot, setting) work to create meaning within the work of dramatic literature and how theatre-makers use the various languages of the stage (e.g., costume/scenic/lighting design, music, acting) to give expression to an overarching interpretation of the play. Because research is essential to this course, students will learn how to access a variety of library resources by working closely with our subject librarians. By the end of the semester, students will have assembled a portfolio consisting of both journalistic and academic performance reviews, a dossier of dramaturgical research, and a research-based scholarly paper.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 3307 Shakespeare and Early Modern Performance
Paired with Drama 347, this course uses the resources of London and the Globe Theatre as departure points for a rich examination of Shakespearean performance in its historical and cultural context. We pay close attention to the dramatic text: meter, style, metaphorical language, dramatic composition, rhetoric, genre, etc. We consider such topics as Shakespeare's playing spaces, the actor-audience relationship in the Globe Theatre, acting, movement, original rehearsal practices, the boy actor, costumes, sound, music, props, and the culture of the Bankside (bear-baiting, taverns, violence, prostitution, etc.)
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 3308 Shakespeare and Early Modern Performance
Paired with Drama 347, Shakespeare Globe Program: Acting, this course uses the resources of London and the Globe Theatre as departure points for an examination of Shakespearean performance in its historical and cultural context. We pay close attention to the dramatic text: meter, style, metaphorical language, dramatic composition, rhetoric, genre, etc. We consider such topics as Shakespeare's playing spaces, the actor-audience relationship in the Globe Theatre, acting, movement, original rehearsal practices, the boy actor, costumes, sound, music, props, and the culture of the Bankside (bear-baiting, taverns, violence, prostitution, etc.)
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 3309 Performance and Culture
The field of Performance Studies looks carefully at the production and transmission of knowledge from a range of vantage points. This includes the written word, but it also pays special attention to embodied practice, to the built environment, and to digital spaces. In this course we will focus on performance as a form of cultural expression and as a site of cultural exchange across a variety of contexts-from staged productions to acts of everyday life. We will use performance theory to analyze sports events as ritual performances and as platforms for social change. We will think about how monuments perform, how they not only construct often contentious stories about the past but also create opportunities for dialogue. We will privilege the body as a site and method of performance to think in intersectional ways about race, gender, sexuality, citizenship, and religion. As an interdisciplinary and practice-oriented course, we will reflect critically and imaginatively on the work of anthropologists, scholars of race and ethnicity, visual artists, and performance theorists.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 3320 Topics in American Culture Studies:
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
DRAMA 3410 Acting II
Fundamental scene study using texts with emphasis on integration of voice and body and the playing of actions. Students are encouraged to precede this course with Drama 207C. Prerequisite: Drama 240E. Preference given to majors.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 3413 Acting III
Emphasis on characterization while working with a diversity of playwriting styles. Prerequisites: Drama 341, either Drama 207C or 208C, and permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DRAMA 3830 Puppetry: Design & Performance
Write, design, build, and perform Bunraku style inspired puppetry (three puppeteers on one puppet, performers are seen by the audience). This class covers a brief history of puppetry in culture. Main focus is to design and build characters based on stories and myths. Students will showcase the work with a devised end of semester performance, using the puppets built in the class.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
DRAMA 3870 In Living Color: Performing the Black '90s
From Cross Colours overalls to oversized sweatshirts and boom boxes, the 1990s was loud, colorful, and in your face. But along with the fun of house parties and the growing prominence of hip-hop, Black people in the United States also contended with heightened criminalization and poverty codified through the War on Drugs, welfare reform, police brutality, and divestment from public education. In the midst of insurgency, creativity, and the quiet that undergirded both, we will study the various cultural productions of Black performers and consumers as they navigated the social and political landscapes of the 1990s. Focusing primarily on urban centers, we will study major works growing out of hip-hop, R&B, comedy, television shows, films, and popular literature that attends to the regional differences throughout the nation. In this course, we will use theories from performance and cultural studies to understand the specificities of Blackness, gender, sexuality, religion, and geography in the 1990s.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SC Arch: HUM Art: CPSC, HUM BU: BA, HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 3880 Asian and Asian Diaspora Theatre
It is often falsely assumed that Asian and Asian American theatre is a theatre for specific ethnic communities. However, its significance in the US and in broader world theatre scenes has reverberated with audiences of diverse backgrounds, leading to a production of vibrant artistic and scholarly discussions on its power in shaping cultures and politics in America and in other global regions. This course engages with these very discussions, centering on understanding the complexity of contemporary Asian and Asian American theatre by situating them in the context of Asian diasporas. Key inquiries include the following questions: What causes the circulation of peoples from Asia and people of Asian descents from their home countries to another country?; how do experiences of war, international marriage, adoption, political oppression, refugee, and marginalization in new countries impact the psyche of diasporic subjects?; the notion of Asia as Other has been integral to the formation of the US national identity from the country's inception, but what exactly is Asia, and what is the role of theatre in challenging the relentless othering of Asians?; and finally, how might the framework of Asian diasporic theatre and performance help us move beyond the bifurcation between Asian Studies and Asian American Studies? In exploring these questions, we will engage in analyzing plays, production videos, interviews with artists, and scholarly writing, learning from artists who examine lives and histories of Asian descents (Chinese, Filipino, Hmong, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Taiwanese among others), as well as from thinkers that have been foundational to the development of Asian and Asian American theatre and performance studies. By the end of the semester, students will have read plays, documentaries, musicals, and interdisciplinary arts from the contemporary Asian and Asian diaspora theatre and be able to engage in an informed debate on the role of Asian and Asian American theatre in shaping contemporary cultures in the US and in other parts of the world. All readings are in English or in English translation and are available on Canvas.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 3900 Internship
Students may receive up to 3 units of credit for an approved internship with an organization where the primary objective is to obtain professional experience outside the classroom. Students must file a Learning Agreement with the Career Center, a faculty sponsor and the site supervisor. This must be approved by all three constituencies before proceeding. A final written project is to be agreed upon between the student and faculty sponsor before work begins, and will be evaluated by the faculty sponsor at the end of the internship.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 3996 Drama Elective: 300-Level
This course is used for transcribing 3000-level DRAMA elective units.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
DRAMA 4100 Advanced Stage Lighting
This course is an advanced, continuation of Drama 310 Stage Lighting. Emphasis is placed on cultivating design aesthetics and a further exploration of controlling light in a laboratory and live setting. Students will dive deeper into color theory, light plot development, and ultimately into advanced lighting console programming. The course objectives will cover a wide range of production styles and performance venues within a series of challenging design projects. Prerequisite: L15 310 or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DRAMA 4101 Retina Burn: Concert Lighting Technology
Lighting Technology will be an extremely hands on approach to learning how the top industry designers create major shows and concerts with the most state-of-the-art equpiment. We will spend a considerable amount of time learning how to use and program robotic/moving lights, LED fixtures and video integration for use in drama, dance, musical and concert settings. The student will gain intensive training in the use and programming of the ETC Express, ETC Ion and GrandMA 2 Light consoles with a full range of Vari*Lite robotic fixtures. In addition the student will also receive training in Isadora, a very powerful video design program. Due to the amount of programming time required outside of class, this will be a four (4) credit lab course. Prereqs: Drama 212 and Drama 310.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 4102 Advanced Scenic Design
Advanced projects in scenic design including drafting, rendering, model building, and conception. Prerequisite: Drama 311M, or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 4141 Topics in Embodied Communication
This course is about listening. We will begin by mediated and unmediated listening with the human auditory system and continue into an exploration of multi-modal listening, focusing on vibration and on somatic attention. We will work in the studio, which will include a music studio, a dance studio, and the environment. Our investigation will include the study of sensing in more-than-human organisms as well as theoretical perspectives from sound studies, critical improvisation and history of science. The course will encourage the perspective that the practice of listening is a political act of tending to the invisible, the non-normative, and the incomplete.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 4200 Acting Styles: Realism to Nonrealism
This course builds on skills in character development and scene study, beginning with psychological realism and then shifting into various forms of nonrealism. Through written analysis and performance, students apply acting techniques that address a variety of playwriting styles. Prerequisites: Drama 240E/2401 and Drama 341/3411. The semester begins with a deepening understanding of psychological realism through the exploration of Anton Chekhov's plays. Focus then shifts to nonrealism with Harold Pinter. The second half of the semester is solidly rooted in nonrealism. Students hone their skills by exploring two more scenes from classical and/or contemporary texts. Additionally, in the final scene, students are encouraged to explore applicable considerations of gender-identity, race, and ethnicity in play and character selection. Prerequisites: Drama 2401 Fundamentals of Acting, Drama 3411 Intermediate Acting This course is open exclusively to seniors and graduate students
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DRAMA 4201 Advanced Acting
Are you a senior or graduate student about to enter the marketplace? Are you considering a career in theater-making, particularly in acting? This course is poised on the border of a university environment and the real world. In a very full 14 week curriculum, we will explore the generous set of performance-based theatrical skills you have amassed over your education. The projects are designed to synthesize the student's theatrical training and experience through solo performance work. Students will be encouraged to develop and articulate their own aesthetic convictions through an examination of the creative process, the development of original solo material, the exploration of the theater profession within the current American and international theatrical climate, the development of new audition pieces, small group presentations and an analysis of plays and other reading assignments. The course closes with a public showcase of the original material written and developed over the semester. While the course's performance work is explored through an actor's lens, the class is open to all advanced drama students who meet the prerequisites. Prereq: L15 2401 and L15 3411. This course is open only to seniors and graduate students.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 4202 Theater for Social Change
Drawing upon the principles and teachings of Brazilian director Augusto Boal, students will explore ways of effecting positive social change in a theatrical context. Students will study the aesthetic of Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed and learn various games and exercises designed to mine issues of social (in)justice. Using Boal's techniques of image and forum theatre, students will then create and perform plays focused on these issues. This public performance will be an interactive event offered for and with the university community. No prior performance training or experience is required for this course.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SC Arch: HUM Art: CPSC, HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DRAMA 4203 Advanced Theater for Social Change
This course is a continuation of exploration begun in Drama 4081, Theater for Social Change: a prerequisite for this advanced course. Students will expand from exploring their own experience with oppression to facilitating that exploration with others. Students will be introduced to the Joker system, developed by Brazilian director Augusto Boal. The Joker is the director of a forum theater event. He leads both the exploration and play-making phases of the process. In preparation for stepping into this role, students will read Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed which will give them a foundation in the power and efficacy of collaborative educational techniques. In addition, students will read Theatre for Living, Canadian director David Diamond's book detailing his application of Boalian techniques in a less overtly oppressive society. Students will begin their practical exploration by first working with one another, learning how to lead exercises and games, followed by an exploration of play making and the facilitation of an interactive forum theater event. The course will culminate in an outside project in which each student is placed with a St. Louis area school or social organization. The student will apply skills he has acquired throughout the semester by serving as the Joker of the workshop. In this role, the student will lead the entirety of the workshop process with a selected group exploring ways of effecting positive social change in a theatrical context. He will facilitate exercises with the group that mine a chosen area of oppression with which the group is grappling. The student will guide play-making with the group that highlights this area of oppression. The resulting plays will then be presented to the larger school or organization community. This culminating event will be an interactive forum theater presentation that the student will lead as Joker.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SC Arch: HUM Art: CPSC, HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 4204 Directing II
Further study in the fundamentals of directing. Emphasis on the director's work with actors, designers, and a realized metaphorical concept. Prerequisites: Drama 343 and permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 4300 Staging Atrocity: Theater of the Holocaust
Responding to the Holocaust has challenged artists working in every medium. Nowhere are these challenges more extreme than in the theater, where the intimacy of the space, the close proximity of live actors and audience, and the subject matter itself may serve to intensify its effect. We will read a careful selection of modern and contemporary dramas and explore the range of responses. Underneath each weekly topic reverberate the nagging question of whether one can -- or should -- make art from the Holocaust, as well as a serious exploration of the uses and effectiveness of theater to communicate on this subject. We look at the ways in which the Holocaust has been used as a subject to raise moral dilemmas, examine the limits of humanity, elicit doubt or faith, and provide political commentary. We will also discuss the ways in which playwrights have stretched the limits of the theater to meet the challenge of staging the Holocaust. Topics considered include the nationalization and personalization of the Holocaust, the role of the second generation, issues of audience, and the use of experimental forms and obscenity. The plays on the syllabus are from North America, Israel and Europe. All readings are in English (original or translation).
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 4301 The Modernist Revolution in the Arts
What is/was Modernism? How did this worldwide phenomenon impact the arts in every genre and medium from the turn of the Twentieth Century to the present? Do we still live in the age of Modernism, or should we consider ours a new, Post-Modern age? This course will examine these and other questions as they relate to the theatre, prose, poetry, and the visual arts. Our investigation will focus on most of the major literary and artistic movements, including Naturalism, Impressionism, Symbolism, Surrealism, and Expressionism. We will examine literary manifestoes which help to illuminate the periods under discussion, as well as look at individual works themselves. Central to our approach in the course will be an interdisciplinary perspective. Among the luminaries whose work will be considered are Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov, Hemingway, Dali, Picasso, Stravinsky, Artaud, Kafka, and Beckett.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DRAMA 4302 American Drama
Topics in American Drama.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 4303 Performance Theory
This course introduces students to contemporary theories of performance, with performance understood as both metaphor and event. From a multi-disciplinary perspective, students will consider how cultures produce meanings-and, indeed, perform those meanings-to create and/or disrupt their own social coherence. Theories likely to be studied include: J. L. Austin's speech-act theory and its engagement by John Searle and Jacques Derrida; Victor Turner's analysis of ritual as social process and Richard Schechner's use of it to transform theater studies into performance studies; Erving Goffman's sociology of the self and its relation to a post-structuralist model of subjectivity; Michael Fried's screed against minimalist art and its relation to Happenings, Body Art, Fluxus, and other mid- to late-20th century examples of performance art; and Judith Butler's influential revision of Austin's performative in her theory of queer performativity.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 4304 Race, Memory, and Performance
This course takes as its starting point the vexing questions of history, memory, and identity that activists, scholars, artists, and others have posed in recent years. What is to be done with the commemorative landscape of monuments and memorials? How do we account for the silences and erasures in archival records? How should histories of racial violence be commemorated? These are questions that have been taken up in many arenas of civic life, including public art, living history tourism, museum studies, and urban planning. They have also been taken up by theater artists and performance artists who use their bodies, narrative, historical fact and, sometimes, fiction to bear witness to the past and to imagine new futures. In this course, we will examine the role of theater and performance in constituting-and challenging-the historically contingent meanings of race; we will also explore how performance of history shapes national narratives. Artists to be explored might include Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Mary Kathryn Nagle, Dread Scott, Quiara Alegria Hudes, Simone Leigh, and Heidi Schreck. Artistic and/or performance experience is not required. Students will have the opportunity to propose their own commemorative projects; together we will explore whether and how performances of the past can do a certain kind of reparative work necessary for a more equitable future.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM, VC BU: BA, ETH, HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DRAMA 4306 Seminar in Dramatic Theory
This course is an in-depth exploration of core works of dramatic theory from the ancient world to the present, and it will introduce texts that enunciate what theater is, has been, and should be. We will study authors' expressions of theater's role in society, their articulations of and responses to anti-theatrical prejudice, and their negotiations of the contradiction of putting the real on stage. Other significant themes include accounting for the aesthetic pleasures of drama and theater; theater as a means of educating the citizen; and the relationship between dramatic form and social and political revolution. Moving chronologically, we begin with foundational documents of the ancient world, including Aristotle's Poetics, Bharata's Natyasastra, and Horace's Ars Poetica. The course then progresses through the Middle Ages, the Neoclassical and Romantic eras, and the explosion of fin de siecle avant-gardes. We will also read key texts from beyond the European tradition, including works of dramatic theory written in medieval Japan (Zeami), postcolonial Nigeria (Soyinka), and the millennial, multicultural United States (Parks). Along these same lines, we will also be attuned to transnational exchange and influence, particularly as it appears in the 20th-century theories of Bertolt Brecht, Antonin Artaud, and Konstantin Stanislavsky. Although the course will be focused on efforts to describe and prescribe theories of drama, dramatic genre, and theatrical pleasure, it will also position play scripts alongside the theoretical treatises that guide or are guided by them.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 4307 Topics in Shakespearean Production
This course will examine Shakespeare's comedies in performance. Combining scene work and production history, students will gain access to the world of the comedies from both a hands-on, theoretical and historical perspective. Prerequisites: Drama 395C or permission of instructor.
DRAMA 4308 Shakespeare and Early Modern Performance
Study Abroad/Study Away
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 4311 Borders and Boundaries
International borders affect you every day. In the United States and elsewhere, they play a role in determining whether you are a birthright citizen or an unauthorized migrant. They showcase a nation's ability or inability to guarantee your wellbeing. They factor into immigration, asylum, and national security debates. Those who live near an international border often deal with a particular set of issues. Living in an either/or environment can impel border residents to strategically recognize or deny cultural forms-to be hyper patriotic, for example, to speak one language at home and another at school, or to understand gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity in site-specific ways. This course will draw from the work of performance theorists, playwrights, anthropologists, historians, and geographers to write critically about and devise artistic work that opens up foundational theories, debates, and genealogies in the study of borders and boundaries. This course will use North America as its primary reference point, but it will also draw our attention to border and boundary dynamics elsewhere to think about global challenges such as forced migration and climate change.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SC BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DRAMA 4400 Dramaturgical Workshop
A laboratory course that investigates dramaturgy from four vantage points: New Play Dramaturgy, Institutional Dramaturgy, Dramaturgy of Classics, and Dramaturgical Approaches to Nontraditional and Devised Theater. This is a hands-on course where student dramaturgs will not only pursue the study of dramaturgy, but will work actively and collaboratively with playwrights, actors and each other.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 4453 Senior Drama Capstone
This course, which is required for seniors completing the drama major, is team-taught by one PAD faculty member in Theater Arts and one in Theater and Performance Studies. In order to remain responsive to each senior class as well as the particular expertise of the faculty pair, the course is built on a flexible curricular model. Components will include an exploration of contemporary theatre literature and theatre-making, individual and ensemble-based activities, research and critical writing projects. A culminating project that synthesizes the semester's study will be part of the course.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
DRAMA 4506 Playwright's Workshop
This course will offer an organized independent study for advanced students in playwriting. The class will be structured by the participants. Prereqs: Playwriting (L15 227), Advanced Playwriting (L15 473) and permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 4693 Shakespeare and Performance
How were Shakespeare's plays performed in their own day--in the Globe theater, with boy actors, and with very short rehearsal times? How, for the actor, did performance work on the outdoor stage, with the Globe's wide and deep acting platform and its intimate relationship to the audience? How might one stage Shakespeare today in an outdoor environment without lighting and with minimal sets, and with the capacity to move easily from one outdoor venue to another? From what social types in Renaissance England-such as merchants, prostitutes, aristocrats, constables, beggars, and princes-did Shakespeare draw? How can evolving ideas about race, gender, and sexuality inform the way we perform Shakespeare today? Addressing these questions and others, the course weaves together performance and literary, critical, and historical study. Topics include blank verse, performing Shakespeare's prose, playing with figures of speech, working the Globe stage, engaging an outdoor audience, acting from a written part rather than an entire script, performing types, exploring Shakespeare's sources as performance alternatives, making Shakespeare new-and more. Students will rehearse and perform sonnets, scenes, and monologues based on social figures from Shakespeare's England. The course assumes a willingness to perform but not specialized acting training.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 4730 Advanced Playwriting
This course explores the tendencies and relationship between each individual student writer and the page. Exercises dispel any lingering doctrine that presupposes a certain style of writing. A large part of the class centers around collaborations. The writers write scenes as a final project for an acting class, and also work with two professional actors in an extended writing project that culminates in a script-in-hand presentation. The informal moments between collaborations look at the process beyond the first draft -- i.e., the playground of language, non-verbal options, and the maintaining of the work through rewrites, readings, workshops, and productions. Prerequisite: Introduction to Playwrighting, Drama 227.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 4750 Film as Art
To teach students about impact of images and language of film. Recent and classical motion pictrues will be viewed, discussed and analyzed. Directorial tecniques, the auteur theory, film genres, lighting, montage, kinetics, camera movement and placement, music and sound effects, styles of acting and mise en scene will be examined. Prerequisite, Drama 241 or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall
DRAMA 4900 Independent Work
Students may contract with a faculty supervisor for credit for their work on theatrical productions or research. Contracts must be signed by the student and the coordinator of Drama 500 before the student's work on the project commences. Credit and grade option to be determined in each case. In order to enroll for this course, students must complete a contract and submit it to the Performing Arts Department office.
Credit 6 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 4901 Senior Project
Specialized study in a selected area in drama. Required of all drama majors not taking Drama 499. Prerequisite: 15 units of advanced work in drama at the 300 or 400 level.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 4902 Study for Honors
Prerequisite: Senior standing, a cumulative and a major GPA of 3.5 and permission of the Chair of the Performing Arts Department.
Credit 6 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 4910 Acting
Independent study. In order to enroll for this course, students must complete a contract and submit it to the Performing Arts Department office.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 4920 Directing
Independent study. In order to enroll for this course, students must complete a contract and submit it to the Performing Arts Department office.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 4930 Technical Theater
Independent study. In order to enroll for this course, students must complete a contract and submit it to the Performing Arts Department office.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 4931 Advanced Practicum in Technical Theater
Independent Study. Intensive practical experience in scenic design building and painting; lighting design and installation; costume design, coordination, and construction; makeup; and audio production. Prerequisites: Drama 212E, credits on at least two productions, and permission of staff.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 4940 Voice, Speech
Independent study.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 4950 Literature, Theory, Criticism
Independent study. In order to enroll for this course, students must complete a contract and submit it to the Performing Arts Department office.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
DRAMA 4980 Special Topics in Playwriting: Art and Activism
Taught by guest teaching artist, Regina Taylor, playwright, director, stage/screen actor, this course will focus on how art can effect change through personal expression. The monumental cultural shift that is in motion throughout the world will be explored through the specific lens of each student's life. Students will write short pieces and one-act plays that will explore where they are at this moment in time. Works in the class may be added to Regina Taylor's black album mixtape. No playwriting experience necessary. Course open only to juniors, seniors and graduate students.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Spring
DRAMA 4996 Drama Elective: 400-Level
This course is used for transcribing 4000-level DRAMA elective units.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring, Summer