Completed Undergraduate Courses:
(In the Theatre Studies Major)
Performance/Theatre Studies:
Acting 2: Playing the Action. David Hammond (Fall 2009)- Examines the pursuit of objectives through interactions with onstage scene partners. Techniques explored include, but are not limited to, sending and receiving; eliciting response; identifying progressive change in oneself through what is received from the partner. Exercises investigate action utilizing repetition, speech, song, gibberish, physicalization and improvisation. Scene work concentrates on American realism.
Acting 2: Creating the World. David Hammond (Spring 2010)- Explores the work of the actor in reorganizing the self into another human being existing in the circumstances and world of the play. Includes work on sense memory and sensory endowment to bring moment-to-moment physical life to an environment; the discovery and development of immediate and historic given circumstances from textual clues. Scene work from three contrasting dramatic genres, each involving different relationships among given circumstances, spoken text and action.
Acting 2: Voice and Diction. Jack Zerbe (Fall 2010)- This course begins the process of freeing and developing the expressive potential of an actor’s voice, especially as it sends, receives, and counters action with one or more partners in the context of a scripted scene. For this reason, Acting 1 (Basic Tools) is a prerequisite to enrollment. Our work will focus on the identification and reduction of restrictive habits, as well as the development of new habits that will in time allow the voice to carry organically specific active impulses and intellectual nuance. The process of building those new habits will include work on breath support and control, grounding, resonance, articulation, and heightened sensitivity to internal music of language through dialect work. Rather than seeking to create a single idealized “sound,” coaching will help students find their own individual optimal voice, and develop oral communication skills. It is important to note that this is first, and foremost, an acting class that focuses on the role of voice and speech, rather than a course that studies the voice in isolation.
Acting 2: Acting in Song. David Hammond (Fall 2010)- This course will explore the relationship of singing to the process of acting, examining the dramatic intention of a vocal line, including phrasing and text, and its interaction with the full musical score as both relate to the fundamentals of acting technique, particularly circumstances, inner monologue and action. Assignments will include solos, duets and scene work. The class will be equally suitable for singers seeking to understand acting and actors seeking increased comfort with singing
Acting 3: Shakespeare. David Hammond (Spring 2011):
The course explores the relationship of Shakespeare’s uses of language and form to action and acting. The student will be guided in the process of bringing the self to the specific demands of formally structured material and in identifying the tools for action-playing in various text structures and styles. Beginning with the imaging process underlying spoken thought, the course will examine the methodologies of Elizabethan rhetoric and prosody, the development of blank verse drama, scansion, the relationship of metrics and prosody to actor intention, the relationship of imagery to character circumstances, and the implications of verse structures for characterization and character action.
The class covers 1) Elizabethan scansion, based on the essential beats
of the "pillars of the verse" and the vast possibilities for variety around them; 2) Shakespeare’s transformation of scansion into a tool for scoring character action rather than creating poetic illustration; 3) the development of Elizabethan rhetoric, its use of figures and tropes, and the interaction Shakespeare creates between the image organization within the figures and the pulse of the underlying verse line to develop rhythms of action specific to each character; 4) Shakespeare’s adaptation of the devices of classical rhetoric from tools of argument or persuasion into tools for playing actions and objectives; 3) the relationship of imagery to given circumstances; 4) the natural, generative thought or "imaging" process through which an actor fills the text in pursuit of action. The class does not condone set line-readings. It explores the content and intention of the text, which the actor must learn to fill spontaneously and in-the-moment, utilizing the tools Shakespeare provides. All the work of the course is designed to free the actor through the text into outwardly directed character action that reaches and affects others.
Acting 3: Modern Realism (Fall 2012):
This course is designed to help students synthesize the tools acquired from previous acting classes into a coherent and integrated systematic approach to creating a role. This course will also introduce voice and movement exercises designed not only as preparation for work but also as avenues toward full expressiveness in performance. This course reintroduces the fundamental techniques, which students knit together in a fully- prepared and rehearsed exercise. Further, students will apply those same techniques to the creation of the world of a scene, while exploring the difference between emoting and acting. The expressive use of voice and body--in pursuit of a character’s objective--will be emphasized throughout the course.
Technical/ Theatre Studies:
Intro to Theatrical Design Tad Feekes (Spring 2010): Introduction to the principles and techniques of theatrical design. Develops the basic core of knowledge needed to create informed designs that manifest a “world” in which the performance of a playscript can take place. Includes units on scenery, costumes, lights and sound.
Thea 295- Properties Practicum Tad Feekes (Spring 2010): this practicum will develop and deepen skills related to Properties in the Theatre. It will also provide an experience that enables s/he to hone more global skills (communication, organization, leadership, time management, creative problem solving and money management). The practicum experience will also build confidence, heighten aesthetic awareness and deepen appreciation for the work of others.
Thea 111: Backstage Production. Christopher Brink (Fall 2011)
Explores methods of backstage theater craft through hands-on work. Focuses on the elements of planning, construction, tools, rigging, lighting, sewing, sound and painting. Students work directly on the department’s current production in an individual and collaborative nature examining the contribution of technical theater to the impact of live performance.
Thea 295- Electrician Practicum Roslyn Fulton-Dahlie (Fall 2010/Spring 2011): The training of theatre artists requires extensive practical experience as well as a strong theoretical foundation. The practicum sequence gives students the opportunity to learn about different aspects of theatre from the practical working perspective. This practicum will develop and deepen skills related to Lighting in the theatre. It will also provide an experience that enables s/he to hone more global skills (communication, organization, leadership, time management, creative problem solving, and money management). The practicum experience will also build confidence, heighten aesthetic awareness, and deepen appreciation for the work of others.
Thea 295: Master Electrician Roslyn Fulton-Dahlie (Spring 2011):
The Master Electrician (ME) and the Electricians (Crew) are the individuals who execute and maintain the physicalization of a productions lighting. The ME supervises and works with the crew during electric show calls. The ME provides information to the Lighting Designer about the theater’s equipment and lighting capabilities, asses the needs of a show’s light plot as how to best implement it, maintains with the crew the upkeep of the theatrical lighting aspects of the theater, performs with the crew the hanging, focusing, and post productions restoration (Strike) of the theatrical lighting involved with a production. Master Electricians operate the Lighting consoles, for the duration of the tech process, whereupon the Assistant Master Electrician (ASM) can share in the operation of the lighting console for the run of a show. The Crew only participates in the technical needs prior to opening and after closing, unless a deck electrician is needed during the show for a specific task
Thea 273: Lighting Design. Burke Brown (Spring 2013):
Examination of the power of light and the ways in which it shapes audience perceptions of a staged performance. Focus on basic elements of light, especially composition and mood, and the manner in which each supports the "ruling idea" of a play. Inclues exploration of the technical dimensions of design: instructmental, the drawing board, and computer lighting control.
History and Literature/Theatre Studies
Thea 227: Play Analysis. Jack Zerbe (Fall 2010): Explores the methodology of script analysis used by actors, designers and directors as they prepare to execute a stage production. Students also develop the interpretive skills needed by artists working in a theatre that responds to and addresses issues of oppression and social justice.
Thea 130: Theatre and Culture I. Jack Zerbe (Spring 2012):
This course explores Western drama and theatre from its emergence in Ancient Greece through the late English Renaissance. Readings and discussions will endeavor to help students develop a sense of continuity and the broad shape of development across many periods.With the assumption that theatrical practitioners must serve every text as best they understand it, students will explore how to use historical research in creating contemporary theatre.
Thea 131: Theatre and Culture II. Jack Zerbe (Spring 2013):
This course explores the evolution of Western theatre during a period of enormous change and upheaval: from the classicism of the French Renaissance through the personal narratives of contemporary performance art. Readings and discussions will endeavor to help students develop a sense of continuity and the broad shape of development across many periods.
With the assumption that theatrical practitioners must serve every text as best they understand it, students will learn how discerning the stylistic nature and original social significance of a play is foundational to making productions in the contemporary theatre. The use of video and other production documentation will assist the class in understanding and conceiving a broad range of approaches to dramatic texts.
The semester’s work will be an interdisciplinary examination of social history, cultural meaning, dramatic literature, art history (including architecture, painting, and music), and theatre history. Because research is the practitioner’s means of uncovering this sort of information, each student will learn research techniques and engage in a single focused research project, the results of which will be presented to the class. During the presentation, students become the teacher!