This topics course provides opportunities to work on performance outside of traditional naturalistic traditions. Topics change annually. First-year students may only take this course with permission of instructor. May be repeated once for credit when taken as a different topic. Note: Different topics may satisfy different Core requirements.
Autobiographical Performance: Laughing At Ourselves
In this course, participants will learn how to create compelling and humorous personal nonfiction narratives for the stage, studying classic narrative structure and paying close attention to theme & detail. There is a long history of performers whose autobiographical solo work, like Crabb’s, simultaneously finds comedy in the tragedies of their lives while infusing the mundane with drama. To learn how to do this, students will study seminal storytellers and theater makers, (such as Spalding Gray, John Leguizamo, Whoopi Goldberg, Julia Sweeney, and others) who use their lives and experiences as templates for performance. Students will also review Moth-style storytelling to help find their own voice through a close examination of identity, self, and how we perform in the world.
Clown and Comedy Class with Cirque du Soleil Clown and Wanlass Visiting Artist Daniel Passer
In this class, we dive into an exploration of the state of play through a series of exercises generated over many years as a clown and comedy conceiver for Cirque du Soleil, Dragone Entertainment and Saturday Night Live. The tools to guide the student on this journey to discover their unique, vulnerable point of view are: improvisation, status exercises, physical games, Commedia archetypes (Arlecchino, Pantalone, Doctore and others) and comedy routines. In this class, we explore the daring and vulnerability of the clown through embodying your passion, rediscovering a sense of play, and leading with joy. The pure, honest response to others (onstage and in the audience) provides a point of entry to incorporating a sense of fearlessness and authenticity into your work as a whole. As much a life philosophy as an acting technique, the performer is sure to come of class with a heightened innocence and curiosity feeding their moment-to-moment discoveries
Creating Community Engaged Theater
Under the guidance of members of the world renowned and community engaged Cornerstone Theater Company, this course will introduce students to the Cornerstone method of creating original theater work that addresses local concerns through community collaboration. During the course, students will help with The Highland Park Community Project—Cornerstone’s community engaged project in rehearsal and performance in the fall semester. This production will provide the experiential aspects of the course, some of which will take place off-campus in the Highland Park Community. In regularly scheduled class meetings, students will study the Cornerstone methodology, especially intention and engagement, and through discussion, lectures, and research, be introduced to existing approaches to community based theater. Topics will include how community engagement informs acting, directing and design. Additional Core Requirement Met: U.S. Diversity.
Extended Reality
For the spring of 2024, this course will be taught by Wanlass Visiting Artist Dawn Monique Williams. Through the semester we will explore hybrid performance techniques using digital/mixed/multi-media to expand the boundaries of live performance. No previous experience necessary.
Generating Independent Theater
This interdisciplinary course will provide an opportunity for students to define their interests as performers/writers/producers and to develop original material, an artistic vision, and producing expertise that will lead to a realized performance. Individual skill sets and interests including storytelling, dance, character-work, visual art and music may each provide a jumping off point for this work. At the beginning of the course, a series of improvisational exercises, mini-performances and character studies, supported by readings on contemporary solo, immersive, experimental and environmental theater, will guide students to land on personal solo or two-person projects. In the second half of the semester, students will craft these pieces utilizing their peers as a think-tank. This generative, collaborative process will emphasize the importance of ensemble both onstage and behind the scenes during the creative and production process. To culminate their work, the class will be responsible for the production aspects necessary to present their pieces in a public performance on-campus.
Reframe the Game: Strategies for a More Inclusive American Theater
Reframe the Game is a deep dive into Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) principles, as they apply to working in the theater, as well as in interpersonal communication practices. Through hands-on activities, discussions, research and interactions with guest practitioners, the course will address why this work is vital to our field, and how EDI lays the foundation for more creative and imaginative artistic workspaces and practices. The course will be organized into three parts. Part One will focus on Vocabulary and Power Structures: The cohort will focus on establishing a shared vocabulary as a foundation for conversation about social identity, privilege, historical and institutional inequities, and ally-ship, as a means to develop skills to better identify and dismantle inequity when we see it. We will look inward to examine where we as individuals fit into the social landscape of America, and how our identities affect how we move through the world. Part Two will focus Research and Examination: Students will research EDI initiatives and strategies at US regional theaters as case studies to examine how stated EDI principles may (or may not) align with programming and institutional culture. In addition, local guest artists and practitioners whose work strongly aligns with social equity will visit the class for deep dive conversations about the work that they do, the challenges they face, and where they see the future of our field. Part Three will focus on Final Projects and the question What Now?: In small groups, students will apply what they have learned over the course of the semester to create an original exercise, workshop or governing policy that addresses a specific EDI concern in their community (institutional, local, national or international) to present to their classmates and invited faculty in the final weeks of the semester. Prerequisite: THEA 101, THEA 210, or by instructor permission. Additional Core Requirement Met: U.S. Diversity.