Course features a distinguished roster of guest speakers of arts practitioners, educators, and advocates who provide illuminating insights, practical tools, and personal stories on how to shape an artistic or arts-related career in today's creative economies. Speakers cover a lively range of topics, ranging from the importance of the entrepreneurial mindset and fundamental marketing skills to how to transform a vision into a company. Series will also shed light on ways artists can bring their talents to commercial enterprises.
Introduces Iranian theater covering Ta'zieh religious performance, Ruhuzi improvised drama, Naghali storytelling, and modern efforts in national and diasporic theaters fusing indigenous and western styles. No prior knowledge of Iran is required and readings are in English.
Addresses imagination and creativity. Using the framework of theater production, students explore the process of translating a script into a performance. Topics include visual literacy, creative problem solving, establishing effective working teams, tear sheets, storyboarding, drawing, sound and color theory. This course is a prerequisite for all upper-division design courses.
Designed to acquaint students with the complexities of staging productions from the audition process to final performance. Directing, lighting, scenic production, sound, cueing, and personnel management are aspects that will be touched upon in class. Students are billed a materials fee. (Formerly Production Management.)
A fundamental course in drawing from still life, the figure, and in the landscape. The approach is from the tonal and volumetric aspects of the object. Color is introduced as the course progresses. Instruction fashioned to the individual needs of the student. The inexperienced are welcomed as well as the experienced. Students are billed a materials fee.
Introduces varied techniques in textile manipulation to create scenic and costume-design properties including drapery, upholstery, masks, bags, and millinery. Students learn basic sewing and surface-design methods, such as knitting, screen-printing, painting/dyeing, and distressing.
The process of interpreting a costume designer's sketch into a finished theatrical costume. Some techniques included are dyeing, fabric selection, draping, flat pattern drafting, pattern manipulation, adaptation, fitting, and alteration. Using various techniques, students make basic pattern pieces and learn to modify them to create costumes. Students are billed a materials fee.
An examination of the fundamentals of drafting scale drawings for production, including floor plans, elevations, sections, working drawings, dimensions, layout, and lettering. Students learn isometric drawing, perspective, and rendering techniques. Students are billed a materials fee.
In-depth exploration of computer-aided drafting, specifically the programs Vectorworks, Spotlight, and Renderworks. Topics include: the user interface, ground plan, section and detail views, paper space vs. working space, tool palettes, USITT drafting standards, layers, line weights, objects, classes, library annotations, importing rasters, and 3D modeling. Students required to do weekly projects such as ground plans, lighting plots, perspectives, and detail drawings, as well as turn in a major final project, and complete a mid-term, final, and quizzes. Students are billed for a materials fee.
An introduction to the theory and practice of lighting design with attention to the practical skills and creative approaches to lighting performance pieces; the technical side of lighting design via demonstrations, lectures, and labs. Students complete projects evolving and executing concepts for lighting chosen pieces. Students are billed a materials fee.
Introduction to basic acting skills and the problems of performance. Concentrates on expanding a range of expression and ability to respond to and analyze dramatic text. Designed for students with little or no experience in acting.
Explores the fundamentals from the work of Konstantin Stanislavski as developed at the Moscow Art Theater to the works of his and our contemporary playwrights. Specifically, students apply those techniques of action, physical score, given circumstances, subtext, interior monologue, goals, and objectives, throughline, superobjective, and emotional recall to works of Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekov, and relevant American realists, such as Sam Shepard, August Wilson, etc. Designed for students focused on acting as an academic or professional discipline. Admission by audition at first class meeting (see the department office or theater.ucsc.edu for more information). (Formerly course 21A, Acting Studio 1A: Psychological Realism.)
Students learn the basic movement repertoire of the specific characters of the Indonesian dance-drama/puppetry tradition over the quarter with explication of how these types operate in their own cultural context. Course culminates in an open showing of scene work.
Introduces using the spoken voice effectively and powerfully on stage and off. Physical release, alignment, breath, resonance, and articulation are explored. Students gain an understanding of how the voice relates to the self, the body, and breath and become more aware of tensions and habits that may impede vocal and speech use.
Students develop awareness and extension of personal movement repertoire through observation, movement experience, and exploration.
Emphasizes key theoretical and practical modes of dramaturgy in order to research, analyze, and interpret the dramatic works and performances of Shakespeare within historical and contemporary contexts. (Formerly Shakespearean Dramaturgy.)
Intensive instruction in developing the dancer's mind/body, with introduction to movement theory and practice. Students are billed a materials fee.
Introduces Asian or Asian diasporic dance practice through physical training and theoretical engagement. Focuses on basic techniques of performance practice and critical engagement with aesthetic, cultural, and/or historical context. Students are billed a materials fee.
Introduces classical ballet as a form of ethnic dance. Focus on combining basic training in ballet technique with academic studies to achieve a synthesis in the understanding of dance as a performing arts practice in diverse socio-cultural and historical contexts. Emphasis on simple phrasing and articulation into more complex material requiring richer dynamic range. Attention to the anatomical principles that governs ballet mechanics. Students are billed a materials fee.
Intensive instruction in contemporary dance technique. Combining movement theory and practice, students will develop basic knowledge of anatomical function (somatics) and a foundational embodiment of contemporary dance technique.
Introduction to contemporary dance theory and practice. Focus on basic dance technique, range of styles, and aesthetic points of view of historically significant contemporary dance choreographers in America and worldwide. Students are billed a materials fee. (Formerly course 31C.)
Intensive instruction in developing the dancer's physical instrument. Intended for students who have a previous fundamental knowledge of the basics of classic dance, combined with movement theory. Students are billed a materials fee. Formerly Theater Arts 33, Advanced Introduction to Modern Dance.
Introduces dance improvisation and choreographic practice. Observation and recognition of personal movement patterns and discovering new sources for creative material. Students are billed a materials fee.
A griot (musician-entertainer from western Africa) from Burkina Faso teaches The African Journey, which emphasizes dance as combined in Africa, including singing, history, oral tradition, and storytelling. Students are billed a materials fee.
Introduces dance on film, examining such topics as narrative storytelling in dance films (documentary and fiction); cinematic strategies for representing the kinesthetic; and dance film as a unique and distinct art form.
An overview of the analytical and creative processes that inform the director's work. Close examination of texts, concepts, and selected directors and directorial choices.
An experience designed to develop an active and creative vision leading to a concept that takes an audience on a memorable journey with lives that are created on the stage. Students direct a monologue, a dual scene, and a final project which represents the collaborative nature of the art of directing. Topics include blocking techniques, history of directing, how to work with designers, rehearsal techniques, and strategies for actor coaching.
Work is on various aspects of theatrical production, including scenery, lighting, costumes, sound, stage management, and video documentation. Satisfies the department's technical experience requirement.
Provides introduction to technical theater and basic stagecraft. Course examines two-dimensional and three-dimensional scenery, scenic engineering, the physical theater, stage and scene shop equipment, project organization and process, technical theater graphics, materials, and theatrical construction techniques.
Process-oriented investigation of practical theater production by working in and on productions in the Barnstorm season. Requires a total of 150 hours working backstage or onstage. Admission by audition at first class meeting; see department office for more information.
Process-oriented investigation of practical theater production by working in and on productions in the Barnstorm season. Requires a total of 50 hours working backstage or onstage. Admission by audition at first class meeting; see department office for more information.
Ancient enmities; horrific acts of parricide; monumental errors; suffering and contrition. This course examines the enormous appeal of the ancient Greek tragic and comic visions from their inception through their enthusiastic adaptation by the Romans and on into the Middle Ages. For comparison purposes, Greek and Roman dramas are studied back-to-back with the contemporary non-Western dramatic forms of Noh and ancient Sanskrit drama.
Examines major trends in European drama from the rediscovery of ancient Greek and Roman drama in the early 17th century to the late 19th century. Examines major trends in European drama from the discovery of ancient Greek and Roman drama in the early 17th century to the late 19th century. These trends include neo-classical drama, the rise of middle-class drama, social realism, romanticism, early naturalism, and the well-made play. These trends are compared with the parallel developments of the non-Western forms of Japanese Kabuki and Javanese Wayang. (Formerly Tragedy.)
Examines dramatic and theatrical works that sprang into being in the wake of the European Renaissance. Follows the ways modern artists have dramatized their questions, struggles, beliefs, and despair in the face of world wars, cultural fragmentation, unprecedented prosperity, and new technologies.
Juxtaposes Shakespeare's plays with sources Shakespeare may have adapted and adaptations that his works, in turn, have spawned. Explores Renaissance stage and printing practices and the processes of adapting for page and stage.
Surveys African American theater from late 19th century to contemporary 21st-century playwrights and examines dramatic narratives to trace creation, evolution, and development of African American cultural identity formation in American theater.
Examination of the genesis, history, and development of technical theater practices used in large arena rock shows. Topics will include the development of rigging practices used in arenas, touring logistics, lighting instrumentation and aesthetics of rock shows, and the nature, practice, and approach of sound in these venues.
Examines the operation of monsters in plays from Ancient Greece to today, inquiring as to why these powerful cultural tools for the expression of social tension show no sign of diminishing despite our ostensible advance into scientific rationalism.
History of 20th-century commercial design for the theater through the eyes of the Western consumer. (Formerly course 161W, Critical Survey of Commercial Design, 1900 to Present.)
Offered online, the course explores major issues of interpretation of Shakespeare's classic play, which has occupied the minds of audiences, directors, designers, performers, and critics during its 400-year history. In doing this, it offers a sense of history of people's preoccupations with and thoughts about the play. Students taking this class are expected to complete the course during the quarter for which they are enrolled. All students enrolled in this course should visit elsinore.ucsc.edu and write to elsinore@ucsc.edu.
Introduces all students, regardless of experience, to the plays and theater of Shakespeare, and directly addresses linked relevance to contemporary 21st century American culture.
The artistic and social impact of the Muppets on American puppetry, children's television, and Hollywood film is explored through viewings, guest lectures, and analysis. Henson's legacy in artistic innovation, mainstreaming of puppet theater for adult audiences, and establishment of puppetry in media and marketing are also explored.
Introduction to Teatro Chicano/a with examination of how cultural diversity plays a role in theater. Through lectures, films, and workshop exercises, reflect upon the process of Teatro Chicano. Students write their own acts, improvise, and perform in class.
An examination of Walt Disney's creation of the American vision of family entertainment. Particular attention will be paid to the classic animated feature films of Walt Disney and to the way this Disney invention has been preserved and developed since his death. We will also look at the live action films, theme parks, and other Disney creations.
Emphasizes script development by exploring dramatic writings from ancient to contemporary theater, then focusing on Pixar screenplays with their universal themes and compelling characters. Film analysis of Pixar movies delves into animation history, fairytale, psychology, and popular culture. (Formerly The Pixar Feature.)
Examines the history of the queer perspective in dramatic literature, from the Greeks to Marlowe and Shakespeare through the calcification of homosexuality in the era of Freud, then traces theater stewardship by gay and lesbian artists from within the closet and without.
Bollywood is the largest film industry in the world. Students learn several fundamental footsteps, eye, hand and body movements, to perform Bollywood dance. They also learn various traditions of Indian classical, folk, and Bollywood dance terms.
This course is designed to develop ways in which we can direct our interest in the arts into concrete and successful community projects. Although the emphasis will be on developing skills to work within K-12 classrooms, other community projects will be discussed and designed.
Flashmobs represent a new social configuration using information technology. Course covers the history of experiments in art and technology and the role of mass performance in society. Students consider the socio-cultural ramifications of flashmobs and participate in them.
Examines dance as a primary mode of human communication and expression. Through readings and the viewing of recorded and live performances, students compare and contrast dance traditions of the world.
Circus arts from their shamanic roots to contemporary practice will be analyzed in a historical, aesthetic, and creative dimension. Lecture, discussion, and demonstrations will explore the theory and practice of American circus arts. In section, students will explore basic circus skills from clowning to tumbling to exhibition of freaks.
An examination of the theory and practice of theater and film, comparing and contrasting works that have been adapted from one genre to another. Lecture, film and video viewing and discussion of materialist, psychoanalytic, and feminist approaches will be shared.
The history of American musical theater, from its roots to today, is studied through scripts, scores, and film. Major composers and lyricists' work is shown, discussed, and analyzed.
Study of Indian classical dance through embodied training and theoretical engagement. Training in the foundational elements of abstract rhythmic dance, including drum syllables and associated steps, and introduction to abhinaya (storytelling). Students are billed a materials fee.
Students must file their petitions for this course with the department office by the end of the fifth day of instruction in the quarter in which they would like to take the tutorial. Prerequisite(s): petition required, approved by instructor and department.
Overview of selected theater/dance performance genres of India, Indonesia, China, Korea, and Japan with attention to how cultural, political, and social flows have impacted contemporary performance in Asia and beyond. Lectures supplemented by workshops.
Spanning slavery, emancipation, reconstruction, the great depression, civil rights, and the black power/black arts movements, course explores African American drama from literary, historical, and biographical perspectives in lecture/discussions, film excerpts, dramatizations, and visits from award-winning guests.
Asian court and popular performance are traced. Sanskrit drama is contrasted with Indian epic recitation, medium, and courtesan dance. Gender specialization is noted in Indonesian courts using Indian and local legends in dance, mask/puppetry, and clowning. Buddhist and Confucian impulses in Chinese theater and early Korean and Japanese mask and puppetry are introduced. Students are evaluated on participation, tests, writing, and a performance project.
Examines major black African diasporic playwrights and theater. Focuses on the historical, cultural, and literary contexts that gave rise to the works of dramatists such as Ama Ata Aidoo, Derek Walcott, Wole Soyinke, Aime Cesaire, Debbie Green Tucker, and Paul Boakye.
Students develop an advanced design project related to theatrical production, apparel or housewares, marketing collateral, packaging or product development, or any related fields. Students address research and development, materials sourcing, budgeting, fabrication, and portfolio-quality presentation materials. Prerequisite(s): Theater Arts 10; or two courses from
ART 10D, 10E, and 10F. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. Theater Arts 106 is recommended as preparation.
Introduces students to basic tools for the creation of multimedia digital projects. Special attention is given to the integration of video, sound, graphics, text and virtual reality and to the creation and execution of strategies for interaction between users and the projects themselves. With this in mind, students design and create computer puzzles and games.
Introduces digital rendering techniques using the Adobe Creative Suite. Using Adobe Creative Suite, students solve design problems. Enrollment by permission of the instructor.
Investigates interactive media including computer games, virtual reality, and participatory theater to inform design practice. Examines Aristotle's Poetics with some modernist excursions. Also examines the various values embedded in works--artistic, civic, spiritual, and political.
The development of scenic design from the Greek period to the present. Concentration is on the changing styles of set design in relation to the changing attitudes toward dramatic literature, art, and theater architecture.
Mixing theory with practice, this course covers everything from script analysis and sound-design paperwork to how to use the software and hardware needed to bring a sound design to reality. (Formerly Design Studio: Sound.)
Advanced work in principles and theory of scenic design. Students are billed a materials fee.
Advanced theory and practice of theatrical set design.
Survey of clothing and theatrical costumes; emphasis on dress of the audience and actor in historical periods of theatrical activity. Students are billed a materials fee.
Students learn advanced principles and theory of costume design, and apply these toward a large project for theatrical/film production or for character design for animation and gaming. Students are billed a materials fee.
Advanced principles in costume construction, including tailoring, advanced pattern drafting, and draping techniques. Focuses on translating modern techniques into historical garment construction. Teaches how to study artifacts and do primary research to unlock the past.
Emphasis on techniques used in painting scenery for the theater. Students are billed a materials fee.
The theory and practice of lighting design with emphasis on practical application. Light plots, electricity, optics, design, and manipulation of lighting for the theater and related performance events are investigated. The student explores mechanics and aesthetics with hands-on experience. Students are billed a materials fee.
Intensive work on the voice and body involving breathing, relaxation, and an understanding of anatomy as it pertains to voice and movement. Awareness and extension of personal vocal and movement repertoire through observation, experience, and exploration. Active preparation for performance (emphasizing Shakespeare) with work on phonetics and scansion and integration of physical technique.
This acting studio centers around Shakespeare and specific techniques used in performing his plays. Continues concentrated work on basic acting skills and textual analysis through scene study. Courses 21 and 23 are recommended as preparation. Admission is by audition at the first class meeting (see the department office or theater.ucsc.edu for more information). (Formerly Acting Studio II.)
Study of the classical theater and dance of India, with attention to performance practice, aesthetic theory, relationship to religious practice devoted to Rama, Siva, and Krishna, political implications and intercultural experimentation.
Challenges of performing Shakespearean and Renaissance plays are explored through confronting the acting problems they pose. Attention to verse scansion, character analysis, and textual meaning. Strategies for enacting scenes and monologues are tested in class presentations.
Awareness and extension of personal movement repertoire, through observation, movement experience, and exploration.
Individual work on acting skills and problems, with emphasis on individual interpretation and scene work with other students. Courses 21 and 124 are recommended as preparation. Admission is by audition at the first class meeting (see the department office or theater.ucsc.edu for more information).
An intensive immersion into the teaching techniques and actor-training originated by Sanford Meisner. Presents exercises and projects utilizing improvisation, physical activities, and, finally, memorized text. Courses 21 and 124 are recommended as preparation. Admission is by audition at the first class meeting (see the department office or theater.ucsc.edu for more information).
Intensive upper-division choreographic workshop that begins from the key motifs of historical dance to develop original work. Dancers made available to the student choreographers. Concurrent enrollment in course 139 is required.
Continues the study of an Asian or Asian diasporic dance theory and practice. Focuses on intermediate dance technique, refinement of performance expression, and creative ownership of material, alongside critical engagement with aesthetic, cultural, and/or historical context. Students are billed a materials fee.
Continued study of classical ballet theory and practice with progressions in barre, center, and across the floor exercises. Focus on contemporary ballet and critical dance studies. Emphasis on musicality, strength and coordination, and refinement in épaulement in adagio and allegro sequences. Attention to body alignment and maintaining the kinetic integrity of the body while moving through space. Students are billed a materials fee.
Continued study of contemporary dance theory and practice. Focus on intermediate dance technique, individual and group movement invention, choreographic voice, and theatrical applications. Students are billed a materials fee.
Students explore sources for movement; gain expressivity in a wide range of movement elements; work in ensemble and solos; and explore the use of scores to develop collaborative skills. Students are billed a materials fee. (Formerly Dance Improvisation and Theory.)
Advanced study, exploration, and analysis of choreographic form and content. Solo, duet, and group work are created with a focus on developing the creative process, interpreting styles and trends, and knowledge of compositional devices and generative movement practices. Enrollment by permission of instructor. May be repeated for credit. (Formerly Choreography.)
Studies in dance, taken in connection with performance in a major dance concert. Students are required to work on all aspects of the production. Students work with guest and faculty choreographers. May be repeated for credit with consent of instructor. Students are billed a materials fee. Admission by audition held late winter quarter; see department office for more information.
Studies in Asian or Asian diasporic dance theory and practice, taken in connection with performance in a major dance concert. Students are required to work on all aspects of the production. Students work with guest and faculty choreographers. Students are billed a materials fee.
Participation in a student-choreographed and directed dance concert under faculty supervision. Rehearsals culminate in public performances. Students are billed a materials fee. Auditions to be held on the first day of class.
Basic studio exploration through scene problems and exercises of the development of directing principles. Intensive work on the director's pre-rehearsal work from text selection, analysis, and casting. Audition at first class. (Formerly Future Stages.)
Intensive studio exploration of the art and craft of directing. Primary focus on text analysis, collaboration with designers, developing a point of view and visual/auditory language for the play, staging techniques, and communication techniques with actors.
Studies in theater, taken in connection with participation in a Theater Arts Department sponsored production. Enrollment is limited to those persons chosen to take part in a particular production. Admission by audition; audition schedule to be announced at first class meeting.
Studies in drama; emphasis on African American theater taken in connection with participation in a theater arts sponsored production. Enrollment by audition only, and limited to those persons chosen to take part in a particular production.
Studies in drama; emphasis on Indonesian theater taken in connection with participation in a theater arts sponsored production. Enrollment by audition only, and limited to those persons chosen to take part in a particular production.
Exploration of stage technology from the scene shop's perspective. Conversion of scenic designs to construction drawings. Pursuit of scenic-engineering and construction techniques using steel, wood, and other materials. Training on use of stage machinery: rigging, flying, wagons, tracking, and propulsion.
Covers the theory, history, and practice of performance and new media as sociopolitical intervention. Includes performance in an urban context; site-specific and street theater; puppetry; environmental theater; culture jamming, including radio, television, billboards, and records; and digital interventions. Students are billed a materials fee. (Formerly Art 175.)
Uses writing to respond to Shakespeare Santa Cruz's summer productions. Requires frequent assignments, such as reviews, interviews, performance notes, comparisons of productions, background pieces, and reflective essays. Students regularly revise work in response to instructor and peer feedback.
A process-oriented investigation of Shakespeare consisting of work which may culminate in a final production. Requires a two-quarter committment (winter and spring) with credit given in winter and touring in spring. Contact theater@ucsc.edu for details. Admission by audition at first class meeting (see department office or theater.ucsc.edu for more information). (Formerly Workshop Experiments in Performance.)
Students are given the opportunity to write their own scripts and refine them as the result of class discussion and scenework with actors. Work is on specific problems involving such elements as the structuring of a plot or the development of character.
Advanced course that provides directors, writers, and performers with an opportunity to develop new works in performance. Students enrolling in this course as playwrights are selected on basis of submissions turned in the previous quarter. Students are billed a materials fee. Students taking the course as directors are required to obtain consent of the instructor. Other students may enroll as usual.
A study, through practice, of the constituent elements in the construction of a drama. Students concentrate, in particular, on the organization of complex plots, the expression of character through conflict, and maximizing the emotional impact of dramatic situations.
An examination of the theories of acting and directing from the 19th century to our own time, starting with the classic theater and concentrating on the 20th-century debate centered in Stanislavski and Brecht, Grotowski, and Robert Wilson. This course must be taken prior to student's senior year; required for course 185.
Examines the idea of a National Theater in Ireland from its beginnings in the founding of the National Literary Society in 1892 to the current vitality of the contemporary Irish Theater.
Examines selected plays from the Renaissance (1580-1680, Italy, Spain, England, and France) from a theatrical viewpoint. Covers Renaissance theater buildings and related critical materials. (Formerly The Theater and Drama of Renaissance Europe.)
Art serves simultaneously to educate its audience to the group's traditional values and to test new ideas. Indian, Indonesian, and Japanese forms are studied in relation to their cultural context. Through videotapes, lecture demonstrations, performances, and scenework, students explore the forms.
Explores the phenomenon of mass performance--when thousand of people perform the same thing at the same time. From political festivals, such as those of the French Revolution, to flash mobs, and covering the 19th century craze of mass gymnastics as well as Olympic opening ceremonies, the course analyzes the ideas and techniques behind mass performance. Students sharpen their critical skills in analyzing performance by working with texts, videos, live performance, and archives.
Shakespeare takes life in Asian reinterpretations that revivify languishing genres, duck political censorship, and explore new theatrical worlds. Indian, Japanese, Chinese, and Southeast Asian Shakespeares (1868 to the present) are introduced via lecture, critical reading, videos, and scene work.
Exploration and analysis of the interrelationships between gender, sexuality, and performance on stage and on the page. Topics include gender and homosexuality in the history of performance and dramatic literature, drag, queer Shakespeare, closet drama, same-sex performance conditions (e.g., Greece) vs. dual-gendered (e.g., Restoration England). Combines study of theoretical texts and script with analysis and practice. (Formerly Gender and Performance.)
Covers the rise of Teatro Chicano as a cultural-political force within the 1960's Chicano Power Movement starting with founding playwriter Luis Valdez and El Teatro Campesino and covering Chicana/o playwrights inspired by the movement, e.g. Cherrie Moraga, Luis Alfaro, and Josefina Lopez.
An examination of the idea, form, and significance of queer/gay sensibility and representation in the English-speaking theater from the Renaissance to the present.
Interrelationship of ethnicity and the rise of significant American theater groups including the black theater movement, Chicano Teatro, and Asian American theater will be shared via lecture, viewing, and discussion.
The dream of group theater, a long-term partnership of actors, directors, and playwrights, has fueled extraordinary and exciting change in the 20th-century American theater theory and practice. We examine ten exemplary manifestations of this dream.
Explores female playwrights from textual, historical, and multicultural perspectives. Progresses from Trifles (1916) through the Harlem Renaissance, Broadway's Lillian Hellman, and today's post-feminist theatrical explosion in lectures, films, dramatizations, and award-winning playwrights' visits.
Examination of theory and practice of theater and film comparing and contrasting works having been adapted from one genre to another. Lecture, film, and video viewing. Discussions of materialist, psychoanalytic, and feminist approaches shared. Students cannot receive credit for this course and course 80X.
Investigates the world of experimental performance, sharpening critical skills in reading texts, videos, live performance, and archives. The focus will be on modes of performance that broke with their contemporary norms, including dance, theater, puppetry, and other gatherings.
Studies 20th- and 21st-century productions and adaptations of ancient Greek and Roman drama in theater, dance, music, and film, including Stravinsky, Graham, Pasolini, and Taymor. Discusses artists' goals, the sociopolitical context, ideas of authenticity and audience response.
Focuses on selected plays of Shakespeare. Explores the range and variety of interpretations of the plays, both in critical writings and in performance. Also studies other writings and graphic art created on the subjects and themes of the plays.
Delves into the work of Chekhov and the Moscow Art Theater. Stanislavski's acting techniques are related to the scripts through scene work. The impact on later Russian innovators, especially Meyerhold, and on the American theater is considered.
Antonin Artaud through three critical lenses: influence on modern and contemporary theater, subject and site of psychoanalytic and social criticism, and theater practitioner. Exercises cultural, historical, and analytic approaches to his work. Prerequisite: course 160 recommended.
Examines representative texts of Ibsen's work: early plays, realistic middle plays, and late plays. The cultural/historical context of Ibsen's oeuvre is considered as well as its impact, through contemporary translations and productions, on subsequent theater theory and practice.
Examines the works of the classical Athenian tragedian Euripides. The class undertakes a thorough consideration of the playwright's plays in cultural, historical, theatrical, and literary context.
A research seminar. Topics range from critical dance cultures, cognitive dance studies, problems in dance aesthetics, criticism, or theory to particular movements, periods, or the work of a choreographer. Discussions may be supplemented by a movement practice component.
An overview of 20th-century dance within the perspective of modernism. Topics may include romanticism, natural dance, Orientalism, Ausdruckstanz, U.S. modern dance and neo-classicism, chance procedure, postmodernism, the avant-garde commodity marketplace, and critical dance cultures. Discussions may be supplemented by a movement practice component.
Chronological critical and historical overview of ballet as a form of ethnic dance from its European origins to the present. Focus is on development of form in Americas and Asia as it crossed with other socio-culturally constructed categories such as race, gender, class, and sexual orientation. Discussions may be supplemented by a movement practice component.
Examines the transnational currents in expressive culture and the performing arts among the peoples of Africa and Latin America, and Latinos and African Americans in the United States.
A required seminar for majors involving readings and discussions of important texts in dance, design, and drama.
Prerequisite(s): petition required, approved by instructor and department.
Teaching a lower-division seminar under faculty supervision. (See courses 42 and 45). Petition required, approved by instructor and department.
Exposes students to an aspect of the theory or practice of theater arts. Visiting scholars share their area of expertise in lectures to a small group of students.
Exposes students to an aspect of the theory or practice of theater arts. Visiting lecturers share their area of expertise in lectures to a small group of students.
Provides for department-sponsored individual study programs off campus for which faculty supervision is not in person (e.g., supervision is by correspondence). Students engaging in field study must complete application procedures for such study by the fifth week of the previous quarter. Petition required, approved by instructor and department.
Provides for department-sponsored individual study programs off campus for which faculty supervision is not in person (e.g., supervision is by correspondence). Students engaging in field study must complete application procedures for such study by the fifth week of the previous quarter. Petition required, approved by instructor and department.
Individual study in areas approved by sponsoring instructors. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency.
Individual study in areas approved by sponsoring instructors. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency.
Participation by a graduate student in a departmental production of a play, dance concert, or other performance event under supervision of the Instructor-of-Record. Rehearsals culminate in public performance. Enrollment is restricted to graduate students and determined by audition with the instructor and in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies.
Presents a range of performance blueprints (texts, scores, libretti, etc.), and introduces key methodologies for translating text into performance. A final paper required.
Contextualizes major movement in performance. Students are exposed to a wide range of historical and visual material pertinent to the creation of theater and dance. A final paper is required.
Examines the production approaches of a range of performance practitioners, production companies, and performance traditions. Includes exercises in analysis and reconstruction of performance. A final reconstruction project is required.
Student-designed and conducted research carried out in field settings. A brief prospectus must be filed with the department office before undertaking the research, and a brief final report of activities must be filed upon return. Course intended for students with graduate standing in theater arts. Petition required, approved by instructor and department.
Directed graduate research and writing coordinated with the teaching of undergraduates. Course intended for graduate students in theater arts. Petition required, approved by instructor and department.
Internship with a professional theater company in the student's area of emphasis. This work will have a significant academic component supervised and assessed by a theater arts faculty member during the quarter it is taken. Enrollment restricted to graduate students.
Working in an experimental theater with access to new performance technologies, course explores how cross-media practice can expand on basic theatrical relationships in new and culturally relevant ways.
Peer review and constructive assessment of works in progress. Students are required to give individual presentations to the group at least once a quarter. Educational objectives are to develop the ability to articulate themes and ideas in student's body of work; to strengthen critical skills in making, evaluating, and discussing theater art; to explore the role of the audience in context and criticism; and to investigate the ways artists construct, use, and maintain support communities.
Independent study or research for graduate students in theater arts. Petition required, approved by instructor and department.
Independent study or research for graduate students in theater arts. Petition required, approved by instructor and department. Enrollment restricted to graduate students in theater arts.
Involves participation in a major collaborative performance project (either faculty-directed or graduate student-directed with faculty supervision) or a research project group. Includes a written thesis, though the length will vary depending upon the student's particular emphasis.