Fall 2025 Courses

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Led by critically acclaimed comedy writer Albert Samuels and co-taught by accomplished current comedy writers/producers, students will participate in the in-process television pitch, finalizing concept, script, using concepts and exercises honed by the cutting-edge improvisational comedy group Baby Wants Candy. Guests from the TV comedy industry will visit class for in-depth Q&As. By the end of the semester, BWC will have a pitch package to present to Netflix, Amazon, Comedy Central and other networks/outlets. Students will also develop their own television concepts.

Practice in the original composition of poetry supplemented by the reading and analysis of standard works. Criticism by practicing writers and talented peers encourages the student’s growth as both creator and reader of literature.

The curriculum allows the student to develop writing skills, provides an introduction to the possibilities of contemporary literature and offers a perspective on the place of literature among the liberal arts. Criticism by practicing writers and talented peers encourages the student's growth as both creator and reader of literature.

This is a workshop in the fundamentals of writing plays. Through writing prompts, exercises, study and reflection, students will be guided in the creation of original dramatic material. Attention will be given to character, structure, dramatic action, monologue, dialogue, language and behavior.

Students will choose, early in the semester, one author to focus on in fiction, poetry, or drama, with the goal of arriving at a 20-25 page sample of the author's work. All work will be translated into English and discussed in a workshop format.

This studio course introduces students to graphic design with a particular emphasis on typography. Students learn typographic history through lectures that highlight major shifts in print technologies. Class readings provide the raw material for a sequence of hands-on typesetting exercises which punctuate the class weekly. Metal letterpress typesetting, photo-typesetting, and digital typesetting will be covered through online demonstration sessions. This semester, the class may also further explore the typographic future by engaging and designing novel electronic text entry interfaces and decoding a fictional alien typography.

Advanced practice in the original composition of poetry for discussion in regularly scheduled workshop meetings. The curriculum allows the student to develop writing skills, provides an introduction to the possibilities of contemporary literature and offers perspective on the places of literature among the liberal arts.

Advanced practice in the original composition of fiction for discussion in regularly scheduled workshop meetings. The curriculum allows the student to develop writing skills, provides an introduction to the possibilities of contemporary literature and offers perspective on the place of literature among the liberal arts.

Students will choose, early in the semester, one author to focus on in fiction, poetry, or drama, with the goal of arriving at a 20-25 page sample of the author's work. All work will be translated into English and discussed in a workshop format.

This course will explore the materiality of language: the many ways that language can have weight and objects can be "read." Through studio assignments, readings, presentations, and discussions, students will investigate the idea of language as a tangible material that can be cut, bent, painted, reproduced, animated, and scattered, as in the work of such modern poets and artists as the Noigandres Group, Marcel Broodthaers, Jenny Holzer, Adrian Piper, and Ed Ruscha. In each instance, both our perception of meaning through language and our haptic experience of materials is altered through its engagement with the other—and with the reader.

This course will introduce students to core screenwriting principles and techniques. Questions of thematic cohesiveness, plot construction, logical cause and effect, character behavior, dialogue, genre consistency and pace will be explored as students gain confidence in the form by completing a number of short screenplays. The course will illustrate and analyze the power of visual storytelling to communicate a story to an audience, and will guide students to create texts that serve as "blueprints" for emotionally powerful and immersive visual experiences. Final portfolio will include one short exercise and two short screenplays.

How does a screenwriter, organize and develop the ideas that will form a feature narrative script? In this class, students will become familiar with feature film structure, plot evolution, character development, scene shaping and dialogue, and effective techniques for achieving the complex visual and emotional rhythm required by compelling narrative scripts. Moving from their initial idea to outline and scene formation while analyzing examples of classic and contemporary films, students will tackle the unique challenges and opportunities of crafting a feature length screenplay.

A studio course introducing students to African dance practices and aesthetics, with a focus on how its evolution has influenced American and African American culture, choreographers, and dancers. An ongoing study of movement practices from traditional African dances and those of the African Diaspora, touching on American jazz dance, modern dance, and American ballet. Studio work will be complemented by readings, video viewings, guest speakers, and dance studies. Coursework will require cultural analysis to examine how people interpret meaning within and across cultures.

This course offers a broad, embodied introduction to the breadth of contemporary dance. We will be moving, reading, watching, and writing about dance. Contemporary issues, such as Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ rights, immigration, and American exceptionalism will be viewed through the lens of contemporary dance. We will try on the styles of essential creators in the field in an effort to understand their POV. We will create work ourselves (no experience necessary) to learn about the expressive and communicative potential of dance. We will be moving and meditating to release tension, increase personal awareness, and boost authenticity.

This course introduces students to human anatomy using movement, drawing, and dance practices. We will study the structure and function of the body from an interdisciplinary perspective, with a focus on relationships between cognition, the nervous system and movement. Class time will be shared between anatomy/kinesiology lectures and exploring the material through experiential and creative activities. We will discuss common problems encountered in fitness and every day life, while looking at the human structure in depth to evaluate possible solutions. Creative and research projects explore multiple ways the arts and sciences intersect.

In this studio course students learn and perform historically significant dance works or perform works that are created for and with them by a range of prominent choreographers. In the choreography precept, students create, perform, and discuss works weekly, practicing a variety of approaches to collaboration, improvisation, experimentation, analytical viewing, and the shaping of choreographic questions. Two performances form the culmination of the course: one is a fully produced program of dances in the Berlind Theatre and the other is a choreographic showing in the Hearst Theater.

What is the shared vocabulary of Movement and Light? How do we think about quality, timing, scale and form in both choreography and design? In this studio course we will explore light and movement to better understand how these elements inform each other in the creation of interdisciplinary and collaborative work. Students will take on the roles of both designer and choreographer, they will develop communications skills across artistic disciplines and question traditional power structures in their making process. This is a hands-on course with an emphasis on creating, revision, communication and collaboration across disciplines and cultures.

Introduction to Theater Making is a working laboratory, which gives students hands-on experience with theater's fundamental building blocks—writing, design, acting, directing, and producing. Throughout the semester, students read, watch and discuss five different theater works. We will analyze how these plays and events are constructed and investigate their social and political implications. In-class artistic responses provide hands-on exploration as students work in groups to create and rehearse performances inspired by our course texts.

This course develops skills needed to successfully approach all acting styles and centers the actor as a lead creative artist. We will concentrate on how the voice, body, and imagination can build a performance. The goal is fluency in these tools, stronger stage presence, and collaborative rehearsal skills. Each class is made up of individual and ensemble-based physical and vocal exercises to bolster creative thinking and to ready the body and voice for performance. We will find inspiration in readings and short performance texts. Students will leave the semester with a strong foundation for further acting courses or projects in all genres.

This is a workshop in the fundamentals of writing plays. Through writing prompts, exercises, study and reflection, students will be guided in the creation of original dramatic material. Attention will be given to character, structure, dramatic action, monologue, dialogue, language and behavior.

FRE/THR 211 will offer students the opportunity to put their language skills in motion by exploring French theater and acting in French. The course will introduce students to acting techniques while allowing them to discover the richness of the French dramatic canon. Particular emphasis will be placed on improving students' speaking skills through pronunciation and diction exercises. At the end of the semester, the course will culminate in the presentation of the students' work.

The first half of Shakespeare's career, with a focus on the great comedies and histories of the 1590s, culminating in a study of Hamlet.

An exploration of theatrical sound design and engineering, this class will explore sound for both theater and music theater. We will investigate text from the point of view of sound, and learn how to communicate the ideas, palette and arc of a design to others. We will explore developing a creative process and turning our ideas into sounds that can be used onstage.

This course immerses students in the dynamic world of South African physical theatre. Through full-body training, improvisation, and ensemble work, students explore movement as protest, storytelling, and community-building. Inspired by Lecoq's teachings of the four core elements namely Earth, Air, Fire and Water; we will dive into building a performance vocabulary based on gesture, rhythm, and space. Students create original performances, using the body as the primary text, culminating in a showcase of devised physical theatre work.

What is the shared vocabulary of Movement and Light? How do we think about quality, timing, scale and form in both choreography and design? In this studio course we will explore light and movement to better understand how these elements inform each other in the creation of interdisciplinary and collaborative work. Students will take on the roles of both designer and choreographer, they will develop communications skills across artistic disciplines and question traditional power structures in their making process. This is a hands-on course with an emphasis on creating, revision, communication and collaboration across disciplines and cultures.

Plays produced in the United States from the second-wave feminist movement of the 1960s to the Black Lives Matter Movement of the 2010s, we will identify and analyze various themes, approaches, and concerns within feminist plays. Employing script and dramaturgical analyses and performance techniques, students will learn how to contextualize plays from the race, gender, class, sexuality, and politics of the playwright and contextualize plays within their larger historical, social, and cultural milieus. In doing so, students will learn about the different lineages, politics, and aesthetics of feminist theatre.

This course offers an exploration of visual storytelling, research and dramaturgy, combined with a grounding in the practical, collaborative and inclusive skills necessary to create physical environments for live theater making. Students are mentored as designers, directors or project creators on realized projects in our theaters, or on advanced paper projects. Individualized class plans allow students to imagine physical environments for realized and un-realized productions, depending on their area of interest, experience and skill level. Students will see one or two shows off campus, typically in NYC, during the course of the semester.

This upper-level course will delve into the creation of new musical works for the stage, with an emphasis on music as an essential dramatic language. Students will explore the fundamentals of musical theater songwriting, as well as authentic musical theater writing processes including collaboration, adaptation, developing original story concepts, capturing musical ideas, engaging in dramaturgical discussions, sharing and receiving constructive criticism, rewriting, and presenting in-progress work. Following an introductory unit, students will utilize skills they are developing in class to create, workshop, and share a 3-person mini-musical.

Students will work with professional director Nikoo Mamdoohi and scholar Q-Mars Haeri in exploration and rehearsals towards performances of Mohammed Yaghoubi's play A Moment of Silence. The play investigates the impact of the Iranian revolution through the imagination of a writer and charts the recent history of the country through the lives of young people. Performing roles will be cast through Try On Theater process.

The great thing about drawing is you can do it anywhere! This course approaches drawing as a way of thinking and seeing. We'll introduce basic techniques while also encouraging experimentation, with a focus on both drawing from life and drawing as an expressive act. Students will be introduced to the basics of line, shading, proportion, composition, texture and gesture. You'll also maintain a drawing journal, and use it as a regular space for observation and personal expression. Through exposure to a variety of mediums and techniques, you'll gain the skills and confidence necessary to develop an individual final project of your choosing.

An introduction to the materials and methods of painting, addressing form and light, color and its interaction, composition, scale, texture and gesture. Students will experiment with subject matter including still life, landscape, architecture, self-portraiture and abstraction, while painting from a variety of sources: life, sketches, maquettes, collages, photographs and imagination. Students will progressively develop personal imagery that will inform an individual final project. Princeton will provide all materials for the painting class.

An introduction to the processes of photography through a series of problems directed toward lens projection, the handling of light-sensitive material, and camera operation. The processes will begin with cyanotypes and culminate with large format film exposure and processing, and printing. These processes trace the origins of photography. Final projects will examine new potentials in photographic expression including images that hybridize analog and digital interfaces. The goal of this course is to make art, and by doing so, understand the necessity for the invention of photography.

This studio course introduces students to graphic design with a particular emphasis on typography. Students learn typographic history through lectures that highlight major shifts in print technologies. Class readings provide the raw material for a sequence of hands-on typesetting exercises which punctuate the class weekly. Metal letterpress typesetting, photo-typesetting, and digital typesetting will be covered through online demonstration sessions. This semester, the class may also further explore the typographic future by engaging and designing novel electronic text entry interfaces and decoding a fictional alien typography.

This course introduces students to techniques for decoding and creating graphic messages in a variety of media, and delves into issues related to visual literacy through the hands-on making and analysis of graphic form. Graphic design relies on mastering the subtle manipulation of abstract shapes and developing sensitivity to the relationships between them. Students are exposed to graphics from the late 19th-century to the present in slide lectures. Studio assignments and group critique will foster an individual ability to realize sophisticated forms and motivate these towards carrying specific meanings.

This studio course engages students in the decoding of and formal experimentation with the image as a two-dimensional surface. Through projects, readings, and discussions, students take a hands-on approach to making with an array of technologies (the camera, video camera, computer, solar printing, web publishing) and forms (billboard, symbol, screensaver, book) to address the most basic principles of design, such as visual metaphor, composition, sequence, hierarchy, and scale.

This studio production class will engage in a variety of timed-based composition, visualization, and storytelling techniques. Students will learn foundational methods of 2D animation, acquire a working knowledge of digital animation software and technology, and explore the connective space between sound, image, and motion possible in animated film. Screenings, discussions, and critiques will relate student work to the history and practice of animation and to other media, art, and design forms.

This class will be a studio introduction to sculpture, with particular emphasis on the study of how form, space, and a wide variety of materials and processes influence the visual properties of sculpture and the making of meaning. A balance of indoor, outdoor, and/or transient assignments will lead to the development of an understanding of contemporary sculpture, as well as basic technical facility with found objects, common materials, natural earthworks, ergonomics, and three-dimensional design.

This will be a creative studio course dedicated to the unrivaled experience of making things. Throughout the history of sculpture is a repressed history of "craft," a term that refers, often pejoratively, to objects skillfully made out of wood, metal, ceramics, reeds, dried pasta, textiles, or glass. Students in this class will engage in a selection of these techniques to make craft objects that critically examine the distinctions made between them and what we call "sculpture." Inherent to these investigations will be a critical examination of craft as well, how it's traditions and techniques might also be questioned and made new.

Students will create objects inspired by nature and its encompassing myths through learning sculptural techniques and forms. Studying sacred sites, paranormal locations, plants, formations of canyons, and more - students will learn from ancient narratives to present and future topographies. Artworks made will reflect in unique inquiry and stewardship of natural surroundings thinking critically and poetically about the relationship to land, water and the environment. Students will learn tools in the woodshop and basic metal work. Guest artist visits and field trips will support in expanding ideas in relation to art, myths, and nature.

This interdisciplinary studio class will explore the deployment of beauty across a range of disciplines, using the flower as our guiding symbol. The flower is an image often cited as universal, but slippery in its meanings and interpretations in practice. Tracing the image and material use of flowers in poetry, sculpture, performance, and political movements through a series of critiques, in-class experiments, lecturers from visiting artists, and field trips, we will consider how to wield beauty intentionally, incisively, and effectively—and what we can learn from failures to do so.

In this class, students will make a short (5-10 minutes) film directly inspired by the genre of the vampire film. Students may make a short narrative vampire film, a video essay about one of the vampire films screened in class, an abstract/conceptual/experimental/self-reflexive art film that riffs on the idea of the vampire (for example, re-edit scenes from existing films into a narrative about vampires with fabricated sound design and narration).

An introduction to narrative and avant-garde narrative film production through the creation of hands-on digital video exercises, short film screenings, critical readings, and group critiques. This course teaches the basic tools and techniques for storytelling with digital media by providing technical instruction in camera operation, nonlinear editing, and sound design paired with the conceptual frameworks of shot design, visual composition, film grammar and cinema syntax.

This course will explore the materiality of language: the many ways that language can have weight and objects can be "read." Through studio assignments, readings, presentations, and discussions, students will investigate the idea of language as a tangible material that can be cut, bent, painted, reproduced, animated, and scattered, as in the work of such modern poets and artists as the Noigandres Group, Marcel Broodthaers, Jenny Holzer, Adrian Piper, and Ed Ruscha. In each instance, both our perception of meaning through language and our haptic experience of materials is altered through its engagement with the other—and with the reader.

Notes on Color is a digital photography class that will address color photography, both analogue and digital, with the aim of unpacking and understanding the profound aesthetic and material sway over our habits of vision and culture color photography exerts. Beginning with the 19th century's two foundational texts on color theory for artists, Goethe's "Theory of Color" and Michel-Eugène Chevreul's "Principles of Color Harmony and Contrast," Notes on Color will explore how color transformed painting and photography from 1850 to the present.

This course is designed for students who are interested in learning the fundamentals of working with clay. A wide variety of hand-building will be taught, enabling students to make utilitarian vessels as well as sculptural forms. Students will learn about glazing and colored engobe application methods and how to operate electric and gas kilns. Studio work will be complemented by readings, field trips, and slide presentations.

This course will introduce students to core screenwriting principles and techniques. Questions of thematic cohesiveness, plot construction, logical cause and effect, character behavior, dialogue, genre consistency and pace will be explored as students gain confidence in the form by completing a number of short screenplays. The course will illustrate and analyze the power of visual storytelling to communicate a story to an audience, and will guide students to create texts that serve as "blueprints" for emotionally powerful and immersive visual experiences. Final portfolio will include one short exercise and two short screenplays.

An intermediate exploration of narrative and avant-garde narrative film production through the creation of hands-on digital video exercises, short film screenings, critical readings, and group critiques. This course picks up where Narrative Filmmaking I left off, expanding on the basic tools and techniques for storytelling with digital media by providing further technical instruction in camera operation, nonlinear editing, dialogue recording, and sound mixing paired with the conceptual frameworks of point of view (narrative stance), master shot technique, performance, and blocking.

A required seminar for Art and Archaeology Practice of Art majors and Program in Visual Arts minor students emphasizing contemporary art practices and ideas. The course addresses current issues in painting, drawing, sculpture, film, video, photography, performance and installation. It includes readings and discussions of current contemporary art topics, a visiting artist lecture series, critiques of students' work, and an artist book project.

This course offers an exploration of visual storytelling, research and dramaturgy, combined with a grounding in the practical, collaborative and inclusive skills necessary to create physical environments for live theater making. Students are mentored as designers, directors or project creators on realized projects in our theaters, or on advanced paper projects. Individualized class plans allow students to imagine physical environments for realized and un-realized productions, depending on their area of interest, experience and skill level. Students will see one or two shows off campus, typically in NYC, during the course of the semester.

How does a screenwriter, organize and develop the ideas that will form a feature narrative script? In this class, students will become familiar with feature film structure, plot evolution, character development, scene shaping and dialogue, and effective techniques for achieving the complex visual and emotional rhythm required by compelling narrative scripts. Moving from their initial idea to outline and scene formation while analyzing examples of classic and contemporary films, students will tackle the unique challenges and opportunities of crafting a feature length screenplay.

The structure of Senior Exhibition Issues and Methods is to create a conversation and vision for, and in regards to and around your Senior Thesis. The nature of the class is somewhat informal and conversational, with the majority of class time being for student studio presentations and visiting artists lectures.

This advanced sculpture course is a deep dive into material, form, and space, challenging students to reimagine how sculpture expresses ideas. Through inventive experimentation, hands-on making, and critical dialogue, students push past traditional boundaries to discover new possibilities. They will expand their technical skill set, working with diverse materials and processes to refine their craftsmanship. Drawing from historical and contemporary influences, they'll develop their artistic voice and create a body of work that is ambitious, thought-provoking, and uniquely their own.

This seminar explores the radical possibilities of artistic composition that emerge through collaborative approaches to creative expression. This semester, the course will be structured around the instructor's methodology for "listening to images" and what it means to approach visual art and culture by way of sound and sonic attunement. Combining collaborative and individual assignments focused on the work of Black contemporary artists, the course encourages students to pool their respective artistic and intellectual expertise and embrace collaboration as a crucial framework for producing innovative scholarly and creative work.

Students will investigate ceramics in relation to the archive through numerous studio-based projects, museum visits, historical precedents, and understanding contemporary ceramics as a serious artistic pursuit. Ceramics serves as an ideal archival material and therefore has been a record of time and place over thousands of years. Students will research source material from the history of ceramics, and by creating their own personal archives. Student projects include analysis of bricks as universal symbols of the grid, image in ceramics, ornament and narrative in historical vessels, and using clay as a meaningful record of the body.

This upper-level course will delve into the creation of new musical works for the stage, with an emphasis on music as an essential dramatic language. Students will explore the fundamentals of musical theater songwriting, as well as authentic musical theater writing processes including collaboration, adaptation, developing original story concepts, capturing musical ideas, engaging in dramaturgical discussions, sharing and receiving constructive criticism, rewriting, and presenting in-progress work. Following an introductory unit, students will utilize skills they are developing in class to create, workshop, and share a 3-person mini-musical.