Courses

Spring 2024 Courses

Atelier

A Blank Page: Creativity, Collaboration, and Adaptation

ATL 494 / THR 494 · Spring 2024

C01 · Mondays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Annie Tippe · Dave Malloy

A Blank Page, taught by composer Dave Malloy and director Annie Tippe, invites playwrights, composers, directors, and performers of all levels to explore creativity and collaboration through the form of musical theater. Students will study various musicals and their source materials, in tandem with writings and exercises on creativity and collaboration, aimed toward unlocking the process of exploding source material into the musical form and onto the stage. The class will culminate in the creation of short one-act musicals, to be written, directed, and performed by the students.

Space, Time and Creation — A Theatrical Adaptation of Mr g

ATL 495 / THR 495 · Spring 2024

C01 · Mondays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Cara Reichel · Jiyoun Chang

In this course, students will creatively explore the script and investigate the novel's underlying subject matter, spanning concepts from science and moral philosophy. Guest speakers and professional guest artists will be invited to share insights on topics relevant to our process and the dramaturgy of this creative work and be a part of the creative process.

How to Write a Song

ATL 496 · Spring 2024

C01 · Tuesdays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Bridget Kearney

Taught by Bridget Kearney (Lake Street Dive) with class visits from guest singer/songwriters and music critics, this course is an introduction to the art of writing words for music, an art at the core of our literary tradition from the Beowulf poet through Lord Byron and Bessie Smith to Bob Dylan and the Notorious B.I.G.. Composers, writers and performers will have the opportunity to work in small songwriting teams to respond to such emotionally charged themes as Gratitude, Loss, Protest, Desire, Joyousness, Remorse, and Defiance.

How To Write a Monologue

ATL 497 / THR 497 · Spring 2024

C01 · Tuesdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Will Eno

Will Eno (Obie Award, Pulitzer Prize finalist) leads a workshop devoted to the study and creation of the dramatic monologue. Students will study various monologues to understand and reaffirm the very simple idea behind all of them: I'm trying to talk to you. Every other week we'll be joined by a specialist from outside the realm of theater and creative writing—a psychologist, philosopher, provocateur—to help us realize the challenges and possibilities of the form from their unique viewpoint. The aim is that these different perspectives inspire us in wild new directions while we grow in our understanding of ancient truths.

Performing Marivaux

ATL 498 / FRE 498 / THR 498 · Spring 2024

C01 · Thursdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Florent Masse

The Atelier "Performing Marivaux" will offer students the rare chance to work with celebrated French director and playwright Guillaume Vincent, known in France for revisiting the classics. The course will be co-taught by Guillaume Vincent and Florent Masse, the Director of L'Avant-Scène, the French Theater Workshop.

Creative Writing

Introductory Fiction

CWR 204 · Spring 2024

Multiple sections offered

Instructors: Ed Park · Idra Novey · Jack Livings · Jenny McPhee · Lynn Steger Strong · Morgan Jerkins · Megha Majumdar

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.

Literary Translation

CWR 206 / COM 315 / TRA 206 · Spring 2024

C01 · Mondays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Ilya Kaminsky

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.

Creative Nonfiction: The Act of Immersion: Reporting Deeply on the Lives of Others

JRN 240 / CWR 240 · Spring 2024

S01 — Andrea Elliott · Thursdays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Staff

The most powerful journalism transports readers into foreign terrain with depth, nuance and intimate knowledge, allowing them to steep in the worlds of other people. This is the product of immersive reporting, a high-wire act of journalism that is as challenging as it is rewarding. In this course, we will explore both the virtues and limits of immersion, tackling questions about the purpose, ethics and practice of deep reportage. Students will learn first-hand how to immerse, building skills in observation, interviewing tactics, and story structure, while producing a final work of narrative nonfiction.

Advanced Poetry

CWR 302 · Spring 2024

Multiple sections offered

Instructors: Katie Farris · Kathleen Ossip

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 Fiction

CWR 304 · Spring 2024

Multiple sections offered

Instructors: A.M. Homes · Jack Livings

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.

Playwriting II: Intermediate Playwriting

THR 305 / CWR 309 · Spring 2024

S01 · Thursdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Lloyd Suh

A continuation of work begun in Introductory Playwriting, in this class, students will complete either one full-length play or two long one-acts (40-60 pages) to the end of gaining a firmer understanding of characterization, dialogue, structure, and the playwriting process. In addition to questions of craft, an emphasis will be placed on the formation of healthy creative habits and the sharpening of critical and analytical skills through reading and responding to work of both fellow students and contemporary playwrights of note.

Advanced Literary Translation

CWR 306 / TRA 314 / COM 356 · Spring 2024

C01 · Mondays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Ilya Kaminsky

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.

Writing from Life

CWR 310 · Spring 2024

C01 · Mondays, 1:30-3:20 PM

Instructors: Zoe K. Heller

What motivates us to write about our own lives? What is the relationship between the ‘I’ who experiences and the ‘I’ who writes? What are our moral obligations to the people we write about? In this workshop, we will consider different approaches to writing about the people, places and events that have formed us.

Short Screenwriting: A Visual-Temporal Approach

CWR 347 / VIS 340 · Spring 2024

C01 · Wednesdays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Moon Molson

This course will introduce students to the foundational principles and techniques of screenwriting, taking into account the practical considerations of film production. 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.

Advanced Screenwriting: Writing for Television

CWR 405 / VIS 405 · Spring 2024

C01 · Thursdays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Susanna Styron

This advanced screenwriting workshop will introduce students to the fundamental elements of developing and writing a TV series. Students will develop critical thinking skills by watching television pilots, reading pilot episodes, and engaging in in-depth discussion about story, character, structure, tone, dialogue, and other aspects of visual storytelling.

Dance

Black Performance Theory

THR 203 / AAS 204 / DAN 203 / GSS 378 · Spring 2024

S01 · Mondays + Wednesdays, 11 AM - 12:20 PM

Instructors: Rhaisa Williams

We will explore the foundations of black performance theory, drawing from the fields of performance studies, theater, dance, and black studies. Using methods of ethnography, archival studies, and black theatrical and dance paradigms, we will learn how scholars and artists imagine, complicate, and manifest various forms of blackness across time and space. In particular, we will focus on blackness as both lived experience and as a mode of theoretical inquiry.

The American Experience and Dance Practices of the African Diaspora

DAN 211 / AAS 211 · Spring 2024

U01 · Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Dyane Harvey-Salaam

A studio course introducing students to American dance aesthetics and practices, with a focus on how its evolution has been influenced by African American 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.

Stillness

DAN 221 / THR 222 · Spring 2024

U01 · Fridays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Aynsley Vandenbroucke

In a universe filled with movement, how and why and where might we find relative stillness? What are the unique aesthetic, political, and daily life possibilities while school as we know it is on pause? We’ll dance, sit, question, and create practices and projects. We’ll play with movement within stillness, stillness within movement, stillness in performance and in performers' minds. We’ll look at stillness as protest and power. We’ll wonder when stillness might be an abdication of responsibility. We'll read widely within religions, philosophy, performance, disability studies, social justice, visual art, sound (and silence).

Introduction to Breaking: Deciphering its Power

DAN 225 · Spring 2024

U01 · Tuesdays + Thursdays, 2:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Raphael Xavier

This introductory course gives equal weight to scholarly study and embodied practice, using both approaches to explore the flow, power and cultural contexts of Breaking.

Choreography Studio

DAN 317 · Spring 2024

U01 · Fridays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Rashaun Mitchell · Silas Riener

This seminar is designed for junior students pursuing the minor in dance to investigate current dance practices and ideas. Part study and discussion of the processes, aesthetics and politics involved in dance making and viewing — part independent creative practice and critique — this course invites students to a deeper understanding of their own art making perspectives and to those of their classmates.

Introduction to Vortex: A Sacred Dance Practice

DAN 326 · Spring 2024

U01 · Tuesdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Christopher “Unpezverde” Núñez

A vortex is known as the rotating, whirling or circular motion of fluid around a common centerline. Through history, humans have drawn on the principles of the vortex to induce a trance state, an altered form of consciousness, and psychospiritual embodiment. This course will explore our ancestry in understanding sacred trance dance practices in the tradition of western theatrical dance and its connection to identity, creativity, and community. Students will work with the original cast of Núñez's choreography The Circle or The Prophetic Dream, to reimagine the choreographic material that they will perform as a final project in an open studio.

Site: Place in Art, Performance and Dance

DAN 327 / VIS 327 · Spring 2024

U01 · Tuesdays, 12:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Colleen Asper · Rebecca Lazier

Whether referred to as site-specific, site-responsive, or site-engaged, site is understood in interlocking and distinct ways in visual art, dance and across performance. Through the bisecting lenses of dance and visual art, this course will examine site-based work in land art, environmental and ecological art, urban intervention, community engaged practices, and public art.

The Ceremony is You

MUS 344 / DAN 380 / VIS 380 / THR 380 · Spring 2024

C01 · Mondays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: yuniya edi kwon

An exploration of ritual and ceremony as creative, interdisciplinary spaces imbued with intention and connected to personal and cultural histories. A broadening and deepening of knowledge around historical and contemporary ritual, ceremonial, and community-building practices of queer and trans artist communities from around the world, with a deeper focus on the extraordinary history of the queer trans shamans of early 20th century Korea.

Movement and Light: Interaction and Process of Design and Choreography

DAN 370 / THR 370 · Spring 2024

U01 · Wednesdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Susan Marshall · Tess James

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 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.

Dance, Theater, and Popular Culture

DAN 375 / THR 375 · Spring 2024

U01 · Mondays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Raja Feather Kelly

This course offers a dynamic exploration of the intersection between dance theater and popular culture. Bridging the realms of artistic expression and societal influence, students will embark on a multidisciplinary journey that spans historical, cultural, and performative landscapes. Through a fusion of theory, practice, and critical analysis, participants will gain a profound understanding of how dance theatre has both shaped and been shaped by popular culture, from the early 20th century to the present day.

Building Physical Literacies: Practices in Contemporary Dance

DAN 401 · Spring 2024

U01 · Tuesdays, Wednesdays + Thursdays 4:30 - 6:20 PM

Instructors: Davalois Fearon · Rebecca Lazier

This advanced studio course compares practices and performance methods of diverse approaches to the body and community in contemporary dance. Through a comparative embodied approach, students will train intensively with a rotating faculty to develop physical research built on a synthesis of experiences. The course exposes students to leading developments in improvisation and choreography and examines their philosophical, cultural and physiological underpinnings.

Approaches to Ballet: Technique and Repertory

DAN 431 · Spring 2024

C01 · Monday, Wednesday + Thursday 4:30 - 6:20 PM

Instructors: Tina Fehlandt

A studio course in Classical and Contemporary Ballet technique for advanced dancers, with explorations into neoclassical and contemporary choreography through readings, viewings, and the learning of and creation of repertory.

Theater & Music Theater

Introduction to Theater Making

THR 101 / MTD 101 · Spring 2024

C01 · Mondays + Wednesdays, 11:00 AM - 12:20 PM

Instructors: Aaron Landsman · Shariffa Ali

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 plays, music theater pieces and ensemble theater works.

Beginning Studies in Acting

THR 201 · Spring 2024

U01 · Mondays, 1:30-4:20 PM and Wednesdays, 2:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Vivia Font

An introduction to the craft of acting. Emphasis will be placed on honesty, spontaneity, and establishing a personal connection with the substance of the material.

Black Performance Theory

THR 203 / AAS 204 / DAN 203 / GSS 378 · Spring 2024

S01 · Mondays + Wednesdays, 11 AM - 12:20 PM

Instructors: Rhaisa Williams

We will explore the foundations of black performance theory, drawing from the fields of performance studies, theater, dance, and black studies. Using methods of ethnography, archival studies, and black theatrical and dance paradigms, we will learn how scholars and artists imagine, complicate, and manifest various forms of blackness across time and space. In particular, we will focus on blackness as both lived experience and as a mode of theoretical inquiry.

Introductory Playwriting

THR 205 / CWR 210 · Spring 2024

C01 · Wednesdays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Sylvia Khoury

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.

The Musical — Past, Present, and Future

MTD 217 / MUS 217 · Spring 2024

S01 · Thursdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Solon Snider Sway

What is a musical and why should we care? As performers, writers, designers, theater fanatics, or simply pop culture consumers, we are touched by musicals every day. Reaching millions of people, this uniquely collaborative and expansive form continuously shapes our world. Students will explore the history of the American musical and develop tools to analyze musicals and their reception.

Stillness

DAN 221 / THR 222 · Spring 2024

U01 · Fridays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Aynsley Vandenbroucke

In a universe filled with movement, how and why and where might we find relative stillness? What are the unique aesthetic, political, and daily life possibilities while school as we know it is on pause? We’ll dance, sit, question, and create practices and projects. We’ll play with movement within stillness, stillness within movement, stillness in performance and in performers' minds. We’ll look at stillness as protest and power. We’ll wonder when stillness might be an abdication of responsibility. We'll read widely within religions, philosophy, performance, disability studies, social justice, visual art, sound (and silence).

Introduction to Physical Performance

THR 233 · Spring 2024

U01 · Tuesdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Yuval Boim

This course introduces students to physical acting techniques, which unleash playfulness and expand expressive potential in performance.

Special Topics in STEM: Making Art from Science

THR 299 / STC 299 · Spring 2024

C01 · Mondays & Wednesdays, 11 AM - 12:20 PM

Instructors: Vivia Font

This course is a collaboration between science and creative expression. Students will develop an understanding of the fundamental role that microbes (viruses, bacteria, and other microorganisms) have played in environmental stability and human evolution. We will then explore the impact of microbes on climate change and discuss innovation and solutions. Concurrently, we will be exploring various forms of creative expression (writing, movement, improvisation, image making, etc.), with which to playfully observe, meditate and communicate the scientific material.

Acting, Being, Doing, and Making: Introduction to Performance Studies

THR 300 / COM 359 / ENG 373 / ANT 359 · Spring 2024

C01 · Mondays + Wednesdays, 3:00 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Rhaisa Williams

A hands-on approach to this interdisciplinary field. We will apply key readings in performance theory to space and time-based events, at sites ranging from theatre, experimental art, and film, to community celebrations, sport events, and restaurant dining.

Playwriting II: Intermediate Playwriting

THR 305 / CWR 309 · Spring 2024

S01 · Thursdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Lloyd Suh

A continuation of work begun in Introductory Playwriting, in this class, students will complete either one full-length play or two long one-acts (40-60 pages) to the end of gaining a firmer understanding of characterization, dialogue, structure, and the playwriting process. In addition to questions of craft, an emphasis will be placed on the formation of healthy creative habits and the sharpening of critical and analytical skills through reading and responding to work of both fellow students and contemporary playwrights of note.

Lighting Design

THR 318 / MTD 318 / VIS 318 · Spring 2024

U01 · Mondays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Jane Cox

An introduction to the art and craft of lighting design for the stage and an exploration of light as a medium for expression. Students will develop an ability to observe lighting in the world and on the stage; to learn to make lighting choices based on text, space, research, and their own responses; to practice being creative, responsive and communicative under pressure and in company; to prepare well to create under pressure using the designer's visual toolbox; and to play well with others-working creatively and communicating with directors, writers, performers, fellow designers, the crew and others.

Latinx Shakespeares: Bilingual Responses to the Bard

COM 336 / TRA 366 / THR 379 · Spring 2024

S01 - Robin Kello · Thursdays, 7:30-10:20 PM

Instructors: Staff

What happens when we mix Shakespeare with modern Spanish-language theater? This course places issues of migration and legacies of imperialism in conversation with Shakespeare and Shakespearean adaptations, appropriations, confrontations, and allusive riffs in the present day.

The Ceremony is You

MUS 344 / DAN 380 / VIS 380 / THR 380 · Spring 2024

C01 · Mondays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: yuniya edi kwon

An exploration of ritual and ceremony as creative, interdisciplinary spaces imbued with intention and connected to personal and cultural histories. A broadening and deepening of knowledge around historical and contemporary ritual, ceremonial, and community-building practices of queer and trans artist communities from around the world, with a deeper focus on the extraordinary history of the queer trans shamans of early 20th century Korea.

Xulgaria: Music, Theatre and Contemporary Ritual Practice

MUS 348 / THR 378 · Spring 2024

S01 · Mondays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Kamara Thomas

This class will mount a developmental performance of the musical story-work "Xulgaria" inside an intensive ensemble setting. We will research classic Greek choruses and the Eleusinian Mystery rites and explore diaphonic singing. We will use multidisciplinary practices- theatre, experimental movement, symbol-making and more—to explore global mythologies of the "underworld" and devise performance and ritual that can provide a community container for discussing issues around mental health and healing

The Craft of Teaching — Community Focused Pedagogy for Artists and Performers

THR 351 / TPP 351 · Spring 2024

U01 · Fridays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Chesney Snow

How do you apply your creative skills and artistry to different educational settings? Using the example of prisons, specialized schools and community-based organizations, lecturer and veteran teaching artist Chesney Snow will guide students through studying and practicing the craft of teaching artistry. Students will understand the history of teaching artistry and how it fits into the structures of today's educational systems and society as well as understanding best practices in the development of teaching artist pedagogy and classroom management.

Arts in the Invisible City: Race, Policy, Performance

HUM 352 / URB 352 / ENG 252 / THR 360 · Spring 2024

S01 — D. Vance Smith · Fridays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Staff

In this community-engaged class, students will be invited to learn about the dynamic history and role of the arts in Trenton through conversations with local artists and activists. Students will develop close listening skills with oral historian/artist Nyssa Chow. Readings include texts about urban invisibility, race, decoloniality, and public arts policy. Students will participate in the development of a virtual memorial and restorative project by Trenton artist Bentrice Jusu.

Movement and Light: Interaction and Process of Design and Choreography

DAN 370 / THR 370 · Spring 2024

U01 · Wednesdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Susan Marshall · Tess James

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 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.

Dance, Theater, and Popular Culture

DAN 375 / THR 375 · Spring 2024

U01 · Mondays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Raja Feather Kelly

This course offers a dynamic exploration of the intersection between dance theater and popular culture. Bridging the realms of artistic expression and societal influence, students will embark on a multidisciplinary journey that spans historical, cultural, and performative landscapes. Through a fusion of theory, practice, and critical analysis, participants will gain a profound understanding of how dance theatre has both shaped and been shaped by popular culture, from the early 20th century to the present day.

Restaging and Rewriting The Greeks

THR 376 / COM 385 / HLS 385 / ENG 276 · Spring 2024

S01 · Mondays + Wednesdays 11:00 AM - 12:20 PM

Instructors: Michael Cadden

This course explores how the drama of ancient Athens is restaged and rewritten for today's audiences. Students will read plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes to confront the interpretative and performative challenges they offer on the page and on the stage—as well as the opportunities they provide contemporary playwrights to speak to the present moment

Stories for a Changing Planet

THR 386 / ENV 386 · Spring 2024

C01 · Mondays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Khristián E. Méndez Aguirre · Steve Cosson

This course explores how dramatic storytelling shapes our responses to environmental issues. Led by two instructors, it blends documentary-based theater and Ecodramaturgical approaches to create narratives that stage environmental injustice.

Democratizing Culture

FRE 392 / THR 397 · Spring 2024

C01 · Wednesdays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Florent Masse

Democratizing Culture will look at the initiatives by French cultural institutions to democratize culture and make their offerings more accessible to everyone. During spring break, we will travel to France to have a first-hand experience and assessment of these cultural policies and meet with government officials and arts institutions' directors.

Theater Making Studio

THR 402 / MTD 402 · Spring 2024

U01 · Wednesdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Jane Cox · Shariffa Ali

This theater making studio is intended to support students creating theatrical projects, at Princeton and beyond, in a time of seismic change in our field. We'll address your creative process and collaborative skills, develop inclusive practices and support your growth as visual storytellers and critical thinkers.

Theater Rehearsal and Performance

THR 451 / MTD 451 · Spring 2024

U01 · Thursdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Elena Araoz · Tess James

This course will be an exploration, rehearsals and performances of a play with a small number of characters in it, directed by Elena Araoz, leading to performances.

A Blank Page: Creativity, Collaboration, and Adaptation

ATL 494 / THR 494 · Spring 2024

C01 · Mondays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Annie Tippe · Dave Malloy

A Blank Page, taught by composer Dave Malloy and director Annie Tippe, invites playwrights, composers, directors, and performers of all levels to explore creativity and collaboration through the form of musical theater. Students will study various musicals and their source materials, in tandem with writings and exercises on creativity and collaboration, aimed toward unlocking the process of exploding source material into the musical form and onto the stage. The class will culminate in the creation of short one-act musicals, to be written, directed, and performed by the students.

Space, Time and Creation — A Theatrical Adaptation of Mr g

ATL 495 / THR 495 · Spring 2024

C01 · Mondays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Cara Reichel · Jiyoun Chang

In this course, students will creatively explore the script and investigate the novel's underlying subject matter, spanning concepts from science and moral philosophy. Guest speakers and professional guest artists will be invited to share insights on topics relevant to our process and the dramaturgy of this creative work and be a part of the creative process.

How To Write a Monologue

ATL 497 / THR 497 · Spring 2024

C01 · Tuesdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Will Eno

Will Eno (Obie Award, Pulitzer Prize finalist) leads a workshop devoted to the study and creation of the dramatic monologue. Students will study various monologues to understand and reaffirm the very simple idea behind all of them: I'm trying to talk to you. Every other week we'll be joined by a specialist from outside the realm of theater and creative writing—a psychologist, philosopher, provocateur—to help us realize the challenges and possibilities of the form from their unique viewpoint. The aim is that these different perspectives inspire us in wild new directions while we grow in our understanding of ancient truths.

Performing Marivaux

ATL 498 / FRE 498 / THR 498 · Spring 2024

C01 · Thursdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Florent Masse

The Atelier "Performing Marivaux" will offer students the rare chance to work with celebrated French director and playwright Guillaume Vincent, known in France for revisiting the classics. The course will be co-taught by Guillaume Vincent and Florent Masse, the Director of L'Avant-Scène, the French Theater Workshop.

Visual Arts

Drawing I

VIS 202 / ARC 202 · Spring 2024

U01 · Tuesdays, 12:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Lex Brown

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.

Painting I

VIS 204 / ARC 328 · Spring 2024

U01 · Tuesdays, 12:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Pam Lins

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.

Graphic Design: Link

VIS 208 · Spring 2024

U01 · Tuesdays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Laurel Schwulst

In this introductory studio course, participants explore the world wide web as an opportunity for self-publishing.

Analog Photography

VIS 211 · Spring 2024

C01 · Mondays, 12:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Deana Lawson

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 goal of this course is to make art, and by doing so, understand the necessity for the invention of photography.

Digital Photography

VIS 213 · Spring 2024

C01 · Thursdays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Staff

This studio course introduces students to the aesthetic and theoretical implications of digital photography. Emphasis will be on gaining competency with digital equipment and editing techniques so that students can learn to express themselves and their ideas through the medium.

Graphic Design: Circulation

VIS 217 · Spring 2024

U01 · Tuesdays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: David Reinfurt

The practice of graphic design relies on the existence of networks for distributing multiple copies of identical things. Students in this course will consider the ways in which a graphic design object's characteristics are affected by its ability to be copied and shared, and by the environment in which it is intended to circulate.

Digital Animation

VIS 220 · Spring 2024

S01 · Wednesdays, 12:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Tim Szetela

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.

Sculpture I

VIS 222 · Spring 2024

U01 · Thursdays, 12:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Amy Yao

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.

Archives Of Justice: Black, Queer, Immigrant Stories Unsilenced

VIS 233 / AAS 233 · Spring 2024

S01 · Tuesdays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Medhin Paolos

The "truths" found in traditional archives are incomplete: books and mainstream film productions are often biased; silences and omissions enter every level of archive-making and historical production. Students will engage in the critical analysis of the historical relationship between race, diaspora, and citizenship as they appear in film, media, and cultural productions.

Narrative Filmmaking I

VIS 265 · Spring 2024

Multiple sections offered

Instructors: Moon Molson

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.

Topics in German Film History and Theory: Regimes of Spectacle in Weimar Cinema

GER 308 / ART 383 / ECS 308 / VIS 317 · Spring 2024

Multiple sections offered

Instructors: Staff

How do films structure values and desires? What is propaganda? Is there a politics of narration? These and other deeply contemporary questions of media history and theory will be explored through an interdisciplinary interrogation of key works of expressionist, documentary, proletarian, avant-garde, queer, horror, and paranoid-thriller cinema (both silent and sound) produced in Germany during the Weimar Republic (1918-1933).

Printmaking I

VIS 309 · Spring 2024

C01 · Mondays, 12:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Daniel Heyman

In a digital world, this course promotes hand-made printed images. Students will examine two kinds of printmaking: relief and intaglio. To make images that matter, students will learn to cut blocks, fashion stencils, plan and execute color layers, etch and drypoint copper plates, and understand the range of mark making possibilities available in printmaking.

Fascism in Italian Cinema

ITA 312 / VIS 445 · Spring 2024

Multiple sections offered

Instructors: Staff

This course, conducted in English, is a study of Fascism through selected films from World War II to the present. Topics include: the concept of Fascist normality; Racial Laws; the role of women and homosexuals; colonialism; and the opposition of the intellectual left.

Intermediate Photography

VIS 313 · Spring 2024

C01 · Wednesdays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Staff

This course will examine photography's impact and evolving technologies. Students will work with analog and digital media to broaden photographic strategies, technical skills, and understanding how a photograph’s material form influences how it is understood. A range of tools will be introduced, including camera operation, darkroom printing, Photoshop image management tools, and inkjet printing.

Lighting Design

THR 318 / MTD 318 / VIS 318 · Spring 2024

U01 · Mondays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Jane Cox

An introduction to the art and craft of lighting design for the stage and an exploration of light as a medium for expression. Students will develop an ability to observe lighting in the world and on the stage; to learn to make lighting choices based on text, space, research, and their own responses; to practice being creative, responsive and communicative under pressure and in company; to prepare well to create under pressure using the designer's visual toolbox; and to play well with others-working creatively and communicating with directors, writers, performers, fellow designers, the crew and others.

The Visible Wild

VIS 324 / ENV 312 · Spring 2024

C01 · Tuesdays, 12:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Jeff Whetstone

Students will learn techniques of wildlife surveillance photography using remote cameras to photograph animal populations on and around Princeton's campus. The photographs and apparatus will be considered as both ecological research and works of art.

Site: Place in Art, Performance and Dance

DAN 327 / VIS 327 · Spring 2024

U01 · Tuesdays, 12:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Colleen Asper · Rebecca Lazier

Whether referred to as site-specific, site-responsive, or site-engaged, site is understood in interlocking and distinct ways in visual art, dance and across performance. Through the bisecting lenses of dance and visual art, this course will examine site-based work in land art, environmental and ecological art, urban intervention, community engaged practices, and public art.

Ceramic Sculpture

VIS 331 · Spring 2024

U01 · Fridays, 12:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Amy Yao

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.

The Ceremony is You

MUS 344 / DAN 380 / VIS 380 / THR 380 · Spring 2024

C01 · Mondays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: yuniya edi kwon

An exploration of ritual and ceremony as creative, interdisciplinary spaces imbued with intention and connected to personal and cultural histories. A broadening and deepening of knowledge around historical and contemporary ritual, ceremonial, and community-building practices of queer and trans artist communities from around the world, with a deeper focus on the extraordinary history of the queer trans shamans of early 20th century Korea.

Short Screenwriting: A Visual-Temporal Approach

CWR 347 / VIS 340 · Spring 2024

C01 · Wednesdays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Moon Molson

This course will introduce students to the foundational principles and techniques of screenwriting, taking into account the practical considerations of film production. 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.

Documentary Filmmaking II

VIS 363 · Spring 2024

C01 · Tuesdays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt

There are unlimited ways in which to record and portray the world around us. In this class, we will analyze classic and contemporary strategies for making a documentary film, and see if we can invent some new ones of our own.

Painting II

VIS 404 · Spring 2024

U01 · Wednesdays, 12:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Colleen Asper

This class will focus on how contemporary painting considers the human figure. Portraits without people, the selfie, imagined figures, forgotten figures, fragmented figures, figures from our lives, abstract figures, cyborgs, crowds, and composite figures will be considered within a structure of exploratory painterly approaches. This class will not focus on "how to" paint the figure. No experience painting the figure is necessary.

Advanced Screenwriting: Writing for Television

CWR 405 / VIS 405 · Spring 2024

C01 · Thursdays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Susanna Styron

This advanced screenwriting workshop will introduce students to the fundamental elements of developing and writing a TV series. Students will develop critical thinking skills by watching television pilots, reading pilot episodes, and engaging in in-depth discussion about story, character, structure, tone, dialogue, and other aspects of visual storytelling.

Drawing II

VIS 407 · Spring 2024

U01 · Tuesdays, 12:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Troy Michie

This course focuses on the development of various approaches in observational drawing from the human figure.

Advanced Questions in Photography

VIS 411 · Spring 2024

C01 · Tuesdays, 12:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Deana Lawson

Advanced Questions in Photography will examine ways in which lens-based media can interrogate representation, class, gender and race. The class will look artists of the 1960's through 1990's such as Eleanor Antin, Adrian Piper, Douglas Huebler, Martha Rosler, Barbara Kruger, Carrie Mae Weems, Felix Gonzales Torres, Lyle Ashton Harris and more recent artists Trevor Paglen, Hank Willis Thomas, Jason Lazarus, Walead Beshty and Hito Steyerl.

Advanced Graphic Design

VIS 415 · Spring 2024

U01 · Mondays, 12:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: David Reinfurt

This studio course builds on the skills and concepts of the 200-level Graphic Design classes. VIS 415 is structured around three studio assignments that connect graphic design to other bodies of knowledge, aesthetic experience, and scholarship. The class always takes a local concept or event as the impetus for investigations. The course will explore information design and visual problem solving specifically for electronic media.

Spring Film Seminar

VIS 419 · Spring 2024

S01 · Mondays, 7:30-10:20 PM

Instructors: Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt

This class concentrates on the editing process. Students will re-edit samples from narrative and documentary films and analyze the results. We will also critique ongoing edits of your own thesis films. This course will give you a better understanding of how many ways there are to approach and solve the puzzle of editing a film.

Sculpture II

VIS 421 · Spring 2024

U01 · Tuesdays, 12:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Martha Friedman

This sculpture class will engage contemporary approaches to the figure with an emphasis on the figure as body. Students will take a multivalent approach to the historical precedents from which current representations have emerged and explore the limits of what constitutes the body and figuration in contemporary sculpture through the process of class discussions and making sculpture.

Black: The Chromapolitics of Darkness, Shadow, and Light/Life

VIS 423 / ART 426 · Spring 2024

S01 · Tuesdays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Tina Campt

"Chromapolitics" challenges us to consider color as neither arbitrary nor neutral, but instead deeply enmeshed in powerful social and cultural dynamics. Structured around creative and collaborative student responses to the work of Black, Latinx and Indigenous artists and thinkers this seminar asks students to reexamine their own use and understanding of color by focusing on the resonances and intensities of the color black and adjacent dark tonalities such as browns, blues, and violets, as well as how shadow, night, and negative space register both in the work of artists and theorists of visual culture and in their experience as makers.

How to be Undisciplined

EGR 473 / VIS 473 / ENT 473 · Spring 2024

U01 - Lucy Partman · Tuesdays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Staff

This course is about developing the urgent skills of connecting, systems thinking, and designing innovations informed by a broad understanding of human experiences.

Music

The Musical — Past, Present, and Future

MTD 217 / MUS 217 · Spring 2024

S01 · Thursdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Solon Snider Sway

What is a musical and why should we care? As performers, writers, designers, theater fanatics, or simply pop culture consumers, we are touched by musicals every day. Reaching millions of people, this uniquely collaborative and expansive form continuously shapes our world. Students will explore the history of the American musical and develop tools to analyze musicals and their reception.

The Ceremony is You

MUS 344 / DAN 380 / VIS 380 / THR 380 · Spring 2024

C01 · Mondays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: yuniya edi kwon

An exploration of ritual and ceremony as creative, interdisciplinary spaces imbued with intention and connected to personal and cultural histories. A broadening and deepening of knowledge around historical and contemporary ritual, ceremonial, and community-building practices of queer and trans artist communities from around the world, with a deeper focus on the extraordinary history of the queer trans shamans of early 20th century Korea.

Xulgaria: Music, Theatre and Contemporary Ritual Practice

MUS 348 / THR 378 · Spring 2024

S01 · Mondays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Kamara Thomas

This class will mount a developmental performance of the musical story-work "Xulgaria" inside an intensive ensemble setting. We will research classic Greek choruses and the Eleusinian Mystery rites and explore diaphonic singing. We will use multidisciplinary practices- theatre, experimental movement, symbol-making and more—to explore global mythologies of the "underworld" and devise performance and ritual that can provide a community container for discussing issues around mental health and healing