Theater & Music Theater Courses

Theater & Music Theater

intermediate playwriting

Playwriting II: Intermediate Playwriting

THR 305 · Spring 2016

S01 - Anne Washburn · Mondays 1:30 - 4:20 pm

Instructors: Anne Washburn

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.

Staging Identity: Strategies for Surviving the American Stage

AMS 314 / LAO 314 / THR 324 · Spring 2016

S01 - Jorge Cortinas · Mondays 1:30 - 4:20 pm

Instructors: Jorge Cortiñas

This course maps some benefits and perils of theater made for, by, or about people of color in the United States. We will investigate the difficult-to-theorize and contested space between politics and artistic craft.

Lighting Design

THR 318 / VIS 318 · Spring 2016

C01 - Jane Cox · Wednesdays 12:30 - 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.

scenic design

Scenic Design

THR 319 / VIS 319 · Spring 2016

S01 · Mondays 12:30 - 4:20 pm

Instructors: Riccardo Hernandez

An introduction to the art and craft of scenic design for the stage and and exploration of the use of space as a medium of textual interpretation.

Sound Design

THR 320 / MUS 313 · Spring 2016

S01 - Robert Kaplowitz · Mondays 1:30 - 4:20 pm

Instructors: Robert Kaplowitz

An opportunity to explore what theatrical sound design is, how to look at a text from the point of view of sound, how to launch your creative process, and how to take the ideas based on that creative process and turn them into sounds to be used in a show.

Violence as a Metaphor: The 1916 Rising in Dublin

ENG 324 / THR 328 · Spring 2016

S01 - Fintan O'Toole · Tuesdays 1:30 - 4:20 pm

Instructors: Fintan O'Toole

A hundred years ago, an armed group of Irish nationalist rebels took over public buildings in Dublin, declared a Republic and held out for a week against the British army. After those leaders were executed, the Rising was embraced as a ritual of sacrifice, the most effective piece of public theater yet staged. In this course we look at what happened in Easter Week, 1916, how it was imagined at the time and how it was later reflected in drama, in poetry and in fiction.

Locked Up: The Theatre, Literature and Cinema of Coercive Confinement in Ireland

THR 327 / ENG 337 · Spring 2016

C01 - Fintan O'Toole · Wednesdays 1:30 - 4:20 pm

Instructors: Fintan O'Toole

From the 1920s until the 1950s Ireland locked up people who did not fit the state's desired image in a vast complex of institutions. In this course we consider how this system was reflected in plays, fiction and film, sometimes in direct testimony by survivors, sometimes in the most surprising ways.

picket line

Movements for Diversity in American Theater

THR 332 / AMS 346 / GSS 342 / AAS 322 · Spring 2016

S01 · Wednesdays, 1:30 - 4:20 p.m.

Instructors: Brian Herrera

In this course, we undertake a critical, creative and historical overview of agitation and advocacy by theater artist-activists aiming to transform American theatre-making and determine the ways diversity is (and is not) a guiding principle of contemporary American theater.

The Nature of Theatrical Reinvention

THR 334 · Spring 2016

S01 - John Doyle · Mondays 7:30 - 10:20 pm

Instructors: John Doyle

This seminar explores how iconic pieces of theatre can be re-explored for modern audiences. The course will examine various aspects of how an artist can think out-of-the-box and the mechanisms the artist can use to do so.

Community-Based Performance

THR 337 · Spring 2016

C01 - Erica Nagel · Fridays 1:30 - 4:20 pm

Instructors: Erica Nagel

This hands-on seminar will explore contemporary theories and practices of community-based performance, investigating contemporary theatre, dance, and music groups that use these methods.

Re:Staging the Greeks

THR 365 / HLS 365 · Spring 2016

S01 · Tuesdays, 12:30 - 2:20 pm Fridays, 12:30 - 4:20 pm

Instructors: Bryan Doerries

A collaboration between the Theater Program of the Lewis Center for the Arts and the Program in Hellenic Studies: an acting/directing workshop investigating how to stage ancient Greek plays on the contemporary stage.

times square

History of American Popular Entertainments

AMS 381 / GSS 379 / THR 383 / LAO 381 · Spring 2016

L01 - Brian Herrera · Mondays & Wednesdays, 11:00 - 11:50 am

Instructors: Brian Herrera

This course investigates the history of popular entertainments in the United States from the colonial era to the present.

Plays & Politics

ENG 382 / THR 382 · Spring 2016

Instructors: Mara Isaacs · Tamsen Wolff

This course addresses when and why producing political theatre matters. We will look specifically at contemporary and canonical plays from around the globe that take on various political crises (e.g., the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, Chile under Pinochet, the Liberian Civil War, the Arab Spring).

The “Peer” Review

ATL 494 / THR 494 · Spring 2016

S01 · Mondays, 1:30 - 4:20 pm Location TBA

Instructors: John Doyle

This course is a practical examination of Henrik Ibsen's epic play "Peer Gynt". Through close examination of scenes from the play, the internationally acclaimed director John Doyle aims to develop a new adaptation.