Courses

Spring 2020 Courses

Atelier

Baby Wants Candy: Creating Comedy for Television

ATL 494 / VIS 494 / CWR 494 / THR 494 · Spring 2020

C01 · Wednesdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Al Samuels · Zach Zimmerman

In this course, led by critically acclaimed comedy writer Albert Samuels, students will participate in the in-process television pitch used by Samuels' cutting-edge improvisation group, Baby Wants Candy, including finalizing concept and script and developing a strong pitch. By the end of the semester, BWC will have a finished pitch package the group will present to Netflix, Amazon, Comedy Central and other networks/outlets. Students will develop their own original television concepts in groups and individually and also create shorter material - e.g., desk bits for late night shows, online content, etc.

The Understor(e)y: Suspension, Movement, Space

ATL 495 / DAN 495 / VIS 495 · Spring 2020

C01 · Mondays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Janet Echelman · Jess Rowland · Rebecca Lazier · Sigrid Adriaenssens

Choreographer Rebecca Lazier, visual artist Janet Echelman, engineer Sigrid Adriaenssens, and sound artist Jess Rowland come together with students in a unique collaboration inspired by the activity in the understory, the hovering layer beneath a forest's canopy. They will create textile sculpture installations that will activate, and be activated by, movement and sound. Students will explore historical works that merge visual, choreographic, and sonic forms and examine intersections of architecture, engineering, and artistic practices. Themes of transcending boundaries and disorientation will unfold within suspended sculptural environments.

Creative Writing

Introduction to Art Making

LCA 101 · Spring 2020

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

Instructors: Boris Fishman · Daniel Heyman · Ruth Ochs · Shariffa Ali · Stacy Wolf · Olivier Tarpaga · Tess James

How do artists make art? How do we evaluate it? In this course, students of all levels get to experience firsthand the particular challenges and rewards of art making through practical engagement with five fields — creative writing, visual art, theater, dance, and music — under the guidance of professionals.

The American Dream: Visions and Subversions in American Literature

FRS 176 · Spring 2020

S01 · Wednesdays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Joyce Carol Oates

“The American Dream: Visions and Subversions” will explore, primarily in American literature, themes of individual and cultural identity from 19th century texts (by Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry James, Mark Twain, Kate Chopin) through 20th century texts (by Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Faulkner, James Baldwin, Flannery O’Connor) and 21st century fiction (by Jhumpa Lahiri, Lorrie Moore, Junot Diaz, Ha Jin among others).

Introductory Fiction

CWR 204 · Spring 2020

Multiple sections offered

Instructors: Aleksandar Hemon · Daphne Kalotay · A.M. Homes · Kirstin Valdez Quade · Mark Doten · Yiyun Li

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 / TRA 206 / COM 215 · Spring 2020

C01 - Jhumpa Lahiri · Wednesdays, 9:00-10:50 AM

Instructors: Jhumpa Lahiri

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. Weekly readings and will focus on the comparison of pre-existing translations as well as commentaries on the art and pratice of literary translation.

Creative Nonfiction

JRN 240 / CWR 240 · Spring 2020

S01 · Mondays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Staff

This is a course in factual writing and what has become known as literary non-fiction, emphasizing writing and including several reading assignments from the work of John McPhee and others. Enrollment is limited to 16 second-year students, by application only.

Advanced Poetry

CWR 302 · Spring 2020

Multiple sections offered

Instructors: Monica Youn · Tracy K. Smith

Advanced practice in the original composition of poetry for discussion in regularly scheduled workshop meetings.

Advanced Fiction

CWR 304 · Spring 2020

C01 - A.M. Homes · Wednesdays, 9:00-10:50 AM

Instructors: A.M. Homes

Advanced practice in the original composition of fiction for discussion in regularly scheduled workshop meetings.

Playwriting II: Intermediate Playwriting

THR 305 / CWR 309 · Spring 2020

S01 · Tuesdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Nathan Davis

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 / COM 356 · Spring 2020

C01 - Jhumpa Lahiri · Wednesdays, 9:00-10:50 AM

Instructors: Jhumpa Lahiri

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. Weekly readings and will focus on the comparison of pre-existing translations as well as commentaries on the art and practice of literary translation.

Life is Short, Art is Really Short

CWR 315 · Spring 2020

C01 - James Richardson · Mondays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: James Richardson

All literature is short — compared to our lives, anyway — but we'll be concentrating on poetry and prose at their very shortest. The reading will include proverbs, aphorisms, greguerias, one-line poems, riddles, jokes, fragments, haiku, epigrams and microlyrics. Imagism, contemporary shortists, prose poems, various longer works assembled from small pieces, and possibly even flash fiction.

Oral History: The Art of Listening and Translation

CWR 318 · Spring 2020

C01 - Nyssa Chow · Mondays, 1:30-3:50 PM

Instructors: Nyssa Chow

How do we craft narrative from the material of another person's life? We will look at the oral history interview as an act of spontaneous literature - one that contains both the individual story, and the larger history.

Words as Objects

VIS 321 / CWR 321 · Spring 2020

C01 - Joe Scanlan · Wednesdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Joe Scanlan

This course will explore ways that language can take on material properties and how objects can have syntax and be “read.” Through studio assignments, readings, and discussions, students will investigate the idea of language as a tangible material that can be sliced, bent, inserted, reproduced, embedded, and scattered.

Screenwriting I: Short Screenwriting for Filmmakers

CWR 347 / VIS 340 · Spring 2020

C01 · Wednesdays, 1:30-3:50 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. 

Introduction to Screenwriting: Writing for a Global Audience

CWR 349 / VIS 349 · Spring 2020

C01 · Wednesdays, 1:30-3:50 PM

Instructors: Christina Lazaridi

How can screenwriters prepare for the evolving challenges of our global media world? What types of content, as well as form, will emerging technologies make possible? Do fields like neuroscience help us understand the universal principals behind screenwriting and do tech advances that alter the distance between audience and creator, man and machine, also influence content of our stories?

Advanced Fiction: Imitating Italians

CWR 352 / ITA 352 · Spring 2020

C01 · Tuesdays, 2:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Jhumpa Lahiri

A reading-based advanced fiction workshop designed to introduce students to the practice of imitation as a point of creative departure. Reading the works of a series of twentieth-century Italian masters — Ginzburg, Lampedeusa, Levi, Morante, among others — we will analyze a range of techniques and styles and focus our discussion on themes of linguistic crossing and hybrid identity. All readings will be in translation from the recently published Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories edited by Jhumpa Lahiri. Italian concentrators and certificate students will read the stories and produce all written work in Italian.

Advanced Screenwriting: Writing for Television

CWR 405 / VIS 405 · Spring 2020

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 in the current “golden age of television.” Students will watch television pilots, read pilot episodes, and engage in in-depth discussion about story, series engine, character, structure, tone and season arcs. Each student will formulate and pitch an original series idea, and complete the first draft of the pilot episode and season arcs by end of semester.

Theatrical Writing Studio

THR 406 / CWR 406 / ENG 250 / MTD 406 · Spring 2020

S01 - Robert Sandberg/Tamsen Wolff · Fridays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Robert N. Sandberg · Tamsen Wolff

A workshop course designed to support advanced student theater and music theater writers in exploring possible performance of their writing. Students will investigate their writing with a focus on collaboration, performance and production. Individualized creative assignments will be suggested for each student. Students will be introduced to methodologies for producing new works and for theatrical collaboration, and will discuss the writer's point of view in the rehearsal room, physical staging, working with performers and character development, and exploring visual storytelling.

Baby Wants Candy: Creating Comedy for Television

ATL 494 / VIS 494 / CWR 494 / THR 494 · Spring 2020

C01 · Wednesdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Al Samuels · Zach Zimmerman

In this course, led by critically acclaimed comedy writer Albert Samuels, students will participate in the in-process television pitch used by Samuels' cutting-edge improvisation group, Baby Wants Candy, including finalizing concept and script and developing a strong pitch. By the end of the semester, BWC will have a finished pitch package the group will present to Netflix, Amazon, Comedy Central and other networks/outlets. Students will develop their own original television concepts in groups and individually and also create shorter material - e.g., desk bits for late night shows, online content, etc.

Dance

Introduction to Art Making

LCA 101 · Spring 2020

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

Instructors: Boris Fishman · Daniel Heyman · Ruth Ochs · Shariffa Ali · Stacy Wolf · Olivier Tarpaga · Tess James

How do artists make art? How do we evaluate it? In this course, students of all levels get to experience firsthand the particular challenges and rewards of art making through practical engagement with five fields — creative writing, visual art, theater, dance, and music — under the guidance of professionals.

The Radical Imagination

FRS 144 · Spring 2020

FRS 144 · Mondays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Jaamil Olawale Kosoko

How does the use of one’s imagination spark social and systemic change in the world? What does it mean to devote one's life to this kind of work? Blurring the lines between the creative and political experience, students will be introduced to the radical contemporary practices that interdisciplinary artists use to build creative, impactful lives.

Body and Language

DAN 208 / THR 208 · Spring 2020

C01 · Thursdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Aynsley Vandenbroucke

In this studio course open to all, we will: dive into experiences in which body and language meet; think about these from aesthetic, cultural, political, personal, and philosophical perspectives; play with the physicality of voice and the material qualities of words and sentences; look for literary structures in movement; explore language from, in, around, and about (our) bodies; question hierarchies between body and language; deliberately lose ourselves in situations in which words fail or fall away; move and create together using tools from dance, theater, visual art, improvisation, writing, and somatic practices.

The American Experience and Dance Practices of the African Diaspora

DAN 211 / AAS 211 · Spring 2020

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. Studio work will be complemented by readings, video viewings, guest speakers, and dance studies.

Introduction to Contemporary Dance

DAN 213 · Spring 2020

U01 · Mondays and Wednesdays, 12:30 - 2:20 PM

Instructors: Alexandra Beller

Designed for students with minimal dance experience who are curious about contemporary dance techniques and choreography. Perfect for students who have taken other intro level dance courses and who want to broaden their dance knowledge and deepen their physical skill and experience.

Stillness

DAN 221 / THR 222 · Spring 2020

U01 · Wednesdays, 2:30-4:20 PM and Fridays, 1:30-3:20 PM

Instructors: Aynsley Vandenbroucke

In a universe filled with movement, how and why and where might we find relative stillness? What are the aesthetic, political, and daily life possibilities within stillness? In this studio course open to all, we'll dance, sit, question, and create substantial final 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 Hip-Hop Dance

DAN 222 / AAS 222 · Spring 2020

Multiple sections offered

Instructors: Joseph Schloss · Raphael Xavier

This introductory survey course gives equal weight to scholarly study and embodied practice, using both approaches to explore a range of hip-hop dance techniques, as well as the cultural and historical contexts from which these dances emerged. Special attention will be given to breaking – the most prominent hip-hop form – as a foundation for exploring other forms of movement. By critically exploring these physical and historical connections, individuals will adapt and apply their own philosophies to dance in order to develop a personalized style.

Introduction to Breaking: Deciphering its Power

DAN 225 · Spring 2020

U01 · Mondays and Wednesdays, 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. This course will focus on developing a clear foundational Breaking technique in order to build a strong basis for exploring other Hip-Hop forms. By critically exploring this form physically and historically, individuals will adapt and apply their own philosophies to dance in order to eventually develop a personalized style.

Dance in Education: Dance/Theater Pedagogy

DAN 316 / THR 328 / HUM 317 / TPP 316 · Spring 2020

S01 · Fridays, 10:00 AM - 12:50 PM

Instructors: Rebecca Stenn

Dance/Theater Pedagogy Seminar explores the connection between engaged dance and elementary school literacy, mathematics and social studies while allowing students the opportunity to be civically engaged and contribute to the community.

Contemporary Dance – Issues and Processes

DAN 317 · Spring 2020

U01 · Fridays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Rebecca Lazier

This seminar is designed for junior dance certificate students 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.

Special Topics in Dance History, Criticism, and Aesthetics: Mobilizing Bodies/Dancing the State

DAN 321 / AMS 328 · Spring 2020

S01 · Thursdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Judith Hamera

Dance is an under-recognized political tool despite the use of performance to project national identity and soft power on the global stage. It also offers strategies for choreographing state initiatives and protest. This course investigates dance as both a state and a resistant practice of mobilization and identity construction. Forms studied include hula, Soviet ballet, modern dance during WWII and the Cold War, and others.

The Politics of Hip-Hop Dance

DAN 323 / AAS 308 / LAO 323 · Spring 2020

S01 · Tuesdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Joseph Schloss

Hip-Hop is one of the most important cultural movements of the last half-century. But although hip-hop culture comprises a wide range of artistic practices – including music, dance, theater and graphic arts – its cultural politics are almost always analyzed through the lens of rap music. This seminar, by contrast, will explore the social and historical implications of hip-hop culture through its dance forms.

How to Build a Ballet from Archival Sources

MUS 326 / DAN 313 · Spring 2020

S01 · Thursdays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Sergey Konaev

The seminar is dedicated to the reconstruction of ballets of the 19th century with emphasis on Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. Our task is to understand the composition and staging of a select group of ballets from the essential primary source materials, both those that reflect the work of 19th century balletmasters (Saint-Leon, Bournonville, Gansen, and Petipa) and the institutions with which they were affiliated.

The Reverence and Violence of Modern Dance

DAN 348 / AMS 349 / GSS 418 · Spring 2020

U01 · Tuesdays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Netta Yerushalmy

This hybrid studio/seminar course progresses in two tracks: one of embodied movement practices and the other of theoretico-historical critique. The canon of modern dance — arguably an American trajectory — is the source material for our interdisciplinary work. We will mimic and examine landmark choreographies in order to explore foundational tenets of modern art and modernity at large. Ableism and nihilism, sovereignty and sexuality, race and gender, are some of the themes that we will face along the path of analyzing the work of Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey, Bob Fosse, Merce Cunningham, George Balanchine, and Vaclav Nijinsky.

Performance as Art

VIS 354 / DAN 354 / THR 354 · Spring 2020

U01 · Mondays, 12:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Colleen Asper

This studio class will explore a broad range of approaches to art-based performance: from instruction pieces and happenings/events, the body as language and gestures, to various forms of lecture performance.

Anatomical Approaches to Contemporary Dance

DAN 402 · Spring 2020

U01 · Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 4:30-6:20 PM

Instructors: Sasha Welsh

In this advanced studio course, dancers will study experiential anatomy in conversation with a variety of approaches to contemporary dance. Students will train in Contact Improvisation, experimental J-Sette, and repertory by Lar Lubovitch and Robert Battle. Students will explore relationships between scientific information, aesthetic priorities, training goals, and creative practices. We'll consider ways of optimizing movement drawn from somatic and conditioning techniques such as Pilates, neuromuscular patterning, PNF, and visualization. Drawing and journaling will clarify personal goals and understanding of movement capacities.

Approaches to Ballet: Technique and Repertory

DAN 431 · Spring 2020

C01 · Monday, Wednesday, and 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.

The Understor(e)y: Suspension, Movement, Space

ATL 495 / DAN 495 / VIS 495 · Spring 2020

C01 · Mondays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Janet Echelman · Jess Rowland · Rebecca Lazier · Sigrid Adriaenssens

Choreographer Rebecca Lazier, visual artist Janet Echelman, engineer Sigrid Adriaenssens, and sound artist Jess Rowland come together with students in a unique collaboration inspired by the activity in the understory, the hovering layer beneath a forest's canopy. They will create textile sculpture installations that will activate, and be activated by, movement and sound. Students will explore historical works that merge visual, choreographic, and sonic forms and examine intersections of architecture, engineering, and artistic practices. Themes of transcending boundaries and disorientation will unfold within suspended sculptural environments.

Lewis Center

Introduction to Art Making

LCA 101 · Spring 2020

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

Instructors: Boris Fishman · Daniel Heyman · Ruth Ochs · Shariffa Ali · Stacy Wolf · Olivier Tarpaga · Tess James

How do artists make art? How do we evaluate it? In this course, students of all levels get to experience firsthand the particular challenges and rewards of art making through practical engagement with five fields — creative writing, visual art, theater, dance, and music — under the guidance of professionals.

Music Theater

Introduction to Art Making

LCA 101 · Spring 2020

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

Instructors: Boris Fishman · Daniel Heyman · Ruth Ochs · Shariffa Ali · Stacy Wolf · Olivier Tarpaga · Tess James

How do artists make art? How do we evaluate it? In this course, students of all levels get to experience firsthand the particular challenges and rewards of art making through practical engagement with five fields — creative writing, visual art, theater, dance, and music — under the guidance of professionals.

Introduction to Set and Costume Design

THR 213 / MTD 213 / VIS 210 · Spring 2020

C01 - Sarita Fellows/Rachel Hauck · Wednesdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Rachel Hauck · Sarita Fellows

This course introduces students to set and costume design for performance, exploring theater as a visual medium. Students will develop their ability to think about the physical environment (including clothing) as key components of story-telling and our understanding of human experience. Students will expand their vocabulary for discussing the visual world and work on their collaborative skills.

Sound Design

THR 320 / MTD 320 · Spring 2020

S01 - Robert Kaplowitz and Jessica Paz · Mondays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Jessica Paz · Robert Kaplowitz

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.

American Musical Theatre: History and Practice

THR 348 / MTD 348 · Spring 2020

S01 · Mondays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: John Doyle

This course will explore the history and practice of musical theatre. Starting with the American musical's roots in minstrelsy and burlesque, the class will continue with Show Boat, the musicals of Rodgers & Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, and contemporary shows. Alongside the history of the musical, students will learn about the musical and theatrical tools of the genre, with an emphasis on directing and acting.

Isn’t It Romantic? The Broadway Musical from Rodgers and Hammerstein to Sondheim

AMS 365 / MTD 365 / GSS 365 / ENG 365 · Spring 2020

L01 - Stacy Wolf · Tuesdays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Stacy Wolf

Song. Dance. Man. Woman. These are the basic components of the Broadway musical theatre. How have musical theatre artists, composers, lyricists, librettists, directors, choreographers, and designers worked with these building blocks to create this quintessentially American form of art and entertainment? This course will explore conventional and resistant performances of gender and sexuality in the Broadway musical since the 1940s. Why are musicals structured by love and romance?

Theatrical Writing Studio

THR 406 / CWR 406 / ENG 250 / MTD 406 · Spring 2020

S01 - Robert Sandberg/Tamsen Wolff · Fridays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Robert N. Sandberg · Tamsen Wolff

A workshop course designed to support advanced student theater and music theater writers in exploring possible performance of their writing. Students will investigate their writing with a focus on collaboration, performance and production. Individualized creative assignments will be suggested for each student. Students will be introduced to methodologies for producing new works and for theatrical collaboration, and will discuss the writer's point of view in the rehearsal room, physical staging, working with performers and character development, and exploring visual storytelling.

50th Anniversary of Undergraduate Co-Education Theater Project

THR 407 / MTD 407 · Spring 2020

C01 · Fridays, 12:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Suzanne Agins

This course is designed to provide students with the experience of doing social and historical research in the service of creating theatrical content, in collaboration with alumnae artists, around the fiftieth anniversary of undergraduate co-education at Princeton. Students will be paired with working artist alumnae, and together will begin research at the university archives, and be led in historical research and social analysis studying the lives of women who graduated from Princeton in the early years of undergraduate co-education.

Theater Rehearsal and Performance

THR 451 / MTD 451 · Spring 2020

Multiple sections offered

Instructors: César Alvarez · Elena Araoz · Seonjae Kim

This course provides students with a rigorous and challenging experience of creating theater under near-professional circumstances. A faculty or visiting professional director will lead the process. This involves an extensive rehearsal and technical rehearsal period, requiring more time than a typical student production. Students cast in the show or taking on major production roles such as stage manager or designer will receive course credit.

Theater & Music Theater

Introduction to Art Making

LCA 101 · Spring 2020

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

Instructors: Boris Fishman · Daniel Heyman · Ruth Ochs · Shariffa Ali · Stacy Wolf · Olivier Tarpaga · Tess James

How do artists make art? How do we evaluate it? In this course, students of all levels get to experience firsthand the particular challenges and rewards of art making through practical engagement with five fields — creative writing, visual art, theater, dance, and music — under the guidance of professionals.

Beginning Studies in Acting: Scene Study

THR 201 · Spring 2020

C01 - Peter Kim · Mondays, 2:30 - 4:20 PM and Wednesdays, 1:30 - 4:20 pm

Instructors: Peter Kim

An introduction to the craft of acting through spoken text, scene study and, finally, a longer scene drawn from a full length play, to develop a method of working on a script. Emphasis will be placed on honesty, spontaneity, and establishing a personal connection with the scene's substance.

Body and Language

DAN 208 / THR 208 · Spring 2020

C01 · Thursdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Aynsley Vandenbroucke

In this studio course open to all, we will: dive into experiences in which body and language meet; think about these from aesthetic, cultural, political, personal, and philosophical perspectives; play with the physicality of voice and the material qualities of words and sentences; look for literary structures in movement; explore language from, in, around, and about (our) bodies; question hierarchies between body and language; deliberately lose ourselves in situations in which words fail or fall away; move and create together using tools from dance, theater, visual art, improvisation, writing, and somatic practices.

Learning Shakespeare by Doing

COM 212 / THR 212 · Spring 2020

S01 - Leonard Barkan · Mondays and Wednesdays, 11:00 AM - 12:20 PM

Instructors: Leonard Barkan

A course on works of dramatic literature whose comparative dimension is theatrical performance. We will consider four Shakespeare plays covering a range of theatrical genres; the emphasis will be on the ways in which Shakespearean meaning can be elucidated when the reader becomes a performer. Students will move from the reading/performing of individual speeches to the staging of scenes to the question of how an overall theatrical conception for a play might be a key to the fullest understanding of the text.  Students will write papers about their readings and performances; grades will be based on both the writing and the performing.

Introduction to Set and Costume Design

THR 213 / MTD 213 / VIS 210 · Spring 2020

C01 - Sarita Fellows/Rachel Hauck · Wednesdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Rachel Hauck · Sarita Fellows

This course introduces students to set and costume design for performance, exploring theater as a visual medium. Students will develop their ability to think about the physical environment (including clothing) as key components of story-telling and our understanding of human experience. Students will expand their vocabulary for discussing the visual world and work on their collaborative skills.

Drama and Performance

THR 219 / ENG 248 · Spring 2020

S01 · Thursdays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Michael Cadden

Most playwrights never intended to have readers. Their work was meant to be experienced in the theater. This course uses both live theatrical productions and online resources to discuss interpretive issues raised by the acting, directing, and design choices made in specific productions of classic plays as well as the larger question of what the proper object of critical inquiry is for those interested in drama. The word "drama" derives from the Greek word for "action". Do we "deactivate" drama with a phrase like "dramatic literature"? Does our usual conception of "performance" falsely rely on the pre-existence of a thing to "act"?

Stillness

DAN 221 / THR 222 · Spring 2020

U01 · Wednesdays, 2:30-4:20 PM and Fridays, 1:30-3:20 PM

Instructors: Aynsley Vandenbroucke

In a universe filled with movement, how and why and where might we find relative stillness? What are the aesthetic, political, and daily life possibilities within stillness? In this studio course open to all, we'll dance, sit, question, and create substantial final 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).

Classical Mythology on the Modern U.S. Stage

CLA 305 / THR 304 · Spring 2020

S01 - Kay Gabriel · Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:30-2:50 PM

Instructors: Kay Gabriel

Dramatists in the 20th and 21st centuries have repeatedly adapted classical literature to performance on the contemporary stage. In this course we'll ask after the particular uses, pleasures, and challenges of classical adaptation: why adapt ancient material in the first place? How have contemporary dramatists deviated from their sources, and how have they remained "true" to them? We'll consider these and other questions in a survey of a century of performance, ranging from early 20th-century modernism to Hadestown.

Playwriting II: Intermediate Playwriting

THR 305 / CWR 309 · Spring 2020

S01 · Tuesdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Nathan Davis

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.

Dance in Education: Dance/Theater Pedagogy

DAN 316 / THR 328 / HUM 317 / TPP 316 · Spring 2020

S01 · Fridays, 10:00 AM - 12:50 PM

Instructors: Rebecca Stenn

Dance/Theater Pedagogy Seminar explores the connection between engaged dance and elementary school literacy, mathematics and social studies while allowing students the opportunity to be civically engaged and contribute to the community.

Lighting Design

THR 318 / VIS 318 · Spring 2020

C01 · Tuesdays, 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.

Sound Design

THR 320 / MTD 320 · Spring 2020

S01 - Robert Kaplowitz and Jessica Paz · Mondays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Jessica Paz · Robert Kaplowitz

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.

American Musical Theatre: History and Practice

THR 348 / MTD 348 · Spring 2020

S01 · Mondays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: John Doyle

This course will explore the history and practice of musical theatre. Starting with the American musical's roots in minstrelsy and burlesque, the class will continue with Show Boat, the musicals of Rodgers & Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, and contemporary shows. Alongside the history of the musical, students will learn about the musical and theatrical tools of the genre, with an emphasis on directing and acting.

21st Century Latinx Drama

THR 353 / AMS 353 / GSS 417 / LAO 353 · Spring 2020

S01 · Mondays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Brian Herrera

This course offers a practice-based overview of theater-making in the twenty-first century through an intensive study of contemporary Latinx dramatists, companies, and movements in the United States. Through weekly readings, discussions and independent research/writing exercises, the seminar will investigate the cultural, artistic, social and political interventions of twenty-first century US Latinx drama.

Performance as Art

VIS 354 / DAN 354 / THR 354 · Spring 2020

U01 · Mondays, 12:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Colleen Asper

This studio class will explore a broad range of approaches to art-based performance: from instruction pieces and happenings/events, the body as language and gestures, to various forms of lecture performance.

Theatrical Writing Studio

THR 406 / CWR 406 / ENG 250 / MTD 406 · Spring 2020

S01 - Robert Sandberg/Tamsen Wolff · Fridays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Robert N. Sandberg · Tamsen Wolff

A workshop course designed to support advanced student theater and music theater writers in exploring possible performance of their writing. Students will investigate their writing with a focus on collaboration, performance and production. Individualized creative assignments will be suggested for each student. Students will be introduced to methodologies for producing new works and for theatrical collaboration, and will discuss the writer's point of view in the rehearsal room, physical staging, working with performers and character development, and exploring visual storytelling.

50th Anniversary of Undergraduate Co-Education Theater Project

THR 407 / MTD 407 · Spring 2020

C01 · Fridays, 12:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Suzanne Agins

This course is designed to provide students with the experience of doing social and historical research in the service of creating theatrical content, in collaboration with alumnae artists, around the fiftieth anniversary of undergraduate co-education at Princeton. Students will be paired with working artist alumnae, and together will begin research at the university archives, and be led in historical research and social analysis studying the lives of women who graduated from Princeton in the early years of undergraduate co-education.

Topics in Drama: Theatre & Philosophy: From Plato to Hegel & Beyond

ENG 409 / THR 409 · Spring 2020

S01 · Thursdays, 1:30-4:20 pm

Instructors: Gregor Moder

Philosophy has consistently used theater throughout history as a privileged metaphor for its own, theoretical procedures. Plato regarded the artistic form of theater as morally dangerous and epistemologically counter-productive. Yet at the same time, Plato explains the seamless functioning of the ideal republic as the perfect form of theater. On the other end of the historical arc-from Hegel to Deleuze and beyond-the development of philosophical concepts was understood precisely as a dramatization or performance of some sort. Which is it, then? Is theater a competitor, a detractor, or a companion of theory in its pursuit of the truth?

Topics in Drama: Theatre and Philosophy: From Plato to Hegel and Beyond

ENG 409 / THR 409 · Spring 2020

S01 · Thursdays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Staff

Philosophy has consistently used theater throughout history as a privileged metaphor for its own, theoretical procedures. Plato regarded the artistic form of theater as morally dangerous and epistemologically counter-productive. Yet at the same time, Plato explains the seamless functioning of the ideal republic as the perfect form of theater. On the other end of the historical arc-from Hegel to Deleuze and beyond-the development of philosophical concepts was understood precisely as a dramatization or performance of some sort. Which is it, then? Is theater a competitor, a detractor, or a companion of theory in its pursuit of the truth?

Major Author(s): August Wilson: African American Life in the 20th Century

ENG 411 / AAS 413 / AMS 411 / THR 412 · Spring 2020

S01 - R.N. Sandberg · Mondays and Wednesdays, 11 AM - 12:20 PM

Instructors: Robert N. Sandberg

August Wilson completed what many consider the most ambitious project of any American playwright. His cycle of ten plays, one for each decade, chronicles African American life in the 20th century. We will explore all ten plays as individual drama and depictions of history. We will read standard histories to gain background and context.

Early Modern Amsterdam: Tolerant Eminence and the Arts

ENG 448 / THR 448 / HUM 448 / COM 440 · Spring 2020

S01 - Nigel Smith · Mondays and Wednesdays, 1:30 - 2:50 PM

Instructors: Nigel Smith

Inter-disciplinary class on early modern Amsterdam (1550-1720) when the city was at the center of the global economy and leading cultural center; home of Rembrandt and Spinoza (Descartes was nearby) and original figures like playwrights Bredero and Vondel, the ethicist engraver Coornhert, the political economist de la Court brothers and English traveling theater. We go from art to poetry, drama, philosophy and medicine. Spring Break is in Amsterdam with museum visits, guest talks & participation in recreation of traveling theater from the period.

Theater Rehearsal and Performance

THR 451 / MTD 451 · Spring 2020

Multiple sections offered

Instructors: César Alvarez · Elena Araoz · Seonjae Kim

This course provides students with a rigorous and challenging experience of creating theater under near-professional circumstances. A faculty or visiting professional director will lead the process. This involves an extensive rehearsal and technical rehearsal period, requiring more time than a typical student production. Students cast in the show or taking on major production roles such as stage manager or designer will receive course credit.

Baby Wants Candy: Creating Comedy for Television

ATL 494 / VIS 494 / CWR 494 / THR 494 · Spring 2020

C01 · Wednesdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Al Samuels · Zach Zimmerman

In this course, led by critically acclaimed comedy writer Albert Samuels, students will participate in the in-process television pitch used by Samuels' cutting-edge improvisation group, Baby Wants Candy, including finalizing concept and script and developing a strong pitch. By the end of the semester, BWC will have a finished pitch package the group will present to Netflix, Amazon, Comedy Central and other networks/outlets. Students will develop their own original television concepts in groups and individually and also create shorter material - e.g., desk bits for late night shows, online content, etc.

Visual Arts

Introduction to Art Making

LCA 101 · Spring 2020

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

Instructors: Boris Fishman · Daniel Heyman · Ruth Ochs · Shariffa Ali · Stacy Wolf · Olivier Tarpaga · Tess James

How do artists make art? How do we evaluate it? In this course, students of all levels get to experience firsthand the particular challenges and rewards of art making through practical engagement with five fields — creative writing, visual art, theater, dance, and music — under the guidance of professionals.

Drawing I

VIS 202 / ARC 202 · Spring 2020

Multiple sections offered

Instructors: Eve Aschheim · Mario Moore

This course approaches drawing as a way of thinking and seeing. Students will be introduced to a range of drawing issues, as well as a variety of media, including charcoal, graphite, ink and oil stick. Subject matter includes still life, the figure, landscape and architecture. Representation, abstraction and working from imagination will be explored.

Painting I

VIS 204 / ARC 328 · Spring 2020

Multiple sections offered

Instructors: Colleen Asper · Eve Aschheim

An introduction to the materials and methods of painting. The areas to be covered are specifically color and its interaction, the use of form and scale, painting from a model, painting objects with a concern for their mass and its interaction with light.

Reality R&D: Designing Speculative Futures

VIS 209 / ANT 281 / STC 207 / ARC 215 · Spring 2020

U01 · Tuesdays 1:30 - 4:20 PM and 7:30 - 9:40 PM

Instructors: Ani Liu

Operating at the intersection of art, science and technology, this course investigates how scientific theories shape aspects of culture and society. We will engage in the practice of "speculative design", creating sculptures, wearables, and objects that envision different futures, while reflecting on social, political, and ethical implications of various technologies. Students will develop skills in industrial design, physical computing, and fabrication, as well as sensing and responsive technologies (including hardware/software integration, sensors, micro-projection, biometric sensing, etc), while applying them to critical social discourse.

Introduction to Set and Costume Design

THR 213 / MTD 213 / VIS 210 · Spring 2020

C01 - Sarita Fellows/Rachel Hauck · Wednesdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Rachel Hauck · Sarita Fellows

This course introduces students to set and costume design for performance, exploring theater as a visual medium. Students will develop their ability to think about the physical environment (including clothing) as key components of story-telling and our understanding of human experience. Students will expand their vocabulary for discussing the visual world and work on their collaborative skills.

Digital Photography

VIS 213 · Spring 2020

C01 - Phoebe d'Heurle · Tuesdays, 7:30 -10:20 PM

Instructors: Phoebe d'Heurle

This studio course introduces students to aesthetic and theoretical implications of digital photography. Studio emphasis is on mastering digital equipment and techniques, managing print quality, and generally becoming familiar with all aspects of the digital workspace. Popular media, found photographs, and the "life" of digital images will also be investigated. Slide lectures, readings and class discussions of student work in critique format will augment visual skills with critical and conceptual understandings of contemporary photography.

Graphic Design: Visual Form

VIS 216 · Spring 2020

C01 - David Reinfurt · Tuesday, 1:30 - 4:20 PM and 7:30 - 9:40 PM

Instructors: David Reinfurt

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: Image

VIS 218 · Spring 2020

U01 - Laurel Schwulst · Mondays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM and 7:30 - 9:40 PM

Instructors: Laurel Schwulst

This course engages students in the decoding of and formal experimentation with the image as a two-dimensional surface. Students take a hands on approach to formal experimentation through an array of modes and technologies including the photocopier, the computer, the camera, letterpress and silkscreen printing to address the most basic principles of design, such as visual metaphor, composition, hierarchy, and scale.

Digital Animation

VIS 220 · Spring 2020

Multiple sections offered

Instructors: Tim Szetela

This studio production class will engage in a variety of timed-based collage, composition, visualization, and storytelling techniques. Students will be taught the fundamental techniques of 2D animation production.

Sculpture I

VIS 222 · Spring 2020

Multiple sections offered

Instructors: Joe Scanlan · Kenneth Tam

A studio introduction to sculpture, particularly the study of form, space, and the influence of a wide variety of materials and processes on the visual properties of sculpture.

Video Installation

VIS 230 · Spring 2020

U01 · Mondays, 12:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Glen Fogel

This studio course investigates video installation as an evolving contemporary art form that extends the conversation of video art beyond the frame and into live, hybrid media, site-specific, and multiple-channel environments.

Methods of Color Photography

VIS 231 · Spring 2020

Multiple sections offered

Instructors: Deana Lawson · James Welling

This introductory course focuses on the technical, historical, cultural, and artistic aspects of color photography. Students will experiment with form and content, using the medium to convey observations and ideas. Students will work in an analog color darkroom and use hybrid methods of analog and digital photography in order to understand how color is translated by photographic material.

Narrative Filmmaking I

VIS 265 · Spring 2020

L01 - Moon Molson · Wednesdays, 7:30 - 9:40 PM Thursdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

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. 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.

German Intellectual History: Philosophy of Contemporary Art

GER 306 / ART 372 / VIS 306 · Spring 2020

S01 - Juliane Rebentisch · Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:00-4:20 PM

Instructors: Juliane Rebentisch

What is contemporary art? What defines its contemporaneity? And in which sense can it be called art when it defies categories of modernist art theory? How to define the plural of art when the old art genres have dissolved into countless hybrid forms? And what follows from the artistic destabilization of the border between art and non-art? What are the aesthetic and political implications of an art that addresses its audience and its institutional frameworks as well as questions of globalization, digitalization, historiography, and nature? The seminar will discuss these problems by looking at philosophy, art criticism, and artist writings.

Printmaking I

VIS 309 · Spring 2020

U01 - Daniel Heyman · Mondays, 7:30 - 9:40 PM and Tuesdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Daniel Heyman

This course introduces techniques of copper plate etching, and relief printing. Assignments focus on applications of various printmaking techniques, while encouraging independent development of subject matter.

This course looks at the way Italy has expressed its historical, cultural, political, and social individuality in major cinematic works from the 1960's to the present. Directors such as Bertolucci, Tornatore, Benigni, Ozpetek, and Sorrentino offer a panorama of a generation of filmmakers that has contributed to the renewal of Italian cinema.

Lighting Design

THR 318 / VIS 318 · Spring 2020

C01 · Tuesdays, 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.

Words as Objects

VIS 321 / CWR 321 · Spring 2020

C01 - Joe Scanlan · Wednesdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Joe Scanlan

This course will explore ways that language can take on material properties and how objects can have syntax and be “read.” Through studio assignments, readings, and discussions, students will investigate the idea of language as a tangible material that can be sliced, bent, inserted, reproduced, embedded, and scattered.

What is Vernacular Filmmaking? – Rhetoric for Cinema Studies

COM 341 / ECS 341 / HUM 341 / VIS 339 · Spring 2020

L01 - Erika Kiss · Wednesdays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Staff

Few people know that Sergei Eisenstein, one of the masters of modern cinema, was originally a mechanical engineer. Not only that; his filmmaking is informed through and through by inventive tropes of engineering. In this course, we study the rhetorical art of invention (heuristics) as it is applied in filmmaking through close examination of ten masterpieces of cinema. Students will take away from the course a deeper understanding of how rhetorical invention can be used in non-verbal areas of learning as well as a set of skills related to film-making and film criticism.

Screenwriting I: Short Screenwriting for Filmmakers

CWR 347 / VIS 340 · Spring 2020

C01 · Wednesdays, 1:30-3:50 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. 

Introduction to Screenwriting: Writing for a Global Audience

CWR 349 / VIS 349 · Spring 2020

C01 · Wednesdays, 1:30-3:50 PM

Instructors: Christina Lazaridi

How can screenwriters prepare for the evolving challenges of our global media world? What types of content, as well as form, will emerging technologies make possible? Do fields like neuroscience help us understand the universal principals behind screenwriting and do tech advances that alter the distance between audience and creator, man and machine, also influence content of our stories?

Performance as Art

VIS 354 / DAN 354 / THR 354 · Spring 2020

U01 · Mondays, 12:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Colleen Asper

This studio class will explore a broad range of approaches to art-based performance: from instruction pieces and happenings/events, the body as language and gestures, to various forms of lecture performance.

Collage Making in Architecture

ARC 378 / VIS 378 · Spring 2020

S01 · Mondays and Wednesdays, 11:00 am - 12:20 pm

Instructors: Marshall Brown

A graphic skills course that focuses on the techniques, craft, and ideologies of collage as a form of architectural representation.

Painting II

VIS 404 · Spring 2020

U01 - Pam Lins · Wednesdays, 12:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Pam Lins

This class will focus on how current painting considers the human figure. Portraits without people, the selfie, the figure as composite, imagined figures, forgotten figures, figures from our lives, abstract figures, non-consensual portraits, and technologically advanced figures will be considered within a structure of exploratory painterly approaches. This class will NOT focus on "how to" paint the figure.

Advanced Screenwriting: Writing for Television

CWR 405 / VIS 405 · Spring 2020

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 in the current “golden age of television.” Students will watch television pilots, read pilot episodes, and engage in in-depth discussion about story, series engine, character, structure, tone and season arcs. Each student will formulate and pitch an original series idea, and complete the first draft of the pilot episode and season arcs by end of semester.

Advanced Questions in Photography

VIS 411 · Spring 2020

C01 - Deana Lawson · Wednesdays, 12:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Deana Lawson

This class examines ways in which lens-based media can frame the figure within different social, cultural, and emotional landscapes.

Advanced Graphic Design

VIS 415 · Spring 2020

U01 - David Reinfurt · 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. Studio work is supplemented by critiques, readings and lectures. Students will refine their approaches to information design and visual problem solving, and to decoding and producing graphic design in print and electronic media.

Spring Film Seminar

VIS 419 · Spring 2020

S01 - Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt · 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. Guest speakers will come to talk about rough-and find-cut editing, sound design, and sound mixing. Editing is about shaping the story through image, dialogue, additional sound and music. No matter how well (or badly) a film is directed and shot, its final result depends profoundly on the artfulness of its editing. 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 2020

U01 - Amy Yao · Wednesdays, 12:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Amy Yao

This class will engage contemporary approaches to the figure and the various ways that artists contest, assimilate, and reckon with the human body in sculpture. With the advent of postmodernism, the singular forms of classical and modern sculpture have fractured into composite, disjointed figures-even cyborgs-in keeping with the era of the "post human." Students will take a multivalent approach to the historical precedents from which current representations have emerged and explore the limits of what might be considered figurative at all.

Baby Wants Candy: Creating Comedy for Television

ATL 494 / VIS 494 / CWR 494 / THR 494 · Spring 2020

C01 · Wednesdays, 1:30 - 4:20 PM

Instructors: Al Samuels · Zach Zimmerman

In this course, led by critically acclaimed comedy writer Albert Samuels, students will participate in the in-process television pitch used by Samuels' cutting-edge improvisation group, Baby Wants Candy, including finalizing concept and script and developing a strong pitch. By the end of the semester, BWC will have a finished pitch package the group will present to Netflix, Amazon, Comedy Central and other networks/outlets. Students will develop their own original television concepts in groups and individually and also create shorter material - e.g., desk bits for late night shows, online content, etc.

The Understor(e)y: Suspension, Movement, Space

ATL 495 / DAN 495 / VIS 495 · Spring 2020

C01 · Mondays, 1:30-4:20 PM

Instructors: Janet Echelman · Jess Rowland · Rebecca Lazier · Sigrid Adriaenssens

Choreographer Rebecca Lazier, visual artist Janet Echelman, engineer Sigrid Adriaenssens, and sound artist Jess Rowland come together with students in a unique collaboration inspired by the activity in the understory, the hovering layer beneath a forest's canopy. They will create textile sculpture installations that will activate, and be activated by, movement and sound. Students will explore historical works that merge visual, choreographic, and sonic forms and examine intersections of architecture, engineering, and artistic practices. Themes of transcending boundaries and disorientation will unfold within suspended sculptural environments.