The Architecture of a Play — DRA4354.01
This is a course for playwrights (and others) who are interested in thinking about the relationship between architecture, character, and plot. We will read plays in which unusual buildings, specific rooms, and distinctive built environments of all kinds play a crucial role in the dramatic action.
Readings will likely include Michael Frayn’s Noises Off,
The Art of Auditioning Virtually — DRA2310.01
Auditions are an opportunity to develop your artistic voice and your confidence in that voice. In this class, we will work to demystify the process of auditioning and understand how to prepare and present work under challenging circumstances. The current move to self-tape and virtual video formats presents unique challenges. This course will cover cold readings, monologues, and
The Art of Spectacle — DRA4291.02
This class will be a focused study of Spectacle - or writing the impossible play -- in conjunction with a short study of the Poetics. We will investigate how spectacle can be deeply connected to the perception shift (when done correctly). Reading will include a wide breadth of works from Robert LaPage and the Rude Mechs, to B.J. Jenkins and Young
The Art of Stage Design — DRA2250.01
A set design communicates lots of information to an audience, and provides the physical world in which a performance takes place. In his book The Dramatic Imagination, the great set designer Robert Edmond Jones wrote: “…we may fairly speak of the art of stage designing as poetic, in that it seeks to give expression to the essential quality of a play rather than to its outward
The Art of Stage Design — DRA2250.01
A scenic design communicates lots of information to an audience, and provides the physical world in which a performance takes place. In his book The Dramatic Imagination, the great set designer Robert Edmond Jones wrote: “…we may fairly speak of the art of stage designing as poetic, in that it seeks to give expression to the essential quality of a play rather than to its
The Art of Stage Design — DRA2250.01
A set design communicates lots of information to an audience, and provides the physical world in which a performance takes place. In his book The Dramatic Imagination, the great set designer Robert Edmond Jones wrote: “…we may fairly speak of the art of stage designing as poetic, in that it seeks to give expression to the essential quality of a play rather than to its outward
The Art of the Staged Reading — DRA2159.01
In the professional world, particularly in the area of new play development, actors, writers and directors will be often be required to present staged readings of new or classic work. How does one master the art of the staged reading? In this class, we will explore the specific techniques of acting and staging involved. When acting in a staged reading, one must make strong
The Body Acoustic: Toward a Sense of Place — DAN2112.01
How do we physically understand the spaces we are in? How is each of us affected by them? How do we develop a deeper sense of place? The Body Acoustic aims to heighten awareness of the reciprocal relationship between the built environment and our senses. Light and sound, distances, height, volume, surfaces, angles/curves and a/symmetries all affect one’s movement through
The Camp Aesthetic — DRA2167.01
Sometimes seen as gaudy, perverse or excessive, camp is a sophisticated and consummately theatrical style, doubly viewing life as theater and gender as performance. Camp’s essence “is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration,” as Susan Sontag argued in her epochal and controversial 1964 essay “Notes on Camp.” Developing historically as a language of the closet,
The Camp Aesthetic — DRA2167.01
An elusive sensibility that defies definition, camp is everywhere in 2023, as fueled by the worldwide juggernaut success of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Sometimes seen as gaudy, perverse or excessive, camp is a sophisticated and consummately theatrical style, doubly viewing life as theater and gender as performance. Camp’s essence “is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and
The Concentrated Moment: The Art of Auditioning — DRA4103.01
Auditions are an opportunity to develop your artistic voice and your confidence in that voice through self-critique. In this class we will work to demystify the process of auditioning and understand how to prepare and present work under challenging circumstances. We will cover cold readings, monologue and prepared scenes, with an in depth look at each step of the process, from
The Costumes of "Wolf Hall" — DRA4121.01
This course will focus on an examination of Hilary Mantel's novel "Wolf Hall" from the vantage point of clothing. The novel details a dynamic period in history when King Henry VIII of England was attempting to annul his first marriage and marry Anne Boleyn. We will have the opportunity to study Tudor costume from both a historic and dramatic vantage point, and examine how this
The Don Juan Project — DRA4146.01
Seducer. Atheist. Rebel. Scoundrel. Hypocrite. Don Juan, the most unrepentant libertine in all of literature, has dazzled and provoked for centuries. This project interlaces two masterpieces: Moliere’s Don Juan, or the Feast of Stone (1682), with selections from Mozart’s opera, Don Giovanni (1787). Don Juan’s furious drive to satisfy
The Drama-Free Workshop — DRA4123.02
This class will concentrate on confidence building for actors/performers or anyone tired of letting a smartphone dictate their feelings of success. Goals will include cultivating positivity and confidence around performing. We will explore as a group how criticism is the enemy of creativity.
The goal for this class is that students gain confidence through games and exercises
The Drama-Free Workshop — DRA4123.01
This class will concentrate on confidence building for actors/performers or anyone tired of letting a smartphone dictate their feelings of success. Goals will include cultivating positivity and confidence around performing. We will explore as a group how criticism is the enemy of creativity.
The goal for this class is that students gain confidence through games and exercises
The History of Directing — DRA2169.01
How did the director emerge as a driving, creative force in the theater? We will work semi-chronologically from the late 19th to the early 21st century, examining how culture and theater interact and change each other. We will consider traditional theater, the rise of the modern director, theatricality, epic theater, auteur directors, ensemble theater, theater for social change
The Kimono Project: A design process — DRA2321.02
This is a class for students interested in costume design and theatrical design in general. In this course, students will take an emotional response from their own personal history through a complete design process including the construction of a final garment(s) - a kimono.
We will look at how artists from different mediums have interpreted their own source material. Each
The Line of Clothing: Rendering for Costume Design — DRA2267.01
The rendering of one's design ideas is a basic tool of the designer. This class will explore various methods of communicating oneʹs design ideas to directors, performers, producers, and other members of a creative team. We will primarily use traditional materials such as paper, pencil, and paint. We will also work in new media, such as ʹBrushesʹ on tablets, or Photoshop. It is
The Line of Clothing: Rendering for Costume Design — DRA2267.01
The rendering of one’s design ideas is a basic tool of the designer. This class will explore various methods of communicating oneʹs design ideas to directors, performers, producers, and other members of a creative team. We will primarily use traditional materials such as paper, pencil, and paint. We may also work in digital media, such as ʹBrushesʹ on tablets, or Photoshop. It
The Line of Clothing: Rendering for Costume Design — DRA2311.01
Rendering is one of the fundamental techniques designers use to visualize their ideas. This class will explore various methods used to communicate visual ideas to directors, performers, producers, and other members of a creative team. While we will primarily work using traditional materials such as paper, pencil, and paint, we may also have occasion to work in digital media.
The Living Play — DRA2387.01
This course is designed for new (or new-ish) playwrights, although more experienced playwrights who want to dig into the fundamentals are also welcome. We will focus on eight essential elements of playwriting craft: character, language, subtext, power, place, theatricality, surprise, and an elusive element called the gap. We will experiment with a variety of ways to start a
The Magical Object — DRA2116.01
There is a great difference between a prop and an object on stage that is built or filled with the dramatic forces of a play. Such objects become metaphors, they become fresh comprehensions of the world. In the theater, we believe in magic. Our gaze is focused on ordinary objects…a glass figurine, a pair of shoes, a wedding dress…and then our attention is shaped, and charged,
The Magical Object — DRA2116.01
There is a great difference between a prop and an object that is built or filled with the dramatic forces of a play or film. These objects fill with meaning and power and the hopes of the characters, and ours. But how do we generate a magical object that can organize an entire work of timebound art?
We will pursue our investigation in the timebound arts of theatre and film,
The Magical Object - Visual Metaphor — DRA2116.01
There is a great difference between a prop and an object on stage that is built or filled with the dramatic forces of a play. Such objects become metaphors, they become fresh comprehensions of the world. In the theater, we believe in magic. Our gaze is focused on ordinary objects…a glass figurine, a pair of shoes, a wedding dress…and then our attention is shaped, and charged,