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Fall COURSES
THEA 101 - Introduction to Theatre
Option 1
Instructor: Claudia Orenstein
Lectures: MoTh11:30AM - 12:20PM + Discussion Session
(This option consists of a lecture session and a discussion session.
Students must sign up for the discussion section as well. To view discussion section schedules click on Sign Up to be directed to class search on CunyFirst)
Option 2
MoWe 4:00PM - 5:15PM
Description:
We will explore and study elements of Theatre Arts – dramatic literature, performance traditions, acting, directing, playwriting, production, and design -- from the standpoints of both viewer and participant. This course introduces you to the various elements that comprise the art of the theatre. We will look at the different jobs, forms of collaboration,and creative skills that go into creating theatrical performances. We will also consider how to read and analyze dramatic texts for production, and we will explore the different models and forms of theatre that exist around the world, the many ways they communicate with their audiences, the variety of subject they can address, and the various roles theatre plays in different historical and cultural contexts. Offering a broad overview of the art, from both theartist’s and the audience’s perspective, with opportunities for you to try your own hand at creative work,the course intends to make you a more knowledgeable and appreciative theatre-goer and perhaps inspire you to pursue your own creative path.
THEA 21100 - World Theatre 1
Instructor:TBA
Schedule Options:
TuFr 10:00AM - 11:15AM
MoTh 4:00PM - 5:15PM
Description:
This course introduces and examines a selection of theatres that originated and developed from antiquity until the early seventeenth century in Egypt, Europe, Asia, and America. Instead of focusing exclusively on what happened, we will concern ourselves primarily with how: How have theatre and performance scholars set about understanding historical theatre events? How do we relate ancient theatrical events to our present situations? How does one conduct historical research? In short, how do we do theatre history? This last question is perhaps the most important since, in this class, we will not so much learn about theatre history, but perform the role of theatre historians, historiographers, and theoreticians.
THEA 21300 - World Theatre 3
Instructor: TBA
TuFr 11:30AM - 12:45PM
Description:
This course introduces and examines a selection of plays and performance styles from various parts of the world during the period between 1850 and present day. Through a study of dramatic works, critical texts, and historical contexts, we will explore the intersection between the performing arts and the changing world around them. The course will illustrate how global developments inspired theatremakers to respond to the periods of modernism and beyond.
THEA 24300 - 01 Theatre for Young Audiences: Laboratory
Instructor: Louisa Pregerson
We 10:00AM-12:45PM
Description:
This course is a laboratory exploration of Theatre for Young Audiences-"TYA". The class will collaboratively embark on the process of creating a TYA work that will tour to various school environments. By rehearsing and the participating in all aspects of creating a mobile theatre project, students will learn methods of devising, immersive engagement, design, and storytelling. Performances will include feedback sessions and lead to class discussion to gain greater insight into the nature of young audiences. This is a hands on class. All students should expect to fully participate in class sessions and additional rehearsals. Not all students will be required to perform in the final presentation- but all students will participate in a significant role in this project. In addition, students will explore texts relevant to an understanding of TYA, meet professionals in the field, and attend performances.
THEA 25357- Musical Theatre Workshop 1
Instructor: Micah Eljiah Caldwell
TuFr 4:00PM - 5:50PM
Description:
Telling stories through song! To obtain a sense of ease with the voice across a multitude of styles of music. An exemplary application of material across styles/genres. A training to be a professional artist.
THEA 26100- Acting III : World Realism
Instructor: Barbara Bosch
MoTh 5:00PM - 6:50PM
Description:
Continuation of scene study focusing on text analysis, personalization, objective and action using the world realistic repertory, such as the plays of Chekhov, Ibsen and Strindberg. It is recommended that this course be taken with THEA 26300.
THEA 28100 - Visual Elements of Theatre
Instructor: Louisa Pregerson
MoTh 10:00AM - 11:15AM
Description:
Explore the visual storytelling methods, techniques, and tools available to support the playwright’s narrative and the director’s concept for a theatrical production. We will examine the evolution and styles of the stage picture, theatre architecture, music halls and motion picture palaces. We will also address the advent of new visual media, such as digital projection, animation, and its impact on the contemporary audience experience. The class will also attend Broadway Theatre performances.
THEA 36500- Screen Acting
Instructor: Peter Romano
MoTh 10:00AM - 11:15AM
Description:
This course will provide students with fundamental skills used in the craft of Acting for the Camera. The focus of the course work will be on the Actor’s approach to the Film and Television mediums. Through exercises and scene work students will develop practical skills and basic techniques to use on set and in audition settings.
THEA 37200- Directing II
Instructor: Barbara Bosch
MoTh 3:00PM - 4:50PM
Description:
This is an intensive laboratory course in directing for the stage. We will discuss the history of directing and work on text analysis, principles of staging, picturization, rhythm, working with actors and designers and rehearsing a play. We will discuss and practice the basic technique elements that are necessary for the director. We will investigate how to have successful collaborations with all members of the production team. The specifics of organizing your rehearsal calendar – from auditions, to run-throughs, technical rehearsals, etc. will be investigated.
THEA 38300- Costume Design I
Instructor: Deepsikha Chatterjee
MoTh 11:30AM - 1:20PM
Description:
This course enables students to understand fashion and costume (clothes worn by people) using the lens of cultural studies. The course will take students on a journey of nonWestern clothing alongside Euro-Western clothing and under major critical movements and concepts such as cultural studies, Orientalism, post-coloniality, subalternity, pan-Africanism, feminism and gender, thing theory, visual dramaturgy, to reveal how clothes and costumes are shaped by such forces. Faculty and student contributed readings in theatre and performance, anthropology, sociology, film and media, history (and microhistories such as fashion history and theatre history) and other areas will help students develop an understanding of the global aesthetics of the body on stage, on screen and on the street.
THEA 39744 - 20th Century German Theatre
Instructor: Jonathan Kalb
MoWe 4:00PM-5:15PM
Description:
This course surveys German theater and drama from roughly 1890 to 2000, considering both the unique features of the country’s theater in this period and some ways it prodded, energized, and influenced theater elsewhere. We will cover material from the late Wilhelminian era, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, the post-war era in East and West Germany, and the period following reunification. Topics for focus may include: Frank Wedekind and the fracture of German Naturalism, Expressionism, the rise and development of German directing, Nazi theater, political uses of classic drama, Bertolt Brecht and the Berliner Ensemble, Peter Weiss, Rolf Hochhuth, documentary drama, Peter Handke, Pina Bausch and Tanztheater, Elfriede Jelinek, and Heiner Müller.
THEA 16100 - Acting I : Basic Acting Techniques
Instructors: TBA
Schedule Options:
TuFr 4:00PM - 5:15PM MoTh 11:30AM -12:45PM
TuFr 1:00PM - 2:15PM TuFr 11:30AM -12:45PM
MoTh 10:00AM -11:15AM MoTh 4:00PM - 5:15PM
MoTh 2:30PM - 3:45PM TuFr 10:00AM -11:15AM
Description:
This will be an introductory course that explores the fundamental elements of acting. The mission of this course is to awaken the emotional, imaginative, and transformative powers in each of us. We will explore what it means to really be a storyteller through plays, recommended texts, improvisation, scene work, and monologues. Each student will explore harnessing their own personal experiences (sense memory), to help inform their acting. Finally, this course will enhance the actor's ability to channel "self" (body, mind, and experience), through one’s acting in a TRUTHFUL and believable way; pushing each student’s willingness, readiness, and resilience to transform the "self" beyond its pre-established boundaries.
THEA 21200 - World Theatre 2
Instructor: Jonathan Kalb
MoWe 5:30PM - 6:45PM
Description:
This course introduces and examines a selection of theatres around the globe that originated and developed between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. We will read writings that will enable us to explore the histories and textual and performing characteristics of the examined theatres and their relations to the immediate cultural, social, political, and economic contexts. The goals are to acquire better understanding of the theatres and establish models of study that may be applied to examining other examples.
THEA 21400- Multicultural Perspectives
Instructor:TBA
TuFr 10:00AM - 11:15AM
Description:
This course introduces and examines the theatres of African, Latin/Hispanic, Asian, and Native Americans. We will study their histories and dramatic works in order to explore the thematic and performing characteristics of the studied theatres and their relations to the immediate cultural, social, political, and economic contexts. The goals are to acquire better understanding of the theatres and to inspire both creative and scholarly interest.
THEA 25100 - Theatre Production
Instructor: Brad Krumholz
MoTh 11:30AM - 1:20PM
Description:
This course will introduce you to the practical aspects of theatre production through a combination of readings, discussions, guests, and hands-on experience. Class meetings will include lectures and discussions, and visits from Department of Theatre faculty and staff. Another important aspect of this class is that we are responsible for making sure that the departmental productions are of the highest artistic quality, are ready on time, and run smoothly.
THEA 26100- Acting II : American Realism
Instructor: TBA
Schedule Options:
MoTh 12:30PM - 2:20PM
TuFr 11:30AM - 1:20PM
Description:
The purpose of this course is to apply the basic principles of acng techniques to American plays of the 20th and 21st centuries. Through scenes, monologues and various improvisaons/ exercises, students will deepen their understanding of listening, personalizaon, text analysis and character building. Using text, context, imaginaon and exploraon, students will establish an understanding of how to truly embody a character.
THEA 263 - Basic Voice and Movement For Performers
Instructor: Benjamin Moore
TuFr 10:00AM - 11:15AM
Description:
This course helps the performer develop authority, range, and freedom in their artistic work. Using the Linklater approach, students learn how to release physical tensions and integrate their body, voice and creativity through exercises. Through text work students will develop their creative imagination and sharpen their articulation. By the end of this course students will have gained more artistic confidence and connection, and leave with a physical and vocal foundation for their rehearsal and performance work
32100 - Play Analysis
Instructor: Christine Scarfuto
Tu 11:30AM - 2:15PM
Description:
The course aims to develop a set of conceptual and analytical tools for the close reading and interpretation of plays as “blueprints” or “scores” for theatrical performance. The course provides an analytical vocabulary useful both to students with a general interest in theater and to aspiring theater artists. Drawing on a variety of analytical frameworks, the course focuses not only on what a play represents and means but also, more importantly, how it does so: how a dissection of a play’s structure can illuminate the play’s dramatic dynamics and theatrical potential. The course introduces students to a wide range of dramatic genres and forms, their formal principles, and to the embodiment of those principles in particular texts. While providing essential historical context for interpreting those genres and forms, the course provides an “inside-out” approach to the reading of plays.
THEA 37100- Directing I
Instructor: Barbara Bosch
MoTh 3:00PM - 4:50PM
Description:
This is an intensive laboratory course in directing for the stage. We will discuss the history of directing and work on text analysis, principles of staging, picturization, rhythm, working with actors and designers and rehearsing a play. We will discuss and practice the basic technique elements that are necessary for the director. We will investigate how to have successful collaborations with all members of the production team. The specifics of organizing your rehearsal calendar – from auditions, to run-throughs, technical rehearsals, etc. will be investigated.
THEA 37600- Playwriting I
Instructor: Phillip Christian Smith
TuFr 1:00PM - 2:15PM
Description:
Students will learn the fundamental tools that a playwright employs, culminating in a final one-act play. We will be reading & discussing plays and completing writing exercises to help open students to the world of exploration and experimentation that playwriting should be. We will be focusing on elements such as patterns, rhythm, environment, internal structure/ rules, and more – and then playing around with them.
THEA 39767- Puppetry: Performing Objects
Instructor: Dr. Claudia Orenstein
TuTh 4:00PM - 5:15PM
Description:
This course teaches students to think like puppeteers, in other words, to understand and value how materiality can be expressive and create inspiring performance. Students will learn about important puppet traditions around the world, explore the many ways artists across cultures are using performing objects today, and consider critical approaches to the art. Students will practice making and manipulating different kinds of performing objects and begin creating their own work. The class will introduce you to a multifaceted, global artform that includes, but also goes way beyond the familiar Muppets and hand puppets of childhood, and is an increasingly vibrant presence in today’s theatre.
