Global Arc

This course develops skills needed to successfully approach all acting styles and centers the actor as a lead creative artist. We will concentrate on how the voice, body, and imagination can build a performance. The goal is fluency in these tools, stronger stage presence, and collaborative rehearsal skills. Each class is made up of individual and ensemble-based physical and vocal exercises to bolster creative thinking and to ready the body and voice for performance. We will find inspiration in readings and short performance texts. Students will leave the semester with a strong foundation for further acting courses or projects in all genres.

This workshop course rehearses the compositional, producorial, and performance skills necessary to create (and present) an original, self-contained work of solo performance. The course will draw upon foundational methods and techniques of solo performance-making as a practice, as a process, and as a genre of contemporary performance. Over the course of the semester, each class contributor will develop their own original 8-12 minute solo performance piece, even as the class as a cohort works collaboratively to support, workshop, and provide audience for one another, and to co-produce a "Pop Up Performance" mini-festival at semester's end.

Intro to Stage Design is an interactive course where students will explore the world through a design lens to develop visual literacy and investigate how visual cues shape our understanding of the world. This studio course will explore Scenic, Costume, Lighting and Sound design. Students will take on the role of designer across disciplines, developing analytic, research and collaborative skills, and exploring and questioning power structures in the process. This hands-on course will emphasize communication and collaboration within creative and production teams in support of bringing design visions to life.

This seminar offers an intensive introduction to the principles and practices of dramaturgical and performance analysis of stage plays as written works, as blueprints for theatrical performance, and as exercises in worldmaking. This seminar also rehearses how the techniques of dramaturgical and performance analysis might be applied to modes of embodied enactment - whether historical or contemporary, whether in art or everyday life - beyond the theatrical frame. In Spring 2025, the course will focus on the life, work, and legacy of the pathbreaking Cuban-American playwright, director, designer, and teacher María Irene Fornés (1930-2018).

The new play development process has become a critical aspect of the professional theater landscape, but is often confounding to artists. This is a practical course that will introduce the basic processes of developing new plays for the stage, offering theater makers an understanding of their unique role in the critical moments of a new play's early life. The class is for actors eager to hone the skills of originating a role; for directors eager to explore working with a living writer; and for playwrights eager to gain experience navigating the development process, from table readings to workshops to staged readings.

How do you tell a story about climate change that dynamically engages its audiences without overwhelming or boring them? We will explore this question and others through readings and discussions, and we will make an original work of theater. Employing the methods of investigative theater, the class will create a script or performance text by pursuing a creative inquiry into some aspect of climate change. Each student will do creative research including interviews; collaborate on a script by editing and writing original material; and work with a team to put the show on its feet. Previous theater experience not required.

This course is an acting intensive offering students the opportunity to engage in a rigorous rehearsal process with a professional theater director. The course emphasizes exploration and embodiment of character, and culminates in a staged production with simple technical elements, the focus on THE ensemble.

This course builds on basic performance skills and introduces the actor to methods of developing a character. Through script analysis and the exploration of dramatic story structures we will learn how to prepare a role for rehearsal. During the course, students will work on characters from two separate plays. While in the rehearsal, we will gain an appreciation for process as we make use of acting techniques and rehearsal tools that lift the text off the page and gradually shape it into a dynamic performance. At the end of the semester, we will present our work in a showing.

This course offers an interdisciplinary introduction to how performance-making intersects with local, state, federal, and international policy concerns (and vice versa). Through lecture, workshops, and guest visitors, we will examine connections between policy and performance within four central topical arenas: public speech; public assembly; intellectual property; and supply chain logistics. As we study the impact of policy on a broad array of live, embodied, and mediatized performances, we will also rehearse an understanding of statecraft, public advocacy/protest, and policy-making as consequential modes of public enactment and performance

Students will apply the art and principles of voiceover acting - commonly used in animation, video games, and audiobooks - to perform original dramatic works as well as scenes from classic American plays for virtual reality. Students will design basic VR environments while creating immersive soundscapes for their dramatic works. They will also reflect on the pedagogical and practical applications of their experiences in creating theatre in a VR environment.