Faculty of Arts & Sciences

An introduction and overview of the major creative elements in professional theater including: acting, directing, playwriting, and designing. Special attention given to productions by the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.), the A.R.T. Institute and other productions in the Boston area. Students have the opportunity to attend and analyze at least five different productions and to engage in creative work throughout the term. Additionally, theater professionals from the A.R.T. give guest lectures in their areas of expertise.

An exploration of the basic techniques of acting, beginning with exercises that flex the imagination and heighten observation; the course will then move towards work on rhythm, an actor's instincts, focus, concentration, and character with an ongoing emphasis in improvisation. The texts of Anton Chekhov will be used as a point of reference for the work. The latter part of the course will concentrate on selected scene study from Chekhov's major plays.

An expansion of basic acting techniques, with an emphasis on the actor's work done during rehearsal: creating a character, building a role and finding one's own way of preparing for and making the most of rehearsal time. Actors will use exercises and improvs to help explore character and sharpen instincts, and do monologue and scene work using contemporary texts, both comic and dramatic.

Practical Aesthetics Acting Technique was developed by playwright David Mamet and actor William H. Macy, based on the work of the American acting teacher Sandford Meisner and the Russian acting teacher Konstantin Stanislavski. In this course, students will focus on rigorous text analysis combined with emphasis on enhancing the actor's spontaneity through training in Meisner's "Repetition Exercise." Students will do scene work drawn from a wide selection of plays.

A course developing the actor's approach to and playing of comedy and humor. The class will focus on marrying comedy's need for technical precision with a truthful and spontaneous approach to acting based on the methodology of Konstantin Stanislavski. Specific comic skills studied will include timing, focus, choreography, and the mechanics of how a joke builds from set up to punchline. Acting skills will focus on moment to moment pursuit of objective and creation of character. Styles of comedy will include farce, drawing room/comedy of manners and contemporary comic playwriting such as David Lindsay-Abaire, Nicky Silver, Christopher Durang and Sarah Ruhl.

The analysis, rehearsal and performance of theatrical monologues. The ability to work on a monologue, whether in the context of a play or as an audition piece, is a foundational skill for all actors. Students will begin with work on classical monologues and then move on to contemporary material. We will study specific techniques to help students "act alone" creatively, honestly and spontaneously. In the later part of the course, students will have an opportunity to work on on-camera monologues and develop specific skills for acting and auditioning in that medium. Students will also learn how to choose, prepare and perform a monologue under the particular pressures of an audition.

This introductory choreography course utilizes movement exploration to tap into the participant's aesthetic and interpretive skills as they are challenged to make dances. Explorations into the use of time, weight and space inform their creative process. Through a combination of readings, writings, discussions, videos and dance improvisation, the course focuses on how movement choices develop dances that are kinesthetic, dramatic, and artistic for both the performer and the audience. No previous dance experience necessary.

This class is designed for students interested in expanding their understanding of directing for theater. The course will focus on the work of American experimental theater artists from the 1960's to the present, examining the various ways avant-garde directors and ensembles have experimented with form to seek out radical new modes of storytelling. Students will create work inspired by the artists and productions studied, applying theory to practice in rehearsals and presentations.

Students will build scenes based on observed incidents, act and direct them, then, using high-definition video, record and edit them. The course will include study of scenes in film and instruction in the techniques of directing, working with actors, and video production. Emphasis will be placed on clarity of storytelling, eliciting performances from actors, and visceral impact of the filmed events.

Theater designers use figures, space, objects, time and light to create environments that are integral to performance events. The potential for action and the integration with the performance as a whole is key to the design process. Like any artist, the designer needs to create visual studies to explore possibilities and communicate ideas. In Scenography Studio students will respond to architecture, photography, fiction, painting, sculpture, etc., to develop a series of performance design projects. In the course of developing these projects, students will gain skills in a variety of digital and manual media as well as study significant 20th and 21st century artists and theorists. Artists studied include but are not limited to - Robert Rauschenberg - John Cage - Sol LeWitt - Adolph Appia - Richard Serra - Alan Kaprow - Cindy Sherman - Italo Calvino - Bertolt Brecht.

Young audiences have been weaned on choice-based, interactive, participatory and socially networked artwork and entertainment. At this moment in history, theater has an incredible opportunity to redefine how stories can be told and how audiences might be invited into the telling. This course is open to actors, writers, musicians, game designers, programmers, directors, designers and artists of all kinds. Through scholarship, discussion, creative work, and play testing, this course will explore the emerging fields of participatory theater, interactive performance, social gaming, and system-based story telling. We will study the basics of game design, the fundamentals of physical and social gaming, and the history of interactivity as a theatrical device. Students will design physical and tabletop games, ambulatory experiences, social experiments, and interactive environments. Emphasis is on creative output and integrating participatory systems and audience agency with emergent narrative. The class will establish a generous inter-disciplinary working environment which values creative risks, collaboration and inventiveness. There will be one trip to New York City as part of the class.

This is a text- and studio-based seminar that explores the realist idea of 'acting' alongside philosophical, psychological, and scientific notions of authenticity and falsehood, presence, mimesis, and empathy. What does it mean to turn into someone else? How total is the transformation? And what are the implications for our understanding of the individual? Various texts, from the acting primers of Stanislavski and Strasberg, to works of literary criticism, natural science, cognitive psychology, and philosophy of mind will be considered.

This course introduces the aesthetics of sport as theatrical performance and explores the performance of race, gender, class, nation, and sexuality in sport. Readings drawn from theatre/performance studies, anthropology, sociology, ethnic studies, gender studies, history, kinesiology. Topics covered include barnstorming, Olympics, Title IX, Native American mascots, and sports ranging from football to figure skating. Course work includes reading, writing, and research. No final exam.