The goal of this course is to unleash student creativity and guide it into forms of dramatic writing. While offering inspiration within a supportive environment, the course will provide students with critical tools and concepts of playwriting, including dramatic action, conflict, plot, character and dialogue, through a series of writing exercises and script analysis techniques. The course is organized as a writing workshop in which the students’ works become the primary source of conversation, instruction, reflection and revision. Student creative work will be augmented with readings, videos, and the course texts, including The Playwright’s Guidebook and Breaking From Realism: A Map/Quest for the Next Generation.
This class will introduce students to the basics of acting for the stage. Over the course of the semester, students will learn and participate in practical and challenging acting games and physical exercise, be exposed to the basics of character analysis, learn to think, move, and speak like an actor, and perform in a variety of solo and group projects including monologues and scene work.
An introduction to drama and theatre, constituting a balanced coverage of all elements of literature, history and production. The course is designed to introduce the student to theatre as an art form, a humanistic pursuit, and a dramatic experience. In this class we will learn about the process of creating theatre (including playwriting, acting, design, directing, dramaturgical research and analysis, the rehearsal process, etc.), and we will see, discuss, and critique several performances. We will analyze texts as documents structured for dramatic effect as well as artifacts that reveal the aesthetic and cultural values of their time.