Undergraduate Program

This course examines the essential elements of dramatic structure through analysis of texts for stage, film and TV using Aristotle in The Poetics as a model. The same principles are used to discuss students’ original work in weekly workshop sessions.

Students are required to write a 6 page sequence, and complete a 10 page play, screenplay or webisode. In workshop sessions, students read and criticize each other’s work in order to help each writer realize the full potential inherent in the work.

The dramatist knows dramatic literature. This course surveys dramatic literature from Ancient Greece to the beginning of the modern movement, with emphasis on Tragedy and Comedy and on the changing conventions, techniques, and purposes of playwriting.

In Undergraduate Drama Lab students break into groups and write/perform exercises designed to focus on one dramatic element, which changes week to week. Students take turns writing, acting and directing. This course is a year-long course. Students will register for the same sections in both the fall and the spring semesters.

Art in the World/Writing the Essay and The World Through Art are required expository writing courses for all students in the Tisch School of the Arts. They are designed to engage all Tisch School of the Arts freshmen in a broad interdisciplinary investigation across artistic media. They provide instruction and practice in critical reading, creative thinking, and essay writing. Students learn to analyze and interpret written texts, art objects, and performances; to use written, visual, and performance texts as evidence; and to develop ideas. The courses stress exploration, inquiry, reflection, analysis, revision, and collaborative learning.

This is a writing workshop designed to help students conceive and write the first half of a full-length piece for the stage (50 p. minimum) as well as a ten-minute play. It includes a review of dramatic structure learned in Craft, including characterization, dialogue, identifying the stakes, turning points, climax and resolution of the drama. There will be reading assignments of dramatic texts from playwrights, as well as specific individual plays for each student based on the style and conception of the student's work. Classes will focus on both analysis of assigned texts and student scripts.

This course surveys dramatic literature from Ancient Greece to modern times, with emphasis on the changing conventions, forms, techniques and styles of playwriting. Plays will be read for content and analysis.

As part of your liberal arts education, you will complete a total of 44 credits in General Education, including 8 credits of expository writing. You should take an additional 8 credits of General Education courses by the end of your first year.

Students are required to complete at least 60 pages of a full-length screenplay. Students must also complete a revised outline of the full screenplay by the end of the semester. The reading and analysis of six to eight screenplays is required in conjunction with the student’s original work. Lectures integrate writing work with presentations emphasizing understanding of basic screenplay structure, theme, story, plot, character development and film language.

This course surveys movies from early silent films to movies of today. It will focus on a broad spectrum of the different styles, genres and types of narrative films. The course will survey studio films and independent films, American films and international films. Movies will be screened and screenplays will be read and analyzed for story, structure, character and history.

Students will write a “spec” episode of an existing series. In the lecture component of the class, emphasis will be placed on the long-term structure of one of the series the students are writing. The purpose of this class is to understand how a series functions and how writing the episodic form differs from other dramatic forms.

This course surveys post WWII television up to the present day. It will focus on a broad spectrum of the different styles, modes and types of television programming, including dramatic, comedic and everything in between. The course will focus on network and cable shows. Shows will be screened and scripts will be read and analyzed for story, structure, character and history.

As part of your liberal arts education, you should complete an additional 16 non-Tisch credits in the second year. By the end of your second year, you should have completed 32 credits in General Education.

In the intermediate level writing workshops, students continue their development in two of the three areas: playwriting, screenwriting, episodic writing.

This class is a lecture and discussion using 10 to 14 of Shakespeare’s major plays. The objective of this course is to investigate how Shakespeare used structure, character, and language to create works for a contemporary popular theatre. Students will also study the Elizabethan age and learn to write sonnets.

This practical workshop is designed to introduce students to the techniques and theory of developing and producing short film ideas that are shot on digital video and edited digitally on computer using Adobe Premiere Pro software. The course centers on learning elements of visual storytelling through a spectrum of aesthetic approaches. Working in crews of four, students learn directing, shooting, and editing skills as they each direct three short videos (three to five minutes in length).

Internships are recommended during junior or senior year. Students seeking an internship before then will require special permission. Students experience the profession of the dramatist from ‘the other side of the desk’ by working in a professional organization that develops and or produces the work of dramatists. All students must complete an internship in order to graduate. Students work with the Internship Coordinator to secure the internship.

Students must complete 44 credits in General Education. If you have completed your General Education requirements, you can take elective courses to ensure you meet the 128 credits required to graduate.

In an advanced level workshop in playwriting, screenwriting, or episodic writing, students write an original full length piece over the course of the semester.

Internships are recommended during junior or senior year. Students seeking an internship before then will require special permission. Students experience the profession of the dramatist from ‘the other side of the desk’ by working in a professional organization that develops and or produces the work of dramatists. All students must complete an internship in order to graduate. Students work with the Internship Coordinator to secure the internship.

A colloquium featuring guest speakers from the theatre, television and film industries who will discuss the trials and tribulations, ins and outs of the business. Guests include agents, independent filmmakers, producers, writers, story editors, literary managers, and representatives from the Dramatists Guild and the Writers Guild of America East. An important emphasis is to involve students with the Tisch and NYU Career Services offices and their resources to begin the transition to the professional world while in the class.

The BFA Capstone Project class is the final step to fulfilling the required writing sequence in the Dramatic Writing Department. Whether it's a capstone in playwriting, screenwriting or episodic writing, students will incorporate everything that they have learned in their previous writing classes (Craft, Level I, Level II, Advanced) and complete an original, full length work.

Students must complete 44 credits in General Education. If you have completed your General Education requirements, you can take elective courses to ensure you meet the 128 credits required to graduate.