Summer Theatre Studies Courses

This class is designed to introduce students to skills and concepts that are fundamental to the art of stage directing. These skills and concepts include script analysis and production research (from given circumstances, dramatic action, character and “ideas” through to interpretation and production concept), theatrical composition (staging and visual story telling), crafting (how to go from analysis to concrete, active and specific stage reality), and communicating with actors. These skills and concepts are applicable to a wide range of production aesthetics. Students will create and/or show devised and scripted scene work in almost every class. Much, but not all, of the class work will be created inside a basic Stanislavskian framework of learning to clearly and dynamically physicalize the dramatic action in communicative stage language. Readings from Grotowski, Richards and Hodges on “action” will be studied and applied to scene work. Students will be introduced to fundamental aspects of Stanislavski’s Active Analysis. A close reading of Chekhov’s Three Sisters or The Seagull will be used to model a way of reading a play as a director, focusing on the relationship between given circumstances and the characters actions, intentions and emotional points of view and how those suggest themes and overall ideas in the play. Social theories of Erving Goffman will be studied and applied to the creation of original theater pieces in order to expand the students understanding of the potential communicative power of sub-textual behavior. In conjunction with learning how to use secondary research and critical essays to prepare production concepts, students will read theoretical writings of Bertolt Brecht and apply them to the creation of original work that introduces them to the use of multiple tracks inside a performance, the use of meta-theatrical “frames” and ways to embed dramaturgical concepts into the dramatic action. An analysis of The Bacchae by Euripides will used to provide examples how selecting and researching overriding ideas and themes in support of a theatrical concept can influence a director’s choices in design, character’s actions, emotional points of view and intentions. There will be two major writing assignments. These focus on play analysis, production concept and research. There will also be several one-page basic analysis assignments. Each class will begin with a physical warm up and improvisational movement exercises to help students anchor composition concepts in their bodies. These exercises are from many sources including aspects of Viewpoint theory primarily: Space, Shape, Time and Kinetics.

PRODUCING FOR THEATRE: METHODS & MATERIALS
Across our twelve sessions, this course will present seven case studies from producing entities working on Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway, examining their structures, processes and methods. We will analyze their finances, their organizational compositions, their programming, their branding and outreach and their position within the New York theatrical ecosystem. Through these detailed case studies, we will gain an overview of prevalent trends in the field today. Over the course of our class time, we will welcome freelance producers, presenters and touring agents, discussing the strategies of non-profits, commercial entities, international makers and indie producers in New York. What are the overlaps across the sector, and what are the distinctions? What are the risks and rewards of each producing model, and how best to decide what will serve a specific project? In a moment of flux in our industries, what partnerships and resource-sharing methods will best serve our field? And, most pressingly, what is the most effective way to finance a project, and build out the infrastructure to produce it, based on the material and the intended audience?

This course explores these questions, empowering the students to lead interviews, conduct independent research projects and drive the discussions through critical thinking. The course culminated in a pitch from each student, where they propose a production, a producing model and the first draft of a venture plan for said production to the class. Students should expect to leave the intensive with a clear understanding of New York’s theatrical ecosystem, as well as a solid foundation in the central tenets of budgeting, marketing and project managing a creative project from ideation to execution.

Counts towards the BEMT Minor.

Barbara Smith writes about the founding of Kitchen Table Press: "We were saying that as women, feminists, and lesbians of color we had experiences and work to do in common, although we also had our differences." Smith identifies this as "one of our bravest steps": seeking common cause between and among women of color across and through difference.[1] While today the term "women" might feel stiflingly TERF-y, in the 1970s and 1980s the term was understood and practiced as capacious across and through differences in gender, united under the umbrella of opposition to the patriarchy. These political choices to build solidarity are at the core of Women of Color feminism. And this framework will serve to center this class, a women-of-color feminist approach to the study of contemporary US theatre and drama.

We will study plays and musical by Black and Indigenous women of color in the US around the turn of the millennium: women Indigenous women living through, with, and under US settler colonialism; women who have been displaced, kidnapped, and enslaved, and their descendants; and women who are in the US in diaspora, uprooted by imperialist, colonialist, or capitalist violence. We'll place these works within their rich contexts: the theoretical, social, and political thought and organizing from their times. By grounding our understanding of theatre as an art and a tool in these playwright's lives and works, we'll seek to understand the relationship between the play and the world.

[1] Barbara Smith, "A Press of Our Own, Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press," Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 10, no. 3 (1989): 11–13.

The study of Shakespeare on film offers an opportunity for observing actual historical artifacts (the films) in relation to the texts on which they were based (the plays). By engaging directly with realized versions of the scripts, it is possible to more fully consider how changing social, cultural, political and technological mores affect the performance and interpretation of seemingly fixed texts that are often the object of cultural reverence and a purist devotion to the “original.” By looking at a field that involves filmmakers from the silent era to the present and from both English and non-English speaking cinematic traditions, one confronts both the interpretive fluidity of the scripts themselves and the contingency of tastes and values as they relate to styles of acting, textual fidelity, technological polish, and identity issues such as race, sex and gender, class, and colonialism. That a quintessentially theatrical body of work has resulted in a rich and varied body of work in a different medium will lead to a discussion of dramatic adaptation and what it means to realize a “version” of a Shakespearean play.

This class will transform how you look at theatre and theatre history. Burlesque, at its root, is about parody. When Lydia Thompson and the British Blondes brought their brand of burlesque to New York City in 1868, American burlesque was born. The Blondes lampooned classic plays, poked fun at current events, and upended both high and low culture, all while “putting on” the other gender (as opposed to burlesque’s later association of “taking off” via striptease). Since Thompsonian burlesque introduced the shocking yet enticing (and potentially subversive) combination of feminized spectacle with parody, poking fun has been central to burlesque, and it spans form, content, and style. This course will cover the major historical shifts in American burlesque traditions including Thompsonian burlesque, the emergence of striptease, and the neo-burlesque movement. We will watch films that document burlesque; read biographies of major figures and scholarly work about performance, theatre, and burlesque; and discuss and practice neo-burlesque with guest artists. We will think, read, write, and discuss (a lot) in this class about ‘big topics” such as gender, performance, desire, sexuality, class, race, camp, nationalism, fashion, censorship (etc.) via the signifier of the burlesque body. Understanding performance requires deeply exploring how it reflects and simultaneously constructs culture. In this condensed summer session, we will divide our lass time between discussion and practicums.

A fascinating look at the history and design of museums and other shows: from medieval fairs to contemporary institutions. In particular, a focus on how museums and shows have presented displays using theatrical contentions as well as a how objects “perform” for an audience. Course work will cover the histories of museums, world’s fairs, circuses, zoos, and freak shows, as well as include field trips throughout New York City.

This class introduces students to fundamental directing tools: principles of stage composition and visual storytelling, action based script analysis, basic directing theory, applied Viewpoints and theatrical conceptualization. Through weekly composition and scene exercises students learn to create communicative stage imagery, physicalize dramatic action and articulate sub-textual behavior. Class work includes written analysis and production concept papers. Readings include classic and contemporary plays and writings on directing and dramaturgy by Anne Bogart, Elinor Fuchs and others.

What makes a musical a musical? How did the most major form of Drama in America come to be? This survey of American musical theatre, with an emphasis on its significant and unique contribution to US popular culture, will trace the musical’s relation to 19th century popular entertainments such as minstrelsy, vaudeville, and burlesque, examine its critical affair with popular song and dance forms from throughout the 20th century, and celebrate its continual reimagining of itself up through present day. Through the reading of librettos and the listening to scores we will also analyze the “bones” of the art form: the structural elements that define the fully Integrated musical: plot, character, song, dance, orchestration, setting, and design – all blended together into a seamless whole, and all completely hinging on the collaborative process for creative inspiration and ultimate success.

Realism and Naturalism are foundations of contemporary theatre but where and how did these forms begin and take shape and how are they distinct from each other? This class explores the societal and theatrical pressures that gave rise to these genres around the start of the Industrial Revolution and how they continue to impact and shape theatre and audiences today. Plays by Zola, Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov and Shaw as well as critical and historical writings will be dissected along with consideration of movements from Romanticism to the birth of Avant-Garde movements like Symbolism, Futurism, and Dada. The birth of the director, the craft of acting and the impact of new technologies on the stage and playwrighting will also be placed into context.

Drama therapy is defined as the intentional use of dramatic processes in order to facilitate change, healing, and growth. In this course, we will learn what drama therapy is, from a theoretical and experiential point of view. Drama therapy is an active form of psychotherapy, experiential in essence, and therefore in order to understand drama therapy and how it can help others, we must experience it. In addition, each class will consist of a theoretical presentation on the drama therapy method that we experience.

What is comedy?  WHY do we laugh at all?  WHAT makes us laugh?  How is comedy today different from yesterday; how is it the same?   Combining theory with practice, this class endeavors to explore comedy both critically and in performance, embodying the comic even as we theorize about it.  We will look at comedy historically, and as it manifests in various genres, as well as break it down structurally – all the while keeping an eye to the cultural influences that inform all comedy. 

The primary mode of exploration for this class will be stand-up.   Arguably the most prevalent form of comedy of our age, stand-up offers us a window into how all comedy works, including: the importance of surprise; comedic timing; comedic structure; and comic situations and characters.  In terms of content, we will address status as a location for humor; the importance of the body in comedy; and cultural taboos.  In addition to working on our stand up routines, each class will have a critical component, and class discussions will serve to deepen our evolving routines.   Of particular interest is the examination of (and distinction between) comedy that affirms cultural norms versus comedy that subverts these norms.

What makes a villain and who decides? In this course, we will track the evolution of the villain across the globe and through the ages, exploring representations of evil in myth, literature, and art history, as well as on the stage and screen. We’ll identify the origins of iconic imagery, interrogate the scapegoating of characters and populations, and question our own perceptions of villainy. Our material will include sacred text, global performance traditions, political documents, psychological studies, horror films of early cinema, and relevant works of today from Disney to Jordan Peele. Assignments will take the form of textual analysis and research as well as artistic responses in the form of performance, music, photography, and video, all seeking to understand new perspectives on those we label “villain.”