DEVISING, ADAPTATION, DOCUDRAMA

DRAMA 3227

This course explores three ways of theatre-making that have revolutionized the contemporary stage: devising (a collaborative process emphasizing physical techniques to realize ideas), adaptation (the transposition of a narrative from one mode to another), and docudrama (the self-conscious staging of history through the assemblage of documentary records). Beginning with a focus on the current "postdramatic theatre" and the pre-histories of these contemporary practices, we will engage current scholarship on each form, learning the "how" and "why" from contemporary practitioners, while considering the rhetorical structure of each form in relation to the social meanings they generate for their audiences. Divided into 3 units, the course will combine the study of each method with hands-on practice, and will conclude with a showcase featuring an original performance created by the student collective. A theme (variable by semester) will unite the three sections of the course, helping students see how a single topic can be illuminated in different ways through these three methods of creating performance.
Course Attributes: EN H; BU Hum; AS HUM; AS LCD

Voice-Speech Laboratory

DRAMA 314

Fundamentals of speech for the stage focusing on breath support, resonance, articulation, and speech as an expression of an individual's needs. The course includes an introduction to stage dialects. Preference given to majors.
Course Attributes: EN H; AS HUM

Stage Lighting

DANCE 319

This course will place an emphasis in the aesthetic practice of lighting design through the understanding of technology as it relates to time and space. Early on the student will learn how to properly use and apply designer's tools and then through reading, research and experimentation explore the limitless boundaries of color and texture. This will culminate in a stage design in collaboration with directing or dance class. Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to speak eloquently on design theory and be able to move on to further design study in Advanced Lighting Design: L15 410. Prereq: Drama 212E, or permission of instructor.
Course Attributes: EN H; BU Hum; AS HUM; FA HUM; AR HUM

Costume Rendering and Design

DRAMA 3081

Costume Rendering and Design is an introduction to the skills required for designing costumes for theater productions. Class topics will include duties and responsibilities of costume designers for theatre, elements and principles of design, research methods, drawing the human figure and clothing, various color media, text analysis and creating costume-related paperwork for plays, communicating character with costume renderings, and the time management required to complete designs in a deadline-based industry.
Course Attributes: EN H; BU Hum; AS HUM; FA HUM; AR HUM

Theater Culture Studies II: From Renaissance to Romanticism

DRAMA 229C

This course provides a survey of theater history from the early seventeenth through mid-nineteenth centuries, covering plays, theories of drama and acting, and the material conditions of theatre production. We will explore events in Asia, the Americas and Europe with particular attention to the Baroque era, Sentimentalism, and Romanticism. The central objectives of the course are 1) to teach students to analyze plays in complex and creative ways, and 2) to cultivate understanding of the ways theater and performance practices reflect the philosophical ideas, aesthetic values, and socio-political realities of their historical context-even as these practices sustained and challenged such ideas, values, and realities. This class is available to sophomores, juniors and seniors only.
Course Attributes: EN H; BU Hum; AS HUM; FA HUM; AR HUM; FA CPSC

Black Theater Workshop

DRAMA 201

The Black Theater Workshop is a performance-oriented course with an emphasis on literature by African American playwrights and writers. The course work consists of seeing productions, reading plays, developing monologues and scene work, and doing short performances. Students will also explore the black experience through acting, directing, and playwriting, all to culminate in a final performance that is required and in lieu of a final exam.
Course Attributes: EN H; BU Hum; AS HUM; AS SD I; AS SC

Voice, Speech

DRAMA 4994

Independent study.
Course Attributes:

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Final Project I

DANCE 550

This is the first of the two Final Project courses (Final project II, Spring semester) for the MFA in Dance student. The student will spend the Fall semester creating and rehearsing original choreography which will be presented in a Final Project Concert, second semester, that represents the culmination of their studies in the MFA in Dance Program. The Final Project, a concert or public presentation largely expressed in Dance, represents an amalgamation of their growth as an artist, enhanced choreographic process, expanded range as a performer, and comprehensive understanding and application of the collaborative nature of the production elements within their concert. The concert, and the research and rehearsals leading up to it noted in a written statement, will be evaluated by a committee.
Course Attributes:

Research Methods Colloquium

DANCE 520

This course is designed around the theory of the "everyday work of art", suggested by Eric Booth. The everyday work of art suggests a persistent interest in and the ability to navigate one's art making from the initial impulse of creation to the fully blossomed form. In this course, the art is that of making dance. Indeed, the work of our art both acknowledges the expectations from within our given domain while fully engaging with the daily, open-ended possibilities for dance making.
Course Attributes:
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