Academics

Not unlike the essay or laboratory experiment, a play is a tool that allows the curious mind to develop, test, and rethink ideas, and to grapple with significant issues (both public and private) in live, three-dimensional space. Playwriting introduces the beginning writer interested in exploring the discipline of live performance (and the seasoned writer wishing to develop his/her craft) to the exciting world of writing for the stage. Each semester, students in this course get the chance to study with a different, award-winning guest playwright. In so doing, they get to experience instruction and guidance under the tutelage of some of the most exciting voices working professionally in the American theatre.

Location

(M 12:30PM - 3:15PM)

This course introduces students to the mechanics, materials, and aesthetics of lighting for the theatre.  Students gain a thorough understanding of lighting equipment, procedures, safety, and how these fascinating elements contribute to creating theatrical storytelling.  Students work actively with these technologies on productions, getting valuable practical experience. There is a required lab component that will be scheduled with the instructor.

Location

(TR 9:40AM - 10:55AM)

Want to get your feet wet or hands dirty doing some exciting behind-the-scenes work on Theatre Program productions? A perfect hands-on way to explore the excitement, camaraderie, creativity, and skills needed for backstage work—in lighting, sound, costumes, scenery, or stage management—is to get involved in ENGL 126 Production Experience, a 1-credit, half semester course where you get to work on actual theatre productions in the brand-new Sloan Performing Arts Center through lab participation, joining run crews, or other practical ways. You’ll learn valuable skills while contributing to the excellence in production that the International Theatre Program is known for. You’ll play a real role in making theatre happen! No prior experience needed.

Location

( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)

Do you want to be on stage and screen, but wonder if you have the skills to land a gig? Auditioning for Live Theatre and Film will introduce students to the practice of auditioning for acting work. Throughout the semester students will learn to prepare monologues, analyze, and perform sides from theatre and film scripts and how to put together resumes, headshot and submissions for work. Each student will finish the class with two contrasting monologues, a headshot and resume and knowing how to slate and represent themselves in the room. The class will include a sample audition with professional directors and Q & A to help you learn how to put your best foot forward when you enter the audition room.

Location

(M 10:00AM - 11:15AM)

Space and how it is conceived and explored is fundamental to the telling of stories on stage and elsewhere. This introductory course aims at giving students skills to create, translate and communicate a visual design/environment for performance. The class will focus on design fundamentals, materials, research and visual storytelling through class discussion, script analysis and practical work. Students will read a play, devise a concept for that play, research possible environments, and begin to produce drawings and other visual ideas for their design. Student's work will be presented and discussed in each class.

Location

(M 10:25AM - 1:05PM)

This course enables students to move progressively toward a stronger understanding of long form improvisation acting theory and skills related to listening, supporting others, heightening, and taking risks. By the end of this course, students will be able to work within a cast to create full-length, fully improvised plays that incorporate spontaneous monologues and scenes with recurring characters and themes. Particular focus will be paid to a format known as “The Harold,” which is widely considered the cornerstone of modern improv comedy. 

Location

(R 3:25PM - 6:05PM)

The creation of a contemporary theatrical production uses skills and talents across a wide range of disciplines: from carpentry to rigging, from painting to computer drafting, from electrical to audiovisual engineering for the stage. This introductory course will explore the theories, methods, and safe practice of set construction (including using power tools), rigging, stage lighting, drafting, sound, and scene painting. Students will work on actual productions staged by the Theatre Program during required labs that will be scheduled with the instructor.

Location

(MW 9:00AM - 10:15AM)

Ever wonder and admire how sound designers create awesome aural environments in live performance? This course investigates the tools, tricks, skills, and equipment of realizing sound design for the theater. You’ll learn how Sound Designers shape sound and music, and collaborate with other artists to achieve a specific creative vision. You’ll see and experience how sound systems are put together, getting hands-on time with different equipment and learning just what each piece does. We will build on the fundamentals of sound systems that can start as small as your computer and go as large as filling a 1,000 seat theater or larger. As you learn these trades and skills, you’ll then apply them in the Theatre Program's productions, working with peers and industry professionals to put on a full scale production. Whatever your experience level, you are welcome here. All you need is a passion for hearing the world around you, and the desire to bring your own creative world to life on whatever stage you find. There is a required lab component that will be scheduled with the instructor.

Location

(TR 11:05AM - 12:20PM)

This course serves as an introduction to, and exploration of the acting process for the stage, developing the fundamental skills students need to approach a text from a performer’s standpoint and to create character. The course takes as its basic premise that the actor’s instrument is the self—with all of the physical, psychological, intellectual, social, moral and spiritual implications of that term. Students will be encouraged in both the expression and the expansion of the self and of the imagination. The class will also help the student develop an overall appreciation for the role of the theatre in today’s society.

Location

(W 10:25AM - 1:05PM)

Ninety three percent of communication is nonverbal. In today's ever increasingly technological world “soft skills” are more valuable than ever. It is not just important what we say, but how we say it. In Movement for the Actor using Alexander Technique, Bartenieff Fundamental, View Points, Laban and many other exercises and explorations students will gain an awareness of their own habits and physical tensions, learn alignment and relaxation techniques, let go of inhibitions and then learn to make physical choices to create diverse and inventive characters. Students will learn to read the body language of others and tools to use in their own lives to physically adjust and respond and relate to new situations in new ways.

Location

(F 10:25AM - 1:05PM)

In todays theatre, the director is generally considered to be the key creative figure in how a theatre production is conceived, explored and presented. But the directors task is a difficult one, encompassing rigorous intellectual, theatrical and artistic knowledge and skills. This introductory directing techniques class for aspiring directors will explore the nature of the theatrical event, investigate conceptualization, visualization, text analysis, action and design as they pertain to the director's craft. In conjunction with a weekly scheduled lab.

Location

(F 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

Theatre and Cultural Context (previously Intro to Theatre) is an introductory class allowing students to comprehensively and actively understand the entire theatrical production process from the page to the stage, while simultaneously exploring the cultural (and other contexts) in which artists, playwrights, directors and designers create the magic of theatre. Students discover theatre in an immersive way, studying and gaining insight into the actual texts of works being produced by the UR International Theatre Program.  In conjunction with professional artists who direct and design our productions, students explore the creative and artistic process and gain first-hand, practical knowledge working in one of many labs associated with the production (scenery, lighting, costume, sound, etc.). A unique course melding the theoretical and practical, with a deep dive into the (largely, though not exclusively) Western cultural literacy all rolled into one.  There is a required lab component that will be scheduled with the instructor.

Location

(W 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

Pre-req: ENGL174, 292, 293, 294, 295 or by Audition
Acting II aims to provide students who have substantial or significant performance experience an opportunity to explore, in depth, advanced acting techniques, while further developing interpretive and imaginative skills. The class aims to build creativity and the ability to inhabit a broad diversity of characters and performance styles.

Location

(TR 11:05AM - 12:20PM)

For actors, assistant directors and select student staff working on a current main stage production.

Location

( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)

For actors, assistant directors and select student staff working on a current mainstage production. By audition/arrangement with instructor.

Location

( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)

The stage manager is the critical organizational and management hub in the artistic process of theatrical production. Stage Managers are skilled project managers, and the skills learned in stage management are applicable to almost any management Stage Management (fall/spring) students will get an in-depth introduction to and immersion in stage managing a theatrical production. In addition, cover all areas of management skills, safety procedures, technical knowledge, and paperwork, students will be expected to serve as an assistant stage manager or production stage manager on one (or both) Theater Program productions in their registered semester.

Location

(F 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

1 credit pass/fail performance lab course for students accepted into ENGL292, 293, 294, or 295 or for those involved as actors in mainstage Theatre Program productions.

Permission of Instructor Required

Location

( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)

1 credit pass/fail performance lab course for students or actors accepted into ENGL294, or 295 mainstage Theatre Program productions.

Location

( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)

In Special Projects: Theatre students work in a particular area or on a particular project of their choosing or devising. Developed with and overseen by a Theatre Program faculty member and functioning like an Independent Study, Special Projects: Theatre allows students the opportunity of specializing in or investigate theatre in a tailored, focused, and self-directed way.

Location

( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)

Advanced Stage Management Practicum is designed for, and available only to students fulfilling the roll of a Production Stage Manager on a mainstage Theatre Program production.

Registration for Independent Study courses needs to be completed thru the instructions for online independent study registration.

Location

( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)