Academics

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)

ENGL 126 Production Experience is a 1-credit course where you get to work on the current theatre production in the new Sloan Performing Arts Center. Designed for students with or without prior training, this course is a perfect way to get hands-on experience in a variety of backstage departments through lab participation, joining run crews, or other practical ways. Working in lighting, sound, costumes, scenery & painting, or stage management you can explore the excitement, camaraderie, creativity, and skills needed for backstage work. You will learn valuable skills while contributing to the excellence in production that the International Theatre Program is known for. You will be playing a real role in making theatre happen! No prior experience needed.

Location

( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)

Stage Combat explores the concepts and techniques of theatrical violence for stage and screen. Students will stress safety and control as they learn to create the illusions of punches, kicks, throws, and falls. The course focuses on unarmed combat. In-class performances will be video recorded to study stage and film technique.

Location

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

Puppetry has a history dating back thousands of years. In this course, class participants will be introduced to the breadth, scope, and history of puppetry arts, including traditional Japanese forms (Bunraku-style, kuruma ningyo-style), shadow puppetry (wayang kulit and overhead projectors) and object performance. Students will learn style-specific manipulation techniques through hands-on exploration of breath, eyeline, focus, and micromovement.  Students will have the opportunity to make their own Bunraku-style puppets, and explore how to tell stories with objects, using non-verbal communication and gesture.  This class is great training for actors, dancers, and performers to explore subtlety, nuance, and how to make your performance secondary, and in service to the puppet/object, which is the primary focus of storytelling.

Location

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

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 allows 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. Performers will develop skills that enable them to write, direct, edit, and act in pieces that are made up on the spot using a single audience suggestion. Particular focus will paid to the format known as Harold. Originally conceived by Del Close in the 1960s with the Compass Players in San Francisco and later developed at the Improv Olympic in Chicago with Charna Halpern, the Harold 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

(R 11:05AM - 1:45PM)

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

(T 11:05AM - 1:45PM)

“Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning.”- Maya Angelou. In this course students will gain an understanding and greater command of their unique and powerful voice. We will explore the teachings of Kristin Linklater, Alexander Technique, Cecily Barry and many others to create full, free and forward sound that will serve the actor from the audition to the stage, the interview to the boardroom. Students will develop relaxation and awareness skills, learn to connect to a variety of texts in a meaningful and creative way and the ability to support and project, increase their vocal range, versatility, and confidence. Actors will learn to transform their voice into the voice of the character with the technique that allows them to meet the demands of doing it eight shows a week!

Location

(F 11:05AM - 1:45PM)

Develop specialized skills needed for theatrical technical production beyond introductory technical courses. Using current Theatre Program productions, students will work in small seminars and in one-on-one tutorials with the instructor to accomplish advanced production processes in a chosen technical area. In the required lab sessions, students will develop skills in advanced planning, technical problem-solving, and crew leadership. Labs are scheduled with the instructor based on the current production calendars. Permission of instructor required.

Location

(R 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

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

This is a course devoted to the performance of work--both dramatic scenes and songs--from the musical theatre repertoire. The class follows a workshop model, with students singing, acting and performing material that is then critiqued and reworked. Students will get to work on both contemporary and Golden Age musical theatre repertoire in both solo/monologue format and in scenes. The class is intended for students with some background in musical theatre performance and is by audition only. The class may culminate in a public showing of work undertaken over the course of the semester.

Location

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

For actors, assistant directors and select student staff working on the current mainstage production.

Location

( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)

For actors, assistant directors and select student staff working on the current mainstage production.

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 situation.  Stage Management (fall/spring) students will get an in-depth introduction to and immersion in stage managing a theatrical production, as well as understanding the broader context of stage management within cultural, historical, theatrical and aesthetic histories/contexts.  The course covers all areas of management skills, safety procedures, technical knowledge, and paperwork.  Students will be expected to put in significant time in the lab portion of the course: serving 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)

This course provides undergraduate students the opportunity to pursue in-depth, independent exploration of a topic not regularly offered in the curriculum, under the supervision of a faculty member in the form of independent study, practicum, internship or research. The objectives and content are determined in consultation between students and full-time members of the teaching faculty. Responsibilities and expectations vary by course and department.  Registration for Independent Study courses needs to be completed through the Independent Study Registration form (https://secure1.rochester.edu/registrar/forms/independent-study-form.php)

Location

( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)

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

Location

( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)