Theater and Performance Studies (THST)

* THST 051a / CLCV 051a / HUMS 061a / LITR 029a / MUSI 054a, Performing AntiquityPauline LeVen

This seminar introduces students to some of the most influential texts of Greco-Roman Antiquity and investigates the meaning of their “performance” in different ways: 1) how they were musically and dramatically performed in their original context in Antiquity (what were the rhythms, the harmonies, the dance-steps, the props used, etc.); 2) what the performance meant, in socio-cultural and political terms, for the people involved in performing or watching it, and how performance takes place beyond the stage; 3) how these texts are performed in modern times (what it means for us to translate and stage ancient plays with masks, a chorus, etc.; to reenact some ancient institutions; to reconstruct ancient instruments or compose “new ancient music”); 4) in what ways modern poems, plays, songs, ballets constitute forms of interpretation, appropriation, or contestation of ancient texts; 5) in what ways creative and embodied practice can be a form of scholarship. Besides reading ancient Greek and Latin texts in translation, students read and watch performances of modern works of reception: poems, drama, ballet, and instrumental music. A few sessions are devoted to practical activities (reenactment of a symposium, composition of ancient music, etc.). Enrollment limited to first-year students. Preregistration required; see under First-Year Seminar Program.  WR, HU
TTh 1pm-2:15pm

* THST 097a, Anatomy in MotionRenee Robinson

The connection between advances in human anatomy and kinesiology—the science of human movement—and dance practices from the early 1900s to the present. Study of seminal texts and practical exercises that drove the research of Frederick M. Alexander, Mabel Elsworth Todd, Barbara Clark, and Lulu Sweigard and the application of their ideas in contemporary movement practices today. Topics include the synthesis of dance and science; the reeducation of alignment, posture and balance; the use of imagery; and the unification of mind and body. No prior dance experience required. Enrollment limited to first-year students. Preregistration required; see under First-Year Seminar Program.  HU
TTh 1pm-2:15pm

* THST 098a, Composing and Performing the One Person PlayHal Brooks

First-year actors, playwrights, directors, and even students who have never considered taking a theater class, create their own work through a combination of reading, analysis, writing, and on-your-feet exercises. Students read texts and view performances that are generated by one actor in an attempt to discover the methodology that works best for their own creations. The course culminates with a midterm and final presentation created and performed by the student.  Enrollment limited to first-year students. Preregistration required; see under First-Year Seminar Program.  HU
M 3:30pm-5:20pm

THST 110a, CollaborationElise Morrison and Emily Coates

This foundational course introduces collaborative techniques at the core of topics, domains, and practices integral to the major in Theater and Performance Studies. We explore the seeds of performance from its basic essence as human expression, to movement, text, and storytelling, gradually evolving into collectively created works of performance. Techniques and readings may be drawn from improvisation, dance, music, design and spoken word contexts, and will encourage cohort building, critical reflection, and the join of individual and collective artistic expression. Guests from within and outside performance disciplines enhance the potential to investigate crossover between different media.  HURP
HTBA

* THST 111b, Modes of PerformanceAmanda Reid

This foundational course introduces students to the breadth of topics, domains, and practices included in the major in Theater and Performance Studies, as well to faculty in the program. Building on practices of collaborative research and performance making established in MUSI 110, this course alternates between immersive, practical encounters with performance techniques from different disciplines and foundational methodologies for performance analysis. Structured around the four "domains" of study within the major―histories, performance theory, interarts, and artistic practice―this course hones students' practical, analytical, research, and multi-modal communication skills.  HU
HTBA

* THST 129a or b / ENGL 129a or b / HUMS 127a or b / LITR 168a or b, Tragedy in the European Literary TraditionStaff

The genre of tragedy from its origins in ancient Greece and Rome through the European Renaissance to the present day. Themes of justice, religion, free will, family, gender, race, and dramaturgy. Works might include Aristotle's Poetics or Homer's Iliad and plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Seneca, Hrotsvitha, Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, Calderon, Racine, Büchner, Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov, Wedekind, Synge, Lorca, Brecht, Beckett, Soyinka, Tarell Alvin McCraney, and Lynn Nottage. Focus on textual analysis and on developing the craft of persuasive argument through writing.  WR, HU
HTBA

* THST 200a, Introduction to Theatrical ViolenceMichael Rossmy and Kelsey Rainwater

Engagement in a theoretical and practical exploration of depicting violence in theater. Actors learn to execute the illusions of violence on stage both safely and effectively, and the skills of collaboration, partner awareness, concentration, and impulse response. Preference given to Theater Studies majors.
MW 1:30pm-3:20pm

* THST 207b, Introduction to DramaturgyStaff

Introduction to the discipline of dramaturgy. Study of dramatic literature from the ancient world to the contemporary, developing the core skills of a dramaturg. Students analyze plays for structure and logic; work with a director on production of a classical text; work with a playwright on a new play; and work with an ensemble on a devised piece.  WR, HU
HTBA

* THST 210a, Performance ConceptsShilarna Stokes

A studio introduction to the essential elements of performance. Grounded in the work of major twentieth- and twenty-first-century practitioners and theorists, this course guides students in exercises designed to cultivate physical expression, awareness of time and space, ensemble building, character development, storytelling, vocal production, embodied analysis, and textual interpretation. It is a prerequisite for several upper-level courses in Theater and Performance Studies including THST 211 and THST 300. It is open to students in all majors and in all years of study, with the permission of the instructor.  RP
HTBA

* THST 215a / ENGL 434a, Writing DanceBrian Seibert

The esteemed choreographer Merce Cunningham once compared writing about dance to trying to nail Jello-O to the wall. This seminar and workshop takes on the challenge. Taught by a dance critic for the New York Times, the course uses a close reading of exemplary dance writing to introduce approaches that students then try themselves, in response to filmed dance and live performances in New York City, in the widest possible variety of genres. No previous knowledge of dance is required.  WR, HU
M 3:30pm-5:20pm

* THST 218a / EALL 253a / MUSI 494a, Remapping DanceAmanda Reid, Ameera Nimjee, and Rosa van Hensbergen

What does it mean to be at home in a body? What does it mean to move freely, and what kinds of bodies are granted that right? How is dance encoded as bodies move between various sites? In this team-taught class, we remap the field of dance through its migratory routes to understand how movement is shaped by the connections and frictions of ever-changing communities. As three dance scholars, bringing specialisms in West Indian dance, South Asian dance, and East Asian dance, we are looking to decenter the ways in which dance is taught, both in what we teach and in the ways we teach. Many of the dancers we follow create art inspired by migration, exile, and displacement (both within and beyond the nation) to write new histories of political belonging. Others trace migratory routes through mediums, ideologies, and technologies. The course is structured around four units designed to invite the remapping of dance through its many spaces of creativity: The Archive, The Studio, The Field, and The Stage. Throughout, we explore how different ideas of virtuosity, risk, precarity, radicalism, community, and solidarity are shaped by space and place. We rethink how local dance economies are governed by world markets and neoliberal funding models and ask how individual bodies can intervene in these global systems.    No dance background is required, but students have the opportunity to take part in some accessible movement practice.  HUTr
T 1:30pm-3:20pm

* THST 227a / AFAM 217a, Queer Caribbean PerformanceAmanda Reid

With its lush and fantastic landscape, fabulous carnivalesque aesthetics, and rich African Diaspora Religious traditions, the Caribbean has long been a setting where New World black artists have staged competing visions of racial and sexual utopia and dystopia. However, these foreigner-authored fantasies have often overshadowed the lived experience and life storytelling of Caribbean subjects. This course explores the intersecting performance cultures, politics, and sensual/sexual practices that have constituted queer life in the Caribbean region and its diaspora. Placing Caribbean queer of color critique alongside key moments in twentieth and twenty-first century performance history at home and abroad, we ask how have histories of the plantation, discourses of race and nation, migration, and revolution led to the formation of regionally specific queer identifications. What about the idea of the “tropics” has made it such as fertile ground for queer performance making, and how have artists from the region identified or dis-identified with these aesthetic formations? This class begins with an exploration of theories of queer diaspora and queer of color critique’s roots in black feminisms. We cover themes of exile, religious rites, and organizing as sights of queer political formation and creative community in the Caribbean.    HU
W 1:30pm-3:20pm

* THST 228b / ENGL 423b / FILM 397b, Writing about the Performing ArtsMargaret Spillane

Introduction to journalistic reporting on performances as current events, with attention to writing in newspapers, magazines, and the blogosphere. The idea of the audience explored in relation to both a live act or screening and a piece of writing about such an event. Students attend screenings and live professional performances of plays, music concerts, and dance events. Formerly ENGL 244.  WR, HU
HTBA

* THST 233b / RSEE 219b, History of Russian TheaterJulia Titus

This seminar introduces students to the rich legacy of Russian theater, focusing specifically on the developments of Russian drama from the first third of the nineteenth-century to the early twentieth century. The readings and plays studied in the course are organized chronologically, starting with classic Russian comedies by Alexander Griboyedov and Nikolai Gogol, continuing with dramas by Alexander Ostrovsky and Ivan Turgenev, and ending with late nineteenth-century/early twentieth century plays by Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov. Some readings from Stanislavsky are also included. This course will be taught in Russian, with some readings in English and others in Russian.  HU
M 3:30pm-5:20pm

* THST 236a / MUSI 185a, American Musical Theater HistoryDan Egan

Critical examination of relevance and context in the history of the American musical theater. Historical survey, including nonmusical trends, combined with text and musical analysis.  Limited enrollment. Interested students should contact dan.egan@yale.edu for application requirements.  WR, HU
W 1:30pm-3:20pm

THST 241b / FILM 232b, Classical Hollywood Narrative 1920–1960Camille Thomasson

Survey of Classical Hollywood films. Topics include history of the studio system; origin and development of genres; the film classics of the Classical Hollywood period, and the producers, screenwriters, directors, and cinematographers who created them.   WR, HU0 Course cr
TTh 2:30pm-3:20pm, T 7pm-9pm

THST 257b / RUSS 257b, ChekhovJohn MacKay

Close analysis of the major stories and plays of Anton Chekhov. Chekhov's innovations in narrative and dramatic form; the relationship of the works to their complex times. The importance of Chekhov for theatrical practice worldwide, as mediated by Stanislavsky and others. Readings and discussion in English.  HU
MW 10:30am-11:20am

* THST 300a, The Director and the Text IToni Dorfman

Practicing fundamentals of the art of directing: close reading and deep text analysis in search of physical action; rehearsal preparation; mixing the elements of composition (scenography, light, sound & music, projections, movement, language); and most crucially–the work with the actor. Weekly assignments (some labor intensive), discussion of same, and regular on-the-floor experiments. While concentrating on basic practices, the course is designed for students to seek out an initial understanding of individual, even idiosyncratic, artistic directorial voice.  Prerequisite: THST 210.  HU
MW 10:30am-12:20pm

* THST 307a, Making Theater with Improvs and ÉtudesDavid Chambers and Shilarna Stokes

This intensive course spends the entire semester on one piece of literature−dramatic or fiction--using physical improvisations and the Étude method to explore and embody the chosen text. In the second half of the semester, we are joined by world-renowned Russian American director Dmitry Krymov, who brings his unique theatrical skills, offbeat humor, and febrile imagination to the work investigated to date. Everyone is welcome to apply.  See Canvas for more details.
Th 1:30pm-5:20pm

* THST 314a / LITR 210a / RSEE 313a / RUSS 313a / SLAV 313a and SLAV 613a, Art and Resistance in Belarus, Russia, and UkraineAndrei Kureichyk

This interdisciplinary seminar is devoted to the study of protest art as part of the struggle of society against authoritarianism and totalitarianism. It focuses on the example of the Soviet and post-Soviet transformation of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. The period under discussion begins after the death of Stalin in 1953 and ends with the art of protest against the modern post-Soviet dictatorships of Alexander Lukashenka in Belarus and Vladimir Putin in Russia, the protest art of the Ukrainian Maidan and the anti-war movement of artists against the Russian-Ukrainian war. The course begins by looking at the influence of the “Khrushchev Thaw” on literature and cinema, which opened the way for protest art to a wide Soviet audience. We explore different approaches to protest art in conditions of political unfreedom: "nonconformism," "dissidence," "mimicry," "rebellion." The course investigates the existential conflict of artistic freedom and the political machine of authoritarianism. These themes are explored at different levels through specific examples from the works and biographies of artists. Students immerse themselves in works of different genres: films, songs, performances, plays and literary works.  HU
Th 3:30pm-5:20pm

* THST 315a / ENGL 211a, Acting ShakespeareJames Bundy

A practicum in acting verse drama, focusing on tools to mine the printed text for given circumstances, character, objective, and action; noting the opportunities and limitations that the printed play script presents; and promoting both the expressive freedom and responsibility of the actor as an interpretive and collaborative artist in rehearsal. The course will include work on sonnets, monologues, and scenes. Admission by audition. Preference to seniors and juniors; open to nonmajors. See Canvas for application.  HURP
F 1:30pm-5:20pm

* THST 318b / MUSI 340b, Analyzing, Directing, and Performing Early OperaGrant Herreid and Toni Dorfman

Study of a seventeenth-century Venetian opera, with attention to structural analysis of text and music. Exploration of period performance practice, including rhetorical expression, musical style, gesture, dance, Italian elocution, and visual design. Production of the opera in conjunction with the Yale Baroque Opera Project. Open to all students, but designed especially for singers, instrumentalists, and directors. Admission by audition only. May be repeated for credit. For audition information e-mail grant.herreid@yale.edu.  HURP
HTBA

* THST 319a / AFAM 313a, Embodying StoryRenee Robinson

The intersection of storytelling and movement as seen through historical case studies, cross-disciplinary inquiry, and studio practice. Drawing on eclectic source materials from different artistic disciplines, ranging from the repertory of Alvin Ailey to journalism, architectural studies, cartoon animation, and creative processes, students develop the critical, creative, and technical skills through which to tell their own stories in movement. No prior dance experience necessary.  HU
TTh 10:30am-12:20pm

* THST 320a / ENGL 453a, PlaywritingDonald Margulies

A seminar and workshop on reading for craft and writing for the stage. In addition to weekly prompts and exercises, readings include modern American and British plays by Pinter, Mamet, Churchill, Kushner, Nottage, Williams, Hansberry, Hwang, Vogel, and Wilder. Emphasis on play structure, character, and conflict.  RP
T 1:30pm-4:30pm

* THST 321a / ENGL 477a, Production Seminar: PlaywritingDeborah Margolin

A seminar and workshop in playwriting with an emphasis on exploring language and image as a vehicle for “theatricality.” Together we will use assigned readings, our own creative work, and group discussions to interrogate concepts such as “liveness,” what is “dramatic” versus “undramatic,” representation, and the uses and abuses of discomfort.
MW 3:30pm-5:20pm

* THST 334a, Advanced Study for Acting and Directing for Solo PerformanceDeborah Margolin

For the actor, the call to perform alone onstage happens in many different dramaturgical contexts. Solo performance is at once an old and new art form: Homer sang the Odyssey by himself; Hamlet stands alone onstage questioning his own ontology and the nature of being in general. Priests, stand-up comedians, monologuists, TED-talkers: all solo artists. These instances demand of the actor the very specific and unusual kind of presentness that characterizes solo performance. And for the director of solo performance, the challenges are also very particular: how to establish the actor’s relationship to the audience, and how to direct the audience to the actor, be it as scene partner, as confidante, as eavesdropper, as a body of concerned witnesses. This course examines all dramatic modes of aloneness onstage, all the way through from the thinking-aloud of the soliloquy, the in-medias-res monologue, the stand-up comedy routine. Text analysis is followed by the study of acting techniques in best accordance with any given text. Students have the opportunity to perform classic monologues, as well as to explore modern performance texts and comedic performance. Students are also required to take on responsibilities for directing others in focusing and shaping solo work, and therefore thinking about the way aloneness on stage signifies, in ways that are both similar and very different to traditional, multicharacter scene work.
MW 1:30pm-3:20pm

* THST 335a / AFST 435a, West African Dance: Traditional to ContemporaryLacina Coulibaly

A practical and theoretical study of the traditional dances of Africa, focusing on those of Burkina Faso and their contemporary manifestations. Emphasis on rhythm, kinesthetic form, and gestural expression. The fusion of modern European dance and traditional African dance. Admission by audition during the first class meeting.  HURP
TTh 10:30am-12:20pm

* THST 337b / ENGL 333b, Global Encounters on the English Stage, 1650-1800Jill Campbell and Caitlin Hubbard

In the aftermath of the English Civil War, when England began heavily prioritizing its imperial ambitions, the theater responded with an expanding repertoire of plays set in world empires: the Ottoman and Chinese Empires; the Aztec and Incan Empires; the empires of Morocco and Russia and India. This theatrical fascination with global empires, and with England’s own imperial expansions in North America, dominated the stage deep into the eighteenth century. In this course, we analyze this repertoire to interrogate the role of the stage in establishing and promoting—as well as questioning and problematizing—the categories of cultural and racial difference used to justify and determine England’s expanding, and often violent, global mercantile empire. In addition to close-reading of the play-texts, particular emphasis is placed on stagecraft and spectacle (including music, costumes, and scenery); on actor/actress studies; and on performance and adaptation history. We also look at how the English theater’s history of racial and cultural categorization still persists in Anglo-American theater today and ask how knowledge of this history can inform current conversations on the moral complexities of staging pre-modern plays.  WR, HU
HTBA

* THST 339a, Advanced Performance Art Composition: Collaboration, Collusion, CollectivityStaff

This advanced performance art composition course turns to processes of collaboration and collective authorship as a way to expand students’ performance practices. Students engage with the work of performance artists and theorists to investigate topics such as the politics of race, gender, and sexuality within collaborative artmaking; antagonism, affiliation, and collusion; consent and the politics of participation; working across loss and absence; and radical accessibility in collective artistic practice. It is both a seminar and a studio course—we read and discuss critical texts but our primary work is about making and showing interdisciplinary performances.
W 1:30pm-5:20pm

* THST 340a, Ballet NowEmily Coates and Daniel Ulbricht

A practical investigation of seminal ballets in the repertory of New York City Ballet. Tracing a sweeping history of artistic innovation from the early twentieth century to the present, this course covers the technique and aesthetic details that constitute New York City Ballet’s style and follow the ways that these stylistic strengths are applied and transformed in the contemporary ballets of the 21st century. Repertory excerpts move through foundational works by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins to ballets created in the past fifteen years by some of the most prominent ballet choreographers working today. Prior dance training required. Admission is by audition during the first class meeting.  HU
M 1:30pm-3:20pm

* THST 344a, Natasha, Pierre, & the Comet of 1812–Production SeminarAnnette Jolles

The course centers on the research, exploration, and preparation of Dave Molloy’s Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812, culminating in a curricular production of the musical in December 2023. Research and the physical production–including design, staging, and detailed performance work–informed by the show’s original source material, Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, coupled with the styles, influences, and intentions that guided Molloy as the show’s sole author. The text and score serve as the ultimate guide in a class that seeks to combine academic research with the multi-faceted process of mounting a musical. Course intended for actors, designers, directors, music directors, producers, stage mangers, and dramaturgs. Enrollment is open to all Yale students. Actors by audition; other personnel by interview. All students are admitted by permission of the instructor.  HURP
F 1:30pm-5:20pm

* THST 350a / AMST 350a / ER&M 319a / SAST 475a, Drama in Diaspora: South Asian American Theater and PerformanceShilarna Stokes

South Asian Americans have appeared on U.S. stages since the late nineteenth century, yet only in the last quarter century have plays and performances by South Asian Americans begun to dismantle dominant cultural representations of South Asian and South Asian American communities and to imagine new ways of belonging. This seminar introduces you to contemporary works of performance (plays, stand-up sets, multimedia events) written and created by U.S.-based artists of South Asian descent as well as artists of the South Asian diaspora whose works have had an impact on U.S. audiences. With awareness that the South Asian American diaspora comprises multiple, contested, and contingent identities, we investigate how artists have worked to manifest complex representations of South Asian Americans onstage, challenge institutional and professional norms, and navigate the perils and pleasures of becoming visible. No prior experience with or study of theater/performance required. Students in all years and majors welcome.  HU
T 3:30pm-5:20pm

* THST 370b / PLSH 248b, Polish Theater and Its TraditionsKrystyna Illakowicz

Exploration of the rebellious, defiant, and explosive nature of Polish theater, including ways in which theater has challenged, ridiculed, dissected, and disabled oppressive political power. Polish experimental and absurdist traditions that resulted from a merger of the artistic and the political; environmental and community traditions of the Reduta Theatre; Polish-American theater connections. Includes attendance at live theater events as well as meetings with Polish theater groups and actors.  HUTr
MW 1pm-2:15pm

* THST 382a / MUSI 464a, American Opera Today: Explorations of a Burgeoning IndustryGundula Kreuzer and Allison Chu

Contemporary opera constitutes one of the most vibrant sectors of classical music in the United States today. The past decade has seen a range of experimental performances that excitingly challenge stylistic and generic boundaries, and a widening spectrum of creators have been reaching to opera as a medium to center and (re)present stories of historically marginalized communities. Beyond introducing students to the richness of this new repertory, the seminar addresses the broad socio-political and economic currents underlying these recent changes in American opera, including institutional and funding structures; the role of PR, criticism, awards, and other taste-making agents; and cultural reckonings with systemic racism, engrained injustices, and white supremacy. A selection of recent operas or scenes—available as video recordings or audio files—allows us to explore aesthetic issues, such as narrative structures, diverse treatments of the (singing) voice, embodiment, interactivity, immersion, the role of digital media, mobility, site-specificity, and new online formats for opera. Students learn how to write about contemporary performances and works for which little scholarship is yet available; practice both public-facing and academic writing; recognize and critique contemporary canon-formation processes; and relate contemporary artistic practices to a larger institutional and economic ecosystem. At least one trip to the Metropolitan Opera is anticipated, for Anthony Davis and Thulani Davis’ X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X.  HU
Th 1:30pm-3:20pm

* THST 387a, Choreography in Practice and TheoryLacina Coulibaly

A seminar and workshop in dance-theater composition. Focus on the history of dance composition, tools for generating and interpreting movement, basic choreographic devices, and dance in dialogue with media, music, and other art forms. Choreographic projects developed over the course of the term are presented in a final performance. Admission by application. May be repeated for credit.  HURP
T 1pm-4pm

* THST 390b / ENGL 222b, Modern European DramaMarc Robinson

Intensive study of the major playwrights of modern European drama—Ibsen, Chekhov, Strindberg, Shaw, Brecht, Genet, and Beckett—along with pertinent theater theory. Recent plays and performances that respond to canonical texts supplement the primary readings.  WR, HU
HTBA

* THST 398a / ENGL 366a, American Experimental TheaterMarc Robinson

Topics include the Living Theater, Happenings, Cunningham/Cage, Open Theater, Judson Dance Theater, Grand Union, Bread and Puppet Theater, Ontological-Hysteric Theater, Meredith Monk, Mabou Mines, Robert Wilson, and the Wooster Group. Open to junior and senior Theater Studies majors, and to nonmajors with permission of the instructor.  WR, HU
T 1:30pm-3:20pm

* THST 401a, Conceptual Sound Design for TheaterNathan Roberts

Theoretical and practical considerations for conceptual sound design, the creation of aural content and imagery in support of dramatic action. The use of sound to communicate meaning and intention effectively in a theatrical setting. Auditory culture and the phenomenology of hearing; the role of technology in sound design; development of critical listerning skills and of a foundational vocabulary for the medium. Projects focus on the generation of content and ideas in support of a text.  HU
MW 3:30pm-5:20pm

* THST 414a, Lyric Writing for Musical TheaterDan Egan and Michael Korie

The craft of lyric writing in musical theater, opera, and crossover works. Both historical models and new composition used as objects of study. Analysis of song form and placement, and of lyric for character, tone, and diction. Creation of lyrics in context. Noted composers and lyricists of produced musical theater works join the class periodically to comment on the work created. Students also have the opportunity to conceive an original work of musical theater, a crossover work, or an opera libretto, and create portions of the score with original lyrics and music by student composers, with whom the writers will collaborate. Limited enrollment. Interested students should write to dan.egan@yale.edu for application requirements. May not be repeated for credit.  HURP
F 11:30am-1:30pm

* THST 430a, Performing PublicsShilarna Stokes

This course explores genres of political performance in which collective bodies, spaces, ideas, and stories come together, and in which the question of what it might mean to identify as a collective body (public, community, nation, coalition) is at stake. Examples include performance genres with long histories such as festivals, protests, and rallies, as well as emerging genres such as school board meetings, knitting circles, and superfan gatherings. Reading across a range of fields including theater, dance, visual arts, and performance studies, we dwell on the question of how collective performances attempt to construct, contest, or transform collective imaginaries, we develop a shared set of analytical tools, and we put our heads together during research workshops designed to support each student's original research project. No prior experience in performance or performance theory is needed and students in all majors are welcome.  HU
W 3:30pm-5:20pm

* THST 438a, Theater and Therapy in the Aftermath of WarElise Morrison

From the burgeoning field of Drama Therapy to the psychological basis of much actor training to the prevalence of theater productions being made with, for, and about people that have experienced wartime trauma, the practices of theater and therapy have long borrowed terminology, methodology, and conceptual frameworks from one another. This course traces the shared rhetoric and dramaturgical similarities between theater and psychotherapy, paying particular attention to how each/both are being applied to the global epidemic of post-traumatic stress in the aftermath of war. Students engage with contemporary practitioners of drama therapy, study recent theater productions created with and/or for combat veterans and refugees, and create their own research projects that explore the intersections of theater and therapy.  HU
W 1:30pm-3:20pm

* THST 452a, Acting: Constructing a CharacterGregory Wallace

A practical exploration of the internal and external preparation an actor must undergo to effectively render the moment-to-moment life of a given character. Focusing on monologues, scenes, and group explorations of text the class engages in a rigorous investigation of how the actor uses the self as the foundation for transformation. Course consists of close readings, research presentations, rehearsals and in-class scene presentations. Preference to senior and juniors. Open to non-majors. Limited enrollment. Admission by audition. See Syllabus page on Canvas for audition information and requirements.  HU
F 8:25am-12:20pm

* THST 457a and THST 458b / AMST 463a and AMST 464b / EVST 463a and EVST 464b / FILM 455a and FILM 456b, Documentary Film WorkshopCharles Musser

A yearlong workshop designed primarily for majors in Film and Media Studies or American Studies who are making documentaries as senior projects. Seniors in other majors admitted as space permits.  RP
W 10:30am-1:20pm, T 7pm-10pm

* THST 471a, Directed Independent StudyShilarna Stokes

An independent study should generally conform to the standards and procedures of the senior project, THST 491, even when not undertaken by a senior. If the independent study is a performance or directing project, the adviser visits rehearsals and performances at the mutual convenience of adviser and student. The project must be accompanied by an essay of about fifteen pages, worth about half the final grade. Although the paper's requirements vary with the project and its adviser, it must be more than a rehearsal log. The paper typically engages interpretative and performance issues as revealed in other productions of the work (if they exist). The writing should be concomitant with rehearsal, to enable each to inform the other, and a draft must be presented to, and commented on by, the adviser at least a week before—not after—the final performance. The final version of the paper, incorporating adjustments and reflections, should be turned in to the adviser no later than ten days after the performance closes, and no later than the first day of the final examination period. An essay project entails substantial reading, at least four meetings with the adviser, and a paper or papers totaling at least twenty pages. A playwriting project normally requires twenty new script pages every two weeks of the term and regular meetings with the adviser. A final draft of the entire script is the culmination of the term's work. Application forms are available from the director of undergraduate studies. Juniors may use one term of these courses to prepare for their senior projects. Open to juniors and seniors. Prerequisites: THST 210 and one seminar.
HTBA

* THST 491a, Senior Project in Theater StudiesNathan Roberts and Dan Egan

Students must submit proposals for senior projects to the Theater Studies office by the deadline announced by the director of undergraduate studies. Attendance at weekly section meetings is required for all students undertaking production projects. Application forms are available in the Theater Studies office, 220 York St.
W 9:25am-11:15am