Theater

Emphasis in our courses is placed on seeing theater as a performing art. Students take part in play reading or writing, doing scene work, discussion and written analysis of what they read, or learning to design and build sets, depending on the course. All courses are half-credit offerings. Students have numerous opportunities, outside of academic courses, to work as stage performers and off-stage technicians on any of the four yearly major productions and the student-directed One-Act Play Festival staged each year.

Related Info

Related Courses

Cocurricular Options (Performing Groups)

ATT 400 Theatre Immersion

THE 111 Theater Production I

Credit:

Half credit

Prerequisite:

None

This course is an introduction to the fundamental elements of technical theater: stagecraft, scenic design, lighting design, and set construction. Students divide their time between regular classes and practical, hands-on work in the theater program’s various shop and work spaces. Students apply what they are learning by helping to develop and construct the actual elements of each term’s major production and/or one-act productions.

THE 112 Playwriting

Credit:

Half credit

Prerequisite:

None

This course gives students a structured opportunity to write original one-act plays, some of which may be performed in the annual student-directed One-Act Play Festival. In Playwriting, students consider various one-act models exemplified in the works of Chekhov, Mamet, Durang, Henley, and others, as they create three successive drafts of their own original scripts. Daily class work involves both writing exercises and the collective critique of each others’ material. Final scripts must be capable of production in the NMH theater.

THE 114 Acting

Credit:

Half credit

Prerequisite:

None

This course offers students an opportunity to develop new skills and refine or extend existing ones in such performance areas as stage movement, voice, scene study, character development, improvisation, and ensemble technique. Students are responsible for the preparation and presentation of monologues and scenes, as well as for participation in class critiques and specific exercises. Readings include selections from Stanislavsky, Mamet, Hagen, and others. The course may be repeated for credit.

THE 115 Acting II (if repeating THE 114 for credit)

Credit:

Half credit

Prerequisite:

None

See description for THE 114.

THE 116 Modern Stage and Screen

Credit:

Half credit

Prerequisite:

None

This course examines developments in both theater and film from the latter part of the 19th century to the present. Questions fundamental to the course include: How have acting styles evolved within each medium, and how do they differ between the two media? How has the role of the director evolved? What have been the major influences of technology? The course entails reading and discussing both screenplays and stage scripts, viewing live productions and/or films of assigned material, preparing specific scenes for both live and videotaped performance, and writing on a regular basis.

THE 211 Theater Production II

Credit:

Half credit

Prerequisite:

THE 111 or permission of instructor.

This course offers an opportunity for students to learn and apply intermediate to advanced design theory in one of three major technical areas: scenic design, lighting design, and costume design. Classroom theory is applied first to conceptual design projects in the student’s chosen area of concentration; this work culminates in a practical project, perhaps one as ambitious as creating the actual design of a major production. This course may be repeated for credit in a different design area.

THE 213 Directing

Credit:

Half credit

Prerequisite:

THE 114 or permission of instructor. Not open to ninth graders.

Students in this class learn the fundamental principles and skills of play directing. These include script selection, casting, blocking, rehearsing, and production. Each student applies these skills to the staging of a scene or one-act play of between ten and 40 minutes in length. The course requirement is satisfied by a “low-tech” production of this material at semester’s end for an invited audience. Any student may elect to have her or his production reviewed for possible inclusion in the annual student-directed One-Act Play Festival.

THE 315 Acting in Production

Credit:

Half credit.

Prerequisite:

Completion of THE 114 or permission of instructor.

This course offers students who have already gained some acting experience through a prior course and/or stage work an opportunity to hone existing skills, to develop new capabilities, and to apply these in our Spring term major production. After an initial period of scene study, character work and monologue preparation, one or more scripts are selected for production by the group. During the latter half of the semester, class time is divided between continuing skills-based exercises and rehearsals aimed at preparing the selected script(s) for public performance in May.

THE 316 Technology of the Stage

Credit:

Half credit.

Prerequisite:

Completion of THE 114 Acting or permission of instructor.

This course offers students the opportunity to learn in a practical setting not only how to operate, but how to design for the technology that runs on the surface of and behind the scenes for productions on stage. This is a hands-on course in which students will learn the operation of sound boards, microphones, lighting consoles, lighting instruments, and video projection equipment, as well as have opportunities to design light plots, soundscapes, and multimedia presentations. Course is offered every other year.