This is an advanced hybrid literature and creative writing workshop. We will read writers who, through their art, have interrogated the nature of justice, pushed boundaries of inclusion, and highlighted lives that are written out of history, story, and memory--and are still written out today--both inside and outside the United States, and in many different contexts. For instance, in the context of those profiled for their race, religion, caste, sexual orientation, gender identity, or physical ability. Those dislocated by wars, colonialism, climate change, and poverty.

The primary focus of this intermediate playwriting course is drawing inspiration from historical figures for the construction of original one-act plays. In addition to developing and deepening our craft as playwrights - clarifying dramatic action and creating more dynamic characters - we will deconstruct the work of several contemporary theatre makers including Lin Manuel Miranda, Katori Hall, Moises Kaufman, Charise Castro Smith, and Doug Wright, all of whom write, stage and perform original dramas that are at once comedic, musical and absurd.

In this course, we will look closely at the structure of longform prose, including non-fiction as well as fiction. We will read longform essays, a short story collection, and a novel, and we will consider how each is organized by paying close attention to how the craft of each serves the content, and vice versa. We will then read and workshop short stories, longform non-fiction, and novel excerpts by your peers, paying attention to craft in the service of content, and how all of that affects the reader's understanding of the piece.

In this course we will explore the potency of poetic forms, focusing on the interplay between what can be sounded out, and what can only be sensed. By reading and discussing a wide range of works-from ancient fragments to contemporary experimental poems-and through guided writing exercises-we will consider the ways a poem may serve to delineate the familiar while at the same time setting off toward stranger realms.

Generation after generation, theatre makers craft new ways of telling stories and imagining worlds in the face of tumultuous odds. This moment is no different. As lights dim on stages across the country and around the world, actors have begun to reimagine theatrical conventions for a virtual medium. In this fully remote class, students will create a series of original, scripted, and movement-based theatre pieces in collaboration with students in Professor Will MacAdams' Theatre Directing for Zoom and Professor Peter Kallok's Theatre Design During the Pandemic courses.

Fredrick Douglass famously writes, "If there is no struggle, there is no progress." That struggle, for African Americans, has often been managed or mitigated through the solace of music, of song, from spirituals to rhythm and blues. In this course, we will approach this topic by reading and discussing a selection of songs, poetry, prose, drama, and film to determine the targets of African American dissatisfaction, and to understand how assumptions about race can tear the social fabric among and within groups.

This is a creative writing workshop with a focus on recognizing, analyzing, and developing different narrative techniques used to write the short story. Each technique will be studied individually, as well as in relation to the work as a whole. As David Lodge writes in The Art of Fiction, "Effects in fiction are plural and interconnected, each drawing on and contributing to all the others." We will take apart these "effects" in order to better appreciate how they are linked, both when reading and writing.

This seminar is primarily designed for Division II students whose primary writing interests and pursuits feature creative writing-fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, literary journalism, or other related genres. The seminar will consist of reading, workshops, and peer critique. Writing is often regarded, and rightfully so, as a solitary practice; one of the objectives of this seminar will be to explore the notion of writers in community with one another, supporting and encouraging each other's work. There will also be a strong focus on revision strategies.

Generation after generation, theatre makers craft new ways of telling stories and imagining worlds in the face of tumultuous odds. This moment is no different. As lights dim on stages across the country and around the world, directors have begun to reimagine theatrical conventions for a virtual medium. In this fully remote class, students will create a series of original, scripted, and movement-based theatre pieces in collaboration with students in Professor Djola Branner's Theatre Acting for Zoom and Professor Peter Kallok's Theatre Design During the Pandemic courses.

When designing costumes, projections, sound, lighting, props, or scenery, do theatre designers read and hear musicals any differently than a director or an actor? To what does a designer respond? Theme, character, dialogue, stage directions, place, time, rhythm, flow, music, and arcs all play into a designer's process of discovering the visual and aural possibilities of musicals on stage. How does a designer sift through the body of a script to discover clues of the physical nature of the play?