The close reading of dramatic texts for contemporary production. Focus on finding original answers to directorial, design, and dramaturgical questions. Dramatic texts selected from a broad spectrum of world repertory.

This course will provide instruction of, and guided practice in, the basics of the art and craft of sound design for theater. It will explore the fundamental tools and processes essential to conceptualizing and implementing both the content of a sound design and the sound system for delivery of that content. At the end of the course, students will master the assembly and operation of simple sound systems, and an ability to interpret basic sound-system documentation.

Introduction to the field of phonology and the sound patterns of human language. Emphasizes the development of analytic skills through problem sets. Includes discussion of recent developments in phonological theory, particularly Optimality Theory.

This course offers an introduction to the study of film as a distinct medium. It introduces the ways in which film style, form, and genre contribute to the meaning and the experience of movies. Topics include film as industrial commodity, narrative and non-narrative form, aspects of style (e.g. composition, cinematography, editing, and sound), and the role of film as a cultural practice. Examples are drawn from new and classic films, from Hollywood and from around the world. This course is intended to serve as a basis for film studies courses you might take in the future.

This course offers an introduction to the study of film as a distinct medium. It introduces the ways in which film style, form, and genre contribute to the meaning and the experience of movies. Topics include film as industrial commodity, narrative and non-narrative form, aspects of style (e.g. composition, cinematography, editing, and sound), and the role of film as a cultural practice. Examples are drawn from new and classic films, from Hollywood and from around the world. This course is intended to serve as a basis for film studies courses you might take in the future.

By the end of this course, each student will be able to design costumes for a performance piece. By completing this course all students will have a beginning grasp of costume history and the ability to research and complete a design project. This course will encourage creative thought and problem solving, collaborative experimentation and will stimulate the development of personal aesthetic, critical analysis, and an intelligent approach to performance design. Also, there will be specific training sessions for figure drawing and character rendering for students without a fine art background.

Contemporary Native American Performance is an area of study with deep roots in culturally specific production and an ever-evolving practice by a wide range of artists. In this Junior Year Writing course we will read plays and performative texts created by Native American artists since the 1960's. We will begin our study by acknowledging the limitations of language and the always contentious issue of labels. Within this critical framework, we will study the art as well as the attending social, political, and historical contexts.

Development of the theater from the late 18th century, with special emphasis on the realistic play and its antecedents. Reading and analysis of plays in their theatrical and cultural contexts. Meets Junior Year writing requirement. Prerequisite: THEATER 120.

This course asks students to consider the following questions: How are media constructed and produced? Received and understood? And how do media make meaning in culture? How are the stories and mythologies that circulate in various media (film, TV, print, social media) made "dramatic" or framed by and structured using theatrical techniques? And to what ends? How do social groups perform themselves and others?

From newspaper chronicles of nineteenth-century gender outlaws to the present-day explosion of transgender poetry, our personal, cultural, and political understandings of gender nonconformity in the United States have long been tied to particular modes of representation. Through sustained engagement with such creative work, as well as background reading in transgender history and theory, this course will explore the literary history of trans. Although we will pull material from across time and genre, we will focus on contemporary writers like Janet Mock and Andrea Lawlor.