An introduction to the art and practice of lighting design for the theater. This course will cover the basics of light, lighting equipment and how to develop a design for a theatrical production. Students will have the opportunity to use the Black Box Light Lab to create their own lighting designs from selected scenes of plays and musicals and learn the basics of programming a computerized lighting board.

Yue Opera, an all-female art that flourished in Shanghai in 1923, resulted from China's social changes and the women's movement. Combining traditional with modern forms and Chinese with Western cultures, Yue Opera today attracts loyal and enthusiastic audiences despite pop arts crazes. We will focus on how audiences, particularly women, are fascinated by gender renegotiations as well as by the all-female cast. The class will read and watch classics of this theater, including Romance of the Western Bower, Peony Pavilion, and Butterfly Lovers.

A survey of world performance history, including: the evolution of human language and consciousness; the rise of oral, ritual, and shamanic performance; religious and civic festivals; and imperial theater practices that position the stage at the dangerous intersection of religious worship, public taste, royal patronage, and government censure. Understanding performance as both artistic practice and social institution, this course emphasizes the role performance has played in changing audiences and as a cultural and political force in various societies.

This course offers an overview of the history of sound cinema in Latin America, from its Golden Age to the contemporary period. We address key cinematic movements and aesthetic traditions, including Golden Age Mexican Cinema, Cinema Novo, Third Cinema, and New Latin American Cinema. The course also explores significant political, cultural, and economic changes that have altered the Latin American cinematic landscape in recent decades.

A study of some of Shakespeare's plays emphasizing the poetic and dramatic aspects of his art, with attention to the historical context and close, careful reading of the language. Eight or nine plays.

This course traces the history of television in the United States from its invention to the present, including how U.S.-based television has circulated globally. In addition to looking at how the medium was developed and regulated as a technology, we will analyze the aesthetic and thematic content of television across the medium's history and within particular genres (sitcom, drama, reality, etc.), exploring how television has represented aspects of U.S. society including race, gender, sexuality, and socioeconomic class.

A continuation of techniques developed in Acting I. Concentration is on scene work with 'classic' and contemporary realist playwrights, i.e., Chekhov, Ibsen, Williams, Churchill, Kane, etc. Students will perform at least four scenes using the Stanislavski method as their base. Practical tools explored in class are intended to offer the student greater vocal, physical, and imaginative freedom and clarity, as well as text analysis skills.

An introduction to the art and work of the costume designer in the performing arts. Students will learn how a costume designer analyzes a script, approaches research, renders costume sketches, and helps to shape a production.

This course is designed to be an introduction to the fundamental theories and principles of directing for the stage. Visual theory, text analysis, collaborative techniques, and organizational strategies are examined and applied in class exercises, including the direction of a major scene. Each student will be required to cast, rehearse, and present to the public a fully realized scene by the end of term. Directing is a complicated activity that requires you to do and be many things, and this course will help you lay the foundation to discovering your own process.

This course is designed to provide students with an overview of what a stage manager does and why a stage manager is integral to any theatrical production. Students will understand the technical and artistic skills required of a stage manager, and will examine a dramatic text from a stage manager's perspective. Through group activities and in-class projects, students will use the text to execute stage management duties during the pre-production, rehearsal, and performance process.