Spring 2012 Courses
Courses are listed on this page for convenience. For the most accurate and up-to-date listing of course offerings, please visit the course timetable at the Office of the Registrar website:
http://www.upenn.edu/registrar/timetable/thar.html
Theatre, History, Culture I: CLASSICAL ATHENS TO ELIZABETHAN LONDON
Theatre Arts 110-401 Tuesdays & Thursdays 1:30 pm to 3 pm James Schlatter
This course will explore the forms of public performance, most specifically theatre, as they emerge from, enact, and ultimately help to arbitrate the dynamic life of communal, civic and social bodies, from their anthropological origins in ritual and religious ceremonies, to the rise of great urban centers, to the closing of the theaters in London in 1642. This course will focus on the development of theatre practice in both Western and non-Western cultures as it intersects with the history of cities, the rise of market economies, and the emerging forces of national identity. In addition to examining the history of performance practices, theatre architecture, scenic conventions and acting methods, this course will investigate, where appropriate, social and political history, the arts, civic ceremonies and the dramaturgic structures of urban living.
Playwriting Workshop
Theatre Arts 114-401 Monday 3 pm to 6 pm Seth Bauer
This course is designed as a hands-on workshop in the art and craft of dramatic writing. It involves the study of existing plays, the systematic exploration of such elements as storymaking, plot, structure, theme, character, dialogue, setting, etc.; and most importantly, the development of students' own plays through a series of written assignments and in-class exercises. Since a great deal of this work takes place in class - through lectures, discussions, spontaneous writing exercises, and the reading of student work - weekly attendance and active participation is crucial.
Introduction to Acting
Theatre Arts 120
Section 120-301 Wednesday 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm Rose Malague
Section 120-302 Monday 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm Mary Beth Scallen
Section 120-601 Tuesday 4:30 pm to 7:30 pm Marcia Ferguson
Rooted in the system devised by Konstantin Stanislavsky, this course takes students step by step through the practical work an actor must do to live and behave truthfully on-stage. Beginning with relaxation and physical exercise, interactive games, and ensemble building, students then learn and put into practice basic acting techniques, including sensory work, the principles of action, objectives, given circumstances, etc. The semester culminates in the performance of a scene or scenes, most often from a modern American play. This course strongly stresses the responsibility of the actor to work and especially to one's fellow actors. Practical work is supplemented by readings from Stanislavsky and a variety of other acting theorists that may include Uta Hagen, Robert Cohen, Stella Adler, among others. Students are required to submit short essays over the course of the semester in response to the readings and in preparation for their final scene project.
Introduction to Directing
Section 121-301 Tuesday & Thursday 10:30 am to 12 pm Marcia Ferguson
The aim of this course is to provide students with a basic knowledge of directing through an introduction to the functional tools of the craft. Classes provide lectures and practical work in dealing with topics such as the function of the director, analyzing a script, visual composition, blocking, stage business, and working with actors. This course is a prerequisite for Advanced Directing.
The Play
Theatre Arts 125-401 Tuesday & Thursday 3 pm to 4:30 pm James Schlatter
How does one read a play? Theatre, as a discipline, focuses on the traditions of live performance. In those traditions, a play text must be read not only as a piece of literature, but as a kind of "blueprint" from which productions are built. This course will introduce students to a variety of approaches to reading plays and performance pieces. Drawing on a wide range of dramatic texts from different periods and places, we will examine how plays are made, considering issues such as structure, genre, style, character, and language, as well as the use of time, space, and theatrical effects. Although the course is devoted to the reading and analysis of plays, we will also view selected live and/or filmed versions of several of the scripts we study, assessing their translation from page to stage.
Concepts of Stage Design
Theatre Arts 133-301 Monday & Wednesday 2 pm to 3:30 pm Peter Whinnery
Permission of Instructor Course will meet in the Performing Arts Shop
In this course we will cover the basic concepts of Scenic Design for the stage. Scene Design is about the look or physical appearance of the stage for a play. It reflects the way that the stage is composed artistically in regard to props, actors, shapes and color. We will explore Scene Design and the Theatre (story telling, place and local, time and period, society and culture), Scene Design as a Visual Art (principals of design and composition, style, use of space, expression of concept) and examine how it ties together all the visual elements of a production to create an appropriate atmosphere that heightens the audience's understanding and enjoyment of the play. Topics will include: Script Analysis, Technical Production, Period Decor and Ornament; Drawing, Drafting, Model making; and Scene Painting.
Voice for the Actor
Theatre Arts 170-301 Tuesday & Thursday 12 pm to 1:30 pm Sarah Doherty
This class is an exploration of the performer’s voice with the precept that one’s voice is a manifestation of one’s state of being. The main focus of the class will be learning the classic progression of the Linklater voice work - a series of exercises designed to liberate the speaking voice from habitual psychophysical tensions, as well as develop vocal range, stamina, clarity, power and sensitivity to impulse. In addition, we will incorporate other approaches to voice training and tie vocal range and flexibility to text. Work will include discovery of sound in the body, awareness and opening of the channel (throat, jaw, tongue, soft palate), exploration of resonance, vocal freedom and range, isolating and strengthening resonating chambers and articulation exercises. Group and individual exercises designed to stimulate and develop the imagination, physical and sensory awareness, creativity and capacity for ensemble work will be explored as a basis for vocal presence.
Movement for the Actor
Theatre Arts 171-301 Wednesday 3 pm to 6 pm Manfred Fishbeck
The study of the art of bodily expression throughout history in theory and practice, from Classical and Oriental forms to the contemporary theatre.
Independent Study
Theatre Arts 199 arranged
Acting Level II
Theatre Arts 220-301 Tuesday & Thursday 10:30 am to 12 pm James Schlatter
This course is designed for those students who wish to continue their study of acting technique beyond the Fundamentals of Acting class. Based primarily on the rehearsal and in-class performance of scenes from modern American and European plays, this course will focus on effective text analysis for the actor, on making strong interpretive choices, and on building a productive partnership with one’s fellow actors in the work process. This course will also give significant attention to character work, focusing on the effective use of the actor’s voice, body, and imagination to create distinct physical characters. The final project for the class will be a public performance of a scene that will stretch the technique of student actors and provide them with exciting emotional, physical, and interpretive challenges. Class work will be supplemented with discussion of readings in modern acting theory, the reading of selected plays and attendance at productions of those plays by local Philadelphia professional theatres. Theatre Arts majors who wish to be considered for the Senior Thesis in Acting are urged to take this course prior their to senior year.
Blackface, Jewface
Theatre Arts 240-401 Tuesday & Thursday 12 Noon to 1:30 pm Cary Mazer
Benjamin Franklin Scholars Program
This semester's Topic in Theatre History focuses on the theatrical, dramatic, and histrionic representations of "Others" in select periods of theatrical history. Topics include (among others) the "barbarian" in ancient Greek theatre; representations of Africans, Turks, indigenous Americans, and Jews in Early Modern English theatre; Asians, Indians and Africans in Restoration and 18th-century theatre; Blackface plays (Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Octoroon) and popular entertainment (the minstrel show and vaudeville) in 19th- and early 20th-century America; issues of non-traditional casting in contemporary theatre; the Miss Saigon controversy; and modernist and post-modern theatre and performance art (Anna Deavere Smith, The Wooster Group, et. al.).
Devised Theatre – Using theatre to investigate the intersection of Stories and Games
Theatre Workshop
Thar 250-301 Monday & Wednesday 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm David O’Connor
For more than a century, the American Theatre has centered around the playwright. The entire regional theatre system, as well as the commercial pipeline of Broadway and national tours, is built up around the production of a play written by a playwright, where the playwright’s vision is central and paramount. But starting in the 1960’s and carrying through until today, there is movement underway in the United States and Europe to investigate other techniques of creating theatre- techniques which rely more on the collective collaboration of an ensemble, and a synergized vision of a group to not just perform but to create the story– the Devised Theatre. While a writer might be part of such work, the writer is an equal partner to the actors, directors, designers and even audience. It is the decentralization and democratization of story creation.
Devised theatre is an excellent way to create a piece exploring the University Academic Theme of Games: Body and Mind.
The focus of this course is in two parts – first to study the history of the various influences that have fed into the devised theatre movement as well as to look at the contemporary cutting edge leaders in the field. We will read the theory and critical response to some of the major innovators in this work, and encounter some of the creators and creations accessible to us here in Philadelphia and surrounding communities. Students will each study one such group in depth and present a paper on the process and work of that ensemble.
The second focus will be on the practical techniques of creating a devised piece. The class will work as an ensemble to devise a highly innovative piece of theatre, built on the University Academic Theme of Games: Body and Mind. Using Reality Is Broken by Jane McGonigal as source material, as well as other source material researched and presented by students, the class will create a multi-disciplinary, site-specific, collaboratively devised piece of theatre in workshop in the classroom, culminating in a live public performance for the Penn community.
Backstage Drama
Theatre Arts 275-401 Tuesday & Thursday 1:30 pm to 3 pm Marcia Ferguson
Inviting audiences into a special relationship with illusion, backstage dramas and plays-within-plays reach beyond and alongside traditional plot-driven narratives to reflect on the process of representation itself. This course will examine a variety of plays and films that deal directly or indirectly with this phenomenon. From All About Eve to Marat/Sade to Being John Malkovich, from Shakespeare to Moliere to Pirandello, playwrights and filmmakers have used this device to elicit specific kinds of reactions and reflections from viewers. An examination of the workings of mimesis and metadrama, among other critical concepts, will help us articulate the complex network of responses and underlying assumptions (whether cultural, political, or social), about art and life, that these works engage.
Seeds of Modern Drama
Theatre Arts 275-402 Tuesday & Thursday 10:30 am to 12 pm Cary Mazer
This course examines western drama from the middle of the nineteenth century through the First World War, which aspired to new levels of theatrical and social realism, and then experimented with piercing the boundaries of the realism that it had just achieved. Readings will include plays by Ibsen, Strindberg, Hauptmann, Wedekind, Synge, Shaw, Granville Barker, Elizabeth Robins, and Chekhov.
Women and Theatre: Provocative Performance
Theatre Arts 279-401 Tuesday & Thursday 3 pm to 4:30 pm Rose Malague
Benjamin Franklin Scholars Program
What is “feminist theatre?” This course will examine a wide array of performance pieces by and about women, designed to provoke social, political, and personal change. Ranging from the serious to the hilarious (and sometimes outrageous) our readings will center on plays and performance art; we will also study live and filmed pieces, and incorporate contextual material on feminist theatre theory and history. In the spring semester of 2012, we are fortunate that two prominent artists will be visiting Penn’s campus: the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel, and the controversial writer-performance artist Karen Finley. Our theatre-going is likely to include Body Awareness at the Wilma Theater, written by Obie Award-winning playwright Annie Baker; Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, to be performed by students on Penn’s campus; and Little Gem by Irish playwright Elaine Murphy in a Philadelphia premiere. The class will include conversations with women working in the professional theatre.
Senior Thesis
Theatre Arts 299 arranged
REHEARSAL & PERFORMANCE: On The Town
Theatre Arts 350-301 Monday through Thursday 7 pm to 10 pm, Friday 2 pm to 5 pm
Permission needed from instructor through audition or interview Rose Malague/ David Fox Director/ Instructor
This course is designed to provide students with deep intellectual and artistic immersion into the theatrical process through intensive research, rehearsal, and performance of a full-length stage piece. Students may enroll in this course as actors (by audition only) or as assistant directors, stage managers, dramaturgs, or designers (by permission of the instructor). Theatre Arts 350 may be taken multiple times, as the research and performance process will be different for every project. Each semester, the faculty-directed play will be featured in the Theatre Arts Program production season.
Theatre Arts Program
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/theatrearts/
Contact information
Kevin Chun, Administrative Assistant
Email: chun@sas.upenn.edu
(215) 898-5271
Rose Malague, Program Director
Email: rmalague@english.upenn.edu
(215) 898-2546