Theatre

Theatre is about social change. This course will look at how theatre responds to the events and movements that shape our lives and how theatre and theatre artists engage and inform the discourse. Students will study a dynamic collection of plays and musicals written as a means of protest and activism and stage their own group performances, of both published and original work, in response to the tremendous forces at play upon all of us right now. Building upon the tenets of mid-20th century playwrights such as Bertolt Brecht and Samuel Beckett, whose activism and form-bending works paved the way for a large number of contemporary playwrights and theatre makers, students will study a number of plays that address a range of sociopolitical issues. We will also look at a history of theatre companies such as The Group Theatre, The Federal Theatre Project, El Teatro Campesino, and The Public Theatre, whose landmark productions helped frame the cultural landscape. Students will read works by playwrights such as Eugene O’Neill and Clifford Odets, whose plays deal with issues of immigration and union busting, and Arthur Miller, whose plays capture the struggles of working people caught in overwhelming circumstances. We will look at Hair, the first rock musical, written in response to the Vietnam War, and the plays Angels in America and The Normal Heart and the musical RENT, written in the 1980s and 1990s about the AIDS crisis. We will discuss how theatre responds to events happening right now by looking at compelling new plays by playwrights Anna Deavere Smith, Dominique Morisseau, Antoinette Nwandu, and Branden Jacobs Jenkins, among others. The course will look at a collection of plays that address concerns of LGBT communities by playwrights and theatre makers such as Taylor Mac, Paula Vogel, and Moisés Kaufman. Students will read aloud from plays in class, examine a range of texts and essays, screen films and documentaries, and see productions in New York over the course of the year. The course will culminate in a collective performance that students will devise and create. Students will meet with the instructor in conference to devise projects to serve both this presentation and their own distinct interests. Projects may include acting and directing fully-staged scenes of published plays, design work, research and dramaturgical presentations, original plays and performance pieces, among many other options. Biweekly in fall and spring, students will alternate between individual conferences with the instructor and small-group activities that will include screenings, field trips, and performances.

This credit-bearing course will consist of a combination of various individual components that together constitute a Theatre Third.

This credit-bearing course will consist of a combination of various individual components that together constitute a theatre two-thirds.

How does play shape performance? How do video games, role-playing mechanics, and interactive storytelling transform theatre? This course will explore the intersection of theatre, gaming, and interactivity, inviting students to reimagine performance as a form of play. Students will design and perform theatre games, experiment with gaming mechanics in live performance, and analyze how video games use theatricality. We will examine role-playing, improvisation, game design, and digital interactivity to explore how theatre and games both create fictional worlds, embodied characters, and dynamic audience engagement. Through weekly performance exercises, collaborative game-making projects, and playtesting sessions, students will develop new ways of thinking about narrative, agency, and immersion in both live and digital environments. We will study artists and theorists working at the forefront of interactive performance and gaming, including Punchdrunk, Coney, Rimini Protokoll, Blast Theory, and Third Rail. By the end of the course, students will have created their own theatre games, immersive experiences, and performative play structures—expanding their understanding of what theatre can be in a networked, participatory, and game-driven culture.

This course will be a study of the skills necessary for a successful audition. Actors will practice cold readings and prepare monologues to performance level. Emphasis will be placed on how best to present oneself in the audition situation.

Deeply rooted in movement-based theatre traditions, this course will seek to uncover our unique and highly individual clowns. The clown is not a character but, rather, an essential part of one's self; and being such, everyone has access to the question: What is so funny about me? We will make all attempts to bring our most open, messy, and generous selves to the task of play. The clown has arrived when the audience laughs. An embrace of failure and flop in pursuit of said laughter is a must. This course will be a combination of technique; improvisation focusing on finding and sustaining “the game” in a variety of situations; and the creation of devised, original, and collaborative performances. We will deepen our investigation through devising exercises, writing prompts, and group discussion and reflection. At the core of this course will be a commitment to curiosity, rigorous play, and joy in the body, so that students can develop and stretch their notion of theatricality. Students will have ample opportunity to generate new material—both individually and collaboratively—as well as the chance to share works in progress with the Sarah Lawrence community.

This course will be a scene-study acting class built upon a deep dive into the character’s past, their behaviors, and the tactics they use to get what they need. This course will be a dynamic, on-your-feet approach to the text that leads to vital and compelling characters. Students will play a variety of roles, from contemporary plays and adaptations, across a range of styles and forms. We will also watch and analyze movies to determine how actors create characters on film and will read aloud short scenes from plays that students suggest as a way of introducing a variety of playwrights and their distinctive characters.

This course will be a laboratory for the actor, designed for performers who are ready to search for the steps to a fully-involved performance. In fall, we will explore characters and monologues that motivate each actor’s imagination. After analysis of the text, which will include defining the imagery and exploring the emotional choices of the actor, we will work on self-taping our work for auditions. In spring, the course will be devoted to scene work. We will examine techniques used to develop heightened connection with a scene partner, as well as the importance of actors listening and finding their impulses as they work on their feet in the rehearsal room. We will observe the work and read the theories of Declan Donnellan‘s The Actor and the Target and Stephen Wangh’s An Acrobat of the Heart.

Theatre is the art of looking at ourselves. —Augusto Boal
The unknown is where we go to find new things, and intuition is how we find them. —Viola Spolin

In this course, we will begin with improvisations from Augusto Boal's Theater of the Oppressed. These exercises are developed to create empathy and connection within the participants. The goal of this work will be to experience games that a theatre artist might use to develop community and theatre material with non-actors. Once we strengthen the class community, we will begin to work on improvisations for film and theatre. Through techniques developed by filmmakers and theatre directors, course work will focus on developing an actor's freedom and emotional truth.

This course will begin with an exploration of the classic structures of stand-up comedy. The concepts of set up and punch, acting out, and heightened wordplay will be employed. The techniques used to create and become comic characters—using your past, the news, and the current social environment to craft a comic routine—will be studied. Discovering what is recognizably funny to an audience is the labor of the comic artist. The athletics of the creative comedic mind and one's own individual perspective on the world that surrounds you will be the primary objective of the first semester. We will also study theories of comedy through the writings of Henri Bergson (philosopher), John Wright (director), and Christopher Fry (playwright). In spring, the course will be designed for collaboration through improvisational techniques. Long-form improvisational games, such as the Harold technique, and performance techniques for comic sketch writing and group work will be studied. Exercises to develop the artist’s freedom and confidence in a collaborative group setting will also be employed. The ensemble will learn to trust the spontaneous response and their own comic madness, as they write, perform, and create scenarios together. At the end of the second semester, there will be a formal presentation of the comedy devised during the year.

Those actors rooted in the tradition of playing Shakespeare find themselves equipped with a skill set that enables them to successfully work on a wide range of texts and within an array of performance modalities. The objectives of this course will be to learn to identify, personalize, and embody the structural elements of Shakespeare's language as the primary means of bringing his characters to life. Students will study a representative arc of Shakespeare's plays, as well as the sonnets.

In this course, students will begin developing their own artistic practice for performance supported by workshops on major acting methods such as Brecht, Stanislavski, and Hagen, as well as workshops on physical theatre and performance in the context of devised work. Through learning the historical and artistic context of different techniques, students will be encouraged to determine which practices are useful to them in their own work. Practices studied will include vocal and physical warm-ups, relaxation, concentration, sensory awareness, listening, communication, and collaboration. Students will complete presentations, which will spring from these workshops as well as from monologues and scene study. Students will work toward an awareness of their own process so that they might be confident in their ability to develop characters outside of the context of a classroom. Students will be asked to honestly evaluate their own work, along with feedback from the instructor.

This course will explore a variety of puppetry techniques, including Bunraku, marionette, shadow puppetry, and toy theatre. The course will begin with a detailed look at these forms through individual and group research projects. Students will then have the opportunity to develop their puppet manipulation skills, as well as to gain an understanding of how to prepare the puppeteer's body for performance. Students will further their exploration with hands-on learning in various techniques of construction. The course will culminate with the creation and presentation of puppetry pieces of students' own making.

In this course, students will experiment with puppetry as both a creator and a performer. Students will discover how puppets, materials, and objects move and breathe and how they can inform and enhance theatre creation. This course will blend puppetry, movement, and crafting into one. Students will work collaboratively, as well as independently, on various projects, culminating in a final site-specific spectacle.

There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about. —Oscar Wilde
If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make make it dance. —George Bernard Shaw

Inspired by the spirit of The Harvard Lampoon, with a unique twist from Sadie Lou, this course will delve into the art of satire—employing humor, irony, and exaggeration to critique the solipsism of ourselves, our culture, artists, and institutions. Students will engage in creating comic characters, political sketches, and satirical pieces targeting aspects of college life, sports, or celebrities. This course will begin with improvisation, move to creating material, and end with a performance of sketch and characters—all done for the sake of laughter and a better understanding of the absurdity of life.

This comprehensive, step-by-step course will focus on developing the skills and tools that young actors need in order to work in the fast-paced world of film and television while also learning how to write, direct, edit, and produce their own work for the screen. In fall, the course will focus on screen acting and in-person and taped auditions. Through intense scene study and script analysis, we will expand each performer’s range of emotional, intellectual, physical, and vocal expressiveness for the camera. Focus will also be put on the technical skills needed for the actor to give the strongest performance “within the frame,” while also maintaining a high level of spontaneity and authenticity. Students will act in assigned and self-chosen scenes from film and television scripts. Toward the end of the semester, the focus will switch to on-camera auditions, where students will learn the do’s and don’ts of the in-person and the self-taped camera audition. In spring, students will learn the basics of filmmaking, allowing them to create their own work without the restraints of a large budget and crew. The basic fundamentals of screenwriting, cinematography, directing, and editing will be covered, along with weekly writing, reading, viewing, and filming assignments. At the conclusion of the course, students will have edited footage of their work and clear next steps. For this course, students must have access to a camera (iPhone, iPad, or other camera) and a computer with editing software (e.g., iMovie, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere).

This course will be an introduction to the craft and technique of voiceover acting in various forms. The course is open to performers with an interest in gaining the necessary skills to perform in the fields of animation, video games, audiobooks, commercials, and more. Actors will learn to differentiate between genres and how to adapt their performance approach to each. We will cover basic skills such as warm-ups, common terminology, home-studio setup, and audition and performance techniques. We will then build on those skills by learning to break down text, apply breath, perform copy, develop specific characters, and receive feedback and direction. Actors will have the opportunity to dive deep into a genre of their choice, find and write their own copy, and practice recording and editing takes with the goal of creating a demo reel.

This course will explore methods of creating original theatre through a choreographic lens as a way of assembling the various building blocks that theatre is made from (sound, image, movement, language, design, etc.), as well as through the influence and manipulation of time. The course will begin with structured prompts and assignments largely completed in class, eventually moving into self-generated collaborative projects with some work to be completed outside of class. One of the main focuses of this course will be the attempt to articulate through open discussions one’s creative process and choices therein. Through analysis of said exercises, students will come to know one another’s work and methods more clearly. Students will be asked to create movement sequences, collaborative projects, and other studies as a way of encountering the use of assembly, juxtaposition, unison, framing, interruption, deconstruction, and other time-based art practices. Readings will include manifestos and selections from an array of artists, essays and excerpts of various theatre practices from around the world, as well as watching examples on video. As students will be working within various levels of physicality, wearing loose, comfortable clothing to class meetings is encouraged. No dance or movement experience is necessary; one only needs curiosity and a willingness to jump in to find value in this course.

Students will learn how to look at the world with fresh eyes and use imagination to create a theatrical world on stage. This course will cover the fundamental ideas of scenic design and basic design technique, such as research, drawing, and scale-model making. We will start from small exercise projects and complete a final design project at the end of the course. This course will design semester projects for the theatre program. Students will present most of the projects to the class, followed by questions and comments from the fellow students. Presentation and critique skills will be important in this course. Students interested in other aspects of theatre making, as well as visual arts or architecture, and with no prior experience will be able to learn from the basics.

This course will introduce students to the basic elements of stage lighting, including tools and equipment, color theory, reading scripts for design elements, operation of lighting consoles and construction of lighting cues, and basic elements of lighting drawings and schedules. Students will be offered hands-on experience in hanging and focusing lighting instruments and will be invited to attend technical rehearsals. Students will have opportunities to design productions and to assist other designers as a way of developing a greater understanding of the design process. The course will design semester projects for the theatre program.

This course will serve as an introduction to theatrical video design, exploring the use of moving images in live performance, fundamental design principles, editing and playback software, content creation, and basic hardware concerns. The course will examine the function and execution of video and integrated media in theatre, dance, and live art environments. Exercises in videography, nonlinear editing, and playback design will provide students with the basic tools needed to execute projection and video design in a live-performance setting.

This course will serve as an introduction to theatrical sound design. Students will learn about basic design principles, editing and playback software, content creation, basic system design, and sound theory. The course will examine the function and execution of sound in theatre, dance, and interdisciplinary environments. Exercises in recording, editing, and designing sequences in performance software will provide students with the basic tools needed to execute sound designs in performance.

This course will be an introduction to the basics of designing costumes and will cover various concepts and ideas, such as the language of clothes, script analysis, the elements of design, color theory, fashion history, and figure drawing. We will work on various theoretical design projects while exploring how to develop a design concept. This course will also cover various design-room sewing techniques, as well as the basics of wardrobe technician duties; students will become familiar with all the various tools and equipment in the costume shop and wardrobe areas. Students will also have the opportunity to assist a Costume Design ll (THEA 5638) student on a departmental production to further their understanding of the design process when creating costumes. No previous experience is necessary; the course is open to actors, directors, choreographers, dancers, and theatre makers of all kinds.

This course will expand upon the ideas and concepts set forth in Costume Design l  (THEA 5637) in order to hone and advance the student's existing skill sets. Students will further develop their design and construction abilities as they research and realize design concepts for a variety of theoretical design projects, as well as develop their communication skills through class discussions and presentations. Students will also have the likely opportunity to design costumes for a departmental production assisted by a Costume Design l (THEA 5637) student. This design opportunity will allow for a unique learning experience, as students collaborate with a director and creative team to produce a fully-realized theatrical production.

This course is designed for students who would like to further explore any aspect of designing costumes by researching and realizing a special costume-design project of their own choosing.

Students, as directors, will study the processes necessary to bring a written text to life, along with the methods and goals used in working with actors to focus and strengthen their performances. Scene work and short plays will be performed in class, and student work will be analyzed and evaluated. Common directing problems will be addressed, and directors will become familiar with the conceptual process that allows them to think creatively. In spring, students will direct a short play of their choice.

This course will blend theories and ideas about directing with practical applications. Students will discuss the on-campus productions that go up each semester as a way of using the real-life situations that emerge in rehearsals, auditions, and meetings as context for the larger challenges that directors face with each production. This course will help shape a way of working and an approach to directing built upon the director’s own personal expression and the particular demands of their productions. Students will discuss their own productions in detail and determine a collective approach to the undertakings that directors have in common—text analysis, articulating style and form, using space, casting, working with designers and other collaborators, running efficient rehearsals and meetings, etc. This goal will be accomplished through a series of corresponding in-class projects that include staging scenes; analyzing texts, essays and articles; and watching film clips and documentaries on a collection of directors, artists, and theatre-makers. This course will include weekly group conferences and—for students who will be directing readings, workshops, and productions in both the theatre program and independent companies—individual rehearsal meetings. The course is also open to directors who do not have scheduled productions in the theatre program or for one of the independent companies. Among other possibilities to meet the requirements of this course, those students might suggest hypothetical or imagined productions, expand upon projects developed in other classes, or create original projects on their own and, accordingly, make presentations in this class on agreed-upon aspects of those projects.

This course will be an immersive, hands-on experience designed for actors and directors to collaboratively explore the unique craft of musical theatre. Unlike straight plays, musical theatre demands a specialized approach, integrating acting, singing, and movement into a cohesive storytelling experience. This course will provide practical techniques and methodologies for both actors and directors, equipping them with the skills necessary to excel in this dynamic art form. In fall, students will focus on small-scene work—including musical theatre songs, duets, and scenes—while learning the specifics of directing and acting in musical theatre work. We will focus on musical theatre directing skills, such as selecting material, the casting process and best practices for assembling a strong ensemble, scheduling and structuring rehearsals efficiently, collaborating effectively with choreographers and musical directors, developing and communicating a clear directorial concept to a creative team, and facilitating productive and inclusive rehearsals with an emphasis on creating a consent-forward rehearsal space. We will also delve into musical-theatre acting skills, such as acting through song and integrating emotional truth with musicality, character development in musical-theatre performance, vocal health and maintaining your physical instrument, movement and physical expression in musical theatre, and auditioning techniques including preparation, song selection, and professionalism. In spring, students will apply their acquired skills in a semester-long project, culminating in a public presentation of musical-theatre scenes and performances. Each participant will take on dual roles as both an actor and a director, developing a well-rounded understanding of the creative process from both perspectives. During this course, students will engage in open rehearsals and peer feedback sessions, collaborate with classmates to stage and refine scenes, and engage in hands-on learning as both actor and director. By the end of the course, students will have a comprehensive understanding of the unique demands of musical theatre, gaining both practical experience and confidence in their ability to direct, perform, and collaborate effectively in the field.

In this course, we will explore the actor's performance with songs in various styles of popular music, music for theatre, cabaret, and original work, emphasizing communication with the audience and material selection. Dynamics of vocal interpretation and style will also be examined. Students will perform new or returning material each week in class and have outside class time scheduled with the musical director to arrange and rehearse their material.

Paired with Introduction to Stage Combat: Unarmed (THEA 5716), this topics course will deal with more complex weapon styles. The “double-fence,” or two-handed forms (Rapier & Dagger, Sword & Shield), will be taught. Students will be asked to go more deeply into choreography and aspects of the industry. Critical thinking will be encouraged, and students will be asked to create their own short video showing an understanding of basic principles, such as use of distance, point of view, and storytelling. The function of the stunt coordinator, essential in a growing film industry, will also be explored.

In this topics course, which is paired with Introduction to Stage Combat: Armed (THEA 5716), students will learn the basics of stage fighting with an emphasis on safety. Actors will be taught to create effective stage violence, from hair pulling and choking to sword fighting, with a minimum of risk. Basic techniques will be incorporated into short scenes to give students experience performing fights in classic and modern contexts. Each semester will culminate in a skills-proficiency test aimed at certification in one of eight weapon forms.

Squishmallows. LEGO. Barbie. Dungeons & Dragons. Toys and games often ignite instant recognition and excitement; however, we rarely talk about how toys manifest onstage. From puppetry, to dolls, to direct use of toys, theatre has been putting play onstage for centuries. In this course, we will study plays that incorporate toys in meaningful ways, analyze theories and histories of toys, and write our own “toy theatre” that synthesizes what we read. This course will balance creative playwrighting, script reading, and textual analysis—plus a healthy dose of play!—to form an experience that will leave students with an overview of the important role that toys play in theatres past, present, and future, as well as a taste of the broad cultural impact that our playthings have. We will share and respond to creative work, read and discuss plays, and think through cultural intersections with toys. The instructor has a lengthy record of dramatizing toys, most recently writing Sewing Bears: A Play with Pockets, produced by Parity Productions in Chelsea, about the 1907 moral panic over teddy bears. As a believer that toys belong in the classroom, the instructor will encourage students to engage with their toys both creatively and academically.

If you are new to playwrighting and looking for a safe space to experiment with your burgeoning love of the craft, this is the place for you. In this course, we will make our own plays but will be informed by the diversity that is on our stages right here, right now. Playwrights such as David Henry Hwang, Sarah Ruhl, Dominique Morisseau, Nilaja Sun, C. Julian Jiménez, and many others will be the voices that we elevate as we find our own. A combination of analysis and (primarily) creative workshop, this course will be a great place to start your first (or second, or third, or fourth) play.

Students will investigate the mystery of how to release their creative process while also discovering the fundamentals of dramatic structure that will help tell the story of their play. In fall, students will write a short scene every week taken from The Playwright’s Guidebook, which we will use as a basic text. At the end of fall, students will write a short but complete play based on one of these short assignments. In spring, students will adapt a short story of their choice and then write a play based on a historical character, event, or period. The focus in all instances will be on the writer’s deepest connection to the material—where the drama lies. Work will be read aloud in class and discussed in class each week. Students will also read and discuss plays that mirror the challenges presented by their own assignments.

Who are you as a writer? What do you write about, and why? Are you writing the play that you want to write or that you need to write? Where is the nexus between the amorphous, subconscious wellspring of the material and the rigorous demands of a form that will play in real time before a live audience? This course is designed for playwriting students who have a solid knowledge of dramatic structure and an understanding of their own creative process—and who are ready to create a complete dramatic work of any length. (As Edward Albee observed, “All plays are full-length plays.”) Students will be free to work on themes, subjects, and styles of their choice. Work will be read aloud and discussed in class each week. The course will require that students enter, at minimum, with an idea of the play that they plan to work on; ideally, students will bring in a partial draft or even a completed draft that they wish to revise. We will read some existent texts, time allowing.

Stage management is a practice grounded in supporting communication across all departments. A stage manager acts as a liaison between all members of the company—cast, director, designers, producers, and technical crew. Stage managers also support the director and company by helping to set the tone of the room; they establish clear and specific expectations, develop and implement systems to help move the process forward, and manage all technical elements throughout the process. Good stage managers are flexible and exhibit transparency and empathy as they hold space for everyone, curating a culture of trust and professionalism through their work. This course will explore the basic techniques and skills of stage management via the five stages of production: preproduction, rehearsals, tech, performance, and close/strike. Students will practice script analysis and develop systems for rehearsal/performance organization and the maintenance and running of a production. A theatre-management practicum will be embedded in the course curriculum—all students will be assigned as a stage manager or assistant stage manager for an SLC Theatre production.

Production managers bridge the gap between artistic and logistic elements of production. Production managers must be problem solvers, big picture thinkers, and well-versed in all aspects of theatre—blending technical, artistic, and managerial skills. This course will be a study of theatre management, with an emphasis on real-world applications to production-management concepts. Students will develop an understanding of the relationships among the creative, administrative, and production departments of a theatre company and how these function collectively to achieve common organizational and artistic goals. Through project-based activities, students will develop a working knowledge of the artistic and managerial elements of a theatre company and how these function together to deliver a cohesive season. Students will engage in dialogue with innovators in the field and analyze real-world applications of production-management concepts. A theatre-management practicum will be embedded in the course curriculum—all students will be assigned as a student production manager for an SLC Theatre production.

Theatrical producers are responsible for understanding both the creative and administrative aspects of theatre. A good producer is tasked with upholding the artistic goals of the creative team as well as the logistic and budgetary needs of a project, balancing all of these to create and maintain a successful and financially viable production. This will be a workshop-based class. Students will study tiers of producing, including nonprofit and commercial models, and will work to develop and implement projects integrating the rich and diverse production groups on campus and in the wider campus community. As a class, students will curate and manage the SLC Theatre Festival Weekend programming based on the goal of creating connections across disciplines, supporting student organizations, and facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration across the college—offering partnering organizations community, space, publicity, organizational support, and the opportunity to expand and intermingle their audiences. Using the foundation of existing models and programming, students will develop partnerships between the theatre program, DownStage, independent student groups, and other academic programs on campus, as well as campus civic engagement and advocacy groups. Students will work as liaisons between these entities, curating programming that amplifies and connects the groups and creating distinct, cohesive production experiences for the theatre program and wider campus community. The course will also incorporate trips to New York City, including practical opportunities to act as producing partners at high-profile theatres and organizations, a visit to a general management/production firm, as well as a potential production viewing.

This will be a stagehand course that focuses on the nuts and bolts of light and sound board operation and projection technology, as well as the use of basic stage carpentry. This will not be a design course but, rather, a course about reading, drafting, light plots, assembly and troubleshooting, and basic electrical repair. Students who take this course will be eligible to work as technical assistant in the theatre department.

This course will be for undergraduate theatre artists interested in learning and sharing theatre skills in the community. Using the vocabulary of theatre, we will investigate methods and techniques, styles, and forms to create and develop theatre projects designed for specific community work. The course will develop individual collaboration, experimentation, and understanding of specific community needs. Students will explore the essentials of constructing a creative practice for community engagement. In addition, students will learn to extend their personal theatre skills by developing detailed interdisciplinary lesson plans for specific workshops. Each community project is unique; lesson plans may include a combination of theatre games, acting, music, story making, movement, and drawing. Participants will be encouraged to teach what they already know, step outside their comfort zone, and learn more as they become aware of their placement's educational and psychological needs. The course will focus on teaching methods, making mistakes, and becoming aware of individual and personal processes. This ideal combination will explore education and community problems for those considering a career in early-childhood, middle-school, and high-school education and beyond. Course topics will explore community self-care, lesson planning, curriculum development, and approaches to learning. In this course, students will experience crucial connections between theory and practice through a weekly community placement. Students will learn by doing, gaining hands-on experience by collaborating as a team member at an area school, senior home, museum, or the long-running Lunchbox Theatre Program—a free, process-centered theatre curriculum held on Saturdays and open to the Sarah Lawrence and Yonkers communities. In addition, students will gain valuable experience as prospective teachers and teaching artists by taking this course and developing lesson plans that will be useful and valuable beyond the Sarah Lawrence experience. Students will better understand how civic-engagement practices encourage essential dialogues that deepen community connections and may lead to change. Many former students of this course are teaching and running educational programs at schools, theatres, and museums across the globe. Course readings will include the work of Paulo Freire, Augusto Boal, Viola Spolin, M. C. Richards, Vivian Gussin Paley, Pablo Helguera, and others.

The course will explore the creation and development of an interdisciplinary teaching curriculum for children ages six through 18. Through this weekly lab, directly connected to Lunchbox Theatre, students will gain insight into child-development principles, lesson-planning skills, and classroom-management strategies. Through inquiry and reflection, students will expand their critical-thinking processes while utilizing practical teaching methods and techniques suitable for multiple learning types and levels.

Students in this course will develop valuable creative resources while investigating the intersection of theatre and community. We will explore interdisciplinary creative processes, social-justice issues, and curriculum development focusing on the individual. We will analyze the crossovers between various teaching theories, pedagogies, and philosophies. In addition, students will explore creating theatre in the community that investigates the connection of art practices in education while respecting the emotional aspects of learning. Students will analyze, explore, and investigate social-justice pedagogies and philosophies and explore various practices and creative techniques to deepen awareness and critical thinking. We will look at strategies for classroom management and teaching methods suitable for different ways of learning. Students will actively create, develop, and share collaborative theatre lessons while building community with artists, teachers, and community organizations. Active class work will explore ideas for projects that will support lesson planning and the growth of curriculum concepts. In addition, students will hold yearlong placements at schools, community centers, and the long-running Lunchbox Theatre Program that combines the Sarah Lawrence and Yonkers communities. As a result of this course, students will have a portfolio of designed lesson plans and educational ideas that will serve as a creative template for current and future projects. We will explore the work of Paulo Freire, Augusto Boal, Suzanne Lacy, Ana Mendieta, bell hooks, and others. Placements may offer an hourly stipend.

This course will consist of weekly class meetings in which productions will be analyzed and discussed, supplemented by regular visits to many of the theatrical productions of the current season. The class will travel within the tri-state area, attending theatre in as many diverse venues, forms, and styles as possible. Published plays will be studied in advance of attending performances; new or unscripted works will be preceded by examinations of previous work by the author or the company. Students will be given access to available group and student discounts in purchasing tickets.

Once upon a time, a playwright said in a rehearsal, "I just think that this is the most Cubist moment of this play." Everyone in the room fell silent and grew uncomfortable. Because, what in the heck did she mean by that? And aren’t we already supposed to know? This interactive lecture course will survey the aesthetic movements throughout history and teach students to track the impact on their work. Ideas behind each movement will be examined in relation to the historical moment of their occurrence and in their formal manifestations across visual art, musical, architectural, and performance disciplines. Students will then place their own work within a wider context of formal aesthetic discourse—locating hidden influence and making conscious and purposeful the political resonance that is subsequently uncovered. Students will be encouraged to find ways of acknowledging the responsibility one carries for one's work's impact on the world and to start using terms like "postmodernism" and “futurist” with confidence.

This course will explore 2,500 years of Western drama and how dramaturgical ideas can be traced from their origins in fifth-century Greece to 20th-century Nigeria—with many stops in between. We will try to understand how a play is constructed, rather than simply written, and how each succeeding epoch has both embraced and rejected what has come before it in order to create its own unique identity. We will study the major genres of Western drama, including the idea of a classically structured play, Elizabethan drama, neoclassicism, realism, naturalism, Expressionism, comedy, musical theatre, Theatre of Cruelty, and existentialism. Also, we will look at the social, cultural, architectural, and biographical context for the plays in question to better understand how and why they were written as they were. Class discussion will focus on a new play each week, with occasional written projects that explore these ideas more closely.

For some 60 years, roughly from 1920 to 1980, the Broadway musical was in its Golden Age. The subjects were for adults, the lyrics were for the literate, and the music had a richness and depth of expression never since equaled in American composition. In fall, the course will focus mostly on the "integrated musical"—shows that tell a story with the songs woven seamlessly into the plot, such as Show Boat, Carousel, South Pacific, My Fair Lady, The Music Man, Fiddler on the Roof, and Sweeney Todd. We will also spend some time looking at the much more chaotic zaniness of musical comedies, such as The New Yorkers, Guys and Dolls, and Pal Joey. In spring, the course will move on to the "concept musical"—Broadway’s answer to Cubist painting, which took a subject and looked at it from every conceivable angle except that of a conventional plot. Examples of concept musicals will include Cabaret, Company, Candide, Follies, Chicago, Pacific Overtures, and Merrily We Roll Along. We will end the course by looking at two great Broadway operas: Porgy and Bess and West Side Story. In each semester, the student will become the teacher for a day: Students will choose any musical they like and give a presentation similar to the ones given by the instructor.

There is no document of culture which is not at the same time a document of barbarity. —Walter Benjamin

Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) is one of the most important thinkers and writers of the 20th century. His many writings and innovative concepts, which continue to be discussed and debated today, are of pressing relevance for the contemporary moment, marked as it is by themes of technological and aesthetic transformations, political violence, and histories of exile and displacement. The purpose of this intensive seminar will be to delve into the textures of Benjamin’s life—from his childhood years in Berlin to his final days in France and Spain—while considering the diverse and intricate formations of Benjamin’s thought and writing. For this inquiry, we will be drawing from a number of biographical, historiographic, political, literary, and anthropological lines of analysis to gain an incisive sense of his groundbreaking writings on film and photography, literature and translation, concepts of history, and the politics of culture. Along the way, we will connect Benjamin’s thought to other significant writers and philosophers, including Charles Baudelaire, Marcel Proust, Franz Kafka, Siegfried Kracauer, Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Hannah Arendt, and Jacques Derrida. We will focus on a number of key texts authored by Benjamin, including Berlin Childhood around 1900, The Arcades Project, “The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility,” “The Task of the Translator,” “The Storyteller,” and “On the Concept of History.” In engaging with these and other challenging texts and giving thought to Benjamin’s life and death more generally, students will develop a richly informed understanding of the life and thought of this singularly compelling person while coming to terms with the haunted histories of the 20th and 21st centuries.

This course will be an introduction to designing costumes for dance/time-based art. The course will emphasize collaborations with a choreographer and include topics such as: The Creative Process of Design, Where to Begin When Designing for Dance, The Language of Clothes, The Elements of Design, Color Theory, Movement and the Functionality of Dance Costumes, Figure Drawing/Rendering Costumes, and Fabric Dictionary/Fabric Terminology. The course will also cover learning numerous hand and machine stitches, as well as various design-room techniques such as taking measurements, how to fit and alter costumes, and various wardrobe maintenance techniques. Each costume-design student will eventually be paired with a student choreographer, with whom they will collaborate to realize costumes for the choreographer’s work that will be presented during the fall or spring departmental dance productions. Students will also be creating their own resource book throughout the year, which will comprise all handouts, in-class exercises, and notes in a loose-leaf binder. The resource book will be a useful reference tool as students work on various class assignments and/or departmental productions. This course is designed to give students a basic knowledge of the many intricate creative and technical steps involved in the design process when creating costumes. A deeper understanding of the various aspects of costume design for dance is an enormous tool that can not only enhance one’s overall design skills but also allow the student to communicate more fully during the creative process—be it with fellow designers or as a choreographer or director collaborating with the production team. The resource book will also serve as a helpful guide in the future, as students embark on their own productions at Sarah Lawrence and beyond.

When we encounter dancing, what are we seeing, experiencing, and understanding? How do current representations of dance reflect, perpetuate, and/or disrupt familiar assumptions about personal and social realities? Embedded historical ideas and enforcements based on race, economic class, gender, social/sexual orientation, nationality/regional affiliation, and more are threaded through our daily lives. Performing arts inside and outside of popular culture often reinforce dominant cultural ideas and feelings. Can they also propose or inspire alternatives? In fall, we will view samples of dancing in film, video, digital media, television programs, and commercials, as well as live performance. These viewings—along with reading selected texts from the fields of dance and performance, literary criticism, feminist theory, queer theory, and cultural studies—will form the basis of class discussions and exercises. In spring, we will shift focus to viewing still images and live action, with readings from additional fields, including art criticism and neuroscience, as well as fine-tuning approaches to writing about our subject matter. Students will complete several class assignments each semester, as well as develop one or more substantial lines of inquiry for conference work. Conference projects may draw upon multiple disciplines, including those within humanities and creative arts. The central aim of this course will be to cultivate informed discussion and to produce new knowledge, increasing both individual and collective capabilities. We will use academic research, along with personal experience, to advance our recognition of dance as an elemental art form and as a potentially important orientation in adjacent studies. In both fall and spring, students will meet weekly with the instructor for individual conferences.

Step behind the camera and discover the world of cinematic storytelling. This immersive course is designed for aspiring filmmakers ready to bring their creative visions to life. From crafting powerful scripts to directing with confidence, students will gain essential skills in screenwriting, visual storytelling, and working with actors. Through hands-on exercises, scene breakdowns, and collaborative filmmaking projects, students will learn to shape compelling narratives and discover their own creative voice. No prior experience is required—just the courage to tell your story on the big screen. Because of the workshop nature of this course, we will meet once a week for three hours. In fall, students will meet weekly with the instructor for individual conferences; in spring, individual conferences will be biweekly. 

This video-production seminar will explore, in depth, the rich world of film/video making as artistic expression. Students will complete a series of assignments and short films through lecture, discussion, and screenings of media, including artist interviews, work, readings, and visits. The course will explore moving-image forms and styles that blur the boundaries of narrative, poetic, and abstract filmmaking. There is, by definition, no formula for this kind of work; rather, this course will introduce the language and techniques of film production alongside strategies for the use of film and audio design as creative expression. In this fast-paced course, we will direct concerns to an exploration of the relationship to the aesthetics, politics, and language of filmmaking in its broadest context. We will work on concept development, visual planning, and production pathways. Frequent discussions about student-produced work and about the work of professional artists will broaden the understanding and appreciation of experimental film and will expand creative boundaries. In this context, we will analyze the pioneering work of many experimental film/video artists, including Tacita Dean, Doug Aitken, Pipilotti Rist, Martha Colburn, Bill Fontana, Nigel Ayers, and Young-Hae Chang, among others.

This course, for students with no previous knowledge of Italian, will aim to provide a complete foundation in the Italian language with particular attention to oral and written communication and all aspects of Italian culture. The course will be conducted in Italian after the first month and will involve the study of all basic structures of the language—phonological, grammatical, and syntactical—with practice in conversation, reading, composition, and translation. In addition to material covering basic Italian grammar, students will be exposed to fiction, poetry, songs, articles, recipe books, and films. Held once a week, group conferences will aim to enrich the students’ knowledge of Italian culture and develop their ability to communicate; this goal will be achieved by readings that deal with current events and topics relative to today’s Italian culture. Activities in pairs or groups, along with short written assignments, will be part of the group conference. In addition to class and the group conferences, the course has a conversation component in regular workshops with the language assistant. In small groups, conversation classes will be held twice a week and will center on the concept of Viaggio in Italia: a journey through the regions of Italy through cuisine, cinema, art, opera, and dialects. The Italian program will organize trips to the Metropolitan Opera and relevant exhibits in New York City, as well as the possibility of experiencing Italian cuisine firsthand as a group. By the end of this course, students will attain a basic competence in all aspects of the language. While there are no individual conferences with the instructor, regular individual meetings with an Italian language assistant, in addition to class sessions, will be required.

This course will aim to improve and perfect the students’ speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills, as well as their knowledge of Italy’s contemporary culture and literature. In order to acquire the necessary knowledge of Italian grammar, idiomatic expressions, and vocabulary, a review of all grammar will be carried out throughout the year. As an introduction to modern Italian culture and literature, students will be introduced to a selection of short stories, poems, and passages from novels, as well as specific newspaper articles, music, and films in the original language. Some of the literary works studied will include selections from Umberto Eco, Italo Calvino, Natalia Ginzburg, Gianni Rodari, Marcello D’Orta, Clara Sereni, Dino Buzzati, Stefano Benni, Antonio Tabucchi, Alberto Moravia, Achille Campanile, and Elena Ferrante. In order to address the students’ writing skills, written compositions will be required as an integral part of the course. Biweekly conference topics might include the study of a particular author, literary text, film, or any other aspect of Italian society and culture that might be of interest to the student. In small groups, conversation classes will be held twice a week with the language assistant; students will have the opportunity to reinforce what they have learned in class and hone their ability to communicate in Italian. When appropriate, students will be directed to specific internship opportunities in the New York City area, centered on Italian language and culture. 

The television show Hoarders: Buried Alive. Artist Andy Warhol’s junk collection, consisting of receipts, junk mail, and takeout menus. Professional organizer Marie Kondo and her minimalist ideals. Big-screen televisions, fast fashion, and floating islands of plastic trash contrasted with the promises of decluttering, downsizing, and shrinking homes. From fantastic depictions of people overwhelmed with their accumulation of things to popular self-help books that promise freedom and joy in the form of a clean home, this course will be concerned with the judgments we make about people and their relationship to their stuff. This course will begin to unpack "abject object orientations" by investigating figures like the archivist, the hoarder, the minimalist, and the collector. The course will ask how race, gender, sexuality, and class shape our judgments of people and their relationship to things. By looking to depictions of whom Scott Herring calls "material deviants" across performance art, film, and memoir, we will describe the cultural logics through which speaking of a person's orientation toward objects becomes a way of making ethical claims about them. For major assignments, students will develop three total live performances, including two archival “show and tells,” and a final autoethnographic performance unpacking students' own relationship to things. Archival “show and tells” will center an object from trips to the Sarah Lawrence Archives and can be either solo or group performances. Potential field-trip sites may include the Hudson River Museum, local thrift and resale stores, and the Yonkers Public Library Local History Room. No previous performance experience is required.

Where and how did democratic ideals emerge? Throughout the history of the world, hierarchies of power and privilege have predominated. Democracy is not the norm. Democracy is the bizarre exception. But 3,000 years ago, ancient Greek epic poetry began to undermine the moral validity of political hierarchies and tyrannical abuses of power. From the eighth through the fifth centuries BCE, ancient Greek literature cultivated ideals of humanity, equality, and justice vital to sustaining humane, egalitarian values, norms, and institutions. Over centuries, ancient Greeks came to understand — as by now we must — that not only individuals but also groups, large and small, can wield power tyrannically, using violence and intimidation to subjugate others and silence dissenting opinions. Reading selected works of Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Herodotus, Euripides, Plato, and others, we will investigate how and why the Greeks developed democratic ideals, why they themselves failed to attain them, and how we might do better. This course is reading and writing intensive. We will also encounter ideas that are uncomfortable and troubling in various predictable and unpredictable ways. The course is designed for anyone who welcomes open-minded critical inquiry and is eager to read and calmly discuss texts that are challenging both intellectually and emotionally. In fall, students will meet weekly with the instructor for individual conferences; in spring, individual conferences will be biweekly. 

In 1904, poet W. B. Yeats and playwright and translator Lady Gregory launched what would become the first state-subsidized Anglophone national theatre, which they called the Abbey Theatre. They did so, in their words, to prove to the world that “Ireland is not the home of buffoonery and of easy sentiment…but the home of an ancient idealism.” Aiming to correct centuries of misrepresentation, the Abbey Theatre set out to show the world that Ireland could be a cultural center despite the fact that it was considered, at the time, culturally backwards, a thorn in the side of the British Empire, and a victim of unrelenting years of famine and economic impoverishment. Over a century later, the Irish arts scene now produces acclaimed novelists, poets, playwrights, filmmakers, and actors from Sally Rooney, to Martin McDonagh, to Saoirse Ronan. In fall, we will track this development, beginning in the 19th century with the rise of the Anglo-Irish novel written by a settler class of Protestant writers; through the Irish Literary Revival, which championed the Irish language, myths, and arts; and then through revolution, partition, and civil war leading to the founding of the Irish Free State. In spring, we will follow the new independent Ireland through years of repressive Catholic control and censorship of the arts and through the late 20th century and early 21st, which saw an economic boom and bust known as the “Celtic Tiger,” the Good Friday Agreement establishing peace in Northern Ireland, as well as a series of public referendums legalizing divorce, gay marriage, and, eventually, abortion. In Ireland, literature and politics are tightly intertwined, with writers fighting as revolutionaries and works of art directly fueling public events such as the Easter 1916 Rising. The course will include readings of playwrights such as J. M. Synge, Samuel Beckett, Brian Friel, and Marina Carr; novelists such as Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, and Edna O’Brien; and poets such as Yeats, Eavan Boland, and Seamus Heaney. We will also explore notable films by Irish filmmakers. Some of the themes that will be discussed throughout the year include the relationship between tradition and modernity; competing ways of knowing through folklore, religion, and science; imperialism and anti-imperialism; sectarianism and partition; and changing ideas of gender and sexuality.

The performance of a play is a complex cultural event that involves far more than the literary text upon which it is grounded. First, there is the theatre itself—a building of a certain shape and utility within a certain neighborhood of a certain city. On stage, we have actors and their training, gesture, staging, music, dance, and costumes alongside scenery and lighting. Offstage, we have the audience, its makeup, and its reactions; the people who run the theatre and the reasons why they do it; and finally the social milieu in which the theatre exists. In this course, we will study these elements as a system of signs that convey meaning (semiotics)—a world of meaning whose lifespan is a few hours but whose significances are ageless. The plays of Shakespeare will be our texts. Reconstructing the performances of those plays in the England of Elizabeth I and James I will be our starting place. Seeing how those plays have been approached and re-envisioned over the centuries will be our journey. Tracing their elusive meanings, from within Shakespeare’s Wooden O to their adaptation in contemporary film, will be our work. 

This intensive drawing course challenges young artists to develop a disciplined, sustainable, and experimental practice that expands how they think, see, and make art. Each week, students will create 50 to 100 small works on paper, based on open-ended prompts designed to disrupt habits and deepen the relationship between subject and process. Students will work quickly and flexibly, experimenting with mediums and approaches to explore multiple solutions to each prompt. Alongside these daily drawings, students will develop a single, ambitious, labor-intensive piece throughout the semester—evolving slowly and reflecting time’s passage in contrast to our in-class exploratory drawings. This dynamic exchange fosters varied creative rhythms, bridging idea generation and final execution. The course will push students to redefine the medium of drawing and, in turn, transform their art-making practice. In fall and spring, students will meet biweekly with the instructor for individual conferences, alongside corequisite First-Year Studies Project (ARTS 1000), which will meet weekly as a group.

This intensive drawing course challenges young artists to develop a disciplined, sustainable, and experimental practice that expands how they think, see, and make art. Each week, students will create 50 to 100 small works on paper, based on open-ended prompts designed to disrupt habits and deepen the relationship between subject and process. We will work quickly and flexibly, experimenting with mediums and approaches to explore multiple solutions to each prompt. Alongside these daily drawings, students will develop a single, ambitious, labor-intensive piece throughout the semester—evolving slowly and reflecting time’s passage in contrast to our in-class exploratory drawings. This dynamic exchange fosters varied creative rhythms, bridging idea generation and final execution. The course will push students to redefine the medium of drawing and, in turn, transform their art-making practice.

This course is designed for seniors committed to deepening their artmaking practice over an extended period. Students will maintain individual studio spaces and are expected to work independently, creatively, and critically—challenging both themselves and their peers to explore new ways of thinking and making. The course will include prompts that encourage interdisciplinary approaches to art and culminates in a solo gallery exhibition during the spring, accompanied by a printed book documenting the show. Students will engage in regular critiques with visiting artists and faculty; discuss readings and a range of artists; visit galleries and studios; and participate in the Visual Arts Lecture Series, a program of lectures given by prominent contemporary artists and held at Sarah Lawrence College. Beyond studio work, students will develop skills in presenting their work—including writing artist statements and exhibition proposals, interviewing artists, and documenting their art. A series of professional-practice workshops will further prepare students for life beyond college.

This course will experiment and explore contemporary performance art. Through surveying a range of important artworks and movements, we will review the histories, concepts, and practices of performance art. Born from anti-art, performance art challenges the boundaries of artistic expression through implementing, as material, the concepts of space, time, and the body. Examples of artists reviewed will include John Cage, Joan Jonas, Adrian Piper, Bruce Nauman, Martha Rosler, Simone Forti, Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy, Pope.L, Laurie Anderson, Joseph Beuys, Janine Antoni, Suzanne Lacy, Aki Sasamoto, and Anna Halprin, to name a few. We will review dialogues and movements introducing performance art, such as art interventions, sculpture, installation art, institutional critique, protest art, social media, video art, happenings, Dada, comedy, sound art, graphic notation, scores, collaboration, and dance/movement. Students will be able to relate the form and function of performance art through research, workshopping ideas, experimentation, and improvisation—thereby developing the ability to confidently implement any method of the performance art genre.

This course is for students who want to break free from the conventions of the traditional essay and memoir and discover a broader range of narrative and stylistic possibilities available to nonfiction writers. During the first half of the semester, students will read and discuss examples of formally innovative nonfiction that will serve as the inspiration for brief assignments. Completed assignments will also be read aloud and discussed each week. During the second half of the semester, students will workshop longer pieces, which they will have written in consultation with the instructor as a part of their conference work. Required texts will include: The Next American Essay, edited by John D’Agata, and Multiple Choice by Alejandro Zambra; all other readings will be accessible in a photocopied handout. 

This course will examine and produce a range of work—from the journalistic to the critical, from the practical to the mystical, from the factual to the fictional—in the vast landscape of arts writing. We will write short pieces along the lines of liner notes, catalogue copy for gallery shows, and short reviews. We will approach long reviews, critical essays, and deep and subjective interior meditations on our experience of artists and their work by reading broadly across time. Topics may include, but are not limited to: Samuel Johnson on Richard Savage; William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge on themselves; Friedrich Nietzsche on Richard Wagner; Theodor W. Adorno via Thomas Mann on Beethoven’s Opus 111; V. S. Naipaul on Gustave Flaubert; Amiri Baraka on Billie Holiday; Virginia Woolf on Thomas Hardy; Glenn Gould on Barbra Streisand; Mark Strand on Edward Hopper; Rosalind Krauss on photography; Susan Sontag on Leni Riefenstahl; Jean-Luc Godard on Nicholas Ray; Pauline Kael on Sam Peckinpah; the art criticism of Donald Judd; and contemporary phenomena such as fan fiction, crossovers, and alternate universes made up of familiar literary characters. Students should feel confident in their familiarity with one or two art forms, broadly understood, and should expect, along with the reading, to write several small and two larger (7-12 pages) pieces to be presented to the entire class. Conference work will comprise research projects on those artists or works of art, or both, that students, in consultation with the instructor, decide on as their special province.