The Department of Theatre & Dance offers a comprehensive catalog of courses including seminar-based instruction, studio training, and hands on mentoring through experiential learning opportunities. All modes seek to integrate theoretical and practical instruction. Seminar and lecture courses, ranging from 20 to 100 seats, engage students in discussion on historical trends, contemporary practice, philosophical and aesthetic principles, criticism and analysis, and technical skills. Studio courses apply theory to technique in small, practice-based classes ranging from 16 to 28. Coursework often includes attendance at live performances as well participation in live production, and contributes to the development of professional portfolios, performance reels, and academic resumes. Practicums, tutorials, and independent studies supplement classwork with focused, in depth exploration of the discipline through close mentorship with faculty and guest artists.
Theatre (TH)
Theatre & Dance
285 Alumni ArenaNorth Campus
Buffalo, NY 14620-5030
Chair, Department of Theatre/Dance
Director of Undergraduate Dance
Director of Graduate Dance
Assistant to the Chair
Academic Manager
The Learning Environment
About Our Facilities
UB’s Department of Theatre & Dance boasts an array of resources for both instruction and practical preparation for productions, including performance and classroom space in the Center for the Arts on UB’s North Campus. Within the CFA students directly benefit from the use of:
- The Drama Theatre: a 388-seat theatre
- The Black Box Theatre: a flexible space with seating of 100-120
- Rehearsal Workshop: a mirror image of the Black Box Theater used for acting classes and rehearsals
- Dance Studios: 2 spacious studios with full-length mirrors, Marley floors, and specially designed sound systems
- Scene Shop
- Costume Shop
- Craft Studio
Students also utilize:
- Katharine Cornell Theatre: a unique performance space that functions as a rehearsal room, acting classroom and performance venue.
- Alumni Arena: includes the Design Suite with drafting studio, lighting lab and 10-seat computer lab; an acting classroom and rehearsal space; dance studio; a seminar room; and departmental offices.
About Our Faculty
In Theatre & Dance you will study with active practitioners and internationally recognized scholars who are dedicated to the development of the next generation of theatre and dance artists, teachers, and supporters. UB’s Theatre & Dance Faculty are members of professional networks including Actor’s Equity Association, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, American Society for Theatre Research, Dance Masters of America, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, National Dance Education Organization, Stage Actors Guild, and United Scenic Artists. They have extensive professional experience in directing, designing, dramaturgy, and performance on and off Broadway, on regional stages, in major dance festivals, in documentaries, and in film and television work. Twenty-five full-time faculty members along with adjuncts from the professional community, production staff, and Teaching Assistants from our graduate programs in support our undergraduate programs.
Faculty List Directory
Please visit the Department of Theatre and Dance website for additional information about our faculty.
TH Courses
- TH 101LEC Introduction to Theatre Lecture
Introduces reading a play as an imaging of action. Exploration of structuring plot, character, and other elements of a play. Compares texts with interpretations in live and video productions. Required for all majors and minors.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 106LEC Introduction to Technical Theatre Lecture
Production elements: materials, equipment and construction of scenery, costumes, lighting and sound; production organization: run crews, stage management. Labs are optional for non-major sections.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 107LEC Costume Construction I Lecture
Introduces materials, tools, and techniques; may include patterning; fabric identification, dyeing, and painting; projects on departmental productions. There is a fee associated with this class.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Spring
Prerequisites: TH 106 Or TH 135 Or TH 136 and BFA Des/Tech majors or permission of instructor
- TH 108LEC Basic Acting I Lecture
Nature and elements of behavior-based acting; practical investigation and involvement; physical games; imaginative exercises; improvisations; preliminary introduction to scene work. Required of all majors and minors.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall
- TH 109LEC Basic Acting II Lecture
Introduces scene study: how to break down a script; how to prepare an actor's score; primary terms; a precise and exacting rehearsal method; how to make fundamental character choices; how to uncover the character's dramatic intentions. Emphasizes working together, sharing space, and playing objectives. Students must be willing to explore their emotional life as a means to living truthfully on stage.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Spring
Prerequisites: TH 101, TH 106, and TH 108 or permission of instructor.
- TH 135LAB Production Practicum
- TH 136LAB Production Practicum
- TH 198SEM UB Seminar Seminar
The one credit UB Seminar is focused on a big idea or challenging issue to engage students with questions of significance in a field of study and, ultimately, to connect their studies with issues of consequence in the wider world. Essential to the UB Curriculum, the Seminar helps transition to UB through an early connection to UB faculty and the undergraduate experience at a comprehensive, research university. This course is equivalent to any 198 offered in any subject. This course is a controlled enrollment (impacted) course. Students who have previously attempted the course and received a grade of F or R may not be able to repeat the course during the fall or spring semester.
Credits: 1
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Other Requisites: Students who have already successfully completed the UB seminar course may not repeat this course. If you have any questions regarding enrollment for this course, please contact your academic advisor.
- TH 199SEM UB Seminar Seminar
The three credit UB Seminar is focused on a big idea or challenging issue to engage students with questions of significance in a field of study and, ultimately, to connect their studies with issues of consequence in the wider world. Essential to the UB Curriculum, the Seminar helps students with common learning outcomes focused on fundamental expectations for critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and oral communication, and learning at a university, all within topic focused subject matter. The Seminars provide students with an early connection to UB faculty and the undergraduate experience at a comprehensive, research university. This course is equivalent to any 199 offered in any subject. This course is a controlled enrollment (impacted) course. Students who have previously attempted the course and received a grade of F or R may not be able to repeat the course during the fall or spring semester.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Other Requisites: Students who have already successfully completed the first year seminar course may not repeat this course. If you have any questions regarding enrollment for this course, please contact your academic advisor.
- TH 201SEM Script Analysis Seminar
Develops fundamental analytical skills that actors, directors, and designers use to prepare a wide range of dramatic texts for rehearsal and production. Students will learn an approach to moving a play from page to stage, with emphasis on understanding and analyzing the building blocks of drama: dramatic structure, given circumstances, character, language, action, tempo, rhythm, and space. Students will improve their ability to communicate ideas about staging plays orally and in writing and begin to collaborate toward a shared artistic process and product. The ultimate goal is to realize the freedom and responsibility of theatre practitioners as interpretive artists.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall
Prerequisites: Completion of Communication Literacy 1 or completion of Writing Skills 1 (ENG 101 or placement into ENG 201).
- TH 203LEC Visual Imagination Lecture
Introduces and explores visual vocabulary; looking and seeing as learned skills; translation of idea to image. Required of all majors. There is a fee associated with this class.
- TH 205LEC Technical Drafting Lecture
Transfer of designer's ideas to ground plans and working drawings. There is a fee associated with this class.
- TH 207LAB Stage Makeup Laboratory
Analysis, research, and design as essential elements in realizing makeup for a character; explores basic materials and techniques.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
- TH 208LEC Method Acting I Lecture
The study and practice of the Strasberg Method of relaxation and sensory exercises and its application to an actor in scene work and monologues. Concentrates on exercises that constitute Lee Strasberg's Method as well as scene and monologue work.
- TH 209LEC Method Acting II Lecture
Continues principles and techniques studied in TH 208. Advanced acting exercises based on the method developed by the late Lee Strasberg. Further develops exploration and application of advanced scene analysis, affective memory, and additional tools to scene-work. Advanced research on method acting, focusing on Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, Robert Lewis, and Sanford Meisner.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Spring
Prerequisites: TH 208 or permission of instructor
- TH 210SEM Audition Workshop (Non-Bfa) Seminar
Studio/performance course focusing on three basic skills: scene analysis, "cold" readings, and monologue preparation. Students refine their ability to breakdown and analyze scripts and further develop their audition technique. These skills will be applied to the preparation and presentation of monologues and scenes from modern American and European plays, both realistic and nonrealistic, from the late 1980s and on. Requires all students be prepared and flexible, able to bring something new to each class and willing to adapt to direction and try new approaches to audition material.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 212SEM Improvisation for Storytellers Seminar
This course is a hands-on exploration of improvisational techniques for storytellers, drawn predominantly from the work of Keith Johnstone. Through loosely-structured improvisations, students will develop confidence in their ability to be spontaneous and take risks, work with partners to develop unscripted material, lower and raise status in relationship to other improvisors, and understand how stories function on stage.
- TH 220LEC Performing in America: Race, Gender, Class and American Identities on Stage Lecture
Examines 20th century American drama and theatre performances as reflection on changing American identities. Looks at the ways in which plays and performances defined what it meant to be American, as well as how individual playwrights and theatre artists reshaped dramatic literature and theatre to represent their own diverse identities. Studies the variety of identities - racial, ethnic, gender, class, and religious - that emerge from the diversity of American theatre.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall
- TH 227SEM Voice Training I Seminar
Exercises to consciously relax body tension, align the body, and deepen the awareness of breathing. Text work, such as Haiku poetry, connects words to breathing.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall
- TH 228SEM Voice Training II Seminar
Continuation of TH 227; focuses on the development of vocal range, power, capacity, flexibility, and sensitivity. Text work-including poetry, monologues, sonnets, and scene work, along with exercises-continues the breathing/word connection.
- TH 230LEC Theatre Crafts Lecture
Research, materials, and techniques of properties for scenery and costume construction. May include paints and finishes, casting and sculpting, sewing, leatherwork, upholstery, fabric dyeing, painting techniques, and millinery and wigs.
- TH 235LAB Production Practicum
- TH 236LAB Production Practicum Laboratory
Practical run crew experience on departmental productions.
Credits: 1 - 2
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Spring
Prerequisites: Majors and permission of instructor
- TH 300LEC Stage Management Lecture
An intense study of the vocation and profession of stage management as defined by modern theatre practice and the role of the professional stage manager. The complex inter-relationships between the stage manager and the other members of the theatrical staff from pre-production to the closing show and beyond will be examined in depth. There is a fee associated with this class.
- TH 301LEC World Theatre Before 1700 Lecture
This course is an introduction to selected plays, aesthetic theories, and performance techniques from antiquity to the eighteenth century. Of course, it's impossible to cover all of the significant works, movements, and innovations in global theater in one semester. The material presented here can only be an incomplete history - an outline to be fleshed out later as your knowledge of the subject grows. Nevertheless, this course will provide a sturdy foundation for future investigation, and a set of analytical tools to help you approach unfamiliar theatrical forms or reappraise familiar ones. Theater has always been a place to think: about politics, about religion, about social life, about cultural inheritances or projected futures, about the theater itself. We'll weigh the arguments of theaters passionate advocates and its fiercest enemies; discuss its complex exchanges with other art forms; and consider its avid incorporation of new technologies.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall
- TH 302LEC Theatre in the Modern World, 1700-Present Lecture
This course is an introduction to selected plays, aesthetic theories, and performance techniques from the eighteenth century to the present. While it operates as a stand-alone course, it picks up where TH 301 (a survey from antiquity to the eighteenth century) concluded. During this time, the modern world as we know it came into being, accompanied by social and political revolutions that shook the foundations of public and private life. We'll watch theater artists around the world contend with the dominant philosophical ideas, aesthetic values, and socio-political realities of their time, as they attempt to create artworks capable of responding to - or even creating - a modern world. In doing so, they began to alter the molecular structure of theater, pulling apart traditional modes of understanding narrative, illusion, and character - destroying the old, to make way for the new.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Spring
Prerequisites: TH 301 or permission of instructor
- TH 303LEC Scene Design I
- TH 306LEC Costume Design I Lecture
Analysis, research, style as translation from text to image; visual communication of character through clothes. Tools and techniques of presentation: organization, etc.; minimal drawing. There is a fee associated with this class.
- TH 308SEM Poetic Text Seminar
Actors' use of language, especially poetic and heightened language. Material is selected from a progression of styles beginning with naturalism and evolving to classical poetic texts. Stresses techniques of imaging, textual analysis, and full use of breath and voice to support the demands of non-naturalistic language.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall
- TH 309SEM Acting in Shakespeare Seminar
Deciphers rhythm and image codes in Shakespearean verse and incorporation of these elements into scene and character preparation. General social, historical, and theatrical orientation to Elizabethan England. Examines at least one tragedy and one comedy.
- TH 314SEM Introduction to Dramaturgy Seminar
The dramaturg is an important collaborator in the theatrical production process, playing the multi-faceted role of historian, researcher, adaptor, translator, audience educator, and overall supporter of the production team. Working closely with the director, the dramaturg helps to shape and nourish the production and to facilitate the demanding process of bringing a play from the page to the stage. Introduced students to the fundamentals of production dramaturgy through close analysis of works by select playwrights of the contemporary historical theatre.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 315LEC Modern Theatre I Lecture
Deals in some detail with the development of a dominant realistic tradition in the theatre at the end of the nineteenth century and then examines the modification of that tradition because of the attacks that set in almost at once. Emphasizes understanding individual plays, together with some appreciation of relevant developments in acting and scenic design. Figures include Zola, Ibsen, Strindberg, Hauptmann, Maeterlink, Jarry, Chekhov, Synge, Kokoshka, Wedekind, Cocteau, as well as Antoine, Stanislavsky, and Lugne-Poe.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 316LEC Modern Theatre II Lecture
Significant developments in theatre art and play writing since World War I; selected readings in British and continental plays and criticism.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 325SEM Performance and the Critic Seminar
Surveys the performing arts (theatre, dance, music, etc.) to increase background knowledge and develop critical awareness. Reading includes criticism, material on the performing arts, and texts of plays. Students attend live performances and write critiques. Discussion of performances and assigned reading; guest speakers; screening of films and videotapes; workshops on critique writing.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 331LEC Problems in Technical Theatre Lecture
Techniques employed in resolving problems in technical theatre. Requires lab work. There is a fee associated with this class.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Spring
- TH 332LEC Lighting Design I Lecture
This course will introduce students to the equipment, materials, and methods of lighting the stage. Learn to communicate a lighting design concept through visuals, and develop the skills to translate image to stage. Utilizing the classroom light lab, students will demonstrate several live lighting designs throughout the semester.
- TH 335LAB Production Practicum
- TH 336LAB Production Practicum Laboratory
Practical experience building productions. There is a fee associated with this class.
Credits: 1
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Spring
- TH 340LAB Makeup Studio Laboratory
Significant participation in the performance, design, technical, and management phases of departmental productions. Credit hours for a specific project must be arranged with instructor.
Credits: 1 - 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
- TH 342LAB Theatre Studio II Laboratory
Significant participation in the performance, design, technical, and management phases of departmental productions. Credit hours for a specific project must be arranged with instructor.
Credits: 1 - 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 343LAB Theatre Studio III Laboratory
Significant participation in the performance, design, technical, and management phases of departmental productions. Credit hours for a specific project must be arranged with instructor.
Credits: 1 - 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 344LAB Theatre Studio IV Laboratory
Significant participation in the performance, design, technical, and management phases of departmental productions. Credit hours for a specific project must be arranged with instructor.
Credits: 1 - 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 345LAB Costume Construction Studio Laboratory
Significant participation in the performance, design, technical, and management phases of departmental productions. Credit hours for a specific project must be arranged with instructor.
- TH 346LAB Costume Design Studio Laboratory
Significant participation in the performance, design, technical, and management phases of departmental productions. Credit hours for a specific project must be arranged with instructor.
Credits: 1 - 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 347LAB Scene Design Studio Laboratory
Significant participation in the performance, design, technical, and management phases of departmental productions. Credit hours for a specific project must be arranged with instructor.
Credits: 1 - 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 348LAB Lighting Design Studio Laboratory
Significant participation in the performance, design, technical, and management phases of departmental productions. Credit hours for a specific project must be arranged with instructor.
Credits: 1 - 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 349LBR Technical Studio Laboratory
Significant participation in the performance, design, technical, and management phases of departmental productions. Credit hours for a specific project must be arranged with instructor.
Credits: 1 - 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 350LAB Properties Studio Laboratory
Significant participation in the performance, design, technical, and management phases of departmental productions. Credit hours for a specific project must be arranged with instructor.
Credits: 1 - 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 370LEC Age of Shakespeare Lecture
Dramatic works of Shakespeare's contemporaries-Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, and others; theatre and theatrical practices of the period.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 390LEC Design Resources Lecture
In this course students will improve research skills & investigate the essential aspects of period identification in one or more areas of period style: architecture, furniture, clothing, textiles, accessories, properties, & cultural mores. Students will survey resources & vocabulary useful to the study & execution of a theatrical design. This course is designed to help students develop a process for their design research that is efficient, accurate, & rigorous.
- TH 401SEM Directing I Seminar
A practical course in directing. Provides students with the consciousness of theatre and creative directing: basic techniques in preparing the script for rehearsals, creating the space, collaborating with a designer, using tempo/rhythm, working with actors, preparing and conducting rehearsals.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall
- TH 402SEM Directing II Seminar
Continuation of TH 401. Includes work on a play, script, or other material for a production: analyzing text, preparing lists of characters, settings, props, and music/sound effects. Creating a space: its character, dimensions, relationships between actors and audience, the role of light, use of objects within space, and shape of the space for the spectators. Explores the speed/tempo/rhythm of a production. Methods of casting, auditioning, rehearsing; methods of collaborating with authors, translators, literary advisors, designers, composers, stage managers, technical staff, and administrative staff.
- TH 403SEM Scene Design 2 Seminar
Further studies in scene design; individual projects.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Spring
- TH 404SEM Scene Design 3 Seminar
The scene designer's process is exercised by creating production proposals for significant theatrical works. Particular attention is given to text analysis, research methods, visual communication, three-dimensional response, and presentation. The course culminates in a portfolio review where the student will demonstrate his/her ability to create innovative and appropriate scenic environments for given texts in diverse venues.
Credits: 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Spring
- TH 406SEM Costume Design II Seminar
Further studies in costume design.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall
- TH 408LEC Audition Techniques Lecture
Techniques and methods of preparation essential for successful auditions at the college, graduate school, and professional levels.
- TH 409LEC Mime/Movement for Actors Lecture
Involves the actor's use of specific techniques as a tool to add awareness, flexibility, and suppleness to body movement so that the actor becomes free to concentrate on creating a role. This intensive training leads to a more elaborate physical building of the character, which unites the actor's body and mind with the script.
- TH 411LAB Theatre Workshop Laboratory
Historical, artistic, practical aspects of a specific play or dramatic problem (audition), works of a specific playwright. Workshop performance produced entirely with the resources of class members.
Credits: 1 - 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 412LAB Theatre Workshop Laboratory
Historical, artistic, practical aspects of a specific play or dramatic problem (audition), works of a specific playwright. Workshop performance produced entirely with the resources of class members.
Credits: 1 - 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 413LAB Theatre Workshop Laboratory
Historical, artistic, practical aspects of a specific play or dramatic problem (audition), works of a specific playwright. Workshop performance produced entirely with the resources of class members.
Credits: 1 - 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 414LAB Theatre Workshop Laboratory
Historical, artistic, practical aspects of a specific play or dramatic problem (audition), works of a specific playwright. Workshop performance produced entirely with the resources of class members.
Credits: 1 - 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 415SEM Dramaturgy Seminar
This course engages students in these evolving discussions of global dramaturgy, as we discover the ways in which texts and performances are changing for both creators and audiences. What are the current aesthetic and ideological forces that exert pressure on the contemporary theatre? To what extent has digital technology and media transformed the historical relations among theatre artists, performers, and audiences? How have social media tools affected these relations and how can theatre and performance respond? The course begins with the fundamental principles of dramaturgy including extensive dramatic literature analysis and its application in all aspects of theatre and performance production. From this foundation, we then consider the ways in which new forms of dramaturgy affect new forms of production, including not only theatre but also dance and multiple forms of performance art (with a particular emphasis on body art). Much of the course will use social media tools to communicate and collaborate, although familiarity with these is not a pre-requisite for the course. We will also make use of unique video resources.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Prerequisites: TH 101, 201, 302 or Permission of Instructor
- TH 416SEM Mask Seminar
Studies mask traditions and practical exploration of mask technique, using neutral masks, full-face masks and half-masks. Develops skill in using sound, gesture and movement to create mask characters. Creating and performing solo or ensemble scenes, using mask characters.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
- TH 420SEM Introduction to Lloyd Richards Technique Seminar
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall
- TH 421SEM Devised Performance Seminar
In this course, we will invent, refine, and rehearse devised performance while training a critical eye on the processes of collaboration and creation. We will examine the manifestos, ways of working, and preoccupations of other groups and companies, as well as consider contemporary scholarship that examines theatrical collaboration and some of its diverse means and ends. Through practice and critical reflection, as well as close observation of some chosen devised works, we will innovate our own responses to the pressures and opportunities presented by devising performance. Projects will focus on not only articulating, and attempting to realize, our own aims and interests in presenting devised performance, but on the significance and implications of group authorship and co-operative participation.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
- TH 422SEM Special Topics Seminar
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 423LEC Special Topics
- TH 424SEM Special Topics Seminar
Credits: 1 - 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 425SEM Media and Performance Seminar Seminar
This course will consider various forms of mediated and intermedia performance in order to examine the particular habits, possibilities and affinities of performance in mediatized contexts. Possible areas of focus include television and televisual performance, intermedia theatre, and performance in video gaming and in online contexts. Graduate students will be assigned additional reading and will be responsible for longer and more sophisticated final writing projects. Free Elective, three (3) credit Seminar, Prerequisites, none, letter graded, not repeatable
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
- TH 427LEC Voice and Movement Lecture
Explores the connection between voice, movement and language. Students learn to release habitual patterns of tension, to use their voices and bodies more spontaneously and expressively, and to communicate more effectively through sound, gesture and movement.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 433LEC Lighting Design Lecture
Exercises the lighting designer's ability to communicate orally, visually, and graphically in the production process. Emphasis is given to visualization techniques and both hand and computer generated rendering techniques are explored. There is a fee associated with this class.
- TH 439SR Studies in Design Seminar
Development a hard copy and digital portfolio of work as associated with departmental design and technology assignments. Explore more expanded general knowledge of theatre practices and vocabulary. Have the experience of putting theory to practice.
Credits: 1 - 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 440LAB Studies in Design Laboratory
Intensive study of a particular movement, designer, problem, or area in theatrical design or technology.
Credits: 1 - 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 453SEM African and Caribbean Literature Seminar
This course covers works by modern writers from Africa, the greater Caribbean, and their interconnecting diasporas and transnational contexts. A close look at storytelling traditions, aesthetic conventions, philosophical movements, and socio-political transformations helps students understand the ways in which texts of varied genres are created. Students also compare works in order to tease out the differences and similarities in literature across African and Caribbean cultures. By the end of the course students can discuss what terms like Africa,Caribbean,Afro-Caribbean, diaspora, and transnational mean and how the contact of world cultures shape their contours. They also gain a more thorough comprehension of the thought, lived experience, and artistic expression that lead to the writing of African and Caribbean literature. This course is the same as FR 453, and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
- TH 457SEM Comedy of Manners Seminar
Social and historical background that in 1660 led to the rise of Restoration comedy in England. Development of comedy of manners in works of four English playwrights. Practical exploration and involvement; students work on scenes to develop understanding of the material's dramatic nature and interpretive problems.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 460SEM Asian Performing Arts Seminar
Comprehensive study of a wide range of Asian performing arts, from theatre and dance to ritual and popular entertainment. Both intercultural and interdisciplinary, the course draws on the arts, humanities and social sciences.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 464SEM Black Theatre-Past and Present Seminar
Surveys the roots and development of Black Theatre from its mythic traditions in Africa to the contemporary works of Ed Bullins, Amiri Baraka and August Wilson.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 466SEM Women in Theatre Seminar
Studies works of women in theatre from Krotsvitha of Gandersheim to present-day women playwrights, actors, directors and designers.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 468LEC Sources of Modern Theatre Lecture
Examines, in-depth, selected figures, movements, artists, and events that have had a seminal influence on modern theatre's development. Focuses on reading important texts, discussion, and individual research, but may include workshop activities when appropriate.
- TH 477SEM Production Dramaturgy Seminar
The dramaturg is a major collaborator in the process of theatrical production, serving as both historical and critical researcher as well as a 'third eye' within the rehearsal space. This course is designed for students who wish to participate as dramaturgs on select departmental productions throughout the season. The role of the dramaturg is to work closely with the director of the production to fulfill basic requirements and needs as that arise throughout the rehearsal and final production periods.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 478SEM Arthur Miller Seminar
Comprehensively studies Arthur Miller's dramatic work in its historical and theatrical context, particularly focusing on one of the major plays, such as Death of a Salesman or The Crucible.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 479SEM Brecht Seminar
A study of the plays, poetry and theatre aesthetic of Brecht, and the impact of that work on 20th Cent. Drama.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 480SEM Shakespeare On Stage Seminar
Explores Shakespeare in performance in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We view and analyze film and video of the plays as produced by the BBC, the Royal Shakespeare Company and directors such as Orson Welles, Roman Polanski, Laurence Olivier, Peter Brook and Kenneth Branagh.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 481SEM Irish Dramatists Seminar
Traditional, classical and contemporary playwrights from Cosgrove to Beckett and Friel. Explores common themes of identity, nationalism and revolt, particularly emphasizing the tradition of tragi-comedy in the work of Irish playwrights.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 482SEM Chekhov Seminar
Comprehensively studies Anton Chekhov's major works and the contribution they make to theatrical realism's development as we know it today. Also studies the importance of Chekhov's collaborations with Konstantine Stanislavsky to the birth of realistic theatre production.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 483SEM Ibsen Seminar
Comprehensively studies Henrik Ibsen's major works, particularly emphasizing A Doll's House, The Wild Duck, Ghosts' and An Enemy of the People and the contribution these plays made to the birth of realistic drama.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 484SEM Theatre of MoliÈRe Seminar
Explores the comic genius of Moliere, both by studying his roots in the Commedia Dell'arte and through carefully reading his major works: The Misanthrope, The Miser, Tartuffe and the Would-be Gentleman (in translation).
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 485SEM Playwriting Workshop Seminar
Explores basic tools of the playwright's craft; writing exercises to release imagination and spontaneity; guided development of characters, dialogue, scenes, plot structure; writing a ten-minute or short one-act play, which receives a staged reading at the end of the semester. Analyzes published plays and professional productions. May be repeated for credit.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Spring
- TH 486SEM Playwriting Seminar Seminar
Continuation of TH 485, for advanced students. Writing a full-length one-act play, which receives a staged reading at the end of the semester. Analyzes published plays and professional productions. May be repeated for credit.
- TH 487SEM Major Figures Seminar
Major dramatists or theatre artists; variable subjects.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 488SEM Major Figures Seminar
Major dramatists or theatre artists; variable subjects.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 489SEM Major Figures Seminar
Major dramatists or theatre artists; variable subjects.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 493LLB Advanced Directing Laboratory
Continuation of TH 402, for advanced students.
Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 495TUT Undergraduate Supervised Teaching Tutorial
Students may serve as undergraduate teaching assistants in 100-300 level courses with permission of instructor. Responsibilities include leading in-class discussions, meeting with students in small coaching groups, and holding study sessions.
Credits: 1 - 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 496TUT Internship Tutorial
Practical, hands-on experience in performance venues. Including but not limited to the areas of promotion, public relations, theatre management, box office, ushering, stage management, performance, etc.
Credits: 1 - 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 498TUT Arts Management Internshp Tutorial
Credits: 1 - 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
- TH 499TUT Independent Study Tutorial
Substantial independent research or applied project under the supervision of a faculty member.
Credits: 1 - 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring