Graduate Courses
MFA Theatre 2019-2020
Advanced Media Design
Component—Year
Prerequisites: Intro to Media Design, Sound 1, Intro to Projection, or instructor consent. This class will meet once a week. Students will be required to attend additional technical meetings/rehearsals and design productions over the course of the year.
This course will prepare students to solve problems in video, sound, and multimedia design for live theatre and performance. We will look at the creative use of live video and audio playback and processing, multichannel sound, and interactive performance systems. By creating a cohort of designers committed to working on campus theatrical productions, the course will serve to mentor, troubleshoot, and critically analyze theatrical design. Students will be expected to be working on designs for theatre or dance productions or their own solo work.
Faculty
Directing, Devising, and Performance
Component—Year
This class meets once a week for four hours. Mr. Neumann will teach the fall semester; Mr. Blow will teach the spring semester.
Through the creative reuse of mass media, this course is designed to introduce students to a performance strategy that synthesizes an experimental performance practice from existing material. By stripping found media materials from their original context and arranging them in new ways, participants will explore the methods and politics of appropriation in performance work. By then extending those techniques into embodied practices, students will experiment with various methods of extracting movement, text, and intention from those source materials. Biweekly workshops on text, sound, and video manipulation in a collaborative format will alternate with experiments in performance composition and lectures on the historical use of appropriation in a variety of art forms. Participants should have an interest in both performance and performance technology, though experience in either is not a prerequisite. The course culminates in a rehearsal and performance period.
Faculty
Intro to Media Design
Component—Year
Two sections of this class.
This course serves as an introduction to theatrical sound and video design that explores the theory of sound, basic design principles, editing and playback software, content creation, and basic system design. The course examines the function and execution of video and sound in theatre, dance, and interdisciplinary forms. Exercises in sampling, nonlinear editing, and designing sequences in performance software will provide students with the basic tools needed to execute sound and projection designs in performance.
Faculty
Previous Courses
Sound Design I: Intro to Sound Design
Open , Component—Year
This class meets once a week.
This course serves as an introduction to theatrical sound design that explores the theory of sound, basic design principles, editing and playback software, content creation, and basic system design. The course examines the function and execution of sound in theatre, cinema, and interdisciplinary forms. Through field recording, sampling, nonlinear audio editing, and performance software, students will learn the basic tools needed to build and execute sound designs for theatre and audio installations. Students will be assigned to design a current theatrical production in the second semester of the course.
Faculty
LIVE MEDIA: Creating Hybrid Performance With Technology
Open , Component—Year
This class meets once a week.
This class will prepare students to solve problems in sound and multimedia production for live performance. We will look at the creative use of live video and audio playback and processing, multichannel sound, and interactive performance systems. The course is composed of technical demonstrations and short-form group performance assignments involving technology. The course is designed for theatre grads working with technology in Grad Solos but is suitable for any students working on independent performance work with technology. Participants interested in this course should be prepared to design and execute at least two short-form performance works or media installations over the course of the academic year. Participants interested in this course should be prepared to collaboratively design the projection elements for a performance or installation in the second semester.
Faculty
Introduction to Projection Design
Open , Component—Year
This class meets once a week.
This course is an introduction to theatrical projection design that explores design principles, content creation, video editing, media server and playback software, basic projection system design, and digital show control. Through text analysis, visual research, and lab experiments, the course examines the role of video projection in theatre and interdisciplinary forms and prepares participants to create video designs for their own work and to integrate video with other media.
Faculty
Directing, Devising, and Performance: Devising With Media
Component—Year
This class meets once a week for two hours.
Through the creative reuse of mass media, this course is designed to introduce students to a performance strategy based on sampling existing text, video, and sound. By stripping found media materials from their original context and arranging them in new ways, participants will explore the methods and politics of appropriation in performance work. By then extending those techniques into embodied practices, students will experiment with various methods of extracting movement, text, and intention from those source materials. Biweekly workshops on text, sound, and video manipulation in a collaborative format will alternate with experiments in performance composition and lectures on the historical use of appropriation in a variety of art forms. Participants should have an interest in both performance and performance technology, though experience in either is not a prerequisite. Each semester of the course culminates in a major performance project.
Faculty
Graduate Lab
Component—Year
Required for all 1st- and 2nd-year theatre graduate students. This class meets once a week.
Taught by a rotating series of Sarah Lawrence faculty and guest artists, this course focuses on developing the skills needed for a wide variety of techniques for the creation and development of new work in theatre. Ensemble acting, movement, design and fabrication, playwriting, devised work, and music performance are all explored. The class is a forum for workshops, master classes, and open rehearsals, with a focus on the development of critical skills. In addition, students in Grad Lab are expected to generate a new piece of theatre to be performed each month for the Sarah Lawrence community. These performances may include graduate and undergraduate students alike.
Faculty
Sound Design I: Intro to Sound Design
Open , Component—Year
This course will cover the basic tools and processes of theatrical sound design from script analysis and collaboration with directors and the rest of the design team to the execution of a full sound design for performance. The course will explain how to source, record, and edit sound and give a basic overview of the software and hardware used in professional sound design. Throughout the course, we will create sound effects, transitions, and sound collages and cover the many ways that sound is used in the theatre. Skills learned in this class will prepare students to design sound in many different venues and on different types of systems. The class will focus on the creative side of sound design while covering the basics of system design, sound equipment, and software.
Faculty
Directing, Devising, and Performance/Something From Something Else: Mass Media, Live Bodies, and Contemporary Performance Strategy
Intermediate , Component—Year
This course meets once a week, culminating in additional rehearsals within a typical production schedule.
This course will explore the interaction between media and “liveness” in the process of making original, collaborative performance work. By combining embodied processes with the creative reuse of mass media, this course is designed to introduce students to an experimental performance strategy that incorporates design elements throughout the playwriting and production process. By stripping found media materials from their original context and arranging them in new ways, participants will explore the methods and politics of appropriation in performance work. By then extending these techniques into embodied practices, students will experiment with various methods of extracting movement, text, and intention from these source materials. Class workshops focusing on text, sound, and video manipulation in a collaborative format will alternate with experiments in performance composition and lectures on the historical use of appropriation in a variety of art forms. Participants should have an interest in both performance and performance technology, though experience in either is not a prerequisite. The course culminates in a rehearsal period and performance.
Faculty
Projection Design for Theatre
Open , Component—Year
This class meets once a week.
This course is an introduction to theatrical projection design that explores design principles, basic video editing, media server and playback software, content creation, basic projection system design, and show control. Through text analysis, visual research, and lab experiments, the course examines the role of video projection in theatre and interdisciplinary forms and prepares participants to create video designs for their own work.