Kevin Confoy

This script-based approach to acting and performance springs from the works and goals of The Kilroys, “a gang of playwrights…who came together to stop talking about gender parity in theatre and start taking action.” Students will perform given scenes written in a variety of styles by female, queer, and trans writers. Students will also study the greater context of plays, watch films and documentaries, and read and discuss essays and plays that deal with theatre’s response to the events that shape our world. Kilroys is about a way of looking at theatre: “We make trouble. And plays.” Acting the Kilroys is open to actors of any and all identities.

This FYS course looks at the greater role of theatre in our culture. The class will examine how theatre responds to the events and movements that shape our lives. Students will read and discuss a variety of plays in a diverse collection of styles and forms. The class looks at how theatre frames political discourse and its distinct role as a means of social activism in this country over the past 50 years. Texts range from those that address issues raised by the Black Lives Matter movement of the last few years and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s to the form-bending techniques of contemporary theatre makers and artists like Anna Deavere Smith, Lynn Nottage, Young Jean Lee, Jackie Sibbles Drury, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Annie Baker, Tony Kushner, Dominque Morisseau, and works from queer and trans playwrights, among many others. Power Plays looks at the innovations of mid-20th-century theatre artists like Bertolt Brecht and Samuel Beckett and at the political theatre of the Vietnam War and Civil Rights eras. The class will discuss how groundbreaking guerrilla theatre groups like ACT UP and El Teatro Campesino laid the foundation for much of the devised and immersive work that we see today. Students will read aloud from plays, screen documentaries, and related films and see productions in New York City over the course of the year. Guest artists will join Power Plays for designated classes. Students will meet with the teacher to devise conference projects to serve their distinct interests. Projects may range from acting and staging scenes to design work, dramaturgical presentations, and original plays written in the style of the events of the period and plays that we study, among other options. In addition to conference projects, students are required to submit written essays and participate fully in the discussion. Power Plays will alternate biweekly conferences with small-group meetings/conferences to include screenings, field trips, performances, and workshops.

This script-based approach to acting and performance springs from the works and goals of The Kilroys, “a gang of playwrights…who came together to stop talking about gender parity in theatre and start taking action.” Students will perform given scenes written in a variety of styles by female, queer, and trans writers. Students will also study the greater context of plays, watch films and documentaries, and read and discuss essays and plays that deal with theatre’s response to the events that shape our world. Kilroys is about a way of looking at theatre: “We make trouble. And plays.” Acting the Kilroys is open to actors of any and all identities.

This component offers a vital technique in the art and craft of directing. AD Studio encompasses the full expression of a director’s job, and establishes a way of working. The class provides a framework for determining how a director’s experiences, influences and point of view shape their productions. In a series of hands-on projects, students de-construct all aspects of the director’s job, moving from abstract ideas to concrete expression. AD Studio begins with the text. The class offers directors an outline for dissecting plot and story, and techniques for dynamic staging. Students work with a variety of texts, ranging from published plays, in poetic and realistic language, to original work from non-traditional sources. AD Studio is a self-contained ensemble. Students will act in their classmates’ productions, as they direct their own. The class takes a director through the processes of production, from first read and dramaturgical research, to casting, design meetings, mock production meetings, and rehearsals, to staged work. AD Studio will include guests from a range of design and technical backgrounds who will discuss their own ways of working, and the collaborative aspects of staging a production. Students will make presentations on artists who particularly inspire their own ways of thinking about art. Emphasis in AD Studio is on the ideas and practices of artist/directors like Bertolt Brecht, who approached theatre as a means of activism, and contemporary theatre-makers like Anna Deavere Smith, Anne Bogart, and Moises Kaufman, among others, who forge a personalized approach to directing built upon dynamic analysis and an expansive point of view. Graduate or undergraduates who have taken the intermediate directing component Directing Brechting or Expanded Directing.

This script-based approach to acting and performance springs from the works and goals of the Kilroys, “a gang of playwrights…who came together to stop talking about gender parity in theatre and start taking action.” Students in Acting the Kilroys will perform given scenes written in a variety of styles by female, queer, and trans writers. Students will also study the greater context of plays, watch films and documentaries, and read and discuss essays and plays that deal with theatre’s response to the events that shape our world. Kilroys is about a way of looking at theatre: “We make trouble. And plays.” Acting the Kilroys is open to actors of any and all identities.

This is an acting scene study class that uses a practical, on-your-feet, script-driven approach to performance. Students will tear open and dissect given plays to find the clues for their characters’ truths and behaviors, fears and vulnerabilities, and the tactics and strategies they use to to get what they need. Students will act scenes from contemporary plays and adaptations. The class is open to both actors and directors.

A scene study acting class built upon a deep dive into a character’s past, their behavior, and the tactics they use to get what they need, Character Study is 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. The course is open to serious students who have taken an Actor’s Workshop class or other acting training.

This hands-on directing class offers directors a vital technique and way of working based upon Bertolt Brecht’s theories of dialectical theatre. Brecht was a social activist. He used theatre to affect change. Brecht’s plays and techniques changed the way we look at theatre and view the world. His approach continues to shape the way directors dissect text, incorporate production elements, and create dynamic theatre productions. Students in Directing Brechting will use Brecht’s plays and plays by contemporary theatre makers that he deeply influenced—like Larry Kramer, Moises Kaufman, Anna Deavere Smith, and Suzan Lori-Parks, among others—for a personalized directing technique built upon an expansive Brechtian model. Students will direct scenes from chosen plays and create and mount their own original work; they will act in scenes directed by their classmates for in-class presentations. The class is open to serious directors, actors, designers, writers, poets, etc. who are interested in developing an approach to work and to theatre that is rooted in activism and social change.

This course includes a weekly group conference and individual rehearsal meetings for students who will be directing readings, workshops, and productions in the theatre program and in independent companies in the fall semester. Students will meet once a week as a full group and in individual one-on-one conferences with the teacher, scheduled around their own individual rehearsals. Students will read and discuss the texts of all selected plays in the full-class meeting in a shared, hands-on approach to production. Students will analyze form and style and context and discuss all aspects of their upcoming productions. The teacher will observe rehearsals for individual director’s projects as the basis of their one-on-one meetings. Students with an interest in directing, but not directing in the fall term, are welcome to join Director's Conference.

This course is a hands-on directing class that offers a vital technique and way of working; it encompasses the full expression of a director’s job—from a first read, through casting practices and production meetings, to staging the play. Directing In Context starts with the text. The class offers directors an outline for dissecting plot and story; it provides a framework for figuring out how your point of view, interests, and influences shape your productions. Students will direct scenes from published plays, create original work from nontraditional sources, and make presentations on artists who particularly inspire their own ways of thinking about art. Students act in scenes directed by their classmates for in-class presentations and for a final public showing. Emphasis is placed upon the ideas and practices of artist/directors like Bertolt Brecht, who approached theatre as a means of activism, and contemporary theatre makers like Anna Deavere Smith, Anne Bogart, and Moises Kaufman, among others, who forge a personalized approach to directing built upon dynamic analysis and an expansive point of view. Directing in Context is open to directors, actors, designers, writers, etc., who are interested in theatre that encompasses a large perspective and point of view.

This course examines the greater role of theatre in our culture, particularly as to how theatre responds to the events and movements that shape our lives—even as they occur. We will look at how theatre frames political discourse, as well as its distinct role as a means of social activism in this country over the past 50 years. Students will read and discuss a variety of plays, with an emphasis on looking at the context in which those plays were written and why they still resonate today. Discussions will range from influential works and innovations of mid-20th-century theatre artists like Bertolt Brecht and Samuel Beckett, political theatre groups like The Living Theatre and El Teatro Campo of the 1960s, agitprop theatre events of the Vietnam War and Civil Rights eras, and ACT Up in the 1980s AIDS Crisis to the form-bending techniques of contemporary theatre makers and artists like Anna Deavere Smith, Young Jean Lee, Jackie Sibbles Drury, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Annie Baker, Tony Kushner, Dominque Morriseau, Quiara Alegria Hudes, and queer, female, and trans playwrights in The Kilroys List collection of plays, among many others. Students will read aloud from plays in class, study documentaries, and see productions and showings in New York City over the course of the year. Guest artists will join designated classes. Students will meet with the teacher to devise conference projects to serve their distinct interests. Projects might range from original plays written in the style of the events of the period and plays that we study or rehearsed or staged scenes from published plays to designing dramaturgical presentations, among other options. In addition to conference projects each semester, students are regularly required to submit critical essays and participate fully in the discussion. Theatre in Action will alternate individual conferences with small-group meetings/conferences to include screenings, field trips, performances, and workshops. Students enrolled in FYS in Theatre have the option, but are not required, to take one extra component in the theatre, dance, or music programs as part of their Theatre Third. All students enrolled in the FYS in Theatre join the theatre program community, attend theatre meetings, and complete technical-support hours (tech credits).

This course looks at playwright theatre makers whose works are in direct response to the events and forces that play upon us now. Among the list of playwrights whose works may be read and discussed are Annie Baker, Paula Vogel, Branden Jacob-Jenkins, Ayad Akhtar, Lynn Nottage, Will Eno, Olivia Dufault, Rajiv Joseph, and David Henry Hwang, among others. NOW PLAYING addresses the relevance of theatre in the 21st century. Do plays matter? Has the form been exhausted? Or is there a need now, more than ever, for what theatre can distinctly provide? NOW PLAYING is a one-semester, discussion-based seminar. Portions of plays will be read aloud in class to facilitate discussions.

This is a seminar class that looks at the plays and types of theatre happening right now. Students will read scripts from plays being performed across the country and attend theatre in New York City as a way of figuring out how theatre responds to the events that shape our lives even as they occur. A great variety of plays and playwrights will be discussed. NOW PLAYING addresses the relevance of theatre in the 21st century. Do plays matter? Has the form been exhausted? Or is there a need now, more than ever, for what theatre can distinctly provide? Scenes and portions of plays will be read aloud in class. Students will create solo or group performance pieces—of a type to be agreed upon in conference—to be presented in class at the end of each semester.

Theatre is a tool for social change. This one-semester course looks at a dynamic collection of contemporary plays written as a means of protest and activism. The course will culminate in an open class performance project that students will devise and create over the course of the semester. The class includes a range of vital plays and films, from HAIR, written in response to the Vietnam War, to compelling new works by Antoinette Nwandu and Dominique Morisseau that resonate in the Black Lives Matter Movement, to plays that address concerns of the LGBTQ+ communities, among others. Protest Plays is open to actors, directors, playwrights, and those with a particular interest in theatre as a means of activism and change.

An on-your-feet acting class, Acting the Kilroys is a script-based approach to acting and performance that uses the works of the Kilroys, “a gang of playwrights…who came together to stop talking about gender parity in theatre and start taking action.” Students will perform given scenes written in a variety of styles by female, queer, and trans writers. The course calls for full and unbridled expression as the foundation of a vital approach to performance and way of looking at theatre. “We make trouble. And plays.” The course is open to actors of any and all identities.

An approach to performance that focuses on external applications as a method of building a character—working with costumes, props, make-up, and tangible aspects of production, as well as voice, dialects, gesture, and given behavior—students will develop an “outside-in” technique that allows for the full physical and emotional expression of a character and the text.

This is an acting class that recognizes monologues as the ultimate revelation of a character’s Truth. Students will work on one-person and monologue plays and existent monologues from full-length modern and contemporary works as a way of determining a character’s behavior and exposing those moments in a play when a character’s Truth is revealed. Actors will leave BREAKING THE CODE: Defining Moment having worked on an assortment of monologues from a range of plays that specifically includes works of The Kilroys, “a gang of playwrights and producers who came together to stop talking about gender parity in theatre and start taking action,” among many others.

This class examines how theatre has responded to those moments of the past 50 years that define the struggles of a generation. Students will read and discuss a variety of plays from a list of playwrights that may include Brecht, Beckett, Fugard, Anna Deavere Smith, Wole Soyinka, Eve Ensler, Larry Kramer, Dael Orlandersmith, and August Wilson, among others. Documentary films that represent distinct points of view on the same struggles will be shown throughout the semester. Plays will be supplemented with nonfiction readings. Theatre at War is a discussion-based seminar. Portions of plays will be read aloud for discussion purposes.

Crisis Mode examines how theatre has responded to certain events of historical significance and moments of crisis. It is of particular value to those directors, actors, and theatre makers/producers interested in an expansive view of theatre and in how and why a play can change the way that we think. The course provides a working foundation for performance and production. Crisis Mode will examine plays and playwrights and theatre movements and styles that have developed and come to expression in the past several decades. Students will discuss a variety of plays, with an emphasis on looking at the world in which those plays were written and why they continue to resonate today. Students will study documentaries and make presentations on events of historical/political/cultural significance as a way of providing a play with a rich context for production and performance. Crisis Mode will concentrate on American plays and political movements but will encompass a global and cultural perspective, with discussion ranging from the influential works and innovations of Brecht and Beckett to political theatre groups such as El Teatro Campesino of the 1960s, to agitprop theatre events like those of the Vietnam War and civil rights eras, and to those of ACT UP in the 1980s AIDS crisis. Students in Crisis Mode will devise projects to serve their particular theatre interests. Projects range from staging and acting scenes to design work, dramaturgical presentations, and original plays written in the style/spirit of the events studied.

This seminar/workshop course examines the greater role of theatre in our culture, particularly as to how theatre responds to the events and movements that shape our lives—even as they occur. As we ricochet from one life-altering event to the next, theatre provides a distinct prism—a way of looking at the world that challenges perceptions and rejects established forms to create new paradigms. Crisis Mode addresses the relevance of theatre in the 21st century. Do plays matter? Has the form been exhausted? Or is there a need, now more than ever, for what theatre can distinctly provide? Scenes and portions of plays will be read aloud in class. Students will discuss documentaries and films and create solo or group performance pieces to be presented in class at the end of each semester. Discussion topics range from the influence and innovations of mid-20th century theatre artists like Brecht and Beckett to the legacies of political theatre companies like Teatro Campesino. We will look at the distinct value of agitprop and pop-up theatre and examine the works and form-bending techniques of contemporary theatre makers and artists like Anna Deavere Smith, Young Jean Lee, Aleshea Harris, Hilary Bettis, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Tony Kushner, Dominque Morriseau, and Quiara Alegria Hudes, along with queer, female, and trans theatre makers. Crisis Mode is open to actors, directors, designers, playwrights, and those interested in looking at theatre as both discourse and a means of social activism.

An approach to directing that uses the works of Bertolt Brecht—and those he deeply influenced—as the foundation for a distinct production style fuses dynamic texts, metastaging techniques, and Brecht’s deep desire for theatre to be a tool for social change. Students will analyze plays by Brecht and playwrights that might include Thornton Wilder, Larry Kramer, Moises Kaufman, Anna Deavere Smith, and Paula Vogel, among others. We will also look at plays and playwrights who influenced Brecht’s own writing. Students in DIRECTING/BRECHTING will direct short scenes and moments from chosen plays, conduct mock production meetings, and present full production proposals.

Forensics is a production class for actors and directors. Students will read, analyze, direct, and act in a wide variety of one-act plays from a cross-section of periods and styles in a way of working that puts shared emphasis upon the text and its context. Forensics students form their own actor and director ensemble. Students present their work as part of the theatre program’s second-semester season. Classwork includes discussion of the playwrights and the time periods that gave their plays shape and resonance, along with a practical overview of the production process. It is understood that students in Forensics will have a range of acting and/or directing experience. Emphasis is placed on determining what is common for both actors and the director in staging a play. Over the course of the full year and in presentation, students will be expected to both act and direct.

Forensics is a production class for actors and directors. Students will read, analyze, direct, and act in a wide variety of one-act plays from a cross-section of periods and styles in a way of working that puts shared emphasis upon the text and its context. Forensics students form their own actor and director ensemble. Students present their work as part of the theatre program’s second-semester season. Classwork includes discussion of the playwrights and the time periods that gave their plays shape and resonance and a practical overview of the production process. It is understood that students in Forensics will have a range of acting and/or directing experience. Emphasis is placed upon determining what is common for both actors and director in staging a play. Over the course of the full year and in presentation, students will be expected to both act and direct.

Students in this class will become the company of the Theatre Program’s Main Stage Spring Musical. Classes will provide for an in-depth rehearsal process and allow for an extended study of the show in its greater context. Students will work together on the songs, scenes, dance and movement, and book of this musical in a traditional manner, with class time dedicated to rehearsals with the director, musical director, and creative team of the production. In addition, students will have a distinct opportunity to study and participate in the show at a level of far greater discovery and intensive preparation than a standard rehearsal period allows. First semester work will include meetings with the show’s designers, extended work on the text and characters, and in-class rehearsals. All aspects of the show—its relevance and significance in a historical context, its production history and place in the canon of musicals, as well as a study of its composer and creators of similar works of its kind—will be discussed and become part of regular class work. Also in the first semester, students will be expected to meet out of class for rehearsals on designated scenes, songs, etc., as they would in a traditional scene study class. Students will be assigned to research and report back to the cast certain aspects of the show and its history. Second semester work will move to a concentration on production and will include a regular period of out-of-class nightly rehearsals on a pre-determined schedule. Students interested in directing plays and musicals will be given specific aspects/scenes/songs of the show to be rehearsed and worked on under the guidance of the teachers. Student directors in the class will become part of the discussion of the design and production elements of the show. Students in this class are free to participate in shows outside of class in the first semester. In the second semester, students may not participate in any production that has rehearsals or performances that conflict with the schedule of this production. All principal and featured roles in the show will be cast from within this class.