Theatre Courses

Program—Year | 24 credits

THEA 4999

Note: Restricted to Second Years.

In their second year, students advance toward their embodied and written thesis, integrating research, practice, and performance. Students take Performance Lab (THEA 7662), Critical Performance Writing I (THEA 7445), Performance Writing II (THEA 7555), Embodied Thesis I  (THEA 7473), Embodied Thesis II (THEA 7573) and one or two practicums—Practicum I (THEA 7390) and/or Practicum II (THEA 7392)—alongside components in theatre, dance, and music each semester. With 12 credits per semester, totaling 24 credits for the year, the focus is on creating original work, refining research and writing, field study in New York City with contemporary theatre/performance makers, and developing collaborative and leadership skills. Students emerge prepared to situate their practice within the contemporary field and discourse. 

Faculty

• Caden Manson

Program—Year | 24 credits

THEA 4998

Note: Restricted to First Years.

In their first year, students build a foundation in interdisciplinary practice, collaboration, and research. Required courses include Performance Lab (THEA 7662), Performance Research (THEA 7669), Performance Studio (THEA 7667), and one of two practicums—Practicum I (THEA 7390) and/or Practicum II (THEA 7392)—linked to productions or residencies. Students also select components in theatre, dance, and music each semester, completing 12 credits per semester for a total of 24 credits for the year. The year emphasizes embodied practice, ensemble collaboration, field study in New York City with contemporary theatre/performance makers, and the articulation of artistic questions that inform future research and performance. 

Faculty

• Caden Manson

Component—Year

THEA 7346

In this advanced studio course, we will explore scenes and monologues from contemporary playwrights, focusing on deepening each actor’s understanding of character, story structure, and text analysis. Students will engage in intensive scene study and monologue work, guided by the instructor in collaboration with each performer. The course will emphasize advanced acting techniques designed to foster spontaneity, looseness, and authenticity in performance. Through rigorous practice, students will develop a versatile set of tools to bring contemporary characters to life with truth and vitality. Course outcomes will include completing the course with refined scene and monologue performances, sharpened acting techniques, and a deeper mastery of contemporary theatrical texts.

Faculty

• K. Lorrel Manning

Component—Year

THEA 7142

This critical seminar and creative workshop will be dedicated to investigating the relationship between research methods and artistic practice. We will study the work of performing artists that engage in what are traditionally thought of as academic research modalities in order to collectively explore far-ranging questions about the political nature of both knowledge and art. How do artists acquire knowledge in order to critique inherited relationships between knowledge and power? How do artists research so as to think unthinkable thoughts? The course will be organized around four units spread across two semesters that are themselves organized around four different research methodologies and modalities: archives (archival research and historical analysis), interviews (ethnographic and documentarian methods), experiments (lab sciences), and data (machine learning and algorithmic knowledge). Each unit will ask students to engage in both critical inquiry and creative projects and will involve visits to specific research sites and institutions around the Greater New York City area.

Faculty

• Ethan Philbrick

Component—Fall | 3 credits

THEA 7445

Note: Required for Second Years.

This course will provide an opportunity to cultivate scholarship and written engagement within the field of theatre and performance. Over the course of the year, students will explore particular points of interest and further develop skills of analytical discourse, research techniques, and clear expression necessary for critical writing. This course will be an extension of the work begun in Performance Research (THEA 7669), with an intentional overlap of ideas, questions, and responses focusing on each student’s own writing practice. Our goal will be an integration of practice and theory, culminating in a final written thesis that uses a theoretical lens to talk about theatre and performance.

Faculty

• Lisa Clair

Component—Fall | 3 credits

THEA 7473

Note: Required for Second Years.

This course will provide a critical and supportive forum for developing new works of original theatre and performance, focusing on researching in multiple formats, including historical and artistic research, showings, improvisations, experiments, and conversation. Each student will have the opportunity to create a solo, duo, or group project. We will share our research, respond to developmental prompts, keep a practice journal, loosely develop a structure/content for the projects, refine our performances through showings, and support and give feedback to the cohort. This course will cultivate technical skills and nurture a deep understanding of the integral relationship between research and embodiment in performance practice. By delving into an intentional and elongated creation process, students will embark on a transformative journey of self-discovery. Students will leave the course equipped with an original work that authentically reflects their artistic voice and demonstrates their growth as innovative practitioners.

Faculty

• Caden Manson

Component—Fall

THEA 7662

Note: Required for First and Second Years.

Taught by a rotating series of Sarah Lawrence faculty and guest artists, this course will focus 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 will all be explored. The course will be a forum for workshops, master classes, and open rehearsals, with a focus on the development of critical skills. In addition, students will be 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

• Caden Manson

Component—Fall

THEA 7669

Note: Required for First Years.

How do we, as artists, engage with an accelerating, fractured, technology-infused world? How do we, as creators, produce our work under current economic pressures? This course will focus on artists and thinkers dealing with these questions and look at how we situate our practice in the field. Students will investigate current and emerging practices in performing care, contemporary choreography, speculative theatre, immersive theatre, co-presence, performance cabaret, postdigital strategies, socially-engaged art, and mixed-reality performance. Class time will be structured around weekly readings and discussions. Through field research, embodied laboratories, and creative and professional development, we will build a skill set, network, and knowledge base for articulating and supporting our work and engaging with collaborators, organizations, and audiences.

Faculty

• Caden Manson

Component—Year

THEA 7667

Note: Required for First Years.

Students will develop a schedule of in-studio experimentation and out-of-studio research that will be reflected in a weekly process journal and discussed monthly with the thesis advisor. During this component, students will develop a dynamic artistic practice of constructive experimentation, research, and discursive reflection. This self-directed component does not meet as a group. Individual studio practice and documentation will be discussed during monthly advising meetings.

Faculty

• Caden Manson

Component—Spring | 3 credits

THEA 7555

Note: Required for Second Years.

This course will provide an opportunity to cultivate scholarship and written engagement within the field of theatre and performance. Over the course of the year, students will explore particular points of interest and further develop skills of analytical discourse, research techniques, and clear expression necessary for critical writing. This course will be an extension of the work begun in Performance Research (THEA 7669), with an intentional overlap of ideas, questions, and responses focusing on each student’s own writing practice. Our goal will be an integration of practice and theory, culminating in a final written thesis that uses a theoretical lens to talk about theatre and performance.

Faculty

• Lisa Clair

Component—Spring

THEA 7669

Note: Required for First Years.

How do we, as artists, engage with an accelerating, fractured, technology-infused world? How do we, as creators, produce our work under current economic pressures? This course will focus on artists and thinkers dealing with these questions and look at how we situate our practice in the field. Students will investigate current and emerging practices in performing care, contemporary choreography, speculative theatre, immersive theatre, co-presence, performance cabaret, postdigital strategies, socially-engaged art, and mixed-reality performance. Class time will be structured around weekly readings and discussions. Through field research, embodied laboratories, and creative and professional development, we will build a skill set, network, and knowledge base for articulating and supporting our work and engaging with collaborators, organizations, and audiences.

Faculty

• Ethan Philbrick

Component—Spring | 3 credits

THEA 7573

Note: Required for Second Years.

This course will provide a critical and supportive forum for developing new works of original theatre and performance, focusing on researching in multiple formats, including historical and artistic research, showings, improvisations, experiments, and conversation. Each student will have the opportunity to create a solo, duo, or group project. We will share our research, respond to developmental prompts, keep a practice journal, loosely develop a structure/content for the projects, refine our performances through showings, and support and give feedback to the cohort. This course will cultivate technical skills and nurture a deep understanding of the integral relationship between research and embodiment in performance practice. By delving into an intentional and elongated creation process, students will embark on a transformative journey of self-discovery. Students will leave the course equipped with an original work that authentically reflects their artistic voice and demonstrates their growth as innovative practitioners.

Faculty

• Lauren Reinhard

Component—Spring

THEA 7662

Note: Required for First and Second Years.

Taught by a rotating series of Sarah Lawrence faculty and guest artists, this course will focus 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 will all be explored. The course will be a forum for workshops, master classes, and open rehearsals, with a focus on the development of critical skills. In addition, students will be 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

• Lauren Reinhard

Component—Year

THEA 7123

This course will offer a comprehensive training environment for directors at various stages of their craft. Students will dissect the Greek drama to understand its parts and how they work on stage. We will research various directorial interpretations and investigate the rich and diverse world of adaptation in plays by Luis Alfaro, Sarah Ruhl, Adrienne Kennedy, and others. Students will engage in hands-on learning through readings, exercises, and in-class projects that cover text analysis, stage composition, production conception, and collaboration. The course will emphasize practical experience, including managing rehearsal environments and helping actors activate text. All students will be expected to perform in each other’s projects, since understanding the actor’s challenges is essential to sensitive and effective directing. By the end of the studio, directors will be well-equipped with the skills necessary to bring their directorial visions to life.

Faculty

• Kathleen Amshoff

Component—Year

THEA 7143

This course will focus on pedagogy and the theory of teaching theatre in higher education. Students will prepare to work as a theatre artist and educator in universities and colleges. Students will learn the practical skills of developing materials necessary to secure a position teaching theatre, such as a teaching CV, pedagogical statement, artist statement, and diversity statement. Students will also learn the practical skills that they will need once they have landed a teaching position, such as developing a syllabus and other documents to track student progress. We will discuss different perspectives on arts pedagogy and learn what is new and on the cutting edge of developing culturally competent, anti-racist, trauma-informed, consent-based, and inclusive teaching practices. Students will learn that “inclusive teaching” is a foundational framework for teaching in an increasingly diverse and globally connected society—one that recognizes and affirms the myriad backgrounds, perspectives, and identities that individuals bring to learning environments. We will grapple with this in each class, as students will be encouraged to design their teaching materials to be welcoming, accessible, inclusive, and explicitly centralizing of a broad range of students. Students will learn how to identify their teaching goals for a course and then how to develop curricula that will work toward those goals with each lesson. They will learn how to design exercises with multiple entrance points and how to design both summative and formative assessments. In addition to this in-class work together, students will gain hands-on experience executing lessons and exercises by assisting a professor in the the Sarah Lawrence theatre program. In this course, we will discuss the ideas of thinkers, including bell hooks, James P. Comer, Bettina Love, Kim Solga, Augusto Boal, Paulo Freire, Gada Mahrouse, Chanelle Wilson, Nayantara Sheoran Appleton, and Heidi Safia Mirza, among others.

Faculty

• Lauren Reinhard

Component—Year

THEA 7114

In this studio course, the vectors of pure creative impulse will hold sway over the process of writing for the stage, as we write ourselves into unknown territory. Students will be encouraged to set aside received and preconceived notions of what it means to write plays or to be a writer, along with ideas of what a play is “supposed to” or “should” look like in order to locate their own authentic ways of seeing and making. In other words, disarming the rational, the judgmental thinking, that is rooted in a concept of a final product and empowering the chaotic, spatial, associative processes that put us in immediate formal contact with our direct experience, impressions, and perceptions of reality. Emphasis on detail, texture, and contiguity will be favored over the more widely accepted, reliable, yet sometimes limiting Aristotelian virtues of structure and continuity in the making of meaningful live performance. Readings will be tailored to fit the thinking of the class. We will likely look at theoretical and creative writings of Gertrude Stein, George Steiner, Mac Wellman, María Irene Fornés, Adrienne Kennedy, Mircea Eliade, Kristen Kosmas, Richard Maxwell, and Roland Barthes, as well as work that crosses into visual art realms and radical scientific thought from physicists David Bohm and F. David Peat. The course will be conducted in workshop fashion, with strong emphasis on the tracking and documenting of process.

Faculty

• Lisa Clair

Component—Year

THEA 7392

Practicum is designed for hands-on graduate work.

Faculty

• Caden Manson

Component—Year

THEA 7390

Note: Required for First and Second Years.

Practicum is designed for hands-on graduate work.

Faculty

• Caden Manson

Component—Year

THEA 5670

This course is an intensive, hands-on conference in theatrical production, where student producers administrate and run their own theatre company. Student producers are responsible for all aspects of production, including determining the budget and marketing an entire season of events and productions. Student producers are expected to fill a variety of positions, both technical and artistic, and to sit as members of the board of directors of a functioning theatre organization. In addition to their obligations to class and designated productions, DownStage producers are expected to hold regular office hours. Prior producing experience is not required.

Faculty

• Graeme Gillis

Component—Year

THEA 7625

To undertake a structural analysis is to ask why things are the way they are, how they got to be that way, and whether the system is still working—if the structure still holds. Dramaturgy as structural analysis considers not only the form of the drama but also the methods and modes of production and how theatre and performance organize (or potentially restructure) public life. Dramaturgy asks students to consider the infrastructure of making theatre, alongside questions of aesthetic form and political effect. This discussion-based course will teach dramaturgy as a form of structural analysis and as a set of strategies and tactics for intervening within structures as they already exist—institutions, rehearsal rooms, modes of thinking, and modes of making. Readings and viewings will pair plays and performance scores that experiment with structure, alongside structuralist and poststructuralist theories of race, gender, sexuality, ecology, infrastructure, networks, phenomenology, and political philosophy; for example, the works of Ligia Lewis, the international Fluxists, Judson dance, María Irene Fornés, Una Chaudhuri, Sylvia Wynter, Bruno Latour, and Donna Haraway. Assignments will include creative, collaborative exercises and works of scholarly analysis; students will be asked to write critically, to critique one another’s writing, and to devise their own “structures”—scores and scenarios for performance—in class.

Faculty

• Ariel Sibert