Undergraduate Academics
Theatre
The Sarah Lawrence College theatre program is a community of generous and engaged artists who value diverse, intentional, and rigorous research, process, and creation. We hold each other and ourselves accountable to responsibly challenge ourselves and each other to foster our growth as both individuals and collaborative artists. We support innovation, not only in the art that we produce but also in the systems that we make to learn, share, and create. Through an interdisciplinary curriculum that prioritizes equality, care, and experimentation, we aim to create an artistic environment steeped in joy in order to envision and build a better future. This is an open and inclusive community, where everyone is welcome.
The theatre program is focused on deep collaboration, community building, and interdisciplinarity. We support performance and theatre artists through a curriculum crossing the boundaries of design, acting, directing, management, performing, writing, technology, producing, voice, movement, and much more. Courses are taught by working professionals, with the advantage of additional courses in the music and dance programs.
We encourage students to bring their own histories, experiences, and stories into the ecosystem of the program and to share in the development of new questions, political urgencies, and social engagement. Together, we will research and practice theatre and performance to expand the possibilities of critical togetherness through body, story, and experience.
Curriculum
Students create an individualized Theatre Third with the guidance of their don and the theatre faculty. Components are chosen to extend skills and interests, to explore new areas of the art, and to develop performing and/or practical experience. Students are encouraged to find the links between their academic and arts courses, creating a holistic educational process.
Students have many opportunities to synthesize their learning by taking part in the Theatre Program Season. Student-written and/or -created work is a primary focus, while productions of published plays and classical texts are also encouraged. A proposal system for student-directed, -written, and -devised work within the Theatre Program Season’s production schedule emphasizes the development of student artists. There are also opportunities in the seasons and projects organized by DownStage (a theatre program component) and by independent, student-run companies. Auditions for faculty-, student-, and guest-directed productions are open to the entire SLC community.
Practicum
Courses provide a rigorous intellectual and practical framework, and students are continually engaged in the process of examining and creating theatre. The theatre program helps students build a solid technique based on established methodologies while also being encouraged to discover and develop their individual artistic selves. Students can earn credits from internships or fieldwork in many New York City theatres and theatre organizations. Civic Engagement courses have been a vibrant component of the curriculum for more than three decades, encouraging the development of original material created inclusively with local partner institutions, communities, and neighbors. Several theatre components include an open class showing or performance in addition to the multiple performance, design, and production opportunities that are available to students throughout the academic year. The College’s performance venues include productions in the Suzanne Werner Wright Theatre and the Frances Ann Cannon Workshop Theatre, as well as work in the student-run DownStage Theatre. Workshops, readings, and productions are also mounted in the Performing Arta Center OpenSpace Theatre, the Performance Lab, the Remy Theatre outdoor stage, and various other performance spaces throughout the campus.
Students enrolled in a First-Year Studies course in Theatre may take one additional theatre component as part of their Theatre Third, if they choose. Students enrolled in a First-Year Studies course in Theatre are also required to attend scheduled Theatre Meeting/Think Tanks that occur three times per semester and complete one tech credit assignment on one program production in the first year of being a theatre third.
First-year students are not required to take their First-Year Studies course in Theatre in order to take theatre courses; interested first-year students may enroll in Theatre Program (THEA 4499), which does not include First-Year Studies.
Theatre 2026-2027 Courses
-
First-Year Studies—Year | 10 credits
THEA 1027
Note: As part of the theatre program, students must also take the required component course Think Tank (THEA 5325), complete tech credit on one theatre program semester project during the year, and enroll in one or two additional components in consultation with their don.
Artists today build practices that move across disciplines and public contexts. They are building practices that are personal, collaborative, and research-driven. This course will introduce the foundational structures of an artistic life: how to organize a practice, sustain curiosity, conduct meaningful research, articulate ideas with confidence, and develop a sharp and generous critical eye across disciplines. Through class exercises, sustained notebook work, and focused reading and discussion, students will build artistic fluency while learning how to flourish and thrive through creativity as a sustaining life practice. The course will be a dynamic mix of class exercises, prompts, focused play, research methodology, artistic lineage, and critical writing. Students will learn how to gather and synthesize sources, creatively experiment, draw ethically on influences, interpret artwork, and articulate their own process. Throughout the year, students will maintain a daily notebook and research archive, attend performances and exhibitions, and engage in structured critique. Readings will include Adrienne Maree Brown, Rick Rubin, Priya Parker, Beth Pickens, Austin Kleon, José Esteban Muñoz, and Legacy Russell, alongside other contemporary essays in art and performance. Students will create and maintain a "creative practice portfolio" that includes notebook selections, a research dossier, critical writing, an artist statement, and documentation of a creative project. This course will be of interest to students intrigued by theatre, visual art, dance, writing, music, film, and interdisciplinary practices. In fall, students will meet weekly with the instructor for individual conferences; in spring, individual conferences will be biweekly.
Faculty
-
Open, Program—Year | 10 credits
THEA 4499
Note: Theatre Program/Third (THEA 4499) is required for individual component registration.
This credit-bearing course will consist of a combination of various individual components that together constitute a Theatre Third.
Faculty
-
Sophomore and Above, Program—Year | 20 credits
THEA 4498
Prerequisite: permission of the instructor
Note: Theatre Program/Third (THEA 4499) or Theatre Intensive Program/Two Thirds (THEA 4498) is required for individual component registration.
This credit-bearing course will consist of a combination of various individual components that together constitute a Theatre Two Thirds.
Faculty
Acting and Performance
-
Open, Component—Fall
THEA 5728
This course will be an introduction to the craft and technique of voice over acting in various forms. It is open to performers with an interest in gaining the necessary skills to perform in the fields of animation, video games, audio books, 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.
Faculty
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5306
Note: Open to serious students who have taken Actor’s Workshop (THEA 5341) or other acting training.
This course will be a scene-study acting class built upon a deep dive into a character’s past, their behaviors, and the tactics they use to get what they need. This course will offer 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, and work on chosen monologues.
Faculty
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5673
This course will be a scene-study acting class using the plays of contemporary female, queer, and non-binary writers as a pathway to a vital approach to performance. The course will offer a dynamic approach to acting based upon how a character creates an identity and how behaviors conceal truth and vulnerability. In addition to performing scenes from a variety of plays, students will work on chosen monologues, screen clips from movies, and watch documentaries on theatre artists who embrace the ideals of unbridled expression.
Faculty
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5341
This course will be a laboratory for the actor designed for performers who are interested in the steps to a fully realized, deeply involved performance. It will be an acting class with a focus on the actor's ability to transition from stage to film and film to stage.
What actually changes when acting on stage versus acting on film? In this course, we will translate basic acting techniques that can can be used in both mediums. We will begin with a self-tape, then to a stage scene, and a film scene.
How does your process change between mediums? How do you incorporate the intimacy of the camera? How do you project to fill an entire theater while staying completely truthful on stage?
This course will be an open exploration of the journey each actor takes when bringing a character to life. We will use Declan Donnellan’s The Actor and the Target techniques, Warner Loughlin’s emotional detail method, and the core principles of Stanislavski and Grotowski as detailed in Stephen Wangh’s An Acrobat of the Heart.
Faculty
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5510
Improvisation is spontaneous—in the moment.
The immediacy of improvisation is intoxicating, but there is an intimacy that you get when doing drama. —Keegan-Michael Key
If it is a modern-day story dealing with certain ethnic groups, I think I could open up some scenes with improvisation while staying with the structure of the script. —Martin Scorsese
Whether you want to create a unique character, develop emotional depth, write your own comic material, or foster a collaborative group spirit, improvisation is an essential tool for every writer, director, and actor. In the fall semester, we will focus on the foundations of improvisation and training the "athletics" of the creative mind. Through dramatic film scenarios, theater games, status play, Theatre of the Oppressed exercises, and Viewpoints, our ensemble will develop the physical freedom and emotional truth necessary to trust the spontaneous response. The final weeks will culminate in collaborative, long-form improvisations.
In the spring semester, the ensemble will move into narrative storytelling with a specific focus on comedy improvisation.
The world is a slightly better place for having improvisation in it. There’s something about it that says something positive about the human spirit. —Del Close
If you're in your head, you’re not here. —Susan Messing
This spring curriculum will incorporate techniques from the Upright Citizens Brigade, The Second City, and Theatresports. Students will focus on storytelling, creating comic characters, and crafting an original five-minute stand-up set. This journey into creative madness will culminate in a formal presentation, showcasing the comedy you and your ensemble have collectively devised throughout the term.
Faculty
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5341
This course will offer an in-depth exploration of the actor’s role within a collaborative, interdisciplinary practice in which the script emerges from the creative process itself (rather than the reverse). Through workshops on physical/vocal techniques, improvisation, research, technical theatre, and various ensemble-based practices, students will investigate techniques for making and performing in devised theatre.
Students will engage with a variety of devising methodologies drawn from prominent companies and practitioners, such as the Neo-Futurists, Pig Iron, Complicité, Mabou Mines, Wooster Group, Frantic Assembly, TEAM, Familie Flöz, SITI Company, B-Floor, among others, with an emphasis on process, collaboration, and experimentation. Useful concepts such as ensemble-generated community agreements, nonlinear narrative, physical dramaturgy, integration of technology into performance, and site-responsive creation will be examined and practiced.
Throughout this course, students will function as both performers and co-creators, contributing to the development of multiple smaller works in the first semester and an original ensemble piece in the second semester. While this course will largely be concerned with the devised process from the perspective of an actor, it is open to anyone interested in both creation and performance.
Faculty
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5341
Note: Intended for first- and second-year theatre students; also open to others who have not taken many (or any) acting courses.
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 monologues and scene study. Students will work towards 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 professor.
Faculty
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5726
In this course, students will experiment with puppetry as both a creator and a performer. Students will discover how puppets, materials, and objects move, 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.
Faculty
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5651
This course will explore a variety of puppetry techniques, including Bunraku, marionette, shadow puppetry, and toy theatre. We 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. We will further our exploration with hands-on learning in various techniques of construction. The course will culminate with the creation and presentation of puppetry pieces of their own making.
Faculty
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5341
This course is designed to hone the actor’s skills and develop foundational techniques rooted in script analysis and action. While “feelings,” “meaning,” and “emotions” can be helpful in building a character, understanding the concrete elements of a script and its given circumstances allows an actor to deepen and expand their work into playful, imaginative spaces. Students will analyze contemporary scripts, interrogating a character's objectives, obstacles, and tactics. What do they want? What do they actually do? The shape of the course will be active: students will engage in physical and vocal warm-ups and improvisation to prepare them to be on their feet workshopping scenes. The goal is for the thinking actor to utilize their analytical skills to build characters grounded in the text. Students will leave the course with a shared vocabulary of tools they can draw on as they step into myriad rehearsal processes for scripted plays.
Faculty
-
Intermediate, Component—Year
THEA 5328
Prerequisite: at least one acting course
Deeply rooted in movement-based theater 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.
Faculty
-
Intermediate, Component—Year
THEA 5560
Prerequisite: at least one acting course
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. The first semester 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. During the second semester, 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, etc.).
Faculty
-
Advanced, Graduate Component—Year
THEA 7346
Prerequisite: two undergraduate acting components
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
Collaborative
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5323
Note: Required as part of Theatre Program/Third (THEA 4499), Theatre Intensive Program/Two Thirds (THEA 4498), and First-Year Studies: The Creative Spark: Creating a Foundation of Care, Joy, Rigor, and Curiosity in Your Artistic Life (THEA 1027).
Think Tank is a program-wide convening of students, occurring monthly each semester. This course will be an opportunity for our community to come together around important topics in the field. Think Tank happens in conjunction with a Theatre Meeting where we will discuss what is going on and coming up in the program and independent student theatre groups.
Faculty
Design and Media
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5588
Students will learn how to look at the world with fresh eyes and use imagination to create a theatrical world on stage. The 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 theater making, as well as visual arts or architecture, and with no experience will be able to learn from the basics.
Faculty
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5570
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.
Faculty
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5637
Note: The course requires a $20 materials fee.
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.
Faculty
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5530
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.
Faculty
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5689
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.
Faculty
-
Intermediate, Component—Year
THEA 5638
Prerequisite: Costume Design I (THEA 5637) or permission of the instructor
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 a unique learning experience, as students collaborate with a director and creative team to produce a fully-realized theatrical production.
Faculty
-
Advanced, Component—Year
THEA 5639
Prerequisite: Costume Design l (THEA 5637) and Costume Design ll (THEA 5638) or permission of the instructor
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.
Faculty
Directing
-
Intermediate, Component—Fall
THEA 5602
Prerequisite: directing a project or production this semester, or prior directing course work or experience.
The course will offer a way of thinking about a play, and of how a director’s ideas translate into dynamic and vital productions. All aspects of the director’s job, from first contact with the text, through casting, productions meetings, rehearsals, and performance, will be discussed in conference. Weekly group meetings will be a hybrid, dynamic mix of theory and the practical—how a director’s ideas are realized on stage. The course will pay particular attention to form and style, to text and context, to staging in space, and to the most vibrant expression of what your play is “about.” In addition to working on their own productions, students will participate in a series of in-class projects. This course will include weekly a group conference and—for students who will be directing readings, workshops, and productions in the theatre program and/or independent companies—individual rehearsal meetings. By arrangement, the course is also open to students with an interest in directing who do not have scheduled productions in the theatre program or for independent companies. Class will meet once a week in addition to individual meetings scheduled around rehearsals and performance.
Faculty
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5509
This component will familiarize students with the fundamentals that shape theatrical events. Readings, exercises, and in-class projects will guide students to isolate image, space, tone, story, character, rhythm, theme—the levers directors use to shape their work. The course will emphasize hands-on experience, inviting students to practice nurturing healthy, collaborative rehearsal environments. All participants will be expected to perform in each other’s projects since understanding the actor’s challenges is essential to sensitive and effective directing.
Faculty
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5609
How do directors develop their interpretation of a text, and what techniques can they use to bring that interpretation to life? What do actors need from directors? What do designers need from directors? How can directors inspire their collaborators to do their best work?
In this course, students will learn and refine directing techniques for rehearsals with actors and meetings with designers. The bulk of this course will be comprised of in-class rehearsals where students will direct scenes and receive reflections and feedback on their artistry and rehearsal technique from the instructor. Supplementary classes and assignments will help student directors work with designers and develop their craft as interpreters.
We will use Katie Mitchell’s The Director’s Craft as a guide for learning Stanislavskian play analysis techniques (given circumstances, events, intentions, etc.) and then apply those techniques to short plays by great writers that may include Caryl Churchill, Tennessee Williams, María Irene Fornés, or Alice Childress.
Faculty
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5714
This will be an immersive, hands-on course 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.
The fall will serve as a foundations of musical theatre acting and directing. The first semester 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 the second semester, 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.
Faculty
-
Advanced, Graduate Component—Year
THEA 7123
Note: Open to Advanced Undergraduates (seniors).
This advanced directing studio will offer a comprehensive, text-based training environment for directors at various stages of their craft. The course will focus on assembling a personal toolbox of directorial techniques suitable for theater across different styles and scales. Students will use classic American plays as the material for expanding and refining their directing practice. 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 individualizing actor adjustments, managing rehearsal environments, and helping actors activate text. All participants 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
Movement and Voice
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5601
Note: Audition required.
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.
Faculty
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5677
This course is designed to help actors and performers develop a strong, flexible, and expressive voice. Together, we will work toward vocal clarity to foster dynamic performance. Through a combination of physical, vocal, and text-based exercises, students will explore breath support, resonance, articulation, projection, and vocal range. Emphasis will be placed on vocal anatomy and developing healthy vocal habits, freeing tension, and cultivating an awareness of how the body and voice work in the process of verbal communication.
Faculty
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5716
Students will learn the basics of armed and unarmed stage fighting, emphasizing safety. Actors will be taught to create effective stage violence, from hair pulling and choking to sword fighting, with minimum risk. Basic techniques will be incorporated into short scenes to provide students with experience performing fights in both classic and modern contexts. Each semester will culminate in a skills-proficiency showcase, which allows students to perform their scenes for an audience.
Faculty
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5720
As a continuation of Introduction to Stage Combat (THEA 5716), this topics course will deal with more complex weapon styles. The “double-fence,” or two-handed forms (rapier and dagger, sword and 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.
Faculty
Pedagogy
-
Advanced, Graduate Component—Year
THEA 7143
Note: Open to Advanced undergraduates (seniors).
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 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 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
Playwriting
-
Open, Component—Fall
THEA 5658
This course will offer additional support and mentorship to the playwrights who are participating in the theatre department's "First Look Reading Series, New Works" and in independent companies. Students with an interest in presenting their plays outside of the course, such as in other classes or venues are welcome to join this course with a focus on revision and application for future semesters. The course will be a combination of weekly full-group meetings and individual one-on-one conferences with the instructor, focusing on their process as a playwright in production. The instructor will observe rehearsals for individual playwrights. which will serve as the basis for individual meetings.
As a group, we will read and discuss selected plays, focusing on revision and refinement towards a final production draft. Students will identify goals for themselves for both writing and in their collaborations. We will delve into the nitty-gritty of the production process, covering topics such as the playwright-director relationship, how to articulate your vision to the creative team, and how to let go and leave space for others' ideas in the process. Each playwright will also have a chance to unpack their project with the group within a post-mortem structure, identifying areas of growth and success, as well as next steps for their plays. This course will be a combination of practice, theory, and critical reflection with a strong focus on tracking of individual process.
Faculty
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5783
Prerequisite: at least one prior playwriting course
If you are a playwright searching for a safe place to create and/or engage trans and non-binary work, perhaps inventing your own along the way, then this is a course for you. We will look to myriad texts—from Alok’s Instagram posts, to C. Julian Jimenez’s plays, to She-Ra, to Joseph Campbell (critically), to K. Woodzick’s Non-Binary Monologues Project, to Disclosure, to Vivek Shraya, to much, much more—in order to synthesize what already informs some trans and non-binary work with our own creative desires. As long as you feel invested in trans and non-binary work and a classroom of respect, you are welcome here. Before I came out as non-binary, survey classes about trans and non-binary work showed me the breadth of the umbrella. I hope to do the same here.
Faculty
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5616
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.
Faculty
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5614
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.
Faculty
-
Intermediate, Component—Year
THEA 5625
Prerequisite: a partial or complete draft of a play to work on in the course
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.
Faculty
-
Advanced, Graduate Component—Year
THEA 7114
Note: Open to Advanced Undergraduates (juniors and seniors).
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
Production
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5640
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 non-profit 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 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.
Faculty
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5646
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 between 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, production management 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 a SLC Theatre production.
Faculty
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5745
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. A good stage manager is flexible and exhibits 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.
Faculty
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5605
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 assistants in the theatre department.
Faculty
-
Sophomore and Above, Component—Year
THEA 5670
This course is an intensive, hands-on conference in theatrical production, where student producers will 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
Theatre and Civic Engagement
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5593
Note: Also offered as EDUC 7593.
Theatre enables students to embrace their own creative impulses and work collaboratively–building empathy, confidence, communication, and analytical skills. This course will be an exploration of the fundamentals of theatre education. Undergraduate theatre students and graduate education students will work collaboratively to develop strategies for facilitating creative work with young people and structuring curriculum in order to become effective teaching artists. The coursework will investigate child development, classroom management, leadership strategies, inclusive learning practices, and pedagogical theories and practice related to theatre education. We will identify methods of integrating artistic practice into traditional classroom culture and explore strategies for approaching traditional academic subjects using theatre as a learning tool. As an essential element of the course, students will design curriculum and lead weekly theatre workshops during the Lunchbox Theatre outreach program serving local youth. Providing a unique bridge between theory and practice, the Lunchbox laboratory will allow teaching artists to gain field experience in facilitation, curriculum development, and ensemble-building across age groups and contexts. Through reflection and analysis with their peers, education students will have the opportunity to refine their teaching practice in real-time and expand their classroom toolkit; theatre students can use their own artistic practice as a grounding for their work in the classroom, translating that practice into activities that allow participants to delve deeper into the artform.
Faculty
Theory, History, Survey
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5704
This course will examine events in recent history through the lens of theatre and movies made from plays. Students will read and discuss a dynamic collection of plays and screen movies and documentaries that bring awareness to a broad range of social issues. The course will look at plays and films such as the musicals Hair and Rent, August Wilson’s Fences, Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart, Spike Lee’s film of Antoinette Nwandu’s play Pass Over, and Julie Taymor’s contemporary take on Shakespeare and war, Titus, among others. Theatre has always affected great social change. The course will look at the transition between theatre and film and how both mediums influence our personal perspective, and the cultural and sociopolitical landscapes. Students will choose plays and films of their own to report on and create projects that fuse elements of theatre and film.
Faculty
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5734
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 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. Classroom discussion will focus on a new play each week, with occasional written projects that explore these ideas more closely.
Faculty
-
Open, Component—Year
THEA 5758
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, we will focus mostly on the “integrated musical”—shows that tell a story with the songs woven seamlessly into the plot, such as Show Boat, Oklahoma!, Carousel, Flower Drum Song, My Fair Lady, The Music Man, and Fiddler on the Roof. In spring, we 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. These will include Cabaret, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, and Pacific Overtures. We will end the course by looking at three great Broadway operas: Porgy and Bess, Sweeney Todd, and West Side Story. In each semester, the student will become the teacher for a day: Students will chose any musical they like and give a presentation similar to the ones given by the instructor.
Faculty
-
Advanced, Graduate Component—Year
THEA 7112
Note: Open to Advanced Undergraduates (juniors and seniors).
This studio course will turn to theories and practices of erotic and antagonistic collaboration as a way to expand and sharpen students’ approach to performance making. Students will engage with the work of performance artists (e.g. Linda Montano, Tehching Hsieh, Adrian Piper, Julie Tolentino, Wu Tsang, and Autumn Knight) and theorists (e.g. Sigmund Freud, Audre Lorde, Lauren Berlant, Lee Edelman, and Fred Moten) to investigate the political dynamism of collaborative artmaking while also creating performances across a sequence of four units that will increase in scale over the course of the year: “duo,” “collective,” “group,” and “party.” Students will read critical texts in preparation for most course sessions; all assignments will be creative and consist in making and showing interdisciplinary performances.
Faculty
-
Advanced, Graduate Component—Year
THEA 7615
Note: Open to Advanced undergraduates (seniors).
This course will introduce students to the theory, history, and applications of dramaturgy, an approach to analyzing and working within collaborative, performance-, script- and time-based artistic practices across media. As a field, dramaturgy is analytical and practical, critical, collaborative, and creative. The dramaturg is often the only member of a creative team valued principally for their ability to feed back into the process of making rather than by what they have made themselves; they are expected to adapt from project to project and to embed themselves within any given process. At the same time, vestiges of the discipline’s origins in the Enlightenment persist in the expectation that the dramaturg maintains “objectivity”: they are responsible for fact-checking and verifying an artwork’s claims, correcting its contradictions, and elevating it to some standard of quality that often concatenates moral, aesthetic, and institutional values.
This course will aim to teach the pragmatic applications of dramaturgy alongside its internal tensions and potential problematics, as well as the philosophical underpinnings of the field and its applications in theater, dance, performance art, installation, and screen-based performance. Across the four parts of the course, Dramaturg as Interpreter/Respondent, Dramaturg as Researcher, Dramaturg as Critic, and Dramaturg as Collaborative Artist, students will be asked to both debate works of art and criticism in seminar-based discussions, as well as generate and respond to each other’s work in collaborative exercises. Issues of taste and objectivity, process versus product, the relationship of aesthetic, moral, and political values, liveness and mediation, and the role of the critic, as well as artistic research and autotheory as dramaturgical approaches, will be explored in readings/viewings that place artists' works and statements in conversation with dramaturgical responses from contemporary critics and collaborators. Rather than attempt to pin down a fluid discipline, the course will aim to provide tools for students to define, according to their experiences and artistic values, their philosophy and practice of dramaturgy.
Faculty