TAPS 1:
Introduction to Theater and Performance Studies
What brings together a contemporary company such as Google and an experimental theater such as The Wooster Group? What sets them apart? Approaching theater as presentational form of organization, this class shifts study of theater from the context of literature to that of performance. It offers an overview of performance across disciplines: from theater and other performing arts, to law, management, sports, and new technologies. In this interdisciplinary exploration, performance emerges as a model that cuts across diverse branches of contemporary culture, from sports events, to social dances, to political protests, to the organization of a workplace. It is designed to serve students who may go on to major or minor in Theater and Performance Studies including the Dance division and also students for whom this knowledge is a general contribution to their liberal arts education or to their own field of study. It integrates scholarly research and practical use of performance. No previous performing arts training or skills are required.
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
TAPS 11N:
Dramatic Tensions: Theater and the Marketplace
Preference to freshmen. The current state of the American theater and its artists. Conventional wisdom says that theater is a dying art, and a lost cause, especially in an age of multi-media entertainment. But there are more young playwrights, actors, and directors entering the field today than at any other time in American history. Focus is on the work of today's theater artists, with an emphasis on an emerging generation of playwrights. Students read a cross-section of plays from writers currently working in the US and UK, covering a spectrum of subjects and styles from serious to comic, from the musical to the straight play. Hits and misses from recent seasons of the New York and London stages and some of the differences of artistic taste across the Atlantic. Hands-on exploration of the arts and skills necessary to make a play succeed. Students develop their own areas of interest, in guided projects in design, direction or performance. Conversations with playwrights, designers ,and directors. Labs and master classes to solve problems posed in areas of creative production. Class meets literary managers and producers who are on the frontlines of underwriting new talent. Class trips include two plays at major Bay Area Stages.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
TAPS 11SC:
Learning Theater: From Audience to Critic at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Who doesn't love going to a play: sitting in the darkened theater, an anonymous member of the audience waiting to be entertained, charmed, and challenged? But how many of us know enough about the details of the plays, their interpretation, their production, and acting itself, to allow us to appreciate fully the theatrical experience? In this seminar, we will spend 13 days in Ashland, Oregon, at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF), where we will attend these plays: Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, Pericles, and Antony and Cleopatra; the U.S. premiere of Stan Lai's Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land; Frank Loesser's Guys and Dolls; the world premiere of Lynn Nottage's ,Sweat; Quiara Alegría Hudes' The Happiest Song Plays Last; Charles Fechter's adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo; Eugene O'Neill's Long Days Journey into Night; and the world premiere of Jeff Whitty's Head Over Heels. (To read more about these productions, go to www.osfashland.org). We will also spend time backstage, meeting with actors, designers, and artistic and administrative directors of OSF. Students will read the plays before the seminar begins. In Ashland, they will produce staged readings and design a final paper based on one of the productions. These reviews will be delivered to the group and turned in on Thursday, September 17. Note: This seminar will convene in Ashland on Monday, August 31, and will adjourn to Stanford on Sunday, September 13. Students must arrive in Ashland by 4:00 p.m. on August 31. Room and board in Ashland and transportation to Stanford will be provided and paid for by the program. Sophomore College Course: Application required, due noon, April 7, 2015. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu
Terms: Sum
| Units: 2
TAPS 12N:
To Die For: Antigone and Political Dissent (CLASSGEN 6N)
Preference to freshmen. Tensions inherent in the democracy of ancient Athens; how the character of Antigone emerges in later drama, film, and political thought as a figure of resistance against illegitimate authority; and her relevance to contemporary struggles for women's and workers' rights and national liberation. Readings and screenings include versions of Antigone by Sophocles, Anouilh, Brecht, Fugard/Kani/Ntshona, Paulin, Glowacki, Gurney, and von Trotta.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-EDP, WAY-ER
TAPS 13N:
Law and Drama
Preference to Freshmen.Beyond the obvious traits that make a good (court room) drama, theater and jurisprudence have much more in common. Just as drama is engaged not only in entertainment but also in examination of social conventions and mechanisms, so law is not only concerned with dispensing justice but with shaping and maintaining a viable human community. In this class we will read and discuss a series of plays in which court proceedings are at the center of dramatic action and concluding with an investigation of the new genre of documentary drama.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
TAPS 14SC:
Law and Drama
Theater and courtroom are, arguably, two among very few institutions within western culture which privilege live adversarial process as their principal expressive and truth-finding technique. Even though at the beginning of the 21st century new media technologies became an integral part of court proceedings and theater performances, both theater and law stake their legitimacy on live proceedings with uncertain outcomes. In this class, we will pay special attention to transformative instances of exchange between these two ancient civil institutions. In other words, we will be asking not only what aspects of legal procedure can theater dramatize, but also at which points the court can (and does) come to resemble theater. n We will investigate the intricate relationship between law and drama by analyzing a wide range of dramatic works (from Aeschylus¿s Oresteia to current theater productions that use legal transcripts as their source texts) and accounts of real-life cases. We will consider how law is presented through film and popular entertainment depictions of the legal system, take field trips to local courtrooms to compare dramatized to real-life trials, observe simulcasts from international war crimes tribunals, and try to analyze forum theater techniques though their enactment in the class.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 2
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 20:
Acting for Non-Majors (TAPS 124D)
Creative play, ensemble work in a supportive environment. Designed for the student to experience a range of new creative skills, from group improvisation to partner work. Introductory work on freeing the natural voice and physical relaxation. Emphasis on rediscovering imaginative and creative impulses. Movement improvisation, listening exercises, and theater games release the energy, playfulness and willingness to take risks that is the essence of free and powerful performance. Course culminates with work on dramatic text.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-3
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE, way_ce
TAPS 20A:
Acting for Non-Majors
A class designed for all interested students. Creative play, ensemble work in a supportive environment. Designed for the student to experience a range of new creative skills, from group improvisation to partner work. Introductory work on freeing the natural voice and physical relaxation. Emphasis on rediscovering imaginative and creative impulses. Movement improvisation, listening exercises, and theater games release the energy, playfulness and willingness to take risks that is the essence of free and powerful performance. Course culminates with work on dramatic text.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 2
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 21:
StoryCraft
Workshop on Performance in Storytelling. Meets on these dates:nThursdays, April 24, May 1 and May 8 - 6:30-9:00pm in RobleGym room 33.nThursday, May 15 from 6-10:30pm in The Nitery for a final performance.
Terms: Win, Spr
| Units: 1
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 22:
Scene Work
For actors who complete substantial scene work with graduate directors in the graduate workshop.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 1-2
| Repeatable
for credit
TAPS 23:
Game Design: Making Play (TAPS 223)
Do you want to make games? This is a project-oriented workshop course that will teach you how to apply design thinking to create new kinds of play. We'll teach you about mechanics, playtesting, drama, narrative, and more. You'll work in teams to produce a new play form in whatever medium and style you like. We want zippy mobile games. We want intensely serious board games. We want socially conscious interactive theater games. We want kinds of fun we've never even imagined.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 25Q:
Science-in-Theatre: A New Genre? (CHEM 25Q)
Preference to sophomores. Contrasts through selected "science-in-theatre" plays what Theatre can do for science compared to what Science occasionally does for the theatre as well as emphasizing in that regard some unique features of the theatre compared to films. Illustrates why more intellectually challenging "science-in-theatre" plays have appeared in recent times where scientific behavior and scientists are presented accurately rather than just as Frankensteins, Strangeloves or nerds. Students engage in a playwriting experiment.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
TAPS 28:
Makeup for the Stage
Techniques of make-up application and design for the actor and artist including corrective, age, character, and fantasy. Emphasis placed on utilizing make-up for development of character by the actor. Limited enrollment.
Terms: Win
| Units: 2
TAPS 29:
Theater Performance: Acting
Students cast in department productions receive credit for their participation as actors; 1-2 units for graduate directing workshop projects and 1-3 units for major productions (units determined by instructor). May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 1-3
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Amarotico, K. (PI);
Apostolides, J. (PI);
Carlson, A. (PI);
Drinovan, I. (PI);
Elam, H. (PI);
Fairfield, J. (PI);
Farr Schiller, A. (PI);
Hayes, A. (PI);
Hill, L. (PI);
Jones, D. (PI);
Kramer, T. (PI);
Melrose, R. (PI);
Moore, M. (PI);
Moses, R. (PI);
Paris, H. (PI);
Phelan, P. (PI);
Ramsaur, M. (PI);
Rehm, R. (PI);
Sack, D. (PI);
Settle, J. (PI);
Witherspoon, N. (PI);
Wooden, I. (PI)
TAPS 30:
How Theater is Designed
Team-taught. An introduction to theatrical set, costume and lighting design. Emphasis on balancing practical skill with conceptual ideas for live stage performance. Hands-on projects.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 31:
Introduction to Lighting and Production
How light contributes to the creation of mood and atmosphere and different kinds of visibility in theatrical storytelling. The use of controllable qualities of light including color, brightness, angle, and movemen in the theatrical process of creative scenography. Hands-on laboratory time.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
TAPS 32:
The 5th Element: Hip Hop Knowledge, Pedagogy, and Social Justice (AFRICAAM 32, AMSTUD 32, CSRE 32A, EDUC 32X, EDUC 432X)
This course-series brings together leading scholars with critically-acclaimed artists, local teachers, youth, and community organizations to consider the complex relationships between culture, knowledge, pedagogy and social justice. Participants will examine the cultural meaning of knowledge as "the 5th element" of Hip Hop Culture (in addition to MCing, DJing, graffiti, and dance) and how educators and cultural workers have leveraged this knowledge for social justice. Overall, participants will gain a strong theoretical knowledge of culturally relevant and culturally sustaining pedagogies and learn to apply this knowledge by engaging with guest artists, teachers, youth, and community youth arts organizations.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 1-5
TAPS 32F:
History of Costume and Fashion
The evolution of fashion and costume with an emphasis on the relationship between social, cultural, and political events and clothing style. Attention to major designers and creators and their shaping of resultant fashion and artistry in clothing.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
TAPS 34:
Stage Management Techniques (TAPS 334)
The production process, duties, and responsibilities of a stage manager. Skills needed to stage manage a production.
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 3
TAPS 39:
Theatre Crew
Under faculty guidance, working backstage on Drama Department productions. Open to any student interested in gaining back stage experience. Night and weekend time required.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-3
| Repeatable
4 times
(up to 15 units total)
TAPS 39D:
Theater Performance: Prosser Stage Management
For students stage mananging a Department of Drama Senior Project or Assistant Staage managing a Department Drama production
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 2-4
| Repeatable
for credit
TAPS 41N:
Inventing Modern Theatre: Georg Büchner and Frank Wedekind (GERMAN 41N)
The German writers Georg Büchner (1813-1837) and Frank Wedekind (1864-1918). Many of the most important theater and film directors of the last century, including Max Reinhardt, G. W. Pabst, Orson Welles, Robert Wilson, and Werner Herzog, have wrestled with their works, as have composers and writers from Alban Berg and Bertolt Brecht through Christa Wolf and Thalia Field. Rock artists as diverse as Tom Waits, Lou Reed, Duncan Sheik, and Metallica have recently rediscovered their urgency. Reading these works in translation and examining artistic creations they inspired. Classroom discussions and written responses; students also rehearse and present in-class performances of excerpts from the plays. The aim of these performances is not to produce polished stagings but to creatively engage with the texts and their interpretive traditions. No previous theatrical experience required.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
TAPS 6P:
Art is My Occupation: Professional Development for Creatives (ARTSINST 5, ARTSTUDI 6P, MUSIC 6P)
This course is designed to empower arts students to explore their personal and artistic identity, asking: How do I define success and fulfillment? What role will my art play in my professional and personal life? How can I shape the educational experience and career that will serve my long-term goals?nnStudents will also be exposed to various methods and skills from other fields that will be helpful tools in an arts-related career, or any other profession, ranging from branding and promotion, design thinking, and mission-vision strategy. Students will also prepare resumes and an artist biography or cover letter, and create other materials that will assist in the process of job or graduate school applications.
| Units: 1
| Repeatable
4 times
(up to 4 units total)
TAPS 103:
Beginning Improvising
The improvisational theater techniques that teach spontaneity, cooperation, team building, and rapid problem solving, emphasizing common sense, attention to reality, and helping your partner. Based on TheatreSports by Keith Johnstone. Readings, papers, and attendance at performances of improvisational theater. Limited enrollment. Improv, Improvisation, creativity and creative expression.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 10AX:
Acting Intensive: Theatre and Beyond, Into the World of Film
Introduction to the craft of acting for film and reinforcement of basic concepts for the experienced student. Skill-building in the areas of acting, movement, voice, and speech, utilizing material from the film and theater. In-depth work on technique, utilization of action, specificity of language, personalization, emotional truth, character, and given circumstance. Blocking of scenes live performance and video recording of performances. Final performance of the two scenes in a showcase afternoon.
| Units: 2
TAPS 10N:
Arts and Ideas: 20th Century Art in Conflict
The second quarter of Art & Ideas builds on the examples of Modernism students in Arts and Ideas studied in the first quarter. The Frosh Seminar ¿20th-Century Art in Conflict¿ will focus on drama and film that experiments with new possibilities of form, shaping the direction of later artistic practice. We will trace how the political and aesthetic concerns of the 20th century reflect and exploit new technologies, both in theater and film, altering the position and function of author, actor, director, and audience.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-3
TAPS 112:
Creative Expression: Musical Theater (MUSIC 112)
Students begin to create pieces that are fresh and innovative forms of musical theater that do not necessarily appeal to specifically popular audiences but perhaps to audiences more associated with high art, opera, or even contemporary independent music. Musical theater is an untapped resource of potential artistic innovation and has unfortunately become stuck in an ideal of universal accessibility. In present popular culture and the culture of contemporary art forms, musical theater almost exclusively refers to popular productions such as Phantom of the Opera, Rent, Wicked, Jesus Christ Superstar. Although excellent pieces of art in their own way, both dramaturgically and in their ability to evoke emotion through catchy melodies, for the most part each of them have their basis in popular and traditional musical idioms and theatrical forms, seldom exploring more advanced or avant-garde and experimental compositional and theatrical techniques.
Terms: Aut, Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 113:
Creative Expression: Directing the Musical
This course would teach conductors, composers, sound engineers and directors what to consider when directing the music for a musical theater production. Students would learn to efficiently schedule and conduct rehearsals, create legible scores and parts, make a checklist for all the required nuances ie: Music stands, stand lights, stools etc. Additionally, it is evident that musicians, theater artists, dancers, lighting designers, costume designers and scenic designers all have very different cultures in the way they operate: punctuality, preparation, warm ups, expectations etc. In order to have a smooth and successful working relationship with all of these important members of a theatrical production, a musical director must understand these cultures and how to communicate with them using a language they all understand.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 11AX:
Set Design
How ideas in fine art, architecture, and installation inform the practice of theatre set design. Traditional techniques of stage scenery design, basic drafting and model making guide the process of designing a set for an opera or play in this hands-on workshop.
| Units: 2
TAPS 120A:
Acting I: Scene Study
A substantive introduction to the basics of the craft of acting, this course gives all incoming students the foundation of a common vocabulary. Students will learn fundamental elements of dramatic analysis, and how to apply it in action. Topics include scene analysis, environment work, psychological and physical scoring, and development of a sound and serviceable rehearsal technique. Scene work will be chosen from accessible, contemporary, and realistic plays. Outside rehearsal time required.
Terms: Aut, Win
| Units: 1-3
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 120B:
Acting II: Advanced Scene Study
Learn how to expand character work, beyond what is immediately familiar. Continuing basic practices from the first part of the sequence, in this quarter they will look beyond the strictly contemporary, and may begin to approach roles drawn from more challenging dramatic texts. This might include plays chosen from mid-century American classics, World Theater, or other works with specific historic or cultural requirements. Actors begin to learn how a performing artist researches and how that research can be used to enrich and deepen performance. Prerequisite: 120A or consent of instructor.
Terms: Win
| Units: 1-3
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 120V:
Vocal Production and Audition (TAPS 210V)
An introductory study of the vocal mechanism and the development of voice and articulation for the stage. Students will be introduced to the actor's tools of phonetics, verbal action and text analysis. Vocal technique will then be applied to the actor's process in preparation for audition. Actors will fully participate in the audition process, from beginning to end. Emphasis will be on relaxation, selection of appropriate material, and versatility to show contrast and range.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 1-3
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 6 units total)
TAPS 121C:
Physical Characterization
Workshop incorporating styles of movement and characterization for the stage. Tools to aid in theatrical transformation. Triggers include psychological gesture, shifting centers, full face photographs, collected live studies, vocal shifts, and rhythmic and metabolic changes.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 121P:
Period and Style:Acting
This course is designed for the actor and theater-lover who has completed 120a or an equivalent basic acting class. Students will develop their acting skills towards the ability to perform in some of the major classics of the theater, from Shakespeare's plays through the fast-paced physical comedies of twentieth-century farce. Acting in "big" plays without damaging the voice, working physically with safety, how to research like an artist, and rehearse like a professional are all topics that will be covered. Class culminates in an open Scene Showing of Period Plays.
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 3
TAPS 121S:
Shakespeare Performance Intensive
This course explores the unique demands of playing Shakespeare on the stage. Through deep exploration of language and performance techniques in sonnets, speeches and scenes in (an edited) full-length play, the student will learn how to bring Shakespeare's passions to life through research, analysis, and a dynamic use of voice, body and imagination.nnnThis course is designed to increase the actor's physical, vocal, emotional, and intellectual responsiveness to the demands, challenges and joys of playing Shakespeare.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 8 units total)
TAPS 122P:
Undergrad Performance Project: Attempts on Her Life by Martin Crimp
The Undergraduate Performance Project provides students the opportunity to study and perform in major dramatic works. The Fall 2013 Undergraduate Acting Project presents the edgy, satirical play: `Attempts on Her Life¿ by the acclaimed contemporary British playwright Martin Crimp. Students learn to form an artistic ensemble, develop dramaturgical materials, learn professional arts protocols and practice, devise within the ensemble, and develop live performance ability. Audition required. Preference to majors/minors. Maybe repeated for credit.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 2-9
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 15 units total)
TAPS 123:
Speaking with Distinction
Find your voice, focus your presence, stand your ground, and deliver your message with authority, clarity, and grace. nSPEAKING WITH DISTINCTION is a course is designed for anyone who has a need to speak to one person or a hundred people and make the message clear.nnEssential for presentations of all kinds ¿ whether in the classroom, workplace, or marketplacen¿ present key concepts and ideas with power and enthusiasmn¿ Speak to large audiencesn¿ One-on-one presentationsn¿ Speak to motivate, collaborate, inspirennLearn to think on your feet so that you are not dependent on notes, slides or luck.nIncrease your presence and build your public speaking skills in a fun and supportive environment
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 6 units total)
TAPS 124D:
Acting for Non-Majors (TAPS 20)
Creative play, ensemble work in a supportive environment. Designed for the student to experience a range of new creative skills, from group improvisation to partner work. Introductory work on freeing the natural voice and physical relaxation. Emphasis on rediscovering imaginative and creative impulses. Movement improvisation, listening exercises, and theater games release the energy, playfulness and willingness to take risks that is the essence of free and powerful performance. Course culminates with work on dramatic text.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-3
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE, way_ce
TAPS 126:
Your American Life
This is a small seminar designed for students interested in creating scored stories for radio/podcast or live performance - spoken, sonic stories. We will examine the main features and craft of these kinds of stories, popularized by radio programs like This American Life and live shows like The Moth and you will then write and produce your own piece, be it memoir, documentary, inquiry, or some combination of these genres. Students will have the opportunity to meet at work with some of the best storytellers in America - this term, you will get to meet and work with Julie Snyder, senior producer of This American Life.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 127:
Dynamics of Conflict: Contact and Combat in Performance
How do experiments in movement help artists mine a play for its meanings? How does physical staging illuminate for the audience truths about characters, relationships and the arc of a scene? What can actors learn about themselves and their ensemble through physical improvisation and composition? This course is for students interested in movement and dynamic storytelling; no prior training is required. We will explore the fundamentals of contact improvisation and stage combat as a means of strengthening mind-body connection and preparing the actor for more nuanced, compelling, emotionally-rooted work on the stage. Our training consists of four main components: physical conditioning, practical technique, movement improvisation and the creation of several short performance pieces.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 8 units total)
TAPS 127X:
Advanced Movement for Actors: Conditioning, Improvisation and Composition
The physical actor is ever working to develop a wider range of emotional expression, an unconscious attentiveness to fellow actors, and a compelling presence that conveys a sense of truth in action and in word. Students explore movement as a means of physical training and performance-building. For those interested in dynamic storytelling; no prior acting or physical training is required. Four main components: physical conditioning, practical technique, movement improvisation, and the creation of several short performance pieces. The fundamentals of contact improvisation for theater, which offers actors another way to explore text and make discoveries about character. Exercises in movement composition sharpen tools necessary for creating original work and crafting strong performances on stage.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 128:
Acting for Film and Video
Acting techniques for working on film and with video.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 129:
Advanced Acting
Advanced study and practice of acting.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
TAPS 12AX:
Sketch Comedy and Improvisation
Explore improvisation and sketch comedy in an intensive ensemble and create an original show. Pure improvisational theater techniques. Concepts covered include spontaneity, shared control, creative collaboration, narrative, and status. Students apply those skills to writing and staging scripted monologues, two-handers, and ensemble sketches. Students create an original show with the entire class.
| Units: 2
TAPS 12SC:
Playwriting Lab: The Art of Dramatic Writing
Workshop. Each student develops an original script which is presented in theater by the other students. How to develop, expand, and condition the creative mind. Toipcs including dramatic action, text and subtext, characterization, language, and style. Students function as a theatrical collective where each has the opportunity to participate in reading and serving the vision of each student-author.
| Units: 2
TAPS 130:
ReDesigning Theater: Live & Digital Performance (ME 288)
This quarter¿s version of ReDesigning Theater looks at Live and Digital Performance. We will examine the use of digital technology in collaboration with live performance. Students will learn and employ the design thinking process as well as improv and theatrical techniques. We aim to create user-centric, interactive experiences where technology enables the audience to become part of and/or influence the outcome of the story or its presentation. Student projects will begin with the concepts enabled by personal technology such as smart phones and expand to animation, video projection, and other media. Students will work in small groups to investigate and experiment with formats that blur the lines between live and digital, performer and audience, and physical and virtual platforms. This project-based course is accessible to students of all backgrounds interested in exploring and transforming the frontiers of technology, art, and live performance.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 132:
Costume Design
Process of designing costumes for the stage, covering script analysis, rendering techniques, character development and conceptual ideas. Project related work with smaller, pertinent exercises.Prerequisite: 30 or consent of instructor.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 133:
Stage Scenery Design
Craft and Theory of stage scenery design including visual research, spatial organization, basic drafting, sketching and model-building. Prerequisite: 30, or consent of instructor.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 8 units total)
TAPS 134:
Stage Management Project
For students stage managing a Department of Drama production.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 3-5
| Repeatable
for credit
TAPS 136:
Virtual Drafting for Designers
A new course looking at virtual drafting methods and opportunities
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
TAPS 13AX:
Musical Theater
Have you ever seen a great musical and wondered, "How do the actors do it?" In this workshop we will explore the mechanics of acting in musicals as we practice solos and scene work from contemporary and classic musicals.nnMaterial will range from the "golden age¿ of musicals of the 1930¿s to new releases. Possible choices are: Gypsy, Company, My Fair Lady, Sweeney Todd, Oklahoma!, Guys and Dolls, Cabaret, West Side Story, A Chorus Line, Ragtime, Urinetown, Dreamgirls, Hair, Avenue Q, South Pacific, Damn Yankees, Anything Goes, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Caroline, or Change, Ain¿t Misbehavin¿, Next to Normal, Hairspray, and others. Students are encouraged to suggest their own material in their application for the program.nnThe class will be accessible to both beginners and experienced actors/singers and will include in-depth work on vocal technique, utilization of action, specificity of language, personalization, emotional truth, character, and given circumstance. Students will develop an awareness of the demands of the performance experience in a safe and supportive environment. They will be encouraged to work to expand their range and will study and perform a solo and a scene from a musical. These assignments will require a minimum of 2 two-hour sessions with a scene partner during a scene rehearsal week. Commitment and responsibility to scene partners is a crucial component to successful work in the theater. In addition to required readings, students will be expected to conduct some research on the world of the playwright, librettist, and composer. We will end our workshop with a final performance of the work in a showcase for an invited audience. nnAll levels welcome!
| Units: 2
TAPS 13SC:
Journeying In and Out: Creative Writing and Performance in Prison
The United States imprisons more people than any other nation. Including those on probation or parole, over seven million adults are currently under correctional supervision in the U.S. - that's 1 in every 50 Americans. The United States also incarcerates more youth than all other countries. Each year approximately 500,000 young people are brought to detention centers, and an estimated 250,000 young people are tried, sentenced, or incarcerated as adults, the majority for non-violent offenses. On any given night in America, 87,000 children are housed in juvenile residential placements, and 10,000 children are held in adult jails and prisons. Despite the magnitude of these numbers, prisons and juvenile detention centers are uniquely closed and sequestered institutions. nThis class works collaboratively with a local juvenile hall to use literature, writing, and performance to explore the lives of incarcerated youth. In the process, students gain an understanding of incarceration on an immediate and personal scale. Stanford students will work directly with students serving sentences at Hillcrest Juvenile Hall, using collaborative writing and performance projects to share their individual experiences and voices. Stanford students will also engage in writing exercises and discussion groups on campus in order to explore their own relationship to freedom and punishment, choices, changes, and mercy. Class readings, screenings, and discussions will foreground the legal, social, and historical contexts surrounding incarceration as well as the social and behavioral changes made possible through arts programming in prisons. In addition to sustained collaborations with incarcerated youth, the class includes workshops with formerly incarcerated artists, authors, and advocates as well as visits to historic and active prison facilities. Taught jointly by a fiction writer and a dance studies historian, and using the template of the hero¿s journey as our guide, we will consider how writing and performance might mediate understandings of crime, punishment, and rehabilitation.
| Units: 2
TAPS 140:
Projects in Theatrical Production
A seminar course for students performing significant production work on Drama Department or other Stanford University student theatre projects. Students serving as producers, directors, designers or stage managers, who wish mentorship and credit for their production work sign up for this course and contact the instructor, Linda AppersonnPrerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 1-4
| Repeatable
for credit
TAPS 144:
Puppetry with a Twist (TAPS 344)
Creative course is an introduction to puppetry with a survey of important styles and techniques from around the world including Twist's own. Hands on and individualized experience with the aim of each student creating or contributing to a puppet or object/figure performance. Course is as broad as the individual's creative expression. Concludes with a class showing/performance of the student's work.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 151T:
Great Books: Dramatic Traditions (TAPS 351)
The most influential and enduring texts in the dramatic canon from Sophocles to Shakepeare, Chekhov to Soyinka. Their historical and geopolitical contexts. Questions about the power dynamics involved in the formation of canons.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
TAPS 156:
Performing History: Race, Politics, and Staging the Plays of August Wilson (AFRICAAM 156, TAPS 356)
This course purposefully and explicitly mixes theory and practice. Students will read and discuss the plays of August Wilson, the most celebrated and most produced contemporary American playwright, that comprise his 20th Century History Cycle. Class stages scenes from each of these plays, culminating in a final showcase of longer scenes from his work as a final project.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE, WAY-EDP
TAPS 157:
World Drama and Performance (TAPS 357)
This course takes up a geographically expansive conversation by looking at modern and contemporary drama from nations including Ghana, Egypt, India, Argentina, among others. Considering influential texts from the Global South will also enable us to explore a range of themes and methodologies that are radically re-shaping the field of Performance Studies. We will examine the relationship between colonialism and globalization, empire and capital, cosmopolitanism and neoliberalism. Re-situating our perspective from the Global South and the non-western world, we will 'provincialize Europe' and probe the limits of its universalizing discourses.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
TAPS 158L:
The Ethics of Storytelling: The Autobiographical Monologue in Theory, in Practice, and in the World (ETHICSOC 201R, TAPS 358L)
Recently a theatrical monologuist gained notoriety when it was revealed that key aspects of one of his "autobiographical" stories had been fabricated. In this class another autobiographical monologuist -- who has himself lied many times in his theater pieces, without ever getting caught -- will examine the ethics of telling our life stories onstage. Does theatrical "truth" trump factual truth? We will interrogate several autobiographical works, and then -- through autobiographical pieces created in class -- we will interrogate ourselves.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 159:
Introduction to Game Studies
Games are not new; they are older than civilization. But in the past 50 years or so, we have seen an explosion of creativity in the development of new games, many of which, especially video games, complicate older understandings of what games are. This explosion of creativity has been matched by the increasing visibility and ubiquity of new games and ways of seeing games: as video games, televised professional sports, and even distributed urban events.n nGames are not a simple object of study. There are many ways to understand them: as social practices, as formal systems, as representative artwork, as modes of learning, and many more. We will start by considering games as a mode of performance, considering games in relation to theater and other forms of aesthetic performance. However, we will take a deeply interdisciplinary approach to the study of games, and will draw on perspectives from design, philosophy, education, and the emerging discipline of video game studies. We will also, of course, draw on a variety of games, both online and offline. As we bring in these perspectives, we will begin to consider games in at least two other fundamental ways: as designed experiences and as composed systems or artworks.nnThis course is less an attempt to provide a survey of the entire field of games. It is more an attempt to provide a basic toolbox for critically examining and analyzing games. These tools are potentially useful for anyone who interacts with games: whether as a consumer of entertainment, a critical analyst of play, a user of serious games, or a game designer.
Terms: Aut, Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
TAPS 160:
Rethinking the Ballerina (DANCE 160, TAPS 260)
The ballerina occupies a unique place in popular imagination as an object of over-determined femininity as well as an emblem of extreme physical accomplishment for the female dancer. This seminar is designed as an investigation into histories of the ballerina as an iconographic symbol and cultural reference point for challenges to political and gender ideals. Through readings, videos, discussions and viewings of live performances this class investigates pivotal works, artists and eras in the global histories of ballet from its origins as a symbol of patronage and power in the 15th century through to its radical experiments as a site of cultural obedience and disobedience in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
TAPS 160N:
Chican@/Latin@ Performance in the U.S. (CHILATST 160N)
This course will introduce works by U.S. Latino and Latina performance artists producing from the margins of the mainstream Euro-American theater world. We will examine how performance art serves as a kind of dramatized political forum for Latino/a artists, producing some of the most transgressive explorations of queer and national/ethnic identities in the U.S. today. By the course's conclusion, each student will create and perform in a staged reading of an original performance piece.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
TAPS 161H:
Dance, History and Conflict (DANCE 161H)
This seminar investigates how moving bodies are compelling agents of social, cultural, and political change.Through readings, videos, discussions and viewings of live performances this class questions the impact of social conflict and war on selected 20th and 21st century dances and dance practices. This class asks to what extent dance, in its history as well as contemporary development, is linked to concepts of the political and conflict.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
TAPS 162I:
The Idea of a Theater
Examines the idea of a theater from the religious street theater of Medieval York, though Shakespeare's Globe, and onto the mental theater of the Romantic reader and the alienation effects of Brecht's radical playhouse in the 20th cent
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
TAPS 164T:
Queer Art and Performance (FEMGEN 140P, TAPS 364T)
Examines the late 19th, 20th and 21st century forms of performance-- including examples from drama, theater, cabaret, and performance art -- through the perspectives of contemporary critical gender and queer theories. Texts and movements range from early avant-garde (Dada, Futurism) to gay and lesbian drama (Lillian Hellmann, Joe Orton, Tony Kushner) to post-liberation Queer performance and video (Split Britches, Carmelita Tropicana, Kalup Linzy). Theorists include Judith Butler, Michel Foucault, and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick.
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:EC-Gender
TAPS 165:
Introduction to Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (ANTHRO 33, CSRE 196C, ENGLISH 172D, SOC 146)
How different disciplines approach topics and issues central to the study of ethnic and race relations in the U.S. and elsewhere. Lectures by senior faculty affiliated with CSRE. Discussions led by CSRE teaching fellows.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
TAPS 167:
Introduction to Greek Tragedy (CLASSGEN 110)
Gods and heroes, fate and free choice, gender conflict, the justice or injustice of the universe: these are just some of the fundamental human issues that we will explore in about ten of the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
TAPS 170:
Directing & Dramaturgy: Composition and Adaptation for Theatre (TAPS 370)
This course explores dramaturgy and directing in the research and production of theatre primarily through practical creative projects with secondary readings on dramaturgy as a discipline. In this course we will consider the role of the dramaturg in its broadest sense, running across theatrical production from research to playwriting, adaptation, choreography, devising and directing. Students will work individually and in small groups researching, adapting, crafting and workshopping material.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
TAPS 170B:
Directing Workshop: The Actor-Director Dialogue (TAPS 372)
This course focuses on the actor-director dialogue. We will work with actors and directors developing approaches to collaboration that make the actor-director dialogue in theater.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
| Repeatable
for credit
TAPS 171:
Performance Making (TAPS 371)
A studio course focused on creative processes and generating original material. Students will be encouraged to think critically about the relationship between form and content exploring the possibilities of site specific, gallery and theatre settings. Students will reflect throughout on the types of contact and communication uniquely possible in the live moment, such as interaction or the engagement of the senses. The emphasis is on weekly experimentation in the creation of short works rather than on a final production.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 172:
Out of Place: (W)riting Home (CSRE 172, TAPS 272)
A creative writing workshop; all genres. This course will introduce students to the fundamentals of a productive creative writing practice, including ¿the beginner¿s mind¿ (as founded in Eastern spiritual practices); and, an indigenous approach to ¿authenticity¿ in one¿s work and one¿s words. Through w(riting), one returns to the body of home-knowledges, languages, and geographies to uncover what is profoundly original in us as artists, writers and thinkers.¿
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 173:
Solo Performance (TAPS 373W)
Students learn how to draw from the specificity of their own unique experiences, connecting with ideas, issues and questions that resonate with race, class, gender, environmental, and global issues. The course gives students the creative and critical tools to enable them to connect the personal with the political and see the solo voice as a powerful, potent form of artistic expression. Students have the opportunity to hone their own creative talents in writing, devising, composing, producing and creating work.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 175:
Writing for Performance: The Fundamentals (CSRE 177)
Course introduces students to the basic elements of playwriting and creative experimentation for the stage. Topics include: character development, conflict and plot construction, staging and setting, and play structure. Script analysis of works by contemporary playwrights may include: Marsha Norman, Patrick Shanley, August Wilson, Suzan-Lori Parks, Paula Vogel, Octavio Solis and others. Table readings of one-act length work required by quarter's end.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-CE
TAPS 176:
Living with Mindfulness, Meaning, and Compassion (CSRE 176)
Living with mindfulness, meaning, and compassion is a journey of contemplation, self reflection, and guided action. We examine "the good life" through the insightful eyes and inspirational words of others as well as through the light of our own experience. We explore success, happiness, and well being through the wisdom of spiritual traditions and scientific discoveries. Our focus is on acceptance, vulnerability, humility, kindness, and courage. Our integrative learning approach creates a transformative, synergistic community through appreciative inquiry and connected knowing.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
TAPS 178:
Page to Stage: Playwriting and Solo Performance (TAPS 278)
Dramatic writing: scripted and solo, and as performed by actors or by the playwright. Physical and psychological theatrical action. Development of skills in dialogue, story structure, style, and personal voice. Script readings and directed staging sessions.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 178B:
Intensive Playwriting (CSRE 178B, TAPS 278)
Intermediate level study of fundamentals of playwriting through an intensive play development process. Course emphasizes visual scripting for the stage and play revision. Script analysis of works by contemporary playwrights may include: Suzan-Lori Parks, Tony Kushner, Adrienne Kennedy, Edward Albee, Maria Irene Fornes and others. Table readings of full length work required by quarter¿s end.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 179:
Chicano & Chicana Theater: Politics In Performance (CHILATST 179, TAPS 379)
This is a practicum course, where the basic tenets and evolving politic and philosophies of Chicano and Latin American liberationist theater are examined through direct engagement with its theatrical forms, including, social protest & agit-prop, myth & ritual, scripting through improvisation, in-depth character and solo work, collective conceptualization and more. The course will culminate in an end-of-the quarter play performance in the Nitery Theater (Old Union) and at a Mission District theater in San Francisco.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
TAPS 179F:
Flor y Canto: Poetry Workshop (CHILATST 179F, CSRE 179F, TAPS 279F)
Poetry reading and writing. The poet as philosopher and the poet as revolutionary. Texts: the philosophical meditations of pre-Columbian Aztec poetry known as flor y canto, and reflections on the poetry of resistance born out of the nationalist and feminist struggles of Latin America and Aztlán. Required 20-page poetry manuscript.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 180P:
Color (ARTSTUDI 180)
Hands-on study of color to develop color sensitivity and the ability to manipulate color to exploit its expressive potential. Guided experimentation and observation. Topics include color relativity, color and light, color mixing, color harmony, and color and content. (lower level)
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 180Q:
Noam Chomsky: The Drama of Resistance
Preference to sophomores. Chomsky's ideas and work which challenge the political and economic paradigms governing the U.S. Topics include his model for linguistics; cold war U.S. involvements in S.E. Asia, the Middle East, Central and S. America, the Caribbean, and Indonesia and E. Timor; the media, terrorism, ideology, and culture; student and popular movements; and the role of resistance.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-ER, WAY-SI
TAPS 190:
Special Research
Individual project on the work of a playwright, period, or genre. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-5
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Amarotico, K. (PI);
Brody, J. (PI);
Elam, H. (PI);
Elswit, K. (PI);
Flatmo, E. (PI);
Freed, A. (PI);
Hayes, A. (PI);
Hill, L. (PI);
Klein, D. (PI);
Moraga, C. (PI);
Nakamura, J. (PI);
Paris, H. (PI);
Ramsaur, M. (PI);
Rehm, R. (PI);
Strayer, C. (PI)
TAPS 191:
Independent Study
Individual supervision of off-campus internship. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-18
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Amarotico, K. (PI);
Apperson, L. (PI);
Brody, J. (PI);
Carlson, A. (PI);
Freed, A. (PI);
Halvorson, B. (PI);
Hunter, M. (PI);
Jakovljevic, B. (PI);
Klein, D. (PI);
Mbowa, A. (PI);
Menon, J. (PI);
Moraga, C. (PI);
Phelan, P. (PI);
Ramsaur, M. (PI);
Rayner, A. (PI);
Rehm, R. (PI);
Weber, C. (PI)
TAPS 197:
Dance in Prison: The Arts, Juvenile Justice, and Rehabilitation in America (DANCE 197)
Participatory seminar. The nexus of art, community, and social action, using dance to study how the performing arts affect self-construction, perception and experiences of embodiment, and social control for incarcerated teenagers in Santa Clara Juvenile Hall. Service Learning Course (certified by Haas Center).
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP
TAPS 200:
Senior Project
See "Undergraduate Programs" for description. (Staff)
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 2-9
| Repeatable
for credit
TAPS 201A:
Honors Colloquium
See "Undergraduate Programs" for description.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1
TAPS 201B:
Honors Colloquium
See "Undergraduate Programs" for description.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1
TAPS 201C:
Honors Colloquium
See "Undergraduate Programs" for description.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1
TAPS 201D:
Honors Colloquium
See "Undergraduate Programs" for description.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1
TAPS 202:
Honors Thesis
See "Undergraduate Programs" for description. May be repeated for credit. (Staff)
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 2-9
| Repeatable
for credit
TAPS 203:
Advanced Improvisation
Further development of improvisational skills.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 210V:
Vocal Production and Audition (TAPS 120V)
An introductory study of the vocal mechanism and the development of voice and articulation for the stage. Students will be introduced to the actor's tools of phonetics, verbal action and text analysis. Vocal technique will then be applied to the actor's process in preparation for audition. Actors will fully participate in the audition process, from beginning to end. Emphasis will be on relaxation, selection of appropriate material, and versatility to show contrast and range.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 1-3
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 6 units total)
TAPS 223:
Game Design: Making Play (TAPS 23)
Do you want to make games? This is a project-oriented workshop course that will teach you how to apply design thinking to create new kinds of play. We'll teach you about mechanics, playtesting, drama, narrative, and more. You'll work in teams to produce a new play form in whatever medium and style you like. We want zippy mobile games. We want intensely serious board games. We want socially conscious interactive theater games. We want kinds of fun we've never even imagined.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
TAPS 231:
Advanced Stage Lighting Design
Individually structured class in lighting mechanics and design through experimentation, discussions, and written reports. Prerequisite: 131 or consent of instructor.
| Units: 1-5
| Repeatable
55 times
TAPS 232:
Advanced Costume Design
Individually structured tutorial for costume designers. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: 132 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-5
| Repeatable
for credit
TAPS 233:
Advanced Scene Design
Individually structured workshop. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: 133 or consent of instructor.
| Units: 1-5
| Repeatable
for credit
TAPS 234:
Advanced Stage Management Project
For students stage managing a Department of Drama production. Prerequisite: 134.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 2-9
TAPS 236:
Directing Scenes: The Director's Toolkit
This first half of this course, a practicum, introduces you to basic concepts in directing live theatre, such as creating strong spatial relationships on stage or in a performance space, interpreting and building a concept for a scene, and beginning to work with actors. You will then spend the second half of the course directing 2-3 modern and contemporary scenes, with actors.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 248:
Family Drama: American Plays about Families (ENGLISH 148)
Plays written by 20th century writers that concentrate on the family as the primary source of dramatic conflict and comedy. Writers include Williams, O'Neill, Wilder, Albee, Vogel, Parks, Lindsay-Abaire, and Hwang.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
TAPS 260:
Rethinking the Ballerina (DANCE 160, TAPS 160)
The ballerina occupies a unique place in popular imagination as an object of over-determined femininity as well as an emblem of extreme physical accomplishment for the female dancer. This seminar is designed as an investigation into histories of the ballerina as an iconographic symbol and cultural reference point for challenges to political and gender ideals. Through readings, videos, discussions and viewings of live performances this class investigates pivotal works, artists and eras in the global histories of ballet from its origins as a symbol of patronage and power in the 15th century through to its radical experiments as a site of cultural obedience and disobedience in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
TAPS 262S:
The Total Work of Art (GERMAN 262)
Frequently associated with the work of Richard Wagner, The Total Work of Art (or Gesamtkunstwerk) is a genre that aims to synthesize a range of artistic forms into an organic unity, a unity that both models and helps to forge an ideal state. This seminar will examine the history of the Gesamtkunstwerk from its roots in German Romanticism to the present day, focusing on the genre's relations with technology and mass culture across a wide range of media. Creations we will consider include Wagner's Festival Theatre at Bayreuth, Walter Gropius' plans for a Totaltheater, Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's radio-oratorio The Lindbergh Flight, Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will, Walt Disney's theme parks, Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable, and Bill Gates' "home of the future." Taught in English.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
TAPS 272:
Out of Place: (W)riting Home (CSRE 172, TAPS 172)
A creative writing workshop; all genres. This course will introduce students to the fundamentals of a productive creative writing practice, including ¿the beginner¿s mind¿ (as founded in Eastern spiritual practices); and, an indigenous approach to ¿authenticity¿ in one¿s work and one¿s words. Through w(riting), one returns to the body of home-knowledges, languages, and geographies to uncover what is profoundly original in us as artists, writers and thinkers.¿
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 273:
Directing & Dramaturgy: Composition and Adaptation for Theatre (TAPS 373)
This course explores dramaturgy and directing in the research and production of theatre primarily through practical creative projects with secondary readings on dramaturgy as a discipline. In this course we will consider the role of the dramaturg in its broadest sense, running across theatrical production from research to playwriting, adaptation, choreography, devising and directing. Students will work individually and in small groups researching, adapting, crafting and workshopping material.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 278:
Intensive Playwriting (CSRE 178B, TAPS 178B)
Intermediate level study of fundamentals of playwriting through an intensive play development process. Course emphasizes visual scripting for the stage and play revision. Script analysis of works by contemporary playwrights may include: Suzan-Lori Parks, Tony Kushner, Adrienne Kennedy, Edward Albee, Maria Irene Fornes and others. Table readings of full length work required by quarter¿s end.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 278:
Page to Stage: Playwriting and Solo Performance (TAPS 178)
Dramatic writing: scripted and solo, and as performed by actors or by the playwright. Physical and psychological theatrical action. Development of skills in dialogue, story structure, style, and personal voice. Script readings and directed staging sessions.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 3-5
TAPS 279F:
Flor y Canto: Poetry Workshop (CHILATST 179F, CSRE 179F, TAPS 179F)
Poetry reading and writing. The poet as philosopher and the poet as revolutionary. Texts: the philosophical meditations of pre-Columbian Aztec poetry known as flor y canto, and reflections on the poetry of resistance born out of the nationalist and feminist struggles of Latin America and Aztlán. Required 20-page poetry manuscript.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
TAPS 289A:
Interactive Art / Performance Design (ME 289A)
This class is for those who want the experience of designing and creating interactive art and performance pieces for public audiences, using design thinking as the method, and supported by guest speakers, artist studio visits and needfinding trips to music festivals, museums and performances.nnDrawing on the fields of design, art, performance, and engineering, each student will ideate, design, plan and lead a team to build an interactive art and/or performance piece to be showcased to audience of 5000 at the Frost Music and Art Festival held on the Stanford campus on May 17th 2014. Projects can range from interactive art to unconventional set design, and from site-specific sculpture to immersive performance.nnThis is a two-quarter long commitment during which students will first learn the design, planning, story boarding, budgeting, engineering, proposal creation and concept pitching of projects for applying for grants and presenting to funders. The second quarter will concentrate on prototyping, maquette making, testing, team forming, project management, creative leadership, construction, site installation and documentation.nPart one of a two course series: ME 289A&B.
Terms: Win
| Units: 2
TAPS 289B:
Interactive Art / Performance Creation (ME 289B)
This class is the continuation of ME289A where students experience the designing and creating of interactive art and performance pieces for public audiences, using design thinking as the method, and supported by guest speakers, artist studio visits and needfinding trips to music festivals, museums and performances.nnDrawing on the fields of design, art, performance, and engineering, each student will ideate, design, plan and lead a team to build an interactive art and/or performance piece to be showcased to audience of 5000 at the Frost Music and Art Festival held on the Stanford campus on May 17th 2014. Projects can range from interactive art to unconventional set design, and from site-specific sculpture to immersive performance.nnDuring this second quarter students will concentrate on prototyping, maquette making, testing, team forming, project management, creative leadership, construction, site installation and documentation.nPart two of a two course series : ME 289A&B.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-4
TAPS 290:
Special Research
Individual project on the work of a playwright, period, or genre.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-5
| Repeatable
for credit
TAPS 311:
Analyzing Performance
Literary criticism and theory, emphasizing style as evidence of historical, cultural, and ideological concerns. Assumptions about written texts by authors such as Coleridge, Bradley, and Burke. How style reveals context. Overtones and undertones of critical thought in performance making and performance analysis. Students will generate weekly critical and creative responses to readings from contemporary writers and artists such as Jacques Rancière, Amelia Jones, Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Marina Abramovic. Workshop activities and performances will take place alongside seminar discussions of readings.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
TAPS 312:
The Archive in the Repertoire
This course looks at recent scholarship in theater and performance studies that engages the idea of the "archive." We will also debate questions about historiography. Texts may include work by Joseph Roach, Tracy Davis, Hayden White, Jacques Derrida, Amelia Jones, Rebecca Schneider, Fred Moten, Diana Taylor, Shannon Jackson, Peggy Phelan, Akira Lippit and Susan Foster.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
TAPS 313:
Performance and Performativity
Performance theory through topics including: affect/trauma, embodiment, empathy, theatricality/performativity, specularity/visibility, liveness/disappearance, belonging/abjection, and utopias and dystopias. Readings from Schechner, Phelan, Austin, Butler, Conquergood, Roach, Schneider, Silverman, Caruth, Fanon, Moten, Anzaldúa, Agamben, Freud, and Lacan. May be repeated for credit.
Terms: Win
| Units: 1-4
| Repeatable
for credit
TAPS 314:
Performing Identities
This course focuses on contemporary South Asian and Black diasporic art work that concerns itself with questions of atrocity and activism. We will ask how artists engage world-historical events and what constitutes activism. Theoretical work will be wide-ranging as will the kinds of art and topics studied: indeed, we will discuss everything from Agamben to AIDS, Ai Wei-Wei to feminist punk in Russia, female circumcision in Sweden to U.N. aid workers in Afghanistan, queer subjects and global ideas freedom.
Terms: Aut, Win
| Units: 4
TAPS 321:
Proseminar
Workshop. Skills needed to participate in the academic profession including abstract, conference presentation, and dissertation or book chapter.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
TAPS 334:
Stage Management Techniques (TAPS 34)
The production process, duties, and responsibilities of a stage manager. Skills needed to stage manage a production.
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 3
TAPS 336:
Comprehensive 1st Year Exam
Required course for first-year Ph.D. students in Theater & Performance Studies. Credits for work toward the Comprehensive 1st-year Exam taken in late February or Early March.
Terms: Win
| Units: 2
TAPS 344:
Puppetry with a Twist (TAPS 144)
Creative course is an introduction to puppetry with a survey of important styles and techniques from around the world including Twist's own. Hands on and individualized experience with the aim of each student creating or contributing to a puppet or object/figure performance. Course is as broad as the individual's creative expression. Concludes with a class showing/performance of the student's work.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-4
TAPS 351:
Great Books: Dramatic Traditions (TAPS 151T)
The most influential and enduring texts in the dramatic canon from Sophocles to Shakepeare, Chekhov to Soyinka. Their historical and geopolitical contexts. Questions about the power dynamics involved in the formation of canons.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
TAPS 353:
Representation and Theatre Culture in 20th Century France (FRENCH 210)
This course will examine some major French playwrights such as Alfred Jarry, Eugene Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, Jean Tardieu, Albert Camus or Jean Anouilh in their global cultural environment. Discussion in English; French majors read in French.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
TAPS 354:
The Nervous Age: Neurosis, Neurology, and Nineteenth-century Theatre (GERMAN 284, HUMBIO 162)
The nineteenth century witnessed profound developments in neurological and psychological sciences, developments that fundamentally altered conceptions of embodiment, agency, and mind. This course will place these scientific shifts in conversation with theatrical transformations of the period. We will read nineteenth-century neuropsychologists such as Charles Bell, Johannes Müller, George Miller Beard, Jean-Martin Charcot, and Hippolyte Bernheim alongside artists such as Percy Shelley, Georg Büchner, Richard Wagner, Émile Zola, and August Strindberg.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
TAPS 356:
Performing History: Race, Politics, and Staging the Plays of August Wilson (AFRICAAM 156, TAPS 156)
This course purposefully and explicitly mixes theory and practice. Students will read and discuss the plays of August Wilson, the most celebrated and most produced contemporary American playwright, that comprise his 20th Century History Cycle. Class stages scenes from each of these plays, culminating in a final showcase of longer scenes from his work as a final project.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
TAPS 357:
World Drama and Performance (TAPS 157)
This course takes up a geographically expansive conversation by looking at modern and contemporary drama from nations including Ghana, Egypt, India, Argentina, among others. Considering influential texts from the Global South will also enable us to explore a range of themes and methodologies that are radically re-shaping the field of Performance Studies. We will examine the relationship between colonialism and globalization, empire and capital, cosmopolitanism and neoliberalism. Re-situating our perspective from the Global South and the non-western world, we will 'provincialize Europe' and probe the limits of its universalizing discourses.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
TAPS 358L:
The Ethics of Storytelling: The Autobiographical Monologue in Theory, in Practice, and in the World (ETHICSOC 201R, TAPS 158L)
Recently a theatrical monologuist gained notoriety when it was revealed that key aspects of one of his "autobiographical" stories had been fabricated. In this class another autobiographical monologuist -- who has himself lied many times in his theater pieces, without ever getting caught -- will examine the ethics of telling our life stories onstage. Does theatrical "truth" trump factual truth? We will interrogate several autobiographical works, and then -- through autobiographical pieces created in class -- we will interrogate ourselves.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 4
TAPS 360:
Greek Tragedy
The seminar explores the intellectual, political, and cultural background of 5th-century Athenian tragedy, with special focus on the theatrical dynamics of the major plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Although the seminar emphasizes a close reading of the tragedies themselves, secondary sources include selections from Homer, Thucydides, Aristophanes, Aristotle, Hegel, and Nietzsche, as well as modern and contemporary classical scholars (Jebb, Dodds, Segal, Taplin, Goldhill, Nussbaum, Easterling, Foley, Seidensticker, Griffiths, Rehm, Wiles, Hall, Budelmann, and others). The seminar assigns the plays in English translation, but students with ancient Greek are encouraged to enroll, and accommodations can be made to attend to their interests. Plays include Persians, Prometheus Bound, the Oresteia trilogy (Aeschylus); Antigone, Oedipus, Oedipus at Colonus, Electra, and Philoctetes (Sophocles); and Medea, Heracles, Electra, Ion, Helen, and Bacchae (Euripides).
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
TAPS 364T:
Queer Art and Performance (FEMGEN 140P, TAPS 164T)
Examines the late 19th, 20th and 21st century forms of performance-- including examples from drama, theater, cabaret, and performance art -- through the perspectives of contemporary critical gender and queer theories. Texts and movements range from early avant-garde (Dada, Futurism) to gay and lesbian drama (Lillian Hellmann, Joe Orton, Tony Kushner) to post-liberation Queer performance and video (Split Britches, Carmelita Tropicana, Kalup Linzy). Theorists include Judith Butler, Michel Foucault, and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick.
| Units: 4-5
TAPS 370:
Directing & Dramaturgy: Composition and Adaptation for Theatre (TAPS 170)
This course explores dramaturgy and directing in the research and production of theatre primarily through practical creative projects with secondary readings on dramaturgy as a discipline. In this course we will consider the role of the dramaturg in its broadest sense, running across theatrical production from research to playwriting, adaptation, choreography, devising and directing. Students will work individually and in small groups researching, adapting, crafting and workshopping material.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 4-5
TAPS 371:
Performance Making (TAPS 171)
A studio course focused on creative processes and generating original material. Students will be encouraged to think critically about the relationship between form and content exploring the possibilities of site specific, gallery and theatre settings. Students will reflect throughout on the types of contact and communication uniquely possible in the live moment, such as interaction or the engagement of the senses. The emphasis is on weekly experimentation in the creation of short works rather than on a final production.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
TAPS 372:
Directing Workshop: The Actor-Director Dialogue (TAPS 170B)
This course focuses on the actor-director dialogue. We will work with actors and directors developing approaches to collaboration that make the actor-director dialogue in theater.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
for credit
TAPS 373:
Directing & Dramaturgy: Composition and Adaptation for Theatre (TAPS 273)
This course explores dramaturgy and directing in the research and production of theatre primarily through practical creative projects with secondary readings on dramaturgy as a discipline. In this course we will consider the role of the dramaturg in its broadest sense, running across theatrical production from research to playwriting, adaptation, choreography, devising and directing. Students will work individually and in small groups researching, adapting, crafting and workshopping material.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 4
TAPS 373W:
Solo Performance (TAPS 173)
Students learn how to draw from the specificity of their own unique experiences, connecting with ideas, issues and questions that resonate with race, class, gender, environmental, and global issues. The course gives students the creative and critical tools to enable them to connect the personal with the political and see the solo voice as a powerful, potent form of artistic expression. Students have the opportunity to hone their own creative talents in writing, devising, composing, producing and creating work.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 4-5
TAPS 374:
Practice Based Research
A structured, creative environment for students working toward the realization of 2nd year graduate productions. Instructors will work with students to develop the relationships between the content and the form of their productions using critical and creative tools to develop and reflect on the work. There will be a staged class showing at the end of the quarter followed by critiques designed to help students as they begin preparing for their final public performances (beyond the class).
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
TAPS 374A:
Performance Making: Production (TAPS 174A)
A structured, creative environment for students working toward the realization of Senior Projects and 2nd year graduate productions. Instructors will work with students to develop the relationships between the content and the form of their productions using critical and creative tools to develop and reflect on the work. There will be a staged class showing at the end of the quarter followed by critiques designed to help students as they begin preparing for their final public performances (beyond the class).
| Units: 5
TAPS 376:
Projects in Performance
Creative projects to be determined in consultation with Drama graduate faculty and production advisor
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 10 units total)
TAPS 377:
Graduate Directors' Staged Reading Project
Presentation of a new or newly adapted work for the stage, in a mode employed in professional theater for the development of new plays. Two to four rehearsals. Public performance.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 2
| Repeatable
for credit
TAPS 379:
Chicano & Chicana Theater: Politics In Performance (CHILATST 179, TAPS 179)
This is a practicum course, where the basic tenets and evolving politic and philosophies of Chicano and Latin American liberationist theater are examined through direct engagement with its theatrical forms, including, social protest & agit-prop, myth & ritual, scripting through improvisation, in-depth character and solo work, collective conceptualization and more. The course will culminate in an end-of-the quarter play performance in the Nitery Theater (Old Union) and at a Mission District theater in San Francisco.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 3-5
TAPS 381:
Instantaneous, Incessant, Infinite: Time and Performance
Time is the most fundamental and elusive aspect of performance. In this graduate seminar we will investigate time in performance from various perspectives: while getting acquainted with some of the most prominent recent conceptualizations of temporality (Henri Bergson, Marin Heidegger, Gilles Deleuze) we will also explore questions of politics of temporality, ethnographic and sociological study of time, and its peculiar place within literary studies. Most of all, we will investigate complex temporality of performance: from performances of great magnitude, to micro performances, to performance as a medium of time¿s commodification. While drawing on questions that emerge from PSi 19: Performance and Temporality, we will explore some aspects of this theme that were insufficiently addressed in the conference.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
TAPS 390:
Directed Reading
(Staff) Students may take directing reading only with the permission of their dissertation advisor. Might be repeatable for credit twice for 6 units total.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-6
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 6 units total)
Instructors: ;
Apostolides, J. (PI);
Brody, J. (PI);
Elam, H. (PI);
George, N. (PI);
Hill, L. (PI);
Jakovljevic, B. (PI);
Menon, J. (PI);
Moraga, C. (PI);
Phelan, P. (PI);
Rayner, A. (PI);
Rehm, R. (PI);
Ross, J. (PI);
Smith, M. (PI)
TAPS 399:
Dissertation Research
(Staff)
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-9
| Repeatable
for credit
TAPS 801:
TGR Project
(Staff)
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 0
| Repeatable
for credit
TAPS 802:
TGR Dissertation
(Staff)
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 0
| Repeatable
for credit
TAPS 105V:
Improv & Design
This class will only meet on select days: 10am-6pm Saturday April 13, 2013 and 2pm-7pm Sunday April 14, 2013 with a performance on 8pm Thursday April 18th.nnImprov & Design is a wildly practical class exploring the intersection of Improvisational Theater & Design Thinking. The class is for: Improvisers who want to practice using their skills in other domains. Improvisers who want to learn about design thinking. Designers who want to deepen their core skills in collaboration, creativity, empathy, acting and rich scenario prototyping. Undergraduates who want to check out the d.school. Graduates who want to practice with a diverse group. You are guaranteed to learn 10 useful things! (We do not guarantee everyone will learn the same 10 things!). nDesign Institute class; see http://dschool.stanford.edu.
| Units: 1
TAPS 114:
Designing Wonder: Creating "everyday audiences"
Flash Mobs, Concerts, Amusement Parks, Bakeries. Art and Theater does not need to be confined to a stage, and audiences do not need to be confined to comfy red velvet seats. In this course, students will explore and create unexpected and engaging experiences in everyday spaces. Sidewalks, Parks, Stanford Dining Halls. All of the work will seek to make the world a more WONDERous place in which moments of amazement and delight are possible around every corner. Class time will frequently be substituted for off-campus excursions including Great America, The Exploratorium, House of Air, Alcatraz Island, and Outdoor Movie Screenings. This is a hands-on, creative course.
| Units: 4
TAPS 120D:
Studio Performance
Rehearsal and development of a studio performance project for an end of quarter presentation. Emphasis is on development of acting skills with minimal technical support. Material chosen from classic plays, American realism, world theater, or created group ensemble pieces.
| Units: 1-5
TAPS 131:
Lighting Design
Hands-on laboratory projects in lighting and designing stage productions and other live performances. The content and format of lighting plots. Prerequisite DRAMA 31.
| Units: 4
TAPS 137:
Hand Drafting for Designers
Fundamentals of hand-drafting. Standard drawing conventions; the use of line weight, color, composition, and graphic style. Creation of construction documents for real-world applications.May be repeated for credit.
| Units: 3
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 6 units total)
TAPS 151H:
ID21 STRATLAB: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Improvising Identities (AMSTUD 151H, CSRE 151H, DANCE 151H, DANCE 251H, TAPS 351H)
A quarter-long exploration of improvisation in relationship to identity and race in the 21st century in which students investigate new dynamics of doing and thinking identities through the arts. Panel discussions, performances, and talks that engage critically with the theme, concept, and practice of improvising identity across a variety of contexts and genres such as jazz music, modern dance, contemporary art, race comedy, food, and hip-hop poetry/freestyle. Strategies that artists/scholars have used to overturn essentializing notions of identity in theory and practice.
| Units: 4-5
TAPS 152H:
Food and Performance: Meals, Markets, Maize and Macaroni
Come hungry to learn! This course serves as an introduction to food and performance culture. We will engage ethical and aesthetic questions about factory farms, feminist performance art and futuristic cooking. Emphasis is on original research, interdisciplinary analysis and doing performance. We will attend events, have guest speakers, create our own mini-performances around the broad themes of the course, write critical reviews and conduct archival research. We begin by studying the work of anthropologists of food and then move on to contemplate the way food and performance converge in modern thought and art. We will vary our approaches to the texts and debate a broad range of topics. For example, we will discuss: food¿s connection to sexuality, memory, race, embodiment, colonialism, violence, protest, public policy and science. The parameters of the course have been limited to food movements in the U.S. in the 20th and 21st centuries; however the opportunity to work on topics beyond this geopolitical and historical scope is possible and encouraged. Texts may include works by Yayoi Kusama, Dwight Conquergood, Mary Douglas, Karen Finley, Psyche Williams, Alice Waters, Jonathan Foer, Michael Pollan, Julia Child, Lauren Berlant, Laura Esquival, Douglas Sirk, Coco Fusco, Nao Bustamante, Doris Witt and more.
| Units: 4
TAPS 153S:
Japanese Theater: Noh to Contemporary Performance
This course will provide a historical overview of Japanese theater from traditional (Noh, Kabuki, Bunraku) to contemporary (Angura, Butoh, and performance art). We will focus on the relationship between Japanese theaters and its audiences, exploring the contexts in which theater forms developed and how these forms themselves reflect Japanese culture and society.
| Units: 4
TAPS 154S:
Theater and Legal Regulation
This course examines how legal statutes, lawsuits, and contracts police theatrical practice, particularly in Britain and the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Three particular forms of legal intervention will concern us: ownership of theaters and plays, government censorship and authorial control, and health and safety laws. We will explore how, despite their apparently different aims, these manifestations of the law pursue closely related ends.
| Units: 4
TAPS 155T:
Theatre of War
Military personnel and politicians alike use the phrase ¿the theatre of war¿ to refer to the geographical area of a military conflict and the more intangible concerns of battle. The primary concern of this class is the intersection between performance and war. Our inquiry will focus on drama, film, the media, and role-playing scenarios as a military training tool, and we will approach these objects through critical theories of justice, performance theory, and trauma.
| Units: 4
TAPS 158H:
Proximity and Temporality in Performance (TAPS 358H)
This course considers the relationship between proximity and temporality in live performance, looking quite literally at the distance in space and time between performers and audiences. Alongside case studies of performance works, class readings will be drawn from current Performance Studies scholarship as well as discourses in postmodern geographies and anthropological studies of `proxemics¿ as well as key philosophic works such as Lefebvre¿s The Production of Space and Heidegger¿s The Concept of Time.
| Units: 4-5
TAPS 162:
Performance and the Text (TAPS 262)
Formal elements in Greek, Elizabethan, Noh, Restoration, romantic, realistic, and contemporary world drama; how they intersect with the history of performance styles, character, and notions of action. Emphasis is on how performance and media intervene to reproduce, historicize, or criticize the history of drama.
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
TAPS 162H:
Baroque Modernities: Dance, Theater, Film, Political Theory (DANCE 162H)
What do seventeenth-century choreography and dramaturgy contribute to (mean to) choreographic and theatrical modernity? How can we explain the recurrent baroque phenomenon across the twentieth century -- becoming particularly prominent in the 1980s -- beyond the historicist accounts of theatrical reconstruction? How does the baroque locate itself within cultural modernity?nnThis seminar asks this question of choreography at several junctures: The analysis of seventeenth century baroque spectacle that fashioned dance and theatre into political tools of monarchical sovereignty; Twentieth-century literature on the Baroque that destabilizes received notions of subjectivity and political sovereignty; Twentieth-century choreography and film that deploys baroque figures and techniques.nnThus, our material shall range from seventeenth-century dance and theater to contemporary dance, film and literature.
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
4 times
(up to 16 units total)
TAPS 166H:
Historiography of Theater (TAPS 304)
Goal is to design an undergraduate theater history class. Standard theater history textbooks, alternative models of theater history scholarship, and critical literature engaging historiography in general.
| Units: 3-5
TAPS 174A:
Performance Making: Production (TAPS 374A)
A structured, creative environment for students working toward the realization of Senior Projects and 2nd year graduate productions. Instructors will work with students to develop the relationships between the content and the form of their productions using critical and creative tools to develop and reflect on the work. There will be a staged class showing at the end of the quarter followed by critiques designed to help students as they begin preparing for their final public performances (beyond the class).
| Units: 5
TAPS 176S:
Finding Meaning in Life's Struggles: Narrative Ways of Healing (CSRE 176S)
We can find meaning in life's struggles through narrative ways of healing. The self-reflective, dynamic process of finding, telling, and living our stories connects us with our whole selves as well as with others. We find our stories through vulnerability and courage; tell them with humility and honesty; and live them authentically and responsibly. Our shared stories will focus on gratitude, acceptance, reconciliation, forgiveness and compassion, empowering us to overcome personal, community, and historical traumas and wounds. In a respectful, caring community we will discover our hidden wholeness by improvising with various experiential and embodied means of finding our stories; telling our stories in diverse ways, including writing, storytelling, music, and art; and living our stories by putting values into action.
| Units: 5
TAPS 179C:
Chroniclers of Desire: Creative Non-Fiction Writing Workshop (CSRE 179C, CSRE 279C, TAPS 279C)
This course emphasizes the study and practice of personal memoir writing and literary journalism. The class will explore those writings that contain a public and private story, navigating an intimate and institutional world. Student writers will serve as public chroniclers whose subjective point of view and experience attempt to provide a truth greater than what ¿the facts¿ can offer.
| Units: 3-5
TAPS 179G:
Indigenous Identity in Diaspora: People of Color Art Practice in North America (CSRE 179G, CSRE 279G, TAPS 279G)
This "gateway" core course to the IDA emphasis in CSRE offers a 21st century examination of people of color aesthetics and related politics, drawing from contemporary works (literature, music, visual and performing arts) in conversation with their native (especially American Indigenous and African) origins. Issues of gender and sexuality in relation to cultural identity are also integral to this study. Students will be required to produce a final work, integrating critical writing with a creative project.
| Units: 3-5
TAPS 184Q:
The Personal is Political: Art, Activism and Performance
SOPHOMORE SEMINAR: This course looks at the `performance¿ of personal truths in political contexts, challenging inequalities of race, gender, sexual orientation and class through performance, visual art and activism. Students will engage in seminar discussions and writing on case studies such as the Occupy Movement and the works of key artists as well as working individually and in groups to think creatively about strategies for putting their own personal truths into political/public contexts to draw attention to issues they are passionate about.
| Units: 4-5
TAPS 193:
Life in the Body, Performing the Self
No Class on January 8th. Class meets 7:00-8:50 every Tuesday beginning January 15th through March 12th, with a 10th and final required class during finals week on March 19th from 7:00-8:50. Also, students will be joined in the classroom by Continuing Studies students. Life is a performance of gestures. Dance is any conscious movement. Based on a "choreography of the everyday," this course invites participants to experience the subtle surprise of performing oneself. Working with our own gestures, words, thoughts, and perceptions, and drawing upon the basic elements of composition in performance, music, and choreography, we will develop a performance work in the mode of a "chamber piece." Building individual movement-based portraits, and then weaving them together as a whole, this gestural performance "chamber piece" will reflect the community of class participants and the Stanford community as a whole.nnConsiderations of time, space, and quality of motion will be at the forefront of our work together. We will investigate the cultural identity and history of our gestures, as well as trace the evolution of this type of performance work in art, dance, and performance history. Participants can expect to find inspiration, delight, refreshment, and renewal through this performance process. No experience is necessary, just a willingness to move and reflect upon having a life in a body at this moment in history.nnThe work of this course is the springboard of a larger performance work, "The Symphonic Body," which is scheduled to be performed at the new Bing Concert Hall in May 2013.nnCourse participants have the option to perform in the larger work.
| Units: 2
TAPS 213:
Stanford Improv Ensemble
By audition only, for members of the improvisation troupe. Special project work. Prerequisite: 103.
| Units: 1-2
| Repeatable
for credit
TAPS 259:
Game Studies
A 1-unit class for graduate students. Games are not new; they are older than civilization. But in the past 50 years or so, we have seen an explosion of creativity in the development of new games, many of which, especially video games, complicate older understandings of what games are. This explosion of creativity has been matched by the increasing visibility and ubiquity of new games and ways of seeing games: as video games, televised professional sports, and even distributed urban events.n nGames are not a simple object of study. There are many ways to understand them: as social practices, as formal systems, as representative artwork, as modes of learning, and many more. We will start by considering games as a mode of performance, considering games in relation to theater and other forms of aesthetic performance. However, we will take a deeply interdisciplinary approach to the study of games, and will draw on perspectives from design, philosophy, education, and the emerging discipline of video game studies. We will also, of course, draw on a variety of games, both online and offline. As we bring in these perspectives, we will begin to consider games in at least two other fundamental ways: as designed experiences and as composed systems or artworks.nnThis course is less an attempt to provide a survey of the entire field of games. It is more an attempt to provide a basic toolbox for critically examining and analyzing games. These tools are potentially useful for anyone who interacts with games: whether as a consumer of entertainment, a critical analyst of play, a user of serious games, or a game designer.
| Units: 1
TAPS 262:
Performance and the Text (TAPS 162)
Formal elements in Greek, Elizabethan, Noh, Restoration, romantic, realistic, and contemporary world drama; how they intersect with the history of performance styles, character, and notions of action. Emphasis is on how performance and media intervene to reproduce, historicize, or criticize the history of drama.
| Units: 5
TAPS 279C:
Chroniclers of Desire: Creative Non-Fiction Writing Workshop (CSRE 179C, CSRE 279C, TAPS 179C)
This course emphasizes the study and practice of personal memoir writing and literary journalism. The class will explore those writings that contain a public and private story, navigating an intimate and institutional world. Student writers will serve as public chroniclers whose subjective point of view and experience attempt to provide a truth greater than what ¿the facts¿ can offer.
| Units: 3-5
TAPS 279G:
Indigenous Identity in Diaspora: People of Color Art Practice in North America (CSRE 179G, CSRE 279G, TAPS 179G)
This "gateway" core course to the IDA emphasis in CSRE offers a 21st century examination of people of color aesthetics and related politics, drawing from contemporary works (literature, music, visual and performing arts) in conversation with their native (especially American Indigenous and African) origins. Issues of gender and sexuality in relation to cultural identity are also integral to this study. Students will be required to produce a final work, integrating critical writing with a creative project.
| Units: 3-5
TAPS 300A:
Critical Styles I
Literary criticism and theory, emphasizing style as evidence of historical, cultural, and ideological concerns. Assumptions about written texts by authors such as Coleridge, Bradley, and Burke. How style reveals context. Students write in the style of authors discussed.
| Units: 5
TAPS 300B:
Critical Styles II
This seminar follows on from Critical Styles I in which students were grounded in the rigors of critical writing. In this sequel seminar, the emphasis will be on the overtones and undertones of critical thought in performance making and performance analysis. Students will generate weekly critical and creative responses to readings from contemporary writers and artists such as Jacques Rancière, Amelia Jones, Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Marina Abramovic. Workshop activities and performances will take place alongside seminar discussions of readings.
| Units: 5
TAPS 304:
Historiography of Theater (TAPS 166H)
Goal is to design an undergraduate theater history class. Standard theater history textbooks, alternative models of theater history scholarship, and critical literature engaging historiography in general.
| Units: 3-5
TAPS 351H:
ID21 STRATLAB: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Improvising Identities (AMSTUD 151H, CSRE 151H, DANCE 151H, DANCE 251H, TAPS 151H)
A quarter-long exploration of improvisation in relationship to identity and race in the 21st century in which students investigate new dynamics of doing and thinking identities through the arts. Panel discussions, performances, and talks that engage critically with the theme, concept, and practice of improvising identity across a variety of contexts and genres such as jazz music, modern dance, contemporary art, race comedy, food, and hip-hop poetry/freestyle. Strategies that artists/scholars have used to overturn essentializing notions of identity in theory and practice.
| Units: 4-5
TAPS 358H:
Proximity and Temporality in Performance (TAPS 158H)
This course considers the relationship between proximity and temporality in live performance, looking quite literally at the distance in space and time between performers and audiences. Alongside case studies of performance works, class readings will be drawn from current Performance Studies scholarship as well as discourses in postmodern geographies and anthropological studies of `proxemics¿ as well as key philosophic works such as Lefebvre¿s The Production of Space and Heidegger¿s The Concept of Time.
| Units: 4-5
TAPS 368S:
Understanding and Staging Molière Theatre (FRENCH 316)
Devoted to an in depth analysis of Molière's major plays, as well as a study of contemporary productions of his work. Taught in French.
| Units: 3-5
TAPS 375:
Main Stage Production
Production of a full-length play as part of the Department of Drama season. Public performance.
| Units: 3-5
| Repeatable
for credit
