Results for TAPS

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.

This course explores history via cultural responses in modern India. We will examine a range of fiction, film and drama to consider the ways in which India emerges through its cultural productions. The course will consider key historical events such as the partition of the subcontinent, independence from British rule, Green Revolution, Emergency, liberalization of the Indian economy, among others. We will reflect on epochal historical moments by means of artisticnresponses to these events. For example, Ritwik Ghatak's experimental cinema intervenes into debates around the Bengal partition; Rohinton Mistry's novel, A Fine Balance grapples with the suspension of civil liberties during the emergency between 1975-77; Rahul Varma's play Bhopal reflects on the Bhopal gas tragedy, considered the world's worst industrial disaster. Students willnread, view and reflect on the aesthetic and historical texts through their thoughtful engagement in class discussions and written e ssays. They will also have opportunities to imaginatively respond to these texts via short creative projects, which could range from poems, monologues, solo pieces, web installations, etc. Readings will also include Mahashweta Devi, Amitav Ghosh, Girish Karnad, Jhumpa Lahiri, Manjula Padmanabhan, Salman Rushdie, Aparna Sen, among others.

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.

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.

For actors who complete substantial scene work with graduate directors in the graduate workshop.

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.

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.

Under faculty guidance, working backstage on Drama Department productions. Open to any student interested in gaining back stage experience. Night and weekend time required.

For students stage mananging a Department of Drama Senior Project or Assistant Staage managing a Department Drama production

An introductory workshop class that explores a range of theatre exercises and techniques in order to create, perform, and compose theatre. Students will work with original texts such as Beckett, Pinter, Churchill as well as creating their own performance texts and scores to make original, devised performance. Students will be encouraged to think critically about various compositional themes and ideas including the relationship between form and content, aesthetics, proximity, audience, space. Students will work collaboratively learning how to problem solve and deal with creative challenges as they create original performance works. Students will work towards creating a short original performance piece.

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.

In this workshop we will traverse the landscape of world of Musical Theater. It will serve as an introduction for the beginning actor and singer, and expand the more experienced performer¿s range in this genre. The world of Musical Theater is filled with stories of love, passion, joy, violence, heartbreak and rage. The class will include an introduction to vocal and movement skills for musical theater, beginning with exercises to build an ensemble and encourage a sense of play and relaxation in supportive environment. Our class must be a place where everyone feels safe. As ensemble members, we will be responsible for each other in this environment. nnStudents will choose one solo song, and perform in a group number from this exciting discipline. The instructor will work with the actors on technique, utilization of action, specificity of language, personalization, and emotional truth. A professional coach from the theater community will conduct vocal coaching. Physical warm-ups and choreography will be suited for both the dancer and non-dancer.n nThe class will culminate in the last week with live performance for friends and family.nnSTUDENTS ARE ENCOURAGED TO BRING THEIR OWN SUGGESTIONS. (Isn¿t there a role you¿ve always wanted to sing?)nnRequired text: Broadway Musicals Show by Show: Sixth Edition - Stanley Green; Paperback

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.

A practical course in movement, acting and character development for stage or screen. This course is appropriate for all artists; no prior movement training is required. We will explore expressive possibilities in the body in order to build characters with nuanced physicality and rich emotional life. Students will learn strategies for awakening the body, find a greater range of expression, and widen the variety of characters they can inhabit. We will conduct live observations and take inspiration from photographs, memories, dramatic texts and other sources to build vivid portraits of character in performance. Actors will work independently and together as an ensemble, learning techniques derived from Michael Chekhov, Decroux, Lecoq and others. We will also practice physical conditioning for the actor through a daily warm-up sequence that improves strength, flexibility and alignment.

The Undergraduate Performance Project provides students the opportunity to study and perform in major dramatic works. The Winter 2015 Undergraduate Acting Project presents Shakespeare's Hamlet alongside Stoppard's Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead. 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.

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.

How does a singer develop the strategies to shape nuanced, emotional performances? What clues does the singer mine from lyrics and a score in order to communicate through song? This is a studio course in acting and movement techniques for vocal performers who want to expand their expressive range, refine multi-faceted performances, and cultivate compelling stage presence. nnThis course is suitable for any vocalist; classical singers, a cappella performers, musical theater actors and others are all welcome. The three foundational underpinnings of our work will be actor personalization technique, basic movement training and text analysis strategies. We will develop flexibility, relaxation and the freedom to follow expressive impulses while also deepening our knowledge of character, narrative and theme.nnStudents should be prepared to engage in intensive work with performance pieces, selected according to each student¿s preferred style and tradition. We will focus on close textual analysis and find connections between the ways performers use various written scores (for spoken dialogue, song lyrics and musical composition) as the blueprints for dynamic performances that tell a powerful story. The course will culminate in a public performance of material from a musical performance genre.

For students stage managing a Department of Drama production.

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.

This is a hands-on, workshop-oriented course in sound design with an emphasis on sound for live performance. Its focus is on rapidly developing technical skills and intuitions for crafting beautiful, meaningful sounds. These skills are potentially useful to persons with interest in the fields of technical theater and dance, electronic music, game design, interior design, and experience design. Topics include wave editing; sound and music curation; audio spatialization; the qualitative study of filters; show control; sound reinforcement; interactive audio; and the use of tone, dynamics, and timbre to create moods and impressions.

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.

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.

This introductory course covers some of the `golden ages¿ of British Theatre from 1890 to the present: the stylish and witty `New Drama¿ of the Edwardian era with writers such as George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde exploring sex and politics in the wake of Ibsen¿s A Doll¿s House; the artistic innovations of the 1950s and 60s from seminal writers such as Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter and Tom Stoppard; and more recent works by modern legends Caryl Churchill, David Hare, Alan Ayckbourn, and immersive or interactive theatre by companies such as Punch Drunk. We will also look at the ever changing relationship with Shakespeare across generations of British theatre artists, including directors such as Peter Brook and Deborah Warner.nIn this class students will explore the relationship between theatre, politics and culture across fascinating eras in British history as well as thinking about the role of theatre in our own lives and social contexts. We will ask the questions: What is theatre for? What meaning does it have for a contemporary audience? How can it reflect our times? Has the communal audience experience of going to the theatre changed in an age that is dominated by social media and broadcast technology? Has this changed the way that people make theatre? What do we as audiences want from the theatre? What do we as theatre makers want from audiences?nStudents will read plays weekly and also see screenings of several excellent film versions of the plays as well as participating in staged readings of scenes and class discussions. The class will also attend at least one live theatre event. This is a perfect class for students who enjoy active learning, approaching the texts as scholars and historians, but also working with the plays creatively, engaging the imagination as potential actors, directors, designers and/or dramaturgs.

This course introduces students to dance as an important cultural force in the African Diaspora. From capoeira in Brazil to dance hall in Jamaica to hip hop in the United States and Ghana, we will analyze dance as a form of resistance to slavery, colonialism, and oppression; as an integral component of community formation; and as a practice that shapes racial, gendered, and national identity. We will explore these topics through readings, film viewings, and movement workshops (no previous dance experience required). Students will have the option to do a creative performance as part of their final project.

This class is about collaboration: between live performers and digital images, between artists and engineers, and between scholars and artists. It emphasizes conceptual work and creativity in the integration of new and old media. We will take a rigorous but fundamentally hands-on approach to the uses of a wide range of screen technologies - from smart phones to digital projections - in live performance. The class will start with a survey of successful uses of screens in recent theater and performance work, then move to finding novel solutions for particular dramatic scenes.

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.

Was the eighteenth century right in proclaiming Shakespeare to be the greatest moral philosopher? What are the ethical challenges Shakespeare's major plays still pose for us? Can we divorce ethical decisions from the contingencies of experience? We will ask a series of normative ethical questions (to do with pleasure, power, old age, self-sacrifice, and truth telling) and attempt to answer them in relation to the dramatic situation of Shakespeare's characters on the one hand and our own cultural situation on the other. The ethical challenge of Shakespearean drama will be set against selected readings in ethical theory.

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. Includes an optional Haas Center for Public Service certified Community Engaged Learning section.

Descriptions of dance in the Greek and Greco-Roman world; theories about dance in antiquity; dance and the senses; modern and modernist dancers and choreographers discussing ancient dance

(Formerly 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.

The term "hysteria" has been used for centuries to categorize the mysterious ailments of others. This course will focus on the history of hysteria's representation and production from the late nineteenth century through WWI. Readings will include medical writings (Charcot, Bernheim, Freud), plays (Ibsen, Strindberg, Toller), and feminist theory (Cixous, Clément, Diamond). We will also devote some attention to the ongoing influence of the discourse of hysteria on contemporary medical and popular cultures.

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.

Individual project on the work of a playwright, period, or genre. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

Individual supervision of off-campus internship. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

See "Undergraduate Programs" for description. (Staff)

See "Undergraduate Programs" for description.

See "Undergraduate Programs" for description.

See "Undergraduate Programs" for description.

See "Undergraduate Programs" for description.

See "Undergraduate Programs" for description. May be repeated for credit. (Staff)

Further development of improvisational skills.

Individually structured class in lighting mechanics and design through experimentation, discussions, and written reports. Prerequisite: 131 or consent of instructor.

Individually structured tutorial for costume designers. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: 132 or consent of instructor.

Individually structured workshop. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: 133 or consent of instructor.

For students stage managing a Department of Drama production. Prerequisite: 134.

This class is about collaboration: between live performers and digital images, between artists and engineers, and between scholars and artists. It emphasizes conceptual work and creativity in the integration of new and old media. We will take a rigorous but fundamentally hands-on approach to the uses of a wide range of screen technologies - from smart phones to digital projections - in live performance. The class will start with a survey of successful uses of screens in recent theater and performance work, then move to finding novel solutions for particular dramatic scenes.

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.

Descriptions of dance in the Greek and Greco-Roman world; theories about dance in antiquity; dance and the senses; modern and modernist dancers and choreographers discussing ancient dance

This lab-based class examines the ways in which various disciplines and art forms conceive of, and tell stories about, the experiences and stories of others. With permission of instructor.

Modern theatre owes an incalculable debt to two German playwrights: Georg Büchner (1813-1837) and Frank Wedekind (1864-1918). We will read their still-shocking portraits of sex, madness, and social brutality in plays such as Woyzeck and Spring's Awakening, and explore the international journeys these works have made from stage to film and from opera to musical theatre.

Individual project on the work of a playwright, period, or genre.

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.

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.

English dramatic and theatrical culture from the mystery cycles of the late medieval period to the establishment of professional playhouses in late sixteenth-century London. Different dramatic genres (interludes, moralities, farces, tragedies, comedies, histories, pastoral plays), performance venues (streets, households, inns, schools, universities, court, playhouses), and dramatic traditions (classical, native, continental European) will be represented. Authors (of those who have names) range from Medwall, Skelton, Heywood, Preston, and Edwards to Lyly, Kyd, Greene, Peele, and Marlowe.

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.

Writing creatively through critical thinking. Writing critically through creative imagination. Advanced Creative/Critical Writing course, designed for those "other" creative writers and thinkers who want to use language in original, innovative and embodied introspective ways to respond to (and from) non-dominant cultures, themes and identities. All genres. Readings, performances, films assigned to provoke an(other) response. Permission of Instructor.

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).

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.

Creative projects to be determined in consultation with Drama graduate faculty and production advisor

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.

This lab-based class examines the ways in which various disciplines and art forms conceive of, and tell stories about, the experiences and stories of others. With permission of instructor.

(Staff) Students may take directing reading only with the permission of their dissertation advisor. Might be repeatable for credit twice for 6 units total.

(Staff)

(Staff)