School of Theatre
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CFA DA 190: Dances Styles of the African Diaspora (Jazz, Tap, Hip Hop, Afro-Fusion)
This introductory course will explore the origins and the evolution of American Black Vernacular Dance as an expression of identity, culture, and community. In any given semester, the instructor will choose to focus on a specific number of ancient and contemporary styles or dances that have originated on the African continent and/or evolved in other geographic areas over time; students will encounter a different collection of material if they repeat the course. Dance styles that may be included are: West African, Afro-Caribbean, Jazz, Tap, and multiple Hip Hop styles. Beyond learning steps, students will experience the embodied practice of building community, connecting musicality to movement, interpreting cultural expression and storytelling, and the intersecting of identity and place. Students will gain a deeper respect for the influence of indigenous African dance on Western cultural dance forms and the trans-generational conversation that continues. Students will most successful if they’ve had some prior experience in learning dance choreography or exploring movement, though no particular style is required. -
CFA DA 290: Dance and Somatic Inquiry: Contemporary and Improvisation
This intermediate level course will push students to become their own catalyst for change through guided exploratory practices, technical training, and choreography. The pursuit of personal autonomy will be the goal through the practice of improving self-awareness, control, imagination, and artistry. The class incorporates somatic practices from Bartenieff Fundamentals, Listening Strategies with Pauline Oliveros, and One Thousand Voice with Paula Josa-Jones, as well as, contemporary dance and Release technique, Dance Improvisation, martial arts, and dance conditioning. Students will be asked to grow and develop the full range of the dancer’s artistry by exploring stability/mobility, exertion/recuperation, internal connectivity/external expressivity, strength and endurance, inversions, and floor work. They will be called on to learn and create choreography with a focus on risk-taking, musicality, timing, performance skills, and concepts of stage presence. In order for students to be successful in this class, they should have at least two semesters of training in contemporary, modern, improvisation, and/or other advanced beginning level dance techniques. -
CFA DA 390: Intermediate Technique Traditional Forms (Ballet & Historic Modern)
This course is designed for the student who has had an extensive ballet, modern, contemporary, and/or jazz background. The material covered is based on years of innovation and codification and has become foundational for various forms of dance. Students will continue to refine their alignment and placement and to increase their strength, endurance, flexibility, control, coordination, breath, and musicality. As the semester progresses, students will be challenged and their technical growth will be heightened. Movement patterns will focus on increasing movement range spatially and dynamically, and on breadth of expression. Students are encouraged to learn from individual and collective corrections and to continue to increase their growth both technically and artistically. -
CFA DA 400: Performance and Repertory
Students are part of the choreographic process as pieces are created or reworked under the supervision of the dance faculty. Weekly rehearsals and timed showings are required. Dances are performed in a Dance Theatre Group concert. Prereq: Previous dance training and the instructor's consent. -
CFA TH 099: Matinee
Each semester that a BFA candidate is in residence at SOT, they are required to enroll in an appropriate section of Matinee. This is a non-credit course that encompasses a variety of components such as matinee productions, guest artist visits, alumni visits, master classes, make-up classes, and other special events. Completion of a Process Paper at the end of each semester is required. 0.0 credits. Fall & Spring semester. -
CFA TH 101: Introduction to the Study of Theatre and Performance
This course aims to acquaint students to theory and practice related to performance, dramatic literature, and theatre history and studies. On successful completion of this class, students will aesthetically and ethically explore artistic work relying on critical thinking and analytical acumen. Our study relies on analysis, civil discourse, reading dramatic literature and performance theory, as well as seeing, reading, and experiencing various works addressing identity theory and cultural studies. Required for BFA Theatre Core (Design, Production & Management Core and Performance Core). Open to BU Community. 3.0 credits. Fall semester. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Critical Thinking. Effective Fall 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Critical Thinking. -
CFA TH 104: Dramatic Literature 1: Beginnings of Theatre to the Early 19th Century
Undergraduate Prerequisites: First-Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 120). - This course investigates dramatic texts and performance dating back to ancient India and Greece through the early nineteenth century, within local and global social, artistic, and political contexts. Special emphasis will be placed on tracing the transnational movement and dissemination of dramatic texts and artistic ideas, as well as methods of interpretation. Students will investigate material historically and historiographically. Required for BFA Theatre Core. Open to BU Community. 4.0 credits. Spring semester. Effective Spring 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU HUB areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking. -
CFA TH 111: Voice and Speech 1: Experiencing Voice
This course will explore sensing, freeing and developing the voice as a deep feature of the self and as a fundamental tool of the actor. This course provides a progression of exercises exploring vocal identity, how the voice works, self-observation, relaxation vs. tension, physical awareness, breath, sound, freeing the channel, releasing the voice from the body, self-expression, interpersonal communication, and autobiographical storytelling. Required for BFA Performance Core. 2.0 credits. Fall semester. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Oral and.or Signed Communication. -
CFA TH 114: Voice & Speech 2: Exploring Voice
Prereq: CFA TH 111 or permission of instructor. Having embarked on connecting the voice with one's own words and experience, poetic texts will now be introduced that make a demand on the vitality of the voice and imagination in communicating a wider range of experience. We will continue to free and strengthen the voice through the development of the resonators, breath, power, range, and articulation. Through "Sound and Movement" explorations, students will learn to activate new pathways through which intention, voice, and breath can travel, unifying work in acting, movement, and voice. Students will learn to recognize and activate individual sounds as building blocks of embodied language. Required for BFA Performance Core. 2.0 credits. Spring semester. -
CFA TH 120: Acting & Performance 1
Acting is behaving believably in imaginary circumstances. This course will explore techniques to hone the imagination through improvisations, play, and imagination. Students will learn to clarify dramatic action, understand given circumstances, and notice sensory perceptions through physical, vocal, and emotional exercises. Students will work with monologues and scenes to develop believable actions in performance. The core to learning acting is generosity, simplicity, specificity, and focus. Specific approach may vary by instructor, consult course syllabus for most detailed breakdown of class mission. Open to BU Community. 4.0 credits. Fall & Spring semesters. -
CFA TH 121: Acting 1: Personal Approach to Acting
Explores individuality through relaxation, imagination, and improvisation. Builds pathways to physical and emotional awareness, and clarity of thought. Develops an awareness of inner impulses and how to make them the basis for spontaneous interaction with others. Reading and journal of will lead to the culmination of end-of-semester projects under faculty supervision. Required for BFA Performance Core. 3.0 credits. Fall semester. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Creativity/Innovation. -
CFA TH 124: Acting 2: Intro to Scene Study
Prereq: CFA TH 121 or permission of instructor. Building upon the foundational acting course in Theater Ensemble, this course shifts to the exploration of the individual role of the actor within the overall theater-making process. Students will gradually move from improvisation into the interpretation of the written text through an organic integration of self and theatrical storytelling elements. Exploring the text of various plays adhering to the cultural and historical significance, students will learn a shared vocabulary to enhance their ability to analyze and critique theatre's art form by reading and viewing theatrical productions. Required for BFA Performance Core. 3.0 credits. Spring semester. Effective Spring 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Aesthetic Exploration. -
CFA TH 131: Movement 1: Expressive Human Instrument
An experiential and explorative practicum that will allow each practitioner to engage with the authentic and artistic potential of their physical body-- beginning on a journey to embrace how movement can be embodied as an expressive channel for their "inner landscape"--their thoughts, feelings, images, sensations, dreams and expressive colors. The course will curiously embrace locating expressive entry points via introduction and understanding of foundational movement language, preparation mindset via structured warming- up development and beginning to transport and physically radiate imaginative and authentic thoughts. The inspiration for the course is focused on what it means to begin to embody a J.O.Y--Journey of Youth--mindset. Required for BFA Performance Core. 2.0 credits. Fall Semester. -
CFA TH 134: S24: Movement 2: The Expressive Human Instrumentalist
Pre-req: CFA TH 131 or permission of instructor. An immersive practicum experience that will allow each practitioner to continue to engage and explore the essential and artistic potential of the physical body. Building on the release of habitual patterns from CFA TH131 Movement 1, and fusing elements from an amalgamation of movement practices and techniques, the experience emphasizes imagery application, impulses, risk taking, stamina, release and suppleness, centering, and multi-dimensionality. The actor-artist body is learning its human instrument of expression in a stimulating environment of engagement through identity with the language of movement via the channel of physical "Play." Required for BFA Performance Core. 2.0 credits. Spring semester. Effective Spring 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Creativity/Innovation. -
CFA TH 136: Theatre Collaboration 1: Equitable and Inclusive Theatre Practice
In this course, students will actively engage in equitable and inclusive theatre-making practices. Equitable and Inclusive theatre practice will serve as a foundation for students as they strengthen their kinesthetic awareness and stage composition skills as well as collaboratively engage in writing, improvisatory, and devising exercises to form and present dramatic material as creative teams of performers, directors, writers, dramaturgs, and designers. Required for BFA Theatre Core (Design, Production & Management Core and Performance Core). 2.0 credits. Spring semester. Effective Spring 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU HUB area: Teamwork/Collaboration. -
CFA TH 139: 20th Century Dance History
An introduction to the people, events and masterworks that shaped the development of dance in the twentieth century. Course includes lectures, viewing videos and films, select readings and discussions. Course does not presuppose a technical knowledge of dance. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Aesthetic Exploration. -
CFA TH 142: Somatic Practice 1
This course will introduce the Alexander Technique as a somatic practice for the actor - or practice for the body. Principles of the Alexander Technique will develop students' kinesthetic sense and self-observation skills. Students will learn to embody support and how that influences movement so they can occupy their bodies more fully in performance settings. Students will also learn to deal with the effects of stress and performance anxiety. Required for BFA Performance Core. 1.0 credit. Spring semester. -
CFA TH 146: Artists in Community 1
Artists in Community is a course that follows the student throughout their time at BU SOT and places them with their peers and colleagues for communication, learning, sharing, and giving back. It is the single time when all Students, Faculty and Staff can come together in a room. The four-year progression of this course supports the student journey in finding their creative voice, discovering community, and acknowledging their personal impact on the world. This course progression will engage the student as an artist who has a role to play in responding to and shaping the future of the art form by taking on topics such as local, national, and global issues in theater, emerging practices in the profession at large, and what it means to foster a sustainable and meaningful life in the arts. Required for BFA Performance Core. 1.0 credit. Spring semester. -
CFA TH 157: Introduction to Design 1: Storytelling and Collaboration for Live Performance
This course introduces students to design through a focus on the origins and history of Storytelling in all regions of the world and how storytelling developed into the Theatrical Art forms of drama, dance, and music. In addition to and concurrently, we will discuss how collaboration in the Theatre is practiced and nourished and how collaborative relationships are developed and formed. Required for BFA Design, Production & Management Core. 3.0 credits. Fall semester. Effective Fall 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Creativity/Innovation. -
CFA TH 158: Introduction to Design 2: 2D & 3D Design Fundamentals
Prereq: CFA TH 157. Students will develop their individual artistic voice and approach to the creative process utilizing the fundamentals of the Seven Principles of Design in 2D & 3D visual design as well as their application in digital and multimedia. The class will also introduce how these design principles apply to the traditional design elements used in theatre: Scenic, Costume, Lighting, and Sound. Through individual and group design projects, students will explore the visual and the conceptual nature of design and utilize peer and instructor critique to hone visual, aural, and oral communication skills. Required for BFA Design, Production & Management Core. 3.0 credits. Spring semester. Effective Spring 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, Digital/Multimedia Expression.
