Courses

• CFA TH 293: Stage Management Skills Lab
  Prereq: CFA TH 194 or consent of instructor; Addresses common forms of stage management paperwork, computer skills, problem solving, union rules, familiarity with various theaters and forms of theater and beginnings of team management. 0.5 credits. Fall semester.
• CFA TH 297: Production
  Prereq: CFA TH 198; Each semester that a sophomore Design & Production BFA candidate is in residence at SOT, he/she is required to enroll in an appropriate section of Production. Meets late afternoons, evenings and/or weekends. Specific design and shop work in the mounting of student or professional productions. Does not include off-crew design work. Fall semester.
• CFA TH 298: Production
  Prereq: CFA TH 297; Each semester that a sophomore Design & Production BFA candidate is in residence at SOT, he/she is required to enroll in an appropriate section of Production. Meets late afternoons, evenings and/or weekends. Specific design and shop work in the mounting of student or professional productions. Does not include off-crew design work. Spring semester.
• CFA TH 303: Playwriting 1
  Prereq: CFA TH 203, CFA TH 204, CFA TH 227, CFA TH 228 or consent of instructor; Run like an intensive development workshop, this class offers students an introduction to the practice of playwriting through the exploration of dramatic texts and writing exercises. Students will develop writing processes conducive to accessing an authentic voice, rendering interesting characters, and building character relationships. Students should also develop a refined awareness of their artistic power to shape and control a theatrical reality. Students interested in developing original plays for thesis productions are encouraged to register. 3.0 credits. Fall semester.
• CFA TH 311: Voice & Speech 3: Classical Voice
  Prereq: CFA TH 212; An exploration of a variety of approaches to Shakespeare's text, with an attempt to unify form and content. Developing and strengthening the voice and exploring the anatomy of language. Vowels and consonants, words and images, phrasing, and the intelligent orchestration of these components into overall meaning. The figures of speech, iamic pentameter, rhythm, line endings, verse and prose. 2.0 credits. Fall semester.
• CFA TH 312: Voice & Speech - LAMBDA
  Students will develop an understanding of vocal anatomy and physiology (with particular reference to the organs of speech), an understanding of the International Phonetic Alphabet and Cardinal Vowels, as well as analysis of their own accents. In addition, students will develop knowledge and practice of Stage Standard English (Received Pronunciation), release of unhelpful vocal tension, develop an understanding of clear articulation, and the ability to phonetically transcribe nonsense words. 3.0 credits. Spring semester. Course offered through the London Academy of Dramatic Arts.
• CFA TH 314: Voice & Performance – AREZZO
  This course is designed for the student who is engaged in the specific demands of physical theatre and masked performance. The student actor will be led through a carefully guided but very thorough vocal and physical warm-up, right up to performance. A series of rigorous exercises and improvisations will stimulate the students' integration of voice, body and imagination and will extend the boundaries of vocal potential to explore the monstrous, the grotesque and the ridiculous. Students will develop greater range, flexibility, sustaining power and emotional presence through concentrating on the sung sound and systematically challenging their boundaries in terms of pitch and quality. 3.0 credits. Spring semester. Course offered through the Accademia dell'Arte.
• CFA TH 315: Musical Theatre Performance Lab 1
  Prereq: CFA TH 215, CFA TH 216 or consent of instructor; Musical Theatre Performance Lab is an advanced performing and coaching class to which singers will bring songs from Musical Theatre for performance, further developing and investigating the ideas of Singing for Actors 1 & 2. Coaching will include attention to the combination of vocal and acting skills, text, and style. Focus is on the singer-actor as a song interpreter who may actively experience being fully connected to a song with mind, body, and emotion. 1.0 credit. Fall semester.
• CFA TH 316: Musical Theatre Performance Lab 2
  Prereq: CFA TH 215, CFA TH 216 or consent of instructor; Musical Theatre Performance Lab is an advanced performing and coaching class to which singers will bring songs from Musical Theatre for performance, further developing and investigating the ideas of Singing for Actors 1 & 2. Coaching will include attention to the combination of vocal and acting skills, text, and style. Focus is on the singer-actor as a song interpreter who may actively experience being fully connected to a song with mind, body, and emotion. 1.0 credit. Spring semester.
• CFA TH 320: Advanced Acting & Performance
  Prereq: CFA TH 220 or instructor permission; This course is designed to offer a more advanced and rigorous training sequence for students who have completed both "Acting & Performance 1" and "Acting & Performance 2." The course will include improvisation and scene study to enhance the student's experience of character, onstage relationship, place and event. Scenes from selected plays will provide the material for application of acting rehearsal technique. 4.0 credits.
• CFA TH 321: Acting 3: Shakespeare
  Acting 3: Shakespeare
• CFA TH 322: Acting: Shakespeare - LAMDA
  Students in these courses will develop a sustained focus in class work, rehearsals and scene showings, while learning to translate feelings and experience into characterization. Emphasis is placed on awareness of weight, space and time with respect to character, as well as liberated imagination, to develop freedom to explore a character. Improvisation and short scene study develop awareness of different classical styles of play writing, with research and presentation of different social relationships. 4.0 credits. Spring semester. Course offered through the London Academy of Dramatic Arts.
• CFA TH 323: Advanced Physical Approach to Acting
  Prereq: CFA TH 222 or CFA TH 223; A further examination of a physical approach to acting building upon the work of the previous semesters. Independently motivated investigation of principles in action will be encouraged. The opportunity for each actor to deepen his/her work through continued exploration of psycho-physical connections will arise. Rigorous physical training, object exploration, vocal proposal experimentation, creation and execution of physical action scores. Application to text and character work and the making of a montage in collaboration with fellow actors. 3.0 credits. Fall semester.
• CFA TH 324: Acting: Restoration - LAMDA
  Students in these courses will develop a sustained focus in class work, rehearsals and scene showings, while learning to translate feelings and experience into characterization. Emphasis is placed on awareness of weight, space and time with respect to character, as well as liberated imagination, to develop freedom to explore a character. Improvisation and short scene study develop awareness of different classical styles of play writing, with research and presentation of different social relationships. 3.0 credits. Spring semester. Course offered through the London Academy of Dramatic Arts.
• CFA TH 326: Commedia dell’Arte – AREZZO
  This acting class will develop the practical use of the masks of the stock characters of the Commedia dell'arte. Through work on gesture, voice and movement within a specific socio/historical context, students will explore the characteristics of Arlechino, Zanni, Brighella, Pantalone, Colombina and others, with the intention of developing the student's own personal version of the character. The application of Commedia masks in comic traditions from Goldoni through Gozzi to Molière and Marivaux may also be a feature of this course, depending on faculty. 3.0 credits. Spring semester. Course offered through the Accademia dell'Arte.
• CFA TH 327: Theatre Ensemble 3: Acting/Directing Lab
  Prereq: CFA TH 128 or instructor permission; In this acting/directing workshop, a series of scene assignments and short plays provide students with multiple opportunities to exercise and enhance their rehearsal and performance skills. The course emphasizes diagnosing and addressing rehearsal challenges. The workshop culminates in presentation of an evening of short plays acted and directed (and, when feasible, written) by students know as The Director's Project: An evening of 10-minute plays. 3.0 credits. Fall semester.
• CFA TH 328: Extended Performance Topics – AREZZO
  Designed as an introduction to the methods and aims of physical theatre, this course is a selection of movement and acting options that reflect the inter-disciplinary thrust of the program. Depending on visiting faculty and on-going developments in the program, students will be exposed to techniques that integrally connect to the core substance of the training. 3.0 credits. Spring semester. Course offered through the Accademia dell'Arte.
• CFA TH 330: Philosophy of Art & Performance - AREZZO
  This course brings together the writings of philosophers and the work of artists from a variety of domains. The goal is not to intellectualize art but to understand the intelligence that goes into it, to enrich our experiences of art, and to foster our own creative sensibilities. Students will consider famous writings on art by thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, Schiller, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Breton, Artaud, Eisenstein, Debord, Baudrillard, Foucault and others in relation to important works of literature, theatre, painting, music, architecture and film. 3.0 credits. Spring semester. Course offered through the Accademia dell'Arte.
• CFA TH 331: Movement 3: Armed Combat
  Prereq: CFA TH 232 or consent of instructor; Use of rapier, dagger, broadsword, and quarterstaff in theatrical scenes. 2.0 credits. Spring semester.
• CFA TH 332: Movement - LAMDA
  This course will help students develop group interaction skills, focus skills, physical strength and posture, while encouraging disciplined skills in free movement and suspend and fall. Students will work on stretching, extending and strengthening skills, as well as retention and attention to detail in movement and dance. Further training involves complicit play and understanding of rhythms, interpretive movement improvisation, basic stage combat, technical movement in relation to mime, and comedic character movements. It explores various styles of movement. Further works in Alexander techniques and improvisation supplement the teaching. 3.0 credits. Spring semester. Course offered through the London Academy of Dramatic Arts.

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