Courses
The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.
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CFA TH 391: Vectorworks 1
Prereq: CFA TH 173 or permission of instructor. Introduction to Computer Aided Drafting program Vectorworks and its application to theatrical drafting. Basic terminology, plate organization and technical drafting for Lighting and Sound designers. Drafting elective requirement variable for BFA Design, Production & Management Core. 2.0 credits. Spring semester. -
CFA TH 392: Vectorworks 2
Prerequisite: CFA TH 391 or permission of instructor. Advanced work in Vectorworks CAD; permission rating on the use of Spotlight as it applies to drafting light plots and related lighting paperwork. 2.0 credits. Fall semester. -
CFA TH 397: Production
Prereq: CFA TH 298; Junior Design & Production BFA candidates; students register for appropriate section based on Production assignment. 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 398: Production
Prereq: CFA TH 397; Junior Design & Production BFA candidates; students register for appropriate section based on Production assignment. 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 399: Stage Management 3: Types & Styles
Prereq: CFA TH 299 or Permission of Instructor. Stage Management 3: Types & Styles examines approaches to leadership, management, communication, critical thinking, and ethics for the stage manager. Through the lens of the artful application of these skills to the different types of live performance the stage manager may encounter, such as new works, musicals, opera, dance, and event work, students will strengthen and hone their personal stage management style. This course requires additional work outside of class time for engagement in practice-based exercises and rehearsal/performance observations. Fall Semester. 3.0 credits. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Critical Thinking. -
CFA TH 403: Advanced Playwriting
Prereq: CFA TH 303 or consent of instructor; Students will learn the art of developing an early stage first draft into a production ready final rehearsal draft. Run like an intensive development workshop, this is where the most intensive, and arguably, most satisfying work will begin. Students learn the nuts and bolts of massaging a play: fleshing out characters, streamlining action, refining dialogue and finessing structure. Playwrights will also learn about the expectations and strategies for productive collaborative in-process relationships with actors, directors and dramaturges. This class is required for writers intending to produce original works for BFA Thesis. 3.0 credits. Fall semester. -
CFA TH 405: Classical Theatre Through a Contemporary Lens
Undergraduate prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120). - Explores and applies contemporary theories, ideas, and research to canonical works of theatre. Considers how race, gender, identity, nationality, structure, and politics consort in the making, production, distribution, reception, and legacy of classic works. Students learn to approach theatre as a dramaturg/scholar would: by reading texts and generating writing and projects with a theatrical sensibility, asking rigorous questions of all. 4.0 credits. Fall semester. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU HUB areas: Writing-Intensive, Research and Information Literacy. -
CFA TH 411: Voice & Speech 4: Thesis Development
Prereq: TH 311; Continuation in development of vocal instrument, workshops in special topics and individual coaching in support of actor's performance in productions. 2.0 credits. Fall semester. -
CFA TH 412: Voice & Speech 4: Thesis Application
Prereq: CFA TH411; Continuation in development vocal instrument, workshops in special topics and individual coaching in support of actor's performance in productions. 2.0 credits. Spring semester. -
CFA TH 419: Music Theatre Performance Lab
Prereq: CFA TH218 or CFA TH317 or consent of the instructor; This course will focus on singing as storytelling, as a powerful means of self-expression brought to the context of a professional audition. The first half of the course will be an exploration of repertoire, and musicality as well as material that the individual is drawn to and best suits their essence. The second half of the course, students will hone audition skills, as well as interpretative and musicianship skill sets. They will work more closely exploring specific points of view and perspective. Students will learn to choose appropriate audition material, preparing music for an accompanist, and mock auditions. Students will leave with a repertoire book of material that has been developed throughout their time in the program. 3.0 credits. Fall Semester -
CFA TH 421: Acting 4: Thesis Development
Prereq: CFA TH 321; Experience in the application of techniques to define and fulfill the actor's work in terms of form and content as required by the play and its performance. 2.0 credits. Fall semester. -
CFA TH 422: Acting 4: Professional Lifetime Skills
Prereq: CFA TH421; For Senior Acting Majors or by instructor's permission. Focus on synthesizing the actor's training into the practical and artistic tools necessary to work creatively and collaboratively in the profession. Includes deepening and integrating skills in auditions, readings, and rehearsal process, as well as panel discussions on the business of theatre. 3.0 credits. Spring semester. Effective Spring 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, Creativity/Innovation. -
CFA TH 425: Acting: Shakespeare
Prereq: Consent of instructor; Begins with personalization of the text, learning how to speak from one's own life experience. Explores connection between breath and thought/feeling. Then moves on to intellectual and technical demands, treating text more analytically, focusing on comprehension, inflection, dynamics and rhythm. Text will include sonnets, monologues and scenes. 2.0 credits. Fall semester. -
CFA TH 427: Theatre Ensemble 4: Thesis Development
Prereq: CFA TH 227 or CFA TH 228 or CFA TH 327; This course serves as the culminating experience for senior Theatre Arts majors. The course involves the process of selecting a thesis project, choosing partners with whom to collaborate, then coming together as an ensemble to determine the process for producing the projects in the spring semester. Topics include developing a company mission, goals and priorities, as well as fundraising and marketing. Part one of a two semester-long course. Required all senior BFA Theatre Arts majors. 3.0 credits. Fall semester. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Teamwork/Collaboration. -
CFA TH 428: Senior Thesis: Theatre Arts
Prereq: CFA TH 427, plus prior academic experience in directing, choreography, or playwriting depending on the individual focus of a student's thesis project participation. Students form a company to present a festival of plays at the end of the semester. Thesis work can focus on playwriting, producing, directing, dramaturgy, or performance and project collaboration is strongly encouraged. 3.0 credits. Spring semester. -
CFA TH 429: Understanding the Camera
Introductory on-camera acting class providing the actor with fundamental building blocks to transition from theater to cinematic performance seamlessly. Through structured hands-on, learn by doing experience we aim to demystify the medium of television and film. This course deconstructs various on-camera techniques that allow the actor to explore and develop their own unique process. The actor will explore awareness of Self, type, range while learning the technical and design elements required for working in front of the camera relaxed and truthful, developing an intimacy with the camera. Effective Fall 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Digital/Multimedia Expression. -
CFA TH 430: Professional Theatre Initiative Lab
PTI Lab introduces students to the many aspects of professional theatre practices as an actor, including but not limited to best practices, next practices, industry norms, agents, managers, unions, auditioning, casting, health, goal setting, financial planning, equity, diversity and inclusion in the field, and community building through ongoing conversations with working artists in the field. Effective Fall 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: The Individual in Community. -
CFA TH 431: Movement 4: Thesis Development
Prereq: CFA TH 331; Explorations of physical theatre, choreography, and movement styles for non-verbal requirement of BFA Acting thesis. -
CFA TH 432: Movement 4: Commedia dell'Arte
Prereq: Permission of instructor; Commedia dell'Arte: Introduction to the 16th and 17th century form of Italian street theatre based on improvised scenarios. Actors explore the stock characters of the old men, lovers, servants, and warriors, and learn techniques for mask transformations and physical comedy. 1.0 credit -
CFA TH 437: Alexander Technique 4: The Actor's Consciousness
Prereq: CFA TH 337; In-depth study of Carl Stough's breathing coordination principles. Continue to develop skills to understand what is the actor's consciousness and what is character's consciousness. Private coaching and hands on scene work to attain high-level performance techniques. 1.0 credit. Fall semester.
