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 405: Classical Theatre Through a Contemporary Lens
Prereq: CAS 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. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU HUB areas: Research and Information Literacy, Writing-Intensive. -
CFA TH 406: Contemporary Theatre
Prereq: CAS WR 120 -This discussion course explores the most current trends in theatre from the United States and United Kingdom, with particular attention paid to the voices of African-American, Asian-American, Disabled, Feminist, Gay, and Lesbian playwrights, as well as to plays that break the standard molds of realism and naturalism. The course pairs close reading and analysis with other dramaturgical methods in order to provide students with intellectual depth and practical skill for the professional theatre. Attendance of selected performances at B.U. and in Boston-at-large is required. Effective Spring 2025, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU HUB areas: The Individual in Community. -
CFA TH 410: Musical Theatre Performance Lab
Prereq: CFA TH310 This course is a laboratory space where students present performance material at class meetings. Topics for this course will concentrate on polishing the acting-through-song skills developed through the preceding musical theatre courses and applying them to advanced performance scenarios. This course requires additional work outside of class time. -
CFA TH 413: Costume Rendering 1
This course will take students through elevated practices used to become proficient in costume rendering. By participating in all exercises, students become more confident, capable artists with the ability to draw dynamic costume renderings. This will serve to elevate conceptual design ideas with an emphasis on verbal presentation and compelling, advanced drawing techniques. Renderings will be treated as informational tools and a useful addition in facilitating discussions with fellow designers and directors. Students should find that with continued practice of the skills learned in this class they will achieve greater individual expression enhancing advanced research used in the costume design process. Meets with CFA TH633. -
CFA TH 414: Costume Rendering 2
Building on the work in CFA TH413 Costume Rendering 1, this course will take students through elevated practices used to become proficient in costume rendering. By participating in all exercises, students become more confident, capable artists with the ability to draw dynamic costume renderings. This will serve to elevate conceptual design ideas with an emphasis on verbal presentation and compelling, advanced drawing techniques. Renderings will be treated as informational tools and a useful addition in facilitating discussions with fellow designers and directors. Students should find that with continued practice of the skills learned in this class they will achieve greater individual expression enhancing advanced research used in the costume design process. Meets with CFA TH634. -
CFA TH 415: Embodied Skills Lab 1
Prereq: CFA TH 331 Synthesizing skill sets embraced throughout the Voice, Movement and the Somatic Practice trajectory within a collaborative and shared space, this course invites the actor to explore their authentic, expressive, and imaginative instrument to support their identity as an embodied, creative artist and human being. -
CFA TH 416: Embodied Skills Lab 2
Prereq: CFA TH 415 Building on the work of Embodied Skills Lab 1, this course invites the actor to deepen, own, and trust the foundational and developmental practices explored throughout the trajectory of Voice and Speech, Movement and Somatic Practice. -
CFA TH 417: Extreme Acting: Unarmed Stage Violence
Pre-req: CFA TH 134. - Students will learn techniques to tell stories of unarmed stage violence. They will gain the necessary knowledge to choreograph and act moments of stage fighting while maintaining both safety and a fully embodied commitment. -
CFA TH 418: Extreme Acting: Armed Stage Violence
Pre-Req: TH 417. In this course students will learn the necessary technique and skill to perform armed combat safely by exploring various weapon styles. By building off of skills learned during Extreme Acting: Unarmed, combat students will learn the safety standards for armed combat while integrating it into their acting. This course will start by exploring swordplay and seeing how it translates to other weapons. -
CFA TH 420: Acting 6: On Camera
Prereq: CFA TH 221 Advanced laboratory course that explores the intersection of artistry, technology, and presence in screen performance and provides an immersive training experience in acting for the camera—emphasizing process, authenticity, and self-sufficiency. Students learn to live truthfully within the cinematic frame, balancing impulse and composition, imagination and precision, presence and professionalism. Through weekly lab sessions, actors perform, record, and review their work using professional and DIY digital equipment, gaining real-time awareness of how behavior, rhythm, and framing tell story. Effective Fall 2026, this course fulfills a single requirement in each of the following BU Hub areas: 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 433: Senior Showcase 1
Prereq: CFA TH 221. This class prepares the actor for the senior acting showcase of scenes, monologues and songs for the graduating senior BFA acting students and senior BFA Theatre Arts acting students. The live showcase will be attended by members of the industry in New York and Boston, and the digital component of the showcase will be viewed by members of the industry in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities. -
CFA TH 434: Senior Showcase 2
Prereq: CFA TH 433 Continuation of CFA TH 433 Showcase 1. This class prepares the actor for the senior acting showcase of scenes, monologues and songs for the graduating senior BFA acting students and senior Theatre Arts acting students. The live showcase will be attended by members of the industry in New York and Boston, and the digital component of the showcase will be viewed by members of the industry in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities. -
CFA TH 435: Senior Capstone Project Development
Prereq: CFA TH 136 Students will continue to develop, refine, and finally present in performance their own culminating final project that synthesizes key practices they have acquired during their course of study, with an eye toward what their art means in the wider professional landscape. -
CFA TH 441: Directing Colloquium: Senior Capstone Project Development
Prereq: CFA TH 327 Projects with undergraduate theatre majors in plays of various lengths. Focus is on preparation for rehearsal and on rehearsal process. Recommended for students pursuing directing work in CFA TH 435 Senior Capstone Project Development. -
CFA TH 444: Directing colloquium: Senior Capstone Project
Prereq: CFA TH 441. Projects with undergraduate theatre majors in plays of various lengths. Focus is on preparation for rehearsal and on rehearsal process. Recommended for students pursuing directing work in CFA TH 450 Senior Capstone Project. -
CFA TH 445: Artist Community 5
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 Performance 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. -
CFA TH 446: Artist Community 6
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 Performance 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. -
CFA TH 450: Senior Capstone Project
Prereq: CFA TH 136 A significant culminating final project that synthesizes key practices that the student has acquired during their course of study, with an eye toward what their art means in the wider professional landscape. The project is chosen with approval of the faculty mentor and presented in a public exhibition or performance on a schedule established by the School of Theatre. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Teamwork/Collaboration. -
CFA TH 455: History of Period Styles 3
Prereq: Instructor Consent; A survey covering the history of social, political and cultural movements and the expressions of those movements through architecture, interior decoration, furniture and dress in major civilizations. Work involves research projects and presentations. 2.0 credits. Fall semester.
