School of Theatre

• CFA TH 297: Production
  Prereq: CFA TH 198; Sophomore 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 298: Production
  Prereq: CFA TH 297; Sophomore 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 299: Stage Management 2
  Prereq: CFA TH 194 or Permission of Instructor. Building on the foundational stage management skills introduced in CFA TH194, this course continues an exploration into the role of the stage manager and the assistant stage manager in their facilitation of the design, rehearsal, and production process. Topics include production paperwork, creative problem solving, collaboration, communication, and team management for the stage manager. Fall Semester. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Teamwork/Collaboration. 3.0 credits. Ef
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  • Teamwork/Collaboration
• CFA TH 303: Playwriting 1
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: First-Year Writing (WR 120 or equivalent)
  Prereq: 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. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Creativity/Innovation.
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  • Creativity/Innovation
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• 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, iambic 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 Music and Dramatic Art.
• 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 317: Music Theatre Performance Skills 3: Scene Study
  The focus of this course is developing and strengthening the individual singer's connection to song, freedom and repertoire with a focus on the physical and external potential of the actor. The voice will learn to adapt to a variety of styles, while deepening the actor's connection to his/her inner life. Attention will also be paid to the composition style, intention and notation. We are looking to find meaningful interplay of content and form, and increase specificity of thought and authenticity of experience. Ensemble scene work will be explored, transitioning the individual singer-actor from text to song and a larger whole. Different eras and styles within the music theatre canon will be explored. 3.0 credits. Fall Semester
• 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 Music and Dramatic Art.
• 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 Music and Dramatic Art.
• 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 Moliere 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 and either CFA TH 227 or CFA TH 228 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 'The Director's Project,' an presentation of short plays acted and directed (and, when feasible, written) by students. Those wishing to direct must be concurrently registered in CFA TH 341. 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 interdisciplinary thrust of the program. Depending on visiting faculty and ongoing 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: 360 Physical Storytelling
  Prereq: CFA TH232 or consent of the instructor; Inspired by the genre of black and white silent film, where expressive movement was paramount, this course is an immersive amalgamation of movement practices, styles and ideas to develop an ecstatic, informed, imaginative and truthful actor as artist- transitioning the actor into an artistic movement instrument with the ability to transcend through physical storytelling. 2.0 credits TH Only, Junior Act, Permission Req for Junior TA; Fall 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 Music and Dramatic Art.
• CFA TH 337: Alexander Technique 3: Shakespeare
  Prereq: CFA TH 238; Focus on Alexander Technique and Shakespeare, including: organic iambic pentameter movement, dynamics of status, intensity with less tension, and responding to inner and outer environment consciously. 1.0 credit. Fall semester.
• CFA TH 338: Historic Dance - LAMDA
  Utilizing the foundation of movement, students will develop an understanding of the dances and social background of the Elizabethan period, the 17th through the 19th Centuries with sessions devoted to Flamenco. Students will develop spatial awareness, period empathy with respect to the techniques, poise and deportment, as well as achieving a recognition of poor posture, muscular tension, and release of energy and anxiety levels in a constructive way. Styles of dance including commedia dell'arte, court dance, and other period forms will be explored. 3.0 credits. Spring semester. Course offered through the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.