This upper-level course will delve into the creation of new musical works for the stage, with an emphasis on music as an essential dramatic language. Students will explore the fundamentals of musical theater songwriting, as well as authentic musical theater writing processes including collaboration, adaptation, developing original story concepts, capturing musical ideas, engaging in dramaturgical discussions, sharing and receiving constructive criticism, rewriting, and presenting in-progress work. Following an introductory unit, students will utilize skills they are developing in class to create, workshop, and share a 3-person mini-musical.

This course develops skills needed to successfully approach all acting styles and centers the actor as a lead creative artist. We will concentrate on how the voice, body, and imagination can build a performance. The goal is fluency in these tools, stronger stage presence, and collaborative rehearsal skills. Each class is made up of individual and ensemble-based physical and vocal exercises to bolster creative thinking and to ready the body and voice for performance. We will find inspiration in readings and short performance texts. Students will leave the semester with a strong foundation for further acting courses or projects in all genres.

An exploration of theatrical sound design and engineering, this class will explore sound for both theater and music theater. We will investigate text from the point of view of sound, and learn how to communicate the ideas, palette and arc of a design to others. We will explore developing a creative process and turning our ideas into sounds that can be used onstage.

This course immerses students in the dynamic world of South African physical theatre. Through full-body training, improvisation, and ensemble work, students explore movement as protest, storytelling, and community-building. Inspired by Lecoq's teachings of the four core elements namely Earth, Air, Fire and Water; we will dive into building a performance vocabulary based on gesture, rhythm, and space. Students create original performances, using the body as the primary text, culminating in a showcase of devised physical theatre work.

This course explores models of producing and collaboration in the performing arts. Students will examine a wide variety of live performance events with a detailed appreciation for what production entails, and will develop an understanding of the aesthetic and values-based choices involved in producing theater.

This course offers an exploration of visual storytelling, research and dramaturgy, combined with a grounding in the practical, collaborative and inclusive skills necessary to create physical environments for live theater making. Students are mentored as designers, directors or project creators on realized projects in our theaters, or on advanced paper projects. Individualized class plans allow students to imagine physical environments for realized and un-realized productions, depending on their area of interest, experience and skill level. Students will see one or two shows off campus, typically in NYC, during the course of the semester

Students will work with professional director Nikoo Mamdoohi and scholar Q-Mars Haeri in exploration and rehearsals towards performances of Mohammed Yaghoubi's play A Moment of Silence. The play investigates the impact of the Iranian revolution through the imagination of a writer and charts the recent history of the country through the lives of young people. Performing roles will be cast through Try On Theater process on April 28th, open to students of all backgrounds, with all levels of experience (or none) - please see the theater program website for details. Performances will be held early November in the Berlind Theater.