A journey through movement, connecting the basic principles of movement techniques, such as Ballet, Horton, Graham, Jazz, and Musical Theatre to apply to an actor's body and the physical creation of a character.
The course will focus on how we make/develop new plays with the evolving text at the center of the process.
The course will come at this from different angles and take a close look at the roles of different people/disciplines in the room, giving attention to each. Michael, I haven’t singled out the SM’s here, so I could use some guidance on where/when we might do at least part of a session on their contributions to a new play room.
The course will be in two rounds, not three, leaving longer for each group to work together, and room to discuss different facets of working on a new play.
Round 1 will be drawn from a play that playwrights are already working on of any length. But they will only PRESENT PART of it at the end of the round.
Round 2 will be based on a prompt and written FOR and ON the actors in the class, or each other if we need non-actors to act.
Class time will be used for discussions/panels/guests and even maybe some reading assignments around specific topics/concerns, followed by opportunities to either rehearse with actors in the afternoon, or present specific material/text, etc.
The presentations in both rounds will be strictly limited to 15 minutes of material. In the first round, this may be a portion of a play in progress. In round 2, I will ask them to write complete very short (10 min) plays. The teams may present Round 1 in any form they wish - reading, staged reading, on or off book, fully staged scene. Round 2 must be up on its feet and off book, though minimally teched.
As you can see, the actors and stage managers would be called in to class on certain days only (mostly afternoons).
In this class, we will build up the actor’s physical and mental muscles via exercises, games, and assignments that rediscover uncensored child-like wonder. We will attempt to relax our brains, open up our hearts and move our bodies with great pleasure together, which will cultivate an intrinsic appetite for an open, vulnerable, generous, ferocious, playful, rigorous, surprising and impulsive presence. This state of flow, hopefully, will be able to find its rightful place in any role and in any medium you pursue.
Most of this semester will be spent on exercises in pursuit of your unique individual clowns as we necessarily soften and shed physical and emotional holds by inviting a sense of play and imagination. These exercises will gradually allow your latent clown-within (i.e. your talent / humanity) to show up in the room. Towards the end of this introductory class, we will encounter the smallest mask on earth – the Red Nose! – which not only doesn't mask, but instead draws attention to and magnifies YOU.
We will invite your generous openness, ferocious abandon, insistent honesty and gleeful mischief to make a larger footprint in your work, so the top layer of the iceberg that is your socially-conditioned selves can slowly melt away. You will sweat. You will make songs. You will listen deeper and harder. You will be engaged and relaxed at the same time. You will release some glorious ha-ha’s and emotional wa-wa’s into the ether. This all will be silly. You will make something disastrous and messy. You will confront fears and conjure bravery. You will make something wonderful and surprising – as you unearth the engine behind all that makes you interesting, that which makes you authentic. What makes you YOU. Your clown – the one and only.
The scenes selected for study and practice will come from dramatic works by playwrights of the 20th and 21st centuries. For the most part these writers will be American dramatists, but exceptions may sometimes be made. The scenes being used are assigned by the instructor, sometimes by way of suggestions by the student, if the student has a particular interest in a specific writer or character. Three scenes are presented each class. Each scene will be able to work with the teacher for approximately 50 minutes. The emphasis of the working session is on process, methods of rehearsal, engagement of body and voice, employment of principles of craft, and self-analysis.
We will use the experience of writing a piece with built-in constraints – cast size with a solo show – to expand our thinking about what is a theatrical event. We will work toward becoming more in touch with our imaginations and in greater awareness and command of what we know. We will explore what is of interest to each of us now, through in-class writing and outside assignments.
The Spring Semester will provide the opportunity for each student to hone their play through further drafts into a finished work. Students will serve as dramaturges for each other. The semester will end with presentations of the completed plays. Each presentation is the responsibility of the author and their dramaturge.
Theatre Games to access, release into and foster playfulness. Through games, students build a foundation for curiosity and boldness. Students learn to listen to their creative instincts as an aid to dissolving self-judgment. Games are played in a bare room and out of nothing more than our imaginations.
A course description will be forthcoming.
In this course, students will continue an exploration of their Idiolects in relationship to both extemporaneous and heightened texts through class and small group work that focuses on audibility, clarity, resonance, vocal dynamics by way of imaginative activation, articulation and ownership. The objective of this course is for students to activate their speech in such a way that it ignites and expands both their imaginations and their capacity to communicate language with honesty. They will experience a full and balanced sound that is neither pushed nor half-baked, neither rushed nor indulgent, and fill space onstage and in the world with their voice and their presence. Students will also hone their skills of self-observation, offer useful feedback and take ownership of and interpret a variety of texts to be expressed on vibration.
In this course, students will continue their individual development of
greater ownership
, expression and embodiment of heightened (mostly Shakespeare’s) text. The objective of this course is for students to practice landing heightened text with honesty and clarity, uniting the Givens and the Imaginatives. “It’s not about making it right, it’s about making it ALIVE.”
Students will:
(Continue to) refine their articulation skills via a strong working knowledge of the IPA and corresponding Lexical Sets
Dance along the fine line between control and freedom of their muscles of articulation in order to share complicated thoughts and speak heightened language with invisible technique
Unpack and investigate texts in order to marry structure with meaning
Interpret texts with Musiclarity – the musicality of the language supporting the clarity of the thought
Play with passion, curiosity, specificity and
humanity.
Voice and Alexander Technique II deepens and expands the work we did in Voice and Alexander Technique I. This continuing course presupposes that you have continued our work in your daily practice and in your other classes and have begun to develop clarity around the inner structure of the body which is your physical and vocal support. Our work this term will help you develop a solid vocal technique, a body that is strong, open and free, and a mind which is clear and focused.
TBD
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Musicals, especially those that have traditionally originated on Broadway, are complex pieces of machinery that are designed to produce a variety of energies in the theater. When taken collectively, those energies constitute the aesthetic of the experience. As with plays, stage managers are charged with coordinating all of a musical’s production elements. However, stage managers should also be able to view a musical from every angle; that is, read it intelligently and analyze it dramatically so they can accurately gauge their contribution to the overall aesthetic. This course seeks to provide stage managers with a customized template to do that: in other words, how to connect what’s on the page and the stage to their own standard methodologies, cue calling, and the CEO/COO perspective. In the contemporary professional landscape, these are important tools that will help them optimize their work on musicals.
TBD
This class, will primarily focus on the challenges of interpreting and performing Shakespeare.
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In the collaborative world of theatre, the director is at the helm. We, as stage managers, support the director’s creative process from rehearsals through opening night. What happens when the director leaves and turns over the maintenance of the production to the stage manager? This course will help give you the tools to meet that challenge. Beginning with rehearsals, how do we best observe directors so that we can understand and preserve their vision? In preparation for working with the cast, we will discuss the various acting methods. How do we prepare our script to direct cast replacements, incorporating script analysis and acting beats. We will also review the basics of directing and identify the most influential directors now, and in recent history.
The function of a stage manager in the process of a musical – through the use of technological advances. This class will be an in-depth examination of how modern stage management contributes to this process through the implementation of seminal methodologies. Focus will be placed on how digital platforms can be used to support this process from beginning to end.
This class will focus on ideas, thoughts, perceptions of who you are within this business, your self awareness within this business and your position as a leader or potential leader and helpful approaches to your career once you graduate from Columbia.
Think of the class as a resource for what you will encounter once you step “into the business” practically and philosophically. We will also explore many universal ideas that revolve around stage management practices. Many times one may think, “I don’t want to talk about it, I just want to do it”, but let us look at our discussions and the information shared, as information to be filed for your use now or later.
The art of negotiation is a critical skill for stage managers to develop. Conflict resolution, communication, and collaboration are all aspects of theater that require negotiation on many levels. This course will explore these concepts and apply them to the real-world atmospheres in which stage managers must navigate these challenges effectively. Contemporary management texts, role-playing, guest speakers, and lectures/class discussion will illuminate the importance of negotiation as a tool that will be required of all stage managers no matter where they choose to work.
The course will acquaint the student with the history, current realities and evolving direction of the American not-for-profit professional theatre. Through materials and discussion both theoretical and practical, as well as distinguished guests from the field, the class will explore present-day challenges and opportunities related to theatre institutions, artists, audiences and public support. The class will also investigate the intersection between the not-for-profit theatre field, American culture and larger societal forces.
The intent of the course is to equip the student with a multifaceted perspective on the past, present and future evolution of the field. Students are encouraged to make the class their own through the shared exploration of individual areas of interest, ideas, questions and the challenge to brainstorm the future. The course is also intended to expand understanding of the field from a values-based orientation, including both organizational and personal values.
In the theatre, people are your greatest asset (and often the biggest expense in your budget). A good understanding of Human Resources, labor relations and collective bargaining is critical for any successful venture, organization or production. In this course, we will cover theory and law behind these topics and tackle practical application of the concepts in our unique employment environment. We will do simulation work on some of the most common challenges in labor and bargaining, all which will require coordination with your classmates in and out of class. Given the rapid pace of change in these areas, topics below are subject to change.
Blk Design is an interdisciplinary course that engages the methodologies of design ideation and improvisation to acknowledge, analyze and disturb the current systems of Theater Making. In this course we will craft new visionary futures to reframe artists as designers, re-situate our relationality to art-making as social practice, and build containers to hold our new processes. We will look through the archives of blk radical traditions in theater especially the Black Arts Movement + Hip Hop Theater Movement, engage queer + feminist scholarship, and study community design models to aid us in our framework building. Monthly, we will host a design/ futurist writers room session hosted by Guest Makers across the design/art industry and at the end of the course, we will build a digital futurist archive space to house our learnings- viewpoints- ideas- new frameworks.
TBD
This class is specifically designed to give the 3rd year student an opportunity to learn how to create their own work in a safe and structured environment. The work will be broken into 7 parts and 10 classes.