THEA 80300: Performance and Material Culture (Graduate Center Ph.D. Program)
This course is a conversation between theatrical objects and theories of “things,” i.e., critical frameworks about the role of objects in human experience, cultural practices, and social interactions. Drawing on foundational writing from philosophy and social science, the course will encourage participants to analyze how theatrical things express entangled relationships among matter, environment, and the sensing bodies of participants. Students will apply critical methodologies to the material aspects of performance—theater architectures, sets, costumes, props, masks, and living bodies—in order to reveal the ways in which objects on stage may become agents in memory, power relations, and identity formation. Each week will be devoted to a major critical position, which will be studied alongside a performance text. For instance, we will discuss the body of Christ and medieval Passion drama in the context of iconoclasm, interrogate the plays of Victorien Sardou using tools from Walter Benjamin, contemplate ecologies of nonhuman actors in protest pageants through the writing of Jane Bennett, and enter scholarly debates on theatrical presence by examining digital mediation and representation. The course will address concepts such as materiality, agency, and the ontological status of objects to enrich an understanding of how matter comes to matter on stage.
In addition to seminar discussions, short reading responses, and a 12–15-page research paper, students will attend a live performance event that encourages critical reflection on the materiality of theater. Field work will be documented in a site report and presented orally in class. Critical and philosophic readings may include the works of Plato, Augustine of Hippo, Karl Marx, Constantin Stanislavski, Edward Gordon Craig, Walter Benjamin, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Donna Haraway, Erika Fischer-Lichte, Peggy Phelan, Bernard Tschumi, Andrew Sofer, Bruno Latour, Jane Bennett, Timothy Morton, Graham Harman, Karen Barad, Rosi Braidotti, and Jennifer Parker-Starbuck. We may read the plays and examine productions of William Shakespeare, Anton Chekhov, Susan Glaspell, Samuel Beckett, María Irene Fornés, the Wooster Group, and Jeromy O. Harris, as well as site-specific theatre, performative architecture, and puppetry from around the world.
THE 2280: History of Theatre: Stages and Technology, Interdisciplinary, with Architecture Technology (3 credits, 25 students) The course is similar to the non-ID version of History of Theatre, however there is an added emphasis on theater architectures, sketch drawing skills, and architectural terminology. The course hosts six lectures by Architectural Technology faculty members.
Spring 2020 OpenLab Course Site
Learning Log (for note-taking)
Grading Rubric for Space/Design Essay
GIS and Theater Research Project
Example of student work: GIS Story Map: Theater in Brooklyn
Example of student work: architectural sketching
Example of student work: architectural sketching
Example of student work: architectural sketching
THE 2280, History of Theatre: Stages and Technology (3 credits, 35 students) A survey of the development of architectural and scenic styles in the physical structure of theatre from its beginnings in ancient Greece and to its most current forms. Emphasis placed on the stylistic influences of theorists, philosophers, and artistic and social movements.
Learning Log (for note-taking)
In-class Sketching Assignment: Create your own Theatre
In-class Writing Assignment: Festival Books
In-class low-stakes writing: Chronique de Charles V
Place-based Research Assignment: Treasure Hunt
Example of student work: Timeline of Theater Structures
THE 2380, Play Analysis, Writing Intensive, Gender and Sexuality Concentration (3 credits, 25 students) Students will learn methods of reading and analysis used by actors, directors, designers, and producers in the professional theatre world. We examine various dramatic models by reading play texts and attending performances in order to gain a working vocabulary and critical understanding of a variety of genres. Students will analyze texts for major dramatic question, plot structure, character, and thematic elements. Through critical reading of plays and the documentation of specific artistic choices made in production, students will develop skills to synthesize the intellectual and creative work required to bring a text to life. In addition to multiple low-stakes writing assignments, 10 pages of formal writing are a requirement of the Writing Intensive section.
Learning Log (for note-taking)
Low-stakes Writing Assignment: Satire
Scaffolded in-class writing: Thematic Statement
Dramaturgical Report (scaffolded)
Library Research Worksheet
Grading Rubric, First Draft
Grading Rubric, Final Draft
Example of student work (first draft, with feedback): Sweeney Todd
Example of student work (final draft): Gender and King Lear
LIB/ARCH 2205. Special Topics (Interdisciplinary) Course. Learning Places: Understanding the City. Co-Taught with Prof. Nora Almeida. This special topics course offers an interdisciplinary approach to investigating our built environment using a case study focused on a specific place each semester. The course combines physical examination with information research and data collection using methodologies developed in multiple disciplines. Students from a variety of departments engage in on-site exploration and in-depth research of a location in New York City.
All assignments here:
Fall 2019 OpenLab Course Site
Summer 2019 OpenLab Course Site
Fall 2018 OpenLab Course Site
LIB/ARCH 2205. Special Topics (Interdisciplinary) Course. Learning Places: Understanding the City. Co-Taught with Prof. Ting Chin. This special topics course offers an interdisciplinary approach to investigating our built environment using a case study focused on a specific place each semester. The course combines physical examination with information research and data collection using methodologies developed in multiple disciplines. Students from a variety of departments engage in on-site exploration and in-depth research of a location in New York City.
Site Reports: Research questions for on-site and library investigation
Site Report, Part I
Site Report, Part II
Site Report, Part III
FInal Report
COM 1330: Public Speaking (3 credits, 28 students) Fundamental principles of speaking in public situations and the preparation and delivery of informative and persuasive presentations. Subjects include ethics in public speaking, audience analysis, selecting and researching speech topics, constructing well-reasoned arguments, extemporaneous delivery, and peer evaluation. Students are expected to develop outlines and speaking notes, use visual aids, and improve on verbal and nonverbal delivery skills.
