Complete assignments in the order listed. Pay attention to due dates.

Gain access to Digital Theatre + through the library site: https://library.citytech.cuny.edu/ Once on the college library home page, click on “Research Guides.” Then go to the guide for “Theatre.” Once here, click on “Audiovisual” and then “Digital Theatre +”

Week #1 (Jan 25)

Topics: Review syllabus, OpenLab, OER, course goals, Academic Integrity Contract, note-taking. Discuss theatre, liveness, spectatorship, signs and phenomena.

AFTER CLASS

• Buy 8×11″ sketchbook and two drawing pencils (4h or 3h AND 3b or 4b) and bring to every in-person class and every site visit.
• Create a Dropbox or Google Drive folder (and sub-folders) for your work in the class. Make it a shareable folder. When you post work on OpenLab you need to post the link to documents, images, etc. in this folder.
• Read post about professional email communication (and please follow this model in your communications with the professor.
• Read and sign the Academic Integrity Agreement. Email signed copy to the professor.
• Watch: Crash Course, Intro to Theatre, PBS [focus M. Eliade’s definition of “Ritual” and minute 11:00-end]
• Read: Balme, Spaces and Places, 47-55
• Read: Weinstein, p. 22

Week #2 (Jan 30, Feb 1)

Topics: Basic theatre terminology, Classical and Hellenistic Greece: Ritual, drama, and society; Epidaurus; Antigone

BEFORE CLASS

• Watch: Crash Course, Greek Theatre
• Read: The Greek Theatre: Evolution and Influence, Univ. of Pennsylvania
• Watch: Theatre at Epidaurus, Discovery Channel

IN CLASS, Jan. 30

• Presentation: Basic Theatre Terminology

AFTER CLASS

• Respond to OpenLab posting “SPACE” (due date is on the post)
• Watch Video: How to draw a straight line (duplicate exercise in your sketchpad)
• Video: 1- and 2- point perspective drawing (duplicate exercise in your sketchpad)
• Reading: Ching, Design Drawing (Course Drive). Draw elevation of building from p. 163. This is an “orthogonal” figure — it is not in perspective.
• Watch: Antigone [Library>Research Guides>Theatre>Audiovisual> Digital Theatre + > search for “Antigone” and choose BBC production]

IN CLASS, Feb. 1

• Presentation: Ancient Greece, Amphitheater
• Drawing tutorial. Amphitheater sketch

AFTER CLASS

• Post lecture notes in Google folder by Friday.
• OpenLab response and discussion: Antigone (due dates are on the post)
• Complete Greek Amphitheater drawing and post in Google folder by Sunday

Week #3 (Feb 6, Feb 8)

Topics: Japanese Noh: Shinto, Buddhism, and feudalism; staging and Kurozuka; masks, costumes, and stages; Ma and the six essential elements of Noh

BEFORE CLASS

• Watch: Behind the scenes at a Noh theater
• Read: Noh, UNESCO (Stage Structure and Performance Techniques)

IN CLASS, Feb. 6

• Review of Antigone responses
• Slides on “Noh Theatre” (Lecture Slides and Recordings Folder)
• Read: Nô Costume, MET Museum

AFTER CLASS

• Read: Kurozuka synopsis and background
• Read: Empire of Stillness, six essential elements of Japanese Noh

IN CLASS, Feb. 8

• Watch and discuss clip from Throne of Blood
• Discuss Research Project. Form groups. 

AFTER CLASS

• Post lecture notes on OpenLab (due end of week)
• OpenLab response and discussion: Kurozuka and Throne of Blood (due dates are on the post)
• Communicate with partner regarding the theatre research project. Together, choose a theatre and production to study. Buy a ticket to the production and attend the performance BEFORE MARCH 25. Post choice of theatre/production (as a team) on OpenLab. Review instructions for Acts I and II of theatre research project prior to attending the production.

Week # 4 (Feb 13, Feb 15)

Topics: Shadow Puppetry: Wayang Kulit

BEFORE CLASS

• Watch: UNESCO, Wayang Puppet Theatre 
• Read: Dancing Shadows, Epic Tales, Museum of International Folk Art:
  Performance and Stories and Characters

IN CLASS, Feb. 13

• Wayang lecture and reading pack.
• Review for Quiz #1.
• Review Throne of Blood responses

AFTER CLASS

• Study for quiz on material from weeks 1-4.  See list of terms and concepts from each set of Lecture Slides. 

IN CLASS, Feb. 15

• Quiz #1. Some multiple choice. Most short answer.
• Preview Romanesque and Gothic Architecture
• Pay for The Hunt tickets ($15) and mark calendars (March 5 or March 10)

AFTER CLASS

• Post lecture notes on OpenLab by Friday

Week # 5 (Feb 20)

Topics: Roman and medieval architecture and theater

BEFORE CLASS

• Read: Trachtenberg, Early Christian Architecture (Course Drive)
• Watch: Crash Course Liturgical Drama (start at 5:03)
• Read: Corpus Christi Play (stop at “Economics”)

IN CLASS, Feb. 20

• Presentation: Medieval European Theatre (and Romanesque Architecture)
• Drawing: Gothic architectural elements

AFTER CLASS

• Post lecture notes on OpenLab by Friday
• Submit Gothic architectural elements drawings by Sunday

Week # 6 (Feb 27, Feb 29)

Topics: Early Modern London and Shakespeare’s stage: Metatheatricality; Commercial theatre

BEFORE CLASS

• Watch: Crash Course: Shakespeare Tragedy
• Read: Leacroft, Bulls Bears
• Read: Wofford, Intro, pp. 6-14 (Course Drive)
• Read: Plot Summary of Henry V, RSC

IN CLASS, Feb. 27

• Watch: Acts III and IV Henry V (45:20-2:15:00) (Course Drive)

a) 59 minute to -1 hour and 3 minute (0:59 – 1:03)
b) 1 hour and 27 minute to 1 hour and 41 minute (1:27-1:41)

• Read: Prologue, Henry V and discuss metatheacricality and world/stage
• Presentation: Elizabethan Playhouses

AFTER CLASS

• Henry V OpenLab Responses (due dates on the post)

IN CLASS, Feb. 29

TOUR ST. ANN’S WAREHOUSE (45 Water Street): Bring sketch pads and pencils.
Arrive at theater by 4:30pm.
Walking directions to St Ann’s from 300 Jay: Click here

AFTER CLASS

• Post lecture notes on OpenLab (due end of week)
• Post completed drawing from St. Ann’s site visit by Sunday

Week # 7 (March 5, March 7)

Topics: Neoclassicism, Baroque Art, and the Development of Opera; Perspective scenery; Chariot and Pole system.

BEFORE CLASS

• Watch: Proscenium Arch
• Watch: Framing the Spectacle
• Read: Giaimo, How a 17th-Century Navel Engineer Revolutionized Set Design

IN CLASS, March 5

• Presentation: European design and tech: 17th century
• Read and view images: Entry on Teatro Olimpico in the Theatre Architecture Database
• Watch: Drottningholms Slottsteater’s Chariot and Pole System
• Watch: Khan Academy, Ecstasy of St Teresa

AFTER CLASS

• The Hunt performance, 7:30pm, March 5 (Tuesday)
• OpenLab response: St Ann’s Warehouse (due dates on post)
• Study for Quiz #2. Key terms on lecture slides.

IN CLASS, March 7

• Quiz #2
• Drawing: Serlio’s Tragic Stage
• Baroque art and opera lecture
• Preview: 19th century entertainment

AFTER CLASS

• The Hunt performance, 2:00pm, March 10 (Sunday)
• Post lecture notes (due end of the week)
• Complete Serlio drawing and post by Sunday night

Week # 8 (March 12, March 14)

Topics: 19th and early 20th century American entertainment and music; burlesque, minstrelsy, vaudeville, Longacre Square, Tin Pan Alley, the Syndicate, NYC Theatre History through the birth of Broadway, the American musical form

BEFORE CLASS

• Listen: Library of Congress “Variety Entertainment“
• Read: Smithsonian, Birth of a Stereotype
• Read: Williams, “American Minstrelsy”

IN CLASS, March 12 

• Bert Williams on PBS
• Presentation: Variety: burlesque, minstrelsy, etc. 
• StoryMap of NYC Architectural History (from beginning through Birth of Broadway)

AFTER CLASS

• OpenLab response and discussion: American Minstrelsy, Jazz and Dance (due dates are on the post)
• Read: Taylor, Inventing Times Square (pp. 45-49; 120-124)

IN CLASS, March 14

• “Spotlight on Broadway,” Broadway History (“Urban Development” and “The Great White Way”) and Theatre Architecture (“Facades” and “Design”)
• StoryMap of NYC Architectural History (From Harlem Renaissance to the end)
• Presentation: Broadway and NYC Theatre History

AFTER CLASS

• Post lecture notes from the week by Friday