THE 102 Introduction to Scenography
This beginning course traces the design and technical production of scenery as environments for theatrical performance from concept through opening night. Areas covered include set and lighting design, technical production, and costume design. This course will provide the liberal arts student with an exploration of the creative process. Lab arranged.
Credits: 1
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THE 103 Seminars in Theater
The Epic Theater of Bertolt Brecht
Among the most inventive and influential playwrights and directors of the modern era, Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) has left a legacy of important plays and dramatic theories. Brecht believed the theater should be a platform on which political and social issues should be debated. As an alternative to the traditional Aristotelian drama, he developed “epic theater” in which alienating theatrical devices were employed to keep his audience emotionally detached and intellectually alert. This seminar will focus on Brecht’s ideas on “epic theater” and the dialectical and sometimes alienated relationship he achieved with his dramas. Texts for the seminar will include Mother Courage and Her Children, Galileo, The Good Women of Setzuan, and The Caucasian Chalk Circle. This course is offered in the spring semester.
Credits: 1/2
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American Musical Theater from 1943 to Present
American musical theater works from the years of World War II to the present reflect radical changes as the form evolved from loosely-constructed entertainments to works of artfully integrating song, story, and dance. In an effort to create musicals of greater depth, creators looked to adapting literary works – the plays of William Shakespeare to contemporary plays and novels by George Bernard Shaw, James Michener, Christopher Isherwood, E. L. Doctorow, and others, provided sources. The class will closely examine representative works by such composers and lyricists as Cole Porter, Richards Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Jule Styne, Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, Jeanine Tesori, and Tony Kushner, including Finian’s Rainbow (1947), Kiss Me, Kate (1948), South Pacific (1949), My Fair Lady (1956), West Side Story (1957), Gypsy (1959), Cabaret (1966), Follies (1971), Ragtime (1998), and Caroline, or Change (2003). This course is offered in the fall (second half of semester).
Credits: 1/2
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American Musical Theater from the Beginnings to 1943
Theater with music dates from the origins of the stage in the ancient world, but musical theater as it is understood today is a quintessentially American art form mixing elements of high and low art. This course will examine the musical’s variant theories of origin from ballad opera and operetta to minstrels, jazz, and vaudeville, as well as its evolution from the ethnic entertainments of innocence and optimism that gave way to more complex reflections of the diversity, spectacle, and individualism of early twentieth century American life. Through lecture, musical theater from its beginnings through the mid-twentieth century will be explored through study of the work of composers and lyricists including George M. Cohan, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Noble Sissle, Eubie Blake, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, and Oscar Hammerstein II, among others. Attention will also be paid to influential performers and directors, and the form and themes of musical theater will be studied through examination of representative texts and scores including Little Johnny Jones (1904), Shuffle Along (1921), Show Boat (1927), Animal Crackers (1928), Of Thee I Sing! (1931), As Thousands Cheer (1933), Anything Goes (1934), Porgy and Bess (1935), Pal Joey (1940), and Oklahoma! (1943). This course is offered in the fall (first half of semester).
Credits: 1/2
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THE 105 Introduction to Acting
This course provides an introduction to the fundamentals of acting through physical and vocal exercises, improvisation, preparation of scenes, and text and character analysis. Students will prepare scenes from modern plays for classroom and public presentation. Plays to be studied and presented include Of Mice and Men, Tea and Sympathy, The Zoo Story, and original one-act plays written by Wabash College playwriting students.
Credits: 1
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THE 209 Dramaturgy
This course is intended to bridge the gap between theater history/literature/theory and the performance areas of theater. Aimed primarily at the theater major and minor (though by no means excluding others), this course will focus on the process of textual and historical research/analysis and its collaborative impact on the creative process of the director (production concept), actor (characterization), playwright (play structure, narrative and character development) and designers (scenic, lighting, and costume design). Dramaturgy includes a study of various historical approaches to classic texts, as well as the process or research and investigation of material for new plays. Ideally, students enrolled in the course could be given dramaturgical responsibilities on mainstage and student-directed projects. This course is offered in the spring semester.
Credits: 1
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THE 210 Playwrighting
Principles of dramatic construction are explored through the practice of playwriting and the study of representative one-act plays. Students will have various creative writing assignments including monologues and short plays and they will engage in classroom-staged readings and discussion of scripts generated by other writers in the class. Selected plays from this course will be presented each fall semester as part of the Theater Department’s Studio One-Acts production. This course is offered in the spring semester.
Credits: 1
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THE 211 History and Literature of the Theater: Ancient Greece to the Spanish Golden Age
The study of major theatrical works written between the golden age of classical Greek drama and the plays of the Spanish Golden Age will provide the main focus of this course. Attention will be paid to the history of the theater in these periods, the stage conventions and practices prevalent in these eras, along with discussion of varying interpretations and production problems inherent in each play. Among the works to be read and discussed are The Oresteia, Oedipus Rex, Antigone, Medea, The Bacchae, Women in Parliament, The Braggart Soldier, The Twin Menaechmi, Dulcitus, Everyman, The Mandrake, Ralph Roister Doister, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, King Lear, and Life Is a Dream. The plays will be discussed as instruments for theatrical production; as examples of dramatic structure, style, and genre; and, most importantly, as they reflect the moral, social, and political issues of their time. This course is offered in the fall semester, 2007-2008 and alternate years.
Credits: 1
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THE 212 History and Literature of the Theater: The French Renaissance to the Rise of Realism
The class will study the history of theater and the diverse forms of drama written between 1660 and 1900. Representative plays from the era, as well as theoretical and critical response to the works, will be the major focus of the course. Attention will also be paid to theatrical conventions and practices, along with discussion of varying interpretations and production problems discovered in each play. The works to be studied include The Misanthrope, Tartuffe, The Illusion , Phedre, The Rover, The Way of the World, The Servant of Two Masters, Faust Part One, Money, Sherlock Holmes, Camille, A Doll’s House, Ghosts , An Ideal Husband, The Importance of Being Earnest , Cyrano de Bergerac, Uncle Vanya, and The Seagull. The plays will be discussed as instruments for theatrical production; as examples of dramatic structure, style, and genre; and, most importantly, as they reflect the moral, social, and political issues of their time. This course is offered in the spring semester, 2007-2008 and alternate years.
Credits: 1
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THE 213 American Theater and Drama
This course will examine the rich dramatic heritage of the United States from the American Revolution to the present, with emphasis on the history of the U.S. stage and the work of major dramatists including Eugene O'Neill, Thornton Wilder, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, and Edward Albee, among others. Plays to be studied include The Contrast, Secret Service, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Long Day's Journey Into Night, A Moon for the Misbegotten, Awake and Sing!, The Little Foxes, Our Town, The Skin of Our Teeth, Mister Roberts, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Night of the Iquana, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, A Raisin in the Sun, The Zoo Story, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Glengarry Glen Ross, True West, Brighton Beach Memoirs, The Colored Museum, A Perfect Ganesh, Fences, Angels in America, How I Learned to Drive, and The America Play. The plays will be discussed as instruments for theatrical production; as examples of dramatic style, structure, and genre; and, most importantly, as they reflect moral, social, and political issues throughout the history of the United States. This course is offered in the fall semester, 2006-2007 and alternate years.
Credits: 1
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THE 214 Modern European Theater and Drama
This course will examine the history of the European stage, and significant dramatic literature, from 1870 to the present. Emphasis will be placed on an examination of the major theatrical movements of realism, expressionism, symbolism, epic theater, aburdism, and neo-realism, as well as on the work of major dramatists including Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekhov, George Bernard Shaw, August Strindberg, Luigi Pirandello, Bertolt Brecht, and Samuel Beckett, among others. Plays to be studied include An Enemy of the People, Rosmersholm, The Three Sisters, Mrs. Warren's Profession, Pygmalion, Heartbreak House, Miss Julie, A Dybbuk, Six Characters in Search of an Author, The Rules of the Game, The Good Person of Setzuan, Galileo, Waiting for Godot, Krapp's Last Tape, No Exit, The Visit, Look Back in Anger, Equus, Breaking the Code, Copenhagen, Mistero Buffo, and Accidental Death of an Anarchist. The plays will be discussed as instruments for theatrical production; as examples of dramatic style, structure, and genre; and, most importantly, as they reflect the moral, social, and political issues in the 20th century and beyond. This course is offered in the spring semester, 2006-2007 and alternate years.
Credits: 1
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THE 487 Independent Study
Any student may undertake an independent study project in theater after
submission of a proposal to the department chair for approval. Students
are urged to use this avenue to pursue creative ideas for academic credit
outside the classroom or for topics not covered by existing courses.
One-half or one course credit either semester.
Prerequisite: consent of theater department chair.
Credits: 1/2
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THE 488 Independent Study
Any student may undertake an independent study project in theater after
submission of a proposal to the department chair for approval. Students
are urged to use this avenue to pursue creative ideas for academic credit
outside the classroom or for topics not covered by existing courses.
One-half or one course credit either semester.
Prerequisite: consent of theater department chair.
Credits: 1/2
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THE 498 Special Topics
This course is designed as advanced study for theater majors and minors.
Occasional special topics may be offered or students may petition the
department for an advanced opportunity.
Prerequisite: consent of theater department chair.
Credits: 1
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