PA Performance Ensemble (PAPE)

The course will introduce students to the fundamental skills and theories of acting. The introduction to the art of acting will keep the focus on work on the self based on exploratory exercises: observations, demonstrations, and assignments, as well as working on the part, which moves the student from the preparation of their instrument to the preparation of the role. The major emphasis is on actor development and growth through character portrayal, monologues, scene performances, and written work.

The course will introduce students to the fundamental skills and theories of acting. The introduction to the art of acting will keep the focus on work on the self-based on exploratory exercises: observations, demonstrations, and assignments, as well as working on the part, which moves the student from the preparation of their instrument to the preparation of the role. The major emphasis is on actor development and growth through character portrayal, monologues, and scene performances, and written work.

Movement I consists of a fusion of physical training techniques; a combination between performance philosophy, an exploration of dance and movement concepts emphasizing the fundamentals and mechanics of the body as an expressive tool with special focus on contemporary avant-garde forms of expression. It combines dance, theatre, improvisation and performance art to create a unique performing art form. Restriction/Requirement: pre-req or permission of Instructor and the student must be pursuing a B.A. degree in Theater Arts..

Movement II consists of a fusion of physical training techniques; a combination between performance philosophy, and exploration of dance and movement concepts emphasizing the fundamentals and mechanics of the body as an expressive tool with special focus on contemporary avant-garde forms of expression. It combines dance, theatre, improvisation and performance art to create a unique performing art form. Restriction/Requirement: pre-req or permission of Instructor. Student must be a Theater Arts major pursuing a BA degree

This course consists of a variety of global physical training approaches designed to increase the awareness of the performer’s instrument (body and voice) in space and to achieve a state of openness and availability. Students will learn to sweat, play, and let go.

This course offers a holistic approach to the performer’s instrument by merging movement and voice. Students will explore how sounding, speaking, and moving activate the space and the performer when combined. This course will expose students to a variety of global traditions of harnessing the individual and collective voice and body. Units of study may include West African Dance, Flamenco, and Capoeira.

The course offers acting and directing students with a comprehensive introduction to the performance aspects and technical demands within the setup of an Ensemble / Theatre company. Concentrating on active learning, the section is dedicated to developing a devised project – collaborative creation of a piece.Restriction/Requirement: pre-req or permission of Instructor and the student must be pursuing a B.A. degree in Theater Arts.

The course offers acting and directing students with a comprehensive introduction to the performance aspects and technical demands within the setup of an Ensemble/ Theatre company. Concentrating on active learning, the section is dedicated to developing a devised project – collaborative creation of a peace. Restriction/Requirement: pre-req or permission of Instructor. Student must be a Theater Arts major pursuing a BA degree.

The course will focus on developing and cultivating a student’s ability to apply skills acquired in previous courses to contemporary scene work. Additionally students will continue to develop and strengthen their ability to analyze text and apply units.

Restriction/Requirement Open to Directing and Theater majors only.

This course gives students the opportunity to apply the conceptual understanding and physical ability achieved in Movement III to their own construction of a movement scene. Structured as a weekly workshop, students perform closely-guided improvisation exercises, working toward a visceral understanding of a monologue/scene.

Vocal Production I is the first of four courses in vocal training it is a rigorous, sequence of study that uniquely coordinates the many elements and practices of vocal training. The goal is to offer the actor an instrument fully capable of responding.

Restriction/Requirement Open to Directing and Theater Art majors only.

In this course students will engage in the process of creating a devised piece using the most up-to-date form of Ensemble Theater. The course offers students the opportunity to understand the complexity of creating work that comes out of necessity and to expand the student's international creative skills and experience. In addition to a mid-semester performance/presentation at one of the professional New York theater venues, the class culminates in a trip to an international festival overseas at which the students will perform their devised work.

Students will read, work with engage with a number of plays in order to establish an understanding of the specific analytical needs for actors, directors, and designers. Students will examine several approaches to script analysis.

Directing I covers the fundamental principles of the director’s role in the life of a production, including understanding and creating stage composition, preparation of the script for production from analysis and concept through rehearsal techniques.

This course will be taught and will function in tandem with Directing I. It will consist of an in-depth reading/lecture/discussion/project in order to help students develop a working understanding of storytelling. Restriction/Requirement :This course is open to PAPE majors only.

This course will be taught and function in tandem with Directing I. It will consist of an in-depth reading/lecture/discussion/project in order to help students develop a working understanding of storytelling with the support of the dramatic action, unit structure, composition, pasteurization, movement, and gesture.

This course will be taught and will function in tandem with Directing II, PAPE 273. It will consist of an in-depth reading/lecture/discussion/project in order to help students develop a working understanding of storytelling.

This course provides a deep investigation of the structure of plays, scenes, and monologues from different periods and styles. Students compare structures and learn to recognize the various styles of playwriting by author and time period. This examination extends to style relative to cultures and content. Students learn to do a very close reading of a text that uncovers and identifies dramatic action, through line, character motivation, and thematic meanings; to examine the world of the play-the given Circumstances-including the relevant cultural, political, historical, religious, and ethnic contexts.

Fundamentals of Directing provides a foundational understanding of the role of the director in the life of a production. Students focus on analyzing plays, and studying theory and technique, in order to develop a working understanding of storytelling from a director’s perspective. The course focuses on the initial relationship of the director with the play, their collaborators, and the audience, as well as preparation of the script and concept prior to rehearsals. A History of Directing will be taught and will function in tandem with Fundamentals of Directing. It will consist of an in-depth reading/lecture/discussion of the work of major 21st century directors.

This course provides a survey of dramatic literature, dramatic theory and theatre.

In studying how producers create the spine that enables a production to come to fruition, we will cover budgets; union and non-union actor, director, stage manager, and designer contracts; acquiring rights and permits; fundraising avenues and applying for grants; applying for not-for-profit status and other avenues to raise tax exempt donations; creating and maintaining an incorporation; creating production schedules from pre-production to closing; working with casting agents to secure talent; transferring a production; press and marketing avenues and schedules; ticketing and filling houses; venue and equipment rentals; being presented in NYC; finding the right place for your work to flourish. All aspects will be examined in relation to the needs of each individual production and through the lens of the producer as creative partner who builds a world that meets those needs.

In this course we will build from the skills introduced in PAPE 285: Indie Producing, using a hands-on approach which will introduce students to resources available to them within New York City. The course will be paired with an internship working alongside either a production company in NYC or a performing festival. The course will take students from examining producing in theory in PAPE 285 to being in the field. Students will get familiar with Materials for the Arts, study to become Fireguards, compile and investigate both rehearsal and performance venues in NYC, familiarize themselves with the Parks Department in NYC and building work outdoors, study how to apply to both national and international festivals, and familiarize themselves with the process of loading a show in and out of a venue in NYC. Building off the knowledge established in PAPE 285, this course gives students the hands-on tools and confidence to serve as creative producers in the field.

This course is an exploration of the fundamental tools of verse and heightened language acting-the text-from the actor's point of view. Students explore clues for the actor found in the words themselves; how the actor can use devices such as the verse rhythm, the sounds of the language, and word choices to bring a character to life, to discover the most dynamic performance of the scene, to excite thought and feeling in an audience.

This course broadens the student's interaction with verse and heightened language begun in Actin V. Students study playwrights such as Wilde, Moliere, Jonson, Webster, and classical Greek and Roman texts. Students continue their exploration of the text from the actor's point of view.

This course explores how form and content are inextricably linked. Over the semester, students examine and analyze various models of dramatic form and structure from the Aristotelian arc to Post Dramatic work, and new, emerging forms of storytelling and performance. Students explore a variety of theatrical forms and apply a variety of dramatic structures to the creation of original playscripts and projects.

This course exposes students to vocal training for the stage through the Catherine Fitzmaurice technique of vocal production, de-structuring, and structuring. The course includes an introduction to basic vocal anatomy, Linklater centering and release work, introduction to the International Phonetic Alphabet, and monologue performance.

This course consists of lectures, demonstrations, vocal and physical warm-ups, exploration exercises, written assignments (transcriptions, quizzes, and written homework), and performances. Students successfully completing this course must be able to independently demonstrate a twenty-minute vocal and physical warm-up, demonstrate the ability to transcribe assigned texts into IPA, demonstrate, through transcription and performance, the ability to create a character using vocal centers, icons, and actions, demonstrate through transcription, recognition of iambic pentameter, and performance, the ability to create a character using heightened language.

This course explores Physical Theater, which can be broadly defined as the merging of drama and dance and the emphasis of the movement of the body in telling story. Working from methodologies and creative practices by international companies such as Frantic Assembly, DV8, Gecko, Zen Zen Zo, and Out of Balanz, students will experience a range of collaborative approaches to generative writing / theater making, as well as learn movement techniques such as modern and contemporary dance, acrobatics, dynamic partnering, and contact improvisation.

This course offers performing arts students a comprehensive introduction to developmental aspects and technical demands within the setup of an ensemble-based theater company. Students gain an understanding of devised theatre by studying the history of performance ensembles in addition to the current groups that are making work in New York City and abroad. While concentrating on active learning, the first semester of this performance ensemble level places an emphasis on process and development while the second semester places an emphasis on devising/rehearsing the final performance.

This course offers acting and directing students a comprehensive introduction to the performance aspects and technical demands of creating an original piece of theater. Working as an ensemble, students experience the challenges and rewards of creating a work from scratch. The ensemble of actors will be responsible for all aspects of the devising process giving rise to a jointly conceived and collaboratively told story that will be performed to an invited audience.

This course provides a continuation of the student's exploration of the craft of directing for the theatre, from casting, through the design process and rehearsal, to opening night. Storytelling is explored as the fundamental importance of the director's work. Hands-on experience, directing actors in scenes, is the primary component of the classwork.

This course uses the analysis of directing styles to formulate a personal directing style. The coursework includes directing a play, film, or video production or leading a production team. By analyzing the work of classic and contemporary directors, the class investigates the art and language of storytelling in theater and filmmaking. Topics include framing and composition, camera angles, camera movement, blocking of actors, visualizing action, and creating a sequence, script breakdown, and techniques for establishing mood character, and conflict.

This advanced directing class provides students essential tools for the examination of written plays, preproduction work, scene work with actors, textual analysis, design collaboration, and tech time. This course trains directors to talk about their vision of the play with an artistic director and creative team. Directors focus on telling three-dimensional stories in stage composition, culminating in a live presentation for an invited audience. Directors learn how to collaborate with stage managers, designers, and a production team, and to budget for a production. The class partners with first-year stage managers and design students in their Fundamentals of Design course. Designer majors are assigned to directors by the head of Production and Design.

In this course, students explore the work of the theater designer and are introduced to the skills necessary to create a theatrical sceneography that includes the designing of costumes, lighting, and sound.

This course is a continuation of the work done in Script Analysis and Advanced Play Structure and Style and is an investigation into multiple methods and tools for extracting essential information from a play text that can be used by actors, directors, designers, and dramaturgs to solidify their contributions in the collaborative process inherent to play production. By learning and practicing how to ask questions that will best unlock the text, students will develop techniques for determining the most effective ways to study and rehearse any text.

This course offers students the opportunity to use their work on a production as a lab experience to apply the skills, techniques, and knowledge acquired in class.

This course offers students the opportunity to use their work on a production as a lab experience to apply the skills, techniques, and knowledge acquired in class.

In this course, students explore the work of the designer, and are introduced to the skills necessary to create a theatrical scenography that includes the designing of costumes, lighting, and sound.

This course is an opportunity for students to experience the performance and production aspect of a theater company. Students augment their course work by joining a performance company in one of the areas of performance, direction, management, design, technical production, or promotion/publicity.

Students work on realizing writing, design and production elements throughout the course of the semester, bringing a fully designed and realized performance to fruition. The course culminates with public presentations of the work in a theatrical venue. The course is a practicum lab paired with PAPE 410: Performance Workshop.

The Actor Warrior is a professional-level acting and scene study course designed to assist students in their transition to a long-range professional acting career, fostering a professional level of commitment and preparedness expected of actors in the industry.

This course continues the in-depth and rigorous sequence of Performance Making classes in which students work collaboratively and are the generators of original work. This course focuses on adapting literature to the stage. For the first part of the semester, students work from a common source text and are guided through a process of theatrical adaptation exploring and utilizing on all the languages of the theater - visual, sonic, physical, spatial, musical, textual. In the latter part of the semester, students work in self-selected ensembles on short stories that are chosen by the groups and approved by the professor to being to develop their own original adaptations.

This course provides students the tools to create and sustain a viable, creatively rich and successful career in the entertainment industry. Students learn a model for making and promoting ensemble theater, guiding the artist through the steps to create a clear, marketable identity, raise capital, find a an audience, promote the work and capitalize on critical success. Students research previous models of career success and hone the skills to develop a fully envisioned, organized, and well-executed business plan.

The International Performance Ensemble BFA in Performance Making distinguishes itself as unique in the industry by presenting a showcase of work that features entirely original material. Work is created in the Written and Performed By course and independent work in the fourth-year fall semester and students choose to perform and/or direct either their own original solo work or work generated by one of their class members. Performance is primarily geared toward an introduction of the class to industry members (directors, managers, agents, artistic directors, and casting directors).

This is a co-requisite practicum lab for PAPE 491: Artist Spotlight. Students will rehearse their work in response to class assignments. Students choose to perform and/or direct either their own original solo work or work generated by one of their class members. Performance is primarily geared toward an introduction of the class to industry members (directors, managers, agents, artistic directors, and casting directors).

An introduction into professional pre-production, casting, and rehearsal processes for working directors resulting in the Director Spotlight presentation of short plays. This class offers the creative and professional tools necessary to achieve a working career as a professional director in the United States and around the world. Through this class, students will learn to effectively read and direct plays, develop organization for production, directorial process, pitch projects, and more.