Theatre

This is a fundamental course designed to acquaint students with all phases of theatre. Through collaborative group projects and individual exercises students will explore the basics of acting, directing, script analysis, playwriting, and design. By engaging in hands on, experiential learning, students will begin to understand the basic methods and tools of theatre making. This course ultimately wants students to wrestle with the dialectical nature of theatre in pursuit of the truth. Students will come away with an appreciation for how truth in dramatic work is a powerful tool for personal, cultural, and societal development. Gen. Ed. Competencies Met: Ethical Dimensions and Human Expression.

This CSS, College Success Seminar, course will consist of seminars, visiting artist talks, and workshops to help students explore the tools necessary to be a theatre student in college and the tools necessary to be a theatre artist after college. This course will provide an overview of careers in theatre and the entertainment industry. Students will be exposed to professional and educational resources, audition and interview techniques, and strategies for dealing with the challenges of a life in the arts such as how to budget and strategize when you are a freelance worker. Two class hours per week.

This course gives students the opportunity to explore the fundamentals of acting as it pertains to musical theatre performance. Students will look at the history, style, and structure of musical theatre, and be able to analyze scores for meaning and interpretation, develop characters, prepare emotionally, and increase physical expression. Up-tempo and ballad solos as well as duets, trios, or quartets will be performed in class. An ensemble number with beginner’s choreography will also be explored and rehearsed in class. Three lecture hours per week. Gen. Ed. Competencies Met: Human Expression.

This course consists of exercises that are designed to provide foundational techniques in the craft of acting. Students will develop the ability to actively listen, pursue characters' objectives in imaginary circumstances, focus, concentrate, relax, increase sensory and emotional awareness, and apply analytical and instinctive methodologies in order to make risky, bold and interesting acting choices. Students will participate in both collaborative group projects and individual projects. Three lecture hours per week. Gen. Ed. Competencies Met: Human Expression and Oral Communication.

Designed to prepare the actor to work with the actual text of a play. Scenes will be analyzed from the actor's point of view for meaning and interpretation, character development, physical choices, emotional preparation, and clarity of performance. Students will work together in rehearsing scenes outside of class and scenes will be performed in class. Three lecture hours per week. Gen. Ed. Competencies Met: Human Expression and Oral Communication.

This course looks at the evolution of theatre from Ancient Greece to the 17th Century. It is designed for students to be able to draw connections between the issues, beliefs, ideas, and values in various cultures' theatres, and how they have developed through history. There will be reading, and some short lectures followed by discussions and in-class exercises. Collaborative group projects and individual exercises will be assigned. A focus will be placed in examining how the institution of the theatre is a product of, and in service of, the society in which it exists. Prerequisite(s): A passing score on the college's reading and writing placement tests or C or better or concurrent enrollment in ENG 091 or ENG 092. Three lecture hours per week. Gen. Ed. Competencies Met: Global and Historic Awareness.

This course looks at the evolution of theatre from the 17th century to today. It is designed for students to be able to draw connections between the issues, beliefs, ideas, and values in various cultures' theatres, and how they have developed through history. There will be reading, and some short lectures followed by discussion and in-class exercises. A focus will be placed on examining how the institution of the theatre is a product of, and in service, of the society in which it exists. Three lecture hours per week. Gen. Ed. Competencies Met: Global and Historic Awareness.

This course covers the basics of formulating costume designs in drama. Students will learn to analyze texts, research styles, render drawings, choose fabrics, and prepare finished costume designs. Character analysis, sewing and alteration techniques, and accessorizing will be discussed. All sections of this course include collaborative assignments and projects. Three lecture hours per week. Gen. Ed. Competencies Met: Human Expression.

Students will explore the fundamentals of how to analyze, research, and interpret a piece of dramatic text for the purpose of making design choices. An overview of props, scenery, lighting, sound, and costume design will be covered. Students will learn how to make bold and innovative choices that are informed by a global understanding of plays and the social and cultural values in which they were created. Students will be assigned both individual and collaborative group projects. Three lecture hours per week. Gen. Ed. Competencies Met: Human Expression.

This course gives students a basic understanding of scenic and lighting design for the stage. Students will be exposed to the design process by analyzing texts, finding visual research, and discovering how to synthesize a personal vision with a director’s vision. Through individual and collaborative assignments and projects students will create ground-plans, lighting plots, sketches, models and other design elements of the world of the play. An introduction to basic drafting principles will also be covered. Three lecture hours per week. Gen. Ed. Competencies Met: Human Expression.

This is a hands-on course designed to give students a practical and theoretical understanding of the tools and techniques used in the technical building of a stage production. Students gain experience by working backstage on crews concerned with basic carpentry, electrics, painting, lighting, sound, costume, props, and stage management. Students are required to work on tech crews for productions. Students spend 10 to 15 hours a week working backstage. Students also attend a three-hour weekly seminar to learn practical skills. Three lecture hours and 10 to 15 hours per week working backstage.

Students will explore how an actor uses an awareness of self to build up to the vocal, physical, and stylistic demands of the text and the character. Students will engage in vocal and physical exercises that increase resonance, relaxation, balance, flexibility and sensitivity to impulse and the imagination. The class will focus on scenes, monologues, and collaborative group projects that deal with heightened language and situations, such as material by Shakespeare, Brecht, Churchill, Ionesco, and Albee. Three lecture hours per week. Gen. Ed. Competencies Met: Human Expression.

This course will begin to acquaint the actor with the challenges that stem from the different environments where performances can occur. Students will perform scenes and monologues in a variety of settings (a large proscenium theatre, a small black box theatre, and on-camera) to explore how performance can be calibrated in a way that honors truthful moment-to-moment behavior while meeting the needs of the medium. Three lecture hours per week. Gen. Ed. Competencies Met: Human Expression.

This will be a process-based course in which students will learn to create original writing for the stage and screen. Students will come away with an understanding of the basic building blocks of dramatic writing and dramatic structure: action, objective, circumstance, inciting incident, turning points, crisis, climax, etc. Students will learn how to bring themselves to their writing and develop their personal voice. Students will increase their ability to sense what is authentic in their own work and the work of others, and to then generate work that is bold, original, risky and truthful. Prerequisite(s): ENG 102. Three lecture hours per week. Gen. Ed. Competencies Met: Human Expression.

Students will pull together a portfolio documenting all of the required production work done in the Bristol Theatre Program including acting, directing, stage-managing, designing, playwriting, run-crews, and front-of-the-house. Students will be asked to include written critiques and reflections of their work, pictures, video, sound recordings, scripts, prompt books, or anything that reflects the work done in their time at Bristol. Students will defend their work after a final presentation at the end of the semester. Prerequisite(s): THE 101, THE 102, THE 112, THE 113, THE 117, THE 118, THE 124, THE 136, and THE 212.