Seminars and Forums

Graduate Seminar. Mr. Dillon

The seminar meets weekly on Fridays and has two distinct parts. In the fall semester, graduate students will devise, create, and present work in the GradWorks space. The spring semester features a varied list of topics and guests—producers, writers, directors, actors, and academicians. From this continually renewed guest faculty, students receive both fresh and classic insights into all facets of the theatre world and theatre history in lectures, demonstrations, exercises, and discussions. This class meets weekly on Friday afternoons.

Theatre Forum. Mr. Dillon

Required of all students studying theatre. Explore current theatre topics once each month and meet leading professionals. This class meets Tuesday at 2 p.m.

Acting

New Musical Theatre Lab. Ms. Kaplan

Exploring forms, styles, and collaborative techniques needed to create musicals; the students will develop works based on original material. Students will research the history of musicals from the emergence of European cabaret and performance with a particular focus on the influence of interdisciplinary needs of contemporary musicals. The process of auditioning, casting, rewriting, rehearsals, and performance will also be presented. Open to actors, singers, composers, lyricists, and musicians. Interview and audition needed. Fall semester only.

Singing Workshop. Mr. McRee, Mr. Mandel

We will explore an actor’s performance with songs and various styles of popular music, music for theatre, cabaret, and original work emphasizing communication with the audience and material selection. Dynamics of vocal interpretation and style also will be examined. This class requires enrollment in a weekly voice lesson and an Alexander Technique class. Class members will be selected by audition during registration week. This class meets once a week.

Acting Conference. Ms. Kaplan

This is an intensive scene class that focuses on the relationship of text, dramatic actions, and the actor’s need to discover personal performance experience and knowledge of diverse global forms and styles of theatre. Classes will connect physical and vocal work with the immediacy of needs, events, and character. Video will be used and differences between stage and film performances will be explored. Emphasis will be placed on building technique and range, and on refocusing acting habits and definitions. New plays by contemporary and international playwrights will form the basis of cold readings and auditioning techniques. Scene work will proceed step-by-step from the first breakdown of text to the needs of the performer. This class meets once a week. Fall semester only.

Comedy Styles and Performance. Ms. Farrell

This is a two-semester scene study class for students interested in the great comedy traditions in theatrical history. First semester, the students will work on Greek Comedy, Commedia dell arte, French Farce, and Restoration Comedy. Second semester begins with the British style of Noel Coward and Oscar Wilde but is mainly devoted to modern American playwrights. The great comedies of the 1930’s and 40’s as well as current Broadway and Off Broadway writers become the focus of this semester’s scene study. This class meets twice a week.

Comedy Workshop. Ms. Farrell

This is an exploration of the individual’s comic voice and the classic structures of comedy. It begins with a focus on improvisation and ensemble. Theatre games, Status Play, storytelling, and the Harold Exercise develop the artist’s freedom and confidence. Second semester introduces the student to Commedia dell arte characterization, Vaudeville “Comic and Straight” partnering, political satire, and parody. The workshop produces “COMEDY NIGHT” at the end of the year. Each student performs five minutes of stand-up comedy in a club atmosphere. This class meets twice a week.

Contemporary Scene Study. Mr. Fernandez

Two-character scenes by modern American playwrights will form the basis of intensive acting work. By focusing on techniques of script analysis and how they relate to examination of objectives, given circumstances, and obstacles, students will be given practical methods for unlocking contemporary texts. This class meets once a week.

Creating a Role. Mr. Abuba

A sanctum of discovery enabling the actor to explore non-Western movement; centering energy, concentration, the voice, and the “mythos” of a character to discover one’s own truth in relation to the text; contemporary as well as the classics. Traditional as well as alternative approaches to acting techniques are applied. Fall semester: concentrates on roles such as Hamlet, Leontes, Caliban, Othello, Lear, Macbeth, Hecuba, Medea, Antigone, and Lady Macbeth. Spring semester: scene study from works by Arrabal, Beckett, Ionesco, Maria Irene Fornes, Sam Shepard, Albert Camus, and Jean Genet. This class meets twice a week.

Improvisation Laboratory. Ms. Scheier

Using experimental exercises and improvisation, we will explore the character’s connections to his or her environment, relationships, needs, and wants. In the second semester, we will concentrate on fashioning a workable technique as well as on using improvisation to illuminate scene work from the great dramatic playwrights: Lorca, Chekhov, Strindberg, O’Neill, Shaw, etc. Available to students willing to approach material experimentally in a laboratory setting. This class meets twice a week.

Improvisation Techniques. Ms. Scheier

Great art comes from using oneself. If theatre is a way of knowing oneself, improvisation energizes that process. This class is for actors who are willing to personalize, place their characters in dangerous situations, play strong objectives, then move on. A conscious way to reach the unconscious. We will approach the material experimentally in a laboratory setting. Available to students willing to act with and without text. This class meets twice a week. Spring semester only.

Acting for the Camera. Mr. MacHugh

We will focus on basic principles of camera acting, script analysis (using both original and published works), understanding character and type, comprehension, and creative construction of a solid foundation for camera work. The methodology is Meisner-based. The second half of each semester will be dedicated to putting a film scene on its feet within but not constrained by the specific parameters of the camera lens. This class meets twice a week. Separate fall and spring sections.

Acting the Poetic Text. Mr. Early

The emotional, vocal, and physical demands of acting in poetic plays are extreme. In order to rise to the challenge of performing in such works, the actor’s instrument must be capable of expressing poetry. The objectives of this course are to explore various techniques designed to tap and release the actor’s raw passion, to develop the physical stamina necessary to perform poetic text, and to work toward creating a performance vocabulary appropriate to the scale of poetic text. Particular attention will be paid to honing the skills necessary to speak complex language with clarity and precision. We will begin with the works of Shakespeare and move backward and forward in time, depending on the composition and the specific needs of the class. The course culminates in a performance project. This class meets twice a week.

Acting Shakespeare. Mr. Dillon

Students will study advanced acting techniques in approaching Shakespeare’s scripts, with special attention on script analysis as a way of unlocking methods for acting the text. In addition, students will rehearse and perform monologues and scenes from “Hamlet” to be directed by students in the Directing Shakespeare class. Class members will be selected by audition during spring registration week. The course meets twice a week in the spring semester.

An Intuitive and Impulsive Exploration of Text: A Useful Tool For Actors and Directors. Mr. Sherin

This class strives to release the creativity of each student through intuitive and impulsive responses to text: primarily plays, film scripts, and poems, and to discover the practical uses of this approach to acting and directing in theatre and film. The participants will do exercises, scene work, and a year-end performance with a view toward increasing their ease, imagination, spontaneity, and power. Although physically demanding and largely visceral, the class work will provide an enlarged intellectual and conceptual understanding of acting and performance. This class meets once a week for four hours.

Breaking the Code. Mr. Confoy

A specific, text-driven approach to performance based upon identifying, analyzing, and exploiting particular attributes common to characters in all plays. This class provides a foundation and a context for the most vital and decisive characterizations. Students will read, discuss, and act scenes from contemporary plays and adaptations. This class meets twice a week.

Voice and Movement

Introduction to Stage Combat. Mr. Swann

Students will learn the basics of unarmed stage fighting with an emphasis on safety. Actors will be taught to create effective stage violence, from hair pulling and choking to kicking and punching, with a minimum of risk. Basic techniques will be incorporated into short scenes to give students experience performing fights in classic and modern contexts. This class meets once a week.

Breathing Coordination for the Performer. Mr. Swann

Students will improve their vocal power and ease through an understanding of basic breathing mechanics and principles of speech. Utilizing recent discoveries of breathing coordination, performers can achieve their true potential by freeing their voices, reducing tension, and increasing concentration and stamina. Students will consolidate their progress by performing pieces in their field (theatre, dance, music, etc.) in a supportive atmosphere. This class meets once a week.

Building a Vocal Technique. Mr. Swann

A continuation of Breathing Coordination for the Performer, which is a prerequisite. Students will work on scenes they are rehearsing and also bring in pieces of their own choosing. Emphasis will be on physical ease and the use of breathing coordination to increase vocal range and power. This class meets once a week.

Alexander Technique. Ms. Ekman

The Alexander Technique is a neuromuscular system that re-educates and enables the student to identify and change poor and inefficient habits, which may be causing stress and fatigue. With gentle hands-on guidance and verbal instruction, the student learns to replace faulty habits with improved coordination by locating and releasing undue muscular tensions. This includes the ease of the breath and the effect of coordinated breathing on the voice. An invaluable technique that connects the actor to his or her resources for dramatic intent. This class meets once a week.

Breath and Speech. Ms. Ekman

Building on the foundation and awareness the student has learned in the previous course, The Alexander Technique, we will explore the direct application of the Alexander principles. Working with text and the voice in coordination with the breath. Previous Alexander work required. This class meets once a week.

Linklater Voice Training. Ms. McGhee

Students will begin to open the channels of communication as physical and psychological tensions release. Using technical and imagistic exercises you will open your connection to breath, develop resonance and range, increase sensitivity to your creative impulse, and strengthen your voice. There are two separate sections (and times) for this class and each meets once a week.

Linklater Voice Training Into Text. Ms. McGhee

This course will investigate how Linklater voice work parlays into text. You will expand vocal agility and dynamics and find greater sensitivity and connection to language. Students will discover an authentic and personal experience of the self through voice. This class meets once a week.

Principles of Organizing Movement for Contemporary Theatre. Mr. Neumann

An exploration of building theatre pieces focused on the use of movement in live performance. A blending of dance and theatre-making principles in pursuit of one’s original voice. This class meets twice a week.

Directing

The Play's the Thing : Workshop for Directors. Mr. Confoy

A practical approach to directing based upon a specific dissection of the text. In addition to script analysis, this course will cover all aspects of the directing process, including casting procedures, staging plays, strategies for rehearsal, the director-playwright relationship, and the shaping of a director’s point of view. Students will be expected to attend assigned professional productions in New York. Students’ work will be presented as part of the season. This class meets twice a week.

Stage Management. Ms. Minsky

This yearlong elective class focuses on the art and practice of stage management. Students will be assigned productions and will be mentored through the process from auditions to tech week and strike. This class meets once a week.

The Director/Designer Dialogue: From the Page to the Stage. Mr. MacPherson, Mr. Lee, Ms. Pelletier

Student directors will develop skills essential to realizing a design vision. Emphasis will be on furthering communication skills with an eye toward improving the collaborative process of design while strengthening directors’ abilities in relating ideas to design professionals. Exercises will include use of sketches, photographs, and other media. This class meets once a week. Spring semester only.

Directing Shakespeare. Mr. Dillon

How does a director approach the complex challenges of staging Shakespeare? Through an intensive examination of “Hamlet,” the course will examine how to use research and Shakespearean scholarship, how to prepare a text for rehearsals, how to develop a production approach, how to collaborate with designers on that approach, and how to rehearse the play with special attention to the work with actors. Students need previous directing experience. This class meets twice a week.

An Intuitive and Impulsive Exploration of Text: A Useful Tool For Actors and Directors. Mr. Sherin

(See description under “Acting”)

Playwriting

Playwriting courses are subdivided into craft, workshop, and specialty courses. Craft courses focus on process, and typically entail reading assignments and specific, short writing assignments. Workshop courses focus on the writing of complete plays. Specialty courses answer the needs of particular writing situations.

Craft Courses

Playwrights At Play. Ms. Medley, Mr. Spencer, Mr. Baker, and Mr. Gray

This is a course designed for theatre students in their first year. It is a full-year course, taught by all four members of the playwriting faculty in rotation. Cassandra Medley and Stuart Spencer teach the first term, which focuses on basic issues of craft, structure, and technique. In the second term, taught by Edward Allen Baker and Amlin Gray, students will work on short, but complete, plays. This class meets twice a week.

Playwriting Techniques. Mr. Spencer

In the first semester, students will write scenes every week. Each scene will explore issues of structure or creative process in order to facilitate the development of a technique that is individual yet based on traditional dramaturgical ideas. By the end of the semester, students will have selected one of these scenes to focus on and will have finished a longer piece that grows out of that particular scene. In the second semester, students will apply their technique by adapting a short story of their choice, creating a one-character monologue, and writing a play based on an historical event or person. This class meets once a week.

The Art of Characterization. Mr. Baker

This yearlong course will delve into the craft of playwriting beginning with systematic exercises that will allow the student playwright to develop a process for creating characters in a drama as people who might really exist. The student is encouraged to work through his or her play in a relaxed workshop situation that includes cold and staged readings. Students will end the year with two completed one-act plays, a full-length play, and a thorough understanding of what character-driven plays require: “Play is character.” This course is open to writers at any level, and also to actors, poets, and screenwriters. This class meets once a week.

Writer’s Gym. Ms. Medley

Jack London wrote, “You can’t wait for inspiration. You’ve got to go after it with a club.” This course will focus on a wide range of exercises and methods that enable the writer to “go after” her or his impulse to write. We will study ways to inspire, nurture, encourage, and sustain our story ideas. We will learn how to transform personal experiences and observations into imaginative, dramatic, or prose fiction. We will concentrate on building the inner lives of our characters through in-depth character work. We also will utilize drawing, movement, and sound as means to further explore and gain access to our ideas. Writer’s Gym is designed to enable the writer to confront issues that block the writing process and gain greater confidence in revision and clarification of the work. The purpose of the class is to create a safe and rigorous environment, to learn to give constructive feedback, to exchange ideas, and to generate the strongest work we are capable of writing. This class meets once a week.

Workshop Courses

Baker Workshop. Mr. Baker

This course is for experienced playwrights. Writers will work on scripts that will be discussed, analyzed, and evaluated in terms of character development, dramatic structure, imagery, and thematic metaphor. Work will be read in class, and assignments will be made in rewriting and exploring other aspects of playwriting. This class meets twice a week.

Medley Workshop. Ms. Medley

“Tell me a story.”– Tillie Olsen
What elements constitute telling a compelling drama or comedy? How does the use of dialogue and present-tense action predominate in the stories created for the stage, while visual elements predominate in the screenplay medium?

In this course, students can choose to work on either full-length screenplay treatments and scripts or full-length plays. Our goal is to complete a working and revised draft of either form. Previous coursework in writing either short plays or films required. Students are invited to bring a project idea to class. Professional plays from the world canon, as well as various foreign and domestic films are screened. Class meets twice a week.

Spencer Workshop. Mr. Spencer.

This course is designed for playwriting students who have a basic knowledge of dramatic structure and an understanding of their own creative process. Students will be free to work on plays of any length and with themes, subjects, and styles of their choice. They may also work on two projects at one time. Work will be read aloud and discussed in the class each week. Although some “prompting” will be available to students when necessary, in general this course requires students be self-motivated and enter with an idea of which plays they plan to consider. This class meets once a week.

Specialty Courses

Experiments in Language and Form. Ms. Medley

“By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.”– Franz Kafka
This course is designed for intermediate and advanced playwrights to explore methods for writing “experimental” texts that stretch their imagination muscles in terms of language, imagery, and use of narrative forms.

Our purpose is not merely to experiment with radical or unusual styles of dramatic writing for the sake of experimentation, but rather to identify and/or focus on each writer’s own private passions, fantasized stories, personal voice and themes, then seek to connect these elements to various “experimental” styles. Our study will be to investigate how experiments with form are generated by a writer’s own specific, personalized view of her/his own world and place in it.

Syllabus will include works by: Beckett, Ionesco, Genet, Kafka, Arabal, Adrienne Kennedy, Suzan-Lori Parks, Maria Irene Fornes, Caryl Churchill, and others.

Students will write original texts that experiment with both linear and non-linear narrative structures, and that can possibly incorporate multi-media forms (slides/video/laptop digital film). Students will create a series of short scenes and/or plays during the first semester, with a final project due at the end of the year. Students are required to have taken a beginning playwriting course. This class meets once a week.

Stage(play) to Screen(play). Mr. Baker

The process of writing a screenplay is very much like a play. Many of the same dramatic principles and rules apply with two major differences: scope and cinematic thinking. How does a playwright take his or her play, which is 80 percent auditory and 20 percent visual, and make it 80 percent visual and 20 percent auditory? What kind of change in thinking is necessary? How do you let an audience see the action rather than hear about it? The course will be directed toward making the transition from stage to screen, using such films as Amadeus, On Golden Pond, The Ruling Class, Lenny, Glengarry Glen Ross, and others as successful examples of plays becoming cinematic; of stories “flowing through the imagination.” This class meets once a week.

Outreach

Methods of Theatre Outreach. Ms. Kaplan (fall only), Mr. Lang

Developing original, issue-oriented dramatic material using music and theatre media, this class will present the structures needed for community extension of theatre. Performance and teaching groups will work with small theatres, schools, senior citizen groups, museums, centers, and shelters. The productions and class plans will be made in consultation with the organizations and our touring groups. We will work with children’s theatre, audience participation, and educational theatre. Teaching and performance techniques will focus on past and present uses of oral histories and cross-cultural material. Sociological and psychological dynamics will be studied as part of an exploration of the role of theatre and its connections to learning. Each student will have a service-learning team placement. Special projects and guest topics will include use of theatre in developing new kinds of after-school programs, styles and forms of community on-site performances, media techniques for artists who teach, and work with the Sarah Lawrence Human Genetics program. This class meets once a week.

Original Works

Invention. Mr. Hurlin

Students will invent and explore new models for making performances that fall outside the traditional models (e.g., the compartmentalization of tasks—the playwright writes, the designer designs, etc.). In this course of “self-scripting,” the traditional roles are blurred as directors perform, performers write, and choreographers design. We will look at and experience developing image-driven theatre, as well as investigating autobiography and historical/political events as source material for original performances. Open to actors, directors, playwrights, designers, musicians, and visual artists. This class meets once a week.

Making New Work. Ms. Kaplan

A performance ensemble lab where the creative process and global forms and styles are presented and explored. Techniques include using research of past and present world theatrical movements. Methods of vocal and physical work will add to interdisciplinary collaborations in order to explore sources of inspiration for new work. Using connections that cross cultural and media traditions, the group will create and present weekly projects. This class meets once a week, fall semester only. Open to actors, dancers, visual artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, and directors.

Projects. Mr. Hurlin

This course will provide a critical and supportive forum for the development of new works of original performance. Interdisciplinary forms such as self-scripting, devised works, performance pieces, puppet works, performative installations, or image pieces, will be examined as each student focuses on creating one original project over the course of either a semester or the full year—typically a solo, a duet, or a trio. The class will meet twice weekly. During the first meeting, students will show works in progress. During the second session, students and faculty will meet to discuss these showings and any relevant artistic and practical problems that may arise. Open to juniors, seniors, and graduate students.

Puppet Central. Mr. Hurlin

Through puppetry, this course will develop students’ skills as directors, writers, and performers, and encourage the pleasures and rigors of creativity in a performing medium. Students will research and study a global range of puppet styles and forms—Western models like hand, rod, and string puppets, as well as Eastern practices like Indonesian shadow and Japanese Bunraku, among others. Contemporary construction methods and a variety of manipulation techniques will be explored. Students will build a short, original puppet piece from the ground up. They will design and construct the puppets, write the scripts (or scenarios), choreograph, rehearse, and publicly present short works-in-progress. This class meets for four consecutive hours, which include a two-hour lab, once a week.

Design and Technology

Design Techniques in Media and Puppetry. Mr. Lee

This course allows students to explore design possibilities in projection, animation, scenic design, and puppetry through a series of exploratory projects and group work. The course will introduce basic Photoshop skills to prepare and manipulate images. Visual sequences will be created using overhead projectors, stop-motion animation techniques, shadow puppetry, and video animation. A group project at the end of the course will allow students to integrate these techniques into performance. This class meets once a week.

Costume Design I. Ms. Pelletier

An introduction to the many aspects of costuming for students with little or no experience in the field. Among the topics covered are basics of design, color, and style; presentation of costume design, from preliminary concept sketches to final renderings; researching period styles; costume bookkeeping, from preliminary character lists to wardrobe maintenance charts; and the costume shop, from threading a needle to identifying fabric. The major class project will have each student research, bookkeep, and present costume sketches for a play. Some student projects will incorporate production work. This class meets once a week.

Costume Design II. Ms. Pelletier

A more advanced course in costume design for students who have completed Costume Design I or who have the instructor’s permission to enter. Topics covered in Costume Design I will be examined in greater depth, with the focus on students designing actual productions. An emphasis will be placed on students developing sketching techniques and beginning and maintaining their portfolios. This class meets once a week.

Lighting Design I. Mr. MacPherson

Lighting Design I will introduce the student to the basic elements of stage lighting, including tools and equipment, color theory, reading scripts for design elements, operation of lighting consoles and construction of lighting cues, and basic elements of lighting drawings and schedules. Students will be offered hands-on experience in hanging and focusing lighting instruments and be invited to attend technical rehearsals. They will be offered opportunities to design productions and to assist other designers as a way to develop greater understanding of the design process. This class meets once a week.

Lighting Design II. Mr. MacPherson

Lighting Design II will build on the basics introduced in Lighting Design I to help develop the students’ abilities in designing complex productions. The class will focus primarily on CAD and other computer programs related to lighting design, script analysis, advanced console operation, and communication with directors and other designers. Students will be expected to design actual productions and in-class projects for evaluation and discussion, and will be offered the opportunity to assist Mr. MacPherson and others when possible to increase their experience in design. This class meets once a week.

Sound and Music for the Theatre I and II. Mr. Yannelli

Open to theatre and music students, these courses deal with technical and creative aspects of sound and music production for theatre. Hands-on training and practical application using facilities in the electronic music studio as well as sound equipment from the various theatre spaces will be emphasized. Drawing from each semester’s theatre performance schedule, students will be assigned one or more productions for which they will serve as sound designers, assistant sound designers, or composers. Composition students who normally would not consider writing for other media may find this work both challenging and useful in stimulating new musical ideas. No previous background in music is necessary. Topics to be covered include basic acoustics, use of studio equipment, sound reinforcement techniques, using sound effects, creating and embellishing special effects, creating sound and music collages, incidental music from existing resources, and composing original music. This class meets once a week.

Scenic Design I. Mr. Lee

We will explore the basic tools of stage design, including research, drafting, and model-building. Students will be assigned to current productions in the program. This class meets once a week.

Scenic Design II. Mr. Lee

There will be further exploration of stage design, including specific project designs, design standards, and problem-solving. Throughout the course, students will work with Vectorworks CAD software and be assigned to current productions in the program. This class meets once a week.

Theatre Technology. Members of the technical staff

Yearlong elective class focusing on the nuts and bolts of light board operation, sound board operation, projection technology, use of Final Cut Pro and Pro Tools editing programs, as well as basic stage carpentry. Students who take this class will be eligible for additional paid work as technical assistants in the theatre program. This class meets once a week.

Theatre Studies

Global Theatre: Africa and the Black Diaspora in the Caribbean and America. Mr. King

This course will explore the wide range of theatrical expression found in the work of diverse writers including Wole Soyinka, Athol Fugard, Derek Walcott, Mustapha Matura, Trevor Rhone, Errol John, Suzan-Lori Parks, Lynn Nottage, August Wilson, Lorraine Hansberry and Ntozake Shange, among others. A variety of plays will be read and discussed and selected scenes worked on. Students will also attend relevant plays in New York City. This class meets twice a week, fall semester only.

The Profession of Dramaturg. Mr. Gray

The dramaturg, in American theatres, wears some or all of a number of hats. This course will explore, through study and praxis, all of these functions, including production research, rehearsal work, translation, adaptation, new-play development, and the writing and editing of programs. This class meets once a week.

Global Theatre: China, Japan, and India. Ms. Pillai

This course explores traditional and contemporary performance practices of China, Japan, and India. During the semester, we will examine the text and performance of classical plays and operas, contemporary theatrical productions, classical and modern forms of dance, folk performances, and rituals. We will discuss and compare dramaturgical structure, staging, acting, gender conventions, actor/dancer training, the respective roles of performer and audience, and religious and political themes. We will seek to understand the aesthetics and social purposes of these performances, in addition to the relationship that different genres have to everyday life. We will secondarily consider how performances are conducted and adapted by Asian immigrant communities, as well as by non-Asian artists. Our work will be based upon lectures, readings, discussions, videos, live performances, and studio exercises. This class meets twice a week, spring semester only.

Producing

DownStage. Mr. Confoy

DownStage is an intensive, hands-on conference in theatrical production. DownStage student producers administrate and run their own theatre company. They are responsible for all aspects of production including determining budgeting and marketing an entire season of events and productions. Student producers are expected to fill a variety of positions, both technical and artistic, and to sit as members of the board of directors of a functioning theatre organization. In addition to their obligations to class and designated productions, DownStage producers are expected to hold regular office hours. Prior producing experience is not required. This class meets twice a week for the entire year.

Internships

Conference for Internships. Ms. Moe

For students who wish to pursue a professional internship as part of their program. All areas of producing and administration are possible: production, marketing, advertising, casting, development, etc. Students must have at least one full day each week to devote to the internship. Through individual meetings, we will best determine each student’s placement to meet individual academic and artistic goals.

Outside Programs

Theatre students may be invited to participate in outside programs, including:

London Theatre Tour. Mr. McRee, Intersession 2008

The purpose of the course is to experience and examine present-day British theatre: its practices, playwrights, traditions, theatres, and artists. This is a two-credit academic course and any student enrolled at SLC is eligible to take the class. During the two weeks in London, students will attend a minimum of twelve productions, tour various London theatres, meet with British theatre artists, attend regularly scheduled morning seminars, and make an oral presentation on one of the plays the group attends. Plays will be assigned prior to the end of first semester and preparation and research for the presentation should be completed before arriving in London. Productions attended will include as wide a variety of venues, styles, and periods of theatre as possible. Seminars will analyze and critique the work seen to discover themes, trends, and movements in the contemporary theatre of the country. Free time is scheduled for students to explore London and surrounding areas at their leisure.

La MaMa Umbria International 2008

La MaMa E.T.C. sponsors two summer events in Italy in conjunction with Sarah Lawrence. The International Symposium for Directors is a three-week training program for professional directors, choreographers, and actors where internationally renowned theatre artists conduct workshops and lecture/demonstrations. The Playwright Retreat is a one-week program where participants have ample time to work on new or existing material. Each day, master playwright Lisa Kron will meet with the playwrights to facilitate discussions, workshops, and exercises designed to help the writers with whatever challenges they are facing. More information is available at: www.lamama.org/italy/directorssymposium.html and www.lamama.org/italy/PlaywrightRetreat.html.