Students will be expected to read two to three plays a week. Playwrights to be covered include Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Plautus, Terence, Roswitha, Marlowe, Jonson, Shakespeare, Corneille, Racine, Wycherly, Calderon, and Lope de Vega. Three written examinations, objective and analytic. This introduction to acting scenes focuses on process by way of improvisational formats which deal with basic issues of acting. Topics include circumstances, relationship, character, objectives, opposites and shaping.
Students rehearse and perform short scenes from a variety of plays.
Each class includes a physical warm-up and work on movement skills. Apart from reading three or four plays from which scenes are drawn, most assignments, including the final, are of a performance nature. Preparation for the showing of scenes entails outside rehearsals on a regular basis. A weekly two hour movement laboratory is part of the training. This course will provide students with a theoretical and practical understanding of the processes involved in conceiving and executing stage designs.