Theatre Arts (TA)

TA-115 Fundamentals of Voice & Movement (2 credits)

Open to all students. In this studio/lab course, the student explores the potential of the human body. Focusing on techniques of breath control, relaxation, vocal production, and movement, they increase their self-awareness and expressive potential by expanding their personal repertoire of vocal and movement choices.

TA-210 Improvisation:creative Approach Perform (2 credits)

The student experiences and examines improvisational techniques and structures from theater and dance/movement perspectives. They create and analyze their own classroom improvisations; the student also examines and evaluates theater and dance works generated through improvisation.

TA-211 Health Care Theater (2 credits)

This course will allow students to learn more about health, health care systems, and express themselves creatively. Students will also gain an understanding of what it means to research a character, and use their research to learn to portray different disabilities, symptoms of different deseases, family members, and health care providers. From these different viewpoints, the student can learn more about the health care system, different disorders, and what questions they should ask when attending to their own or their family member's health.

TA-250 Musical Theatre:on Stage & Screen (4 credits)

In this studio-and-discussion class, students will study the most popular theatrical genre of the 20th and 21st Centuries--the musical. By analyzing scripts, libretti, scores and production practices, the students will explore the musical's evolution in terms of form and content. Using performance-based analytic frameworks, the students will investigate the relationship among spoken text, music, movement and visual production practices. Through cultural and historical analysis, students will explore how the musical reflects or envisions political, economic, and social realities. The students will also analyze how the medium of film has influenced the musical's development. These multi-dimensional analyses will assist students in making creative physical, vocal and music choices to present scenes from musicals in class.

TA-265 Fundmtls of Acting On-Stage and Off (2 credits)

In this course, the student develops a method for approaching acting problems. Working on selected scenes, they experience and examine the process of preparing for a role, creating a character, and presenting the character in performance.

TA-307 Selected Topics in Theatre (2 credits)

Selected topics in theatre covered.

Prerequisite(s): Students must work on departmental production--as a cast member or member of a production crew.

TA-310 Cont Theatre:Silenced Voices Heard (2 credits)

In this course, the student studies play scripts and performances as a basis for analyzing contemporary theater with a special emphasis on playwrights who speak for groups who have previously been silenced in the theater-e.g., women, Latino-Americans, African-Americans, gays, and other populations. In so doing, they simultaneously explore their own moral and aesthetic assumptions and the theater's potential for engendering cultural change.

Prerequisite(s): One Communication-Level 3 ICM completed. One course in HFA-210 elective completed.

TA-340 Introduction to Directing (3 credits)

Offered Fall Term only. The student develops strategies for approaching the challenges and problems of the directing process. They analyze scripts, develop production concepts, practice staging techniques, and explore methods of collaborating with actors and designers. Based on their personal goals, each student selects a short scene, develops and implements appropriate production strategies, collaborates with actors in rehearsal, and presents the scene in class.

Prerequisite(s): TA-265

TA-355 Creative Drama (3 credits)

Creative drama uses process-oriented, nonexhibitional activities as a basis for examining human experience. This course emphasizes the fundamentals of creative drama, focusing on philosophy, dramatic materials, and guidance. The course provides the student with opportunities to explore connections between drama and human development and to participate in and lead activities.

Prerequisite(s): ED-201

TA-440 Advanced Directing (3 credits)

This course extends the beginning director's experience in theater. While studying directing from a variety of historical and theoretical perspectives, each student directs, designs, and presents a one-act play or original theater piece in performance. They address problems relevant to planning, management, and administration.

Prerequisite(s): TA-340