ARTD B135  INTRODUCTION TO MOVEMENT CULTURES  (0.5 Credit)

Ama Ma'at Gora, Clarricia Golden

This course introduces and integrates a range of dance techniques, foundational movement skills, and various genres, styles, and forms of dance based on faculty expertise. Each semester students will experience 2-3 combinations of movement cultures such as jazz, modern, contemporary, step, house, afro beats, folk, hip-hop reggae, traditional, ballet, improvisation, freestyle, and/or experimental, etc. The culminating aim is to cultivate burgeoning cross-genre and cross-cultural embodiment for artistry and performance. All students must meet the attendance requirement, and students registered for academic credit (ARTD) must also complete 2-3 reflection assignments as requested by their faculty. No dance experience is necessary to join this course, although enthusiasm and courage are critical for learning. This course is primarily focused on those at the beginning stages of their dance journey and welcomes dancers at all experience levels. Offered on a pass/fail basis only.

ARTD B136  MODERN: BEGINNING TECHNIQUE  (0.5 Credit)

Lela Aisha Jones, Tammy Carrasco

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

Beginning level dance technique courses focus on introducing movement vocabulary, developing skills, and gaining an understanding of the form. Students must meet the attendance requirement, and complete three short writing assignments. Offered on a pass/fail basis only.

ARTD B137  BALLET: BEGINNING TECHNIQUE  (0.5 Credit)

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

Beginning level dance technique courses focus on introducing movement vocabulary, developing skills, and gaining an understanding of the form. Students must meet the attendance requirement, and complete three short writing assignments. Offered on a pass/fail basis only.

ARTD B138  HIP HOP LINEAGES  (0.5 Credit)

Hip Hop Lineages is a team-taught practice-based course, exploring the embodied foundations of Hip Hop and its expression as a global phenomenon. Offered on a pass/fail basis only.

(Offered: Fall 2026)

ARTD B140  APPROACHES TO DANCE: THEMES AND PERSPECTIVES  (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

This course introduces students to dance as a multi-layered, significant and enduring human behavior that ranges from art to play, from ritual to politics, and beyond. It engages students in the creative, critical, and conceptual processes that emerge in response to the study of dance. It also explores the research potential that arises when other areas of academic inquiry, including criticism, ethnology, history and philosophy, interact with dance and dance scholarship. Lectures, discussion, film, video, and guest speakers are included.

(Offered: Fall 2026)

ARTD B141  AFRICAN DIASPORA: BEGINNING TECHNIQUE  (0.5 Credit)

Patricia Jones

The African Diaspora course cultivates a community that centers global blackness, dance, live music, and movement culture. Embody living traditions from a selection of peoples and countries including Guinea, Ghana, Mali, Brazil, and Cuba. Offered on a pass/fail basis only.

ARTD B143  JAZZ: BEGINNING TECHNIQUE  (0.5 Credit)

Staff

Beginning level dance technique courses focus on introducing movement vocabulary, developing skills, and gaining an understanding of the form. Students must meet the attendance requirement, and complete three short writing assignments. Offered on a pass/fail basis only.

(Offered: Fall 2026)

ARTD B144  DANCE COMPOSITION: ELEMENTS AND CRAFT  (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

This dance composition course introduces students to the craft of choreography. Foundations of dance making, such as space, time, performance, and artistry are explored and refined through the creation of short choreographic studies while observing and reflecting upon the work of peers. This course will explore structured and open movement experiences, such as: movement invention skills; compositional strategies; investigating music, language, images, and objects as sources of individual and collective inspiration. Students will be guided through solo and collaborative methods. Supplemental viewings and readings may be offered to support choreographic processes. Concurrent participation in any Dance Program technique course, either for academic or PE credit, is encouraged.

(Offered: Fall 2026)

ARTD B148  TAP: BEGINNING TECHNIQUE  (0.5 Credit)

Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

Beginning level dance technique courses focus on introducing movement vocabulary, developing skills, and gaining an understanding of the form. Students must meet the attendance requirement, and complete three short writing assignments. Offered on a pass/fail basis only.

ARTD B210  SACRED ACTIVISM: DANCING ALTARS, RADICAL MOVES  (1.0 Credit)

Lela Aisha Jones

Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

How do practices of embodiment, choreography, artistry, performance, testifying and witnessing guide us to transformative and liberatory action in our lives? Centered in this course is adornment culture, intergenerational dances, and embodiment as sacred from a range of global perspectives. We will engage altar building through our beings/bodies and with materials, as well as the importance of costume and garb in setting the scene for advocacy, ritual, and staged offerings. Expect to dance, move, write, discuss, create projects, and engage in a variety of text-based and media resources. We will work individually and collectively for communal learning. The content for this course will be steeped in the lives, cultures, and practices of black and brown folks. This is a writing and dance attentive course. No dance experience necessary, just the courage to move.

ARTD B230  MODERN: INTERMEDIATE TECHNIQUE  (0.5 Credit)

Staff

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

Course Objectives: to experience a progression of movement phrases designed to develop an understanding of modern dance principles; to gain confidence in increasingly complex movement sequences, and explore movement creatively; to improve body placement, strength, stamina, and flexibility while embodying modern dance technique; to investigate elements of choreography with an emphasis on modern dance characteristics; to incorporate elements of improvisation and to communicate movement ideas, both individually and collaboratively.

(Offered: Fall 2026)

ARTD B231  BALLET: INTERMEDIATE TECHNIQUE  (0.5 Credit)

Staff

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

ntermediate level dance technique courses focus on expanding the movement vocabulary, on introducing movement phrases that are increasingly complex and rigorous, and on directing attention to dynamics and spatial ideas. Students will be evaluated on their openness and commitment to the learning process, increased understanding of the technique, and demonstration in class of their technical and stylistic progress and accomplishment. Preparation: three semesters of beginning level ballet, or its equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

(Offered: Fall 2026)

ARTD B232  JAZZ: INTERMEDIATE TECHNIQUE  (0.5 Credit)

Clarricia Golden

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

Course Objectives: to experience a progression of movement phrases designed to develop an understanding of modern dance principles; to gain confidence in increasingly complex movement sequences, and explore movement creatively; to improve body placement, strength, stamina, and flexibility while embodying modern dance technique.

ARTD B233  HIP HOP: INTERMEDIATE TECHNIQUE  (0.5 Credit)

Melanie Cotton

Course Objectives: to experience a progression of movement phrases designed to develop an understanding of Hip Hop dance principles; to gain confidence in increasingly complex movement sequences, and explore movement creatively; to improve body placement, strength, stamina, and flexibility while embodying Hip Hop dance technique; to investigate elements of choreography with an emphasis on modern dance characteristics; to incorporate elements of improvisation and to communicate movement ideas, both individually and collaboratively.

ARTD B235  TAP: INTERMEDIATE TECHNIQUE  (0.5 Credit)

Staff

Course Objectives: to experience a progression of movement phrases designed to develop an understanding of tap dance principles; to gain confidence in increasingly complex movement sequences, and explore movement creatively; to improve body placement, strength, stamina, and flexibility while embodying tap dance technique; to investigate elements of choreography with an emphasis on tap dance characteristics; to incorporate elements of improvisation and to communicate movement ideas, both individually and collaboratively. This course is most suited for students with tap dance experience. Course placement occurs the first week of classes during the designated course time. Attend the first week of classes to be considered for the course. This course is most suited for students with tap dance experience.

(Offered: Fall 2026)

ARTD B238  AFRICAN DIASPORA DANCE AND DRUM: INTERMEDIATE TECHNIQUE  (0.5 Credit)

Patricia Jones

African Diaspora courses cultivate a community that centers Black international dance and music cultures. In this intermediate course students learn drumming and dancing and embody living traditions from a selection of peoples and countries including and not limited to Guinea, Ghana, Mali, Brazil, and Cuba. The objectives are to experience a progression of movement traditions to develop an understanding of cultural world views, orientations, lifeways, and values through embodied/performance research; to gain confidence in increasingly complex movement and music sequences; to improve body placement, strength, stamina, and flexibility while embodying technique; to investigate elements of choreography with an emphasis on African Diaspora dance and drum movement cultures; to incorporate elements of improvisation; to communicate movement ideas; to integrate concepts of movement and music both individually, collaboratively, and collectively. This course is appropriate for intermediate and advanced dancers.

ARTD B243  DANCE ENSEMBLE: SCREENDANCE  (0.5 Credit)

Lela Aisha Jones

Dance ensembles are designed to offer students significant opportunities to develop dance performance skills at an introductory professional level. For this course, faculty and/or a guest artist will introduce cast members to a unique approach to choreography in collaboration with film, media, and video artistic technologies. Students are assessed based on their overall participation in the course, demonstration of committed openness to a choreographic process, dedication to collective building of a performance work, and progress as a movement-based performer. Students must commit to the full semester and be available for rehearsals, technical/dress week, and performances in the BMC Dance Program’s Spring Dance Concert. If participating in a fall ensemble, students must also commit to scheduled rehearsals in the spring semester. Most ensembles require dance experience. For this course, no dance experience is necessary to join, however students must attend the first week of classes to survey movement experience levels and other artistic potentials the cast community may offer to the final performance as well as readiness to engage in dance as a research practice. In addition to a willingness to perform movement, this course welcomes students who act, write, sing, create visual art, make jewelry, sew, woodworkers, and/or play instruments. This course is suitable for courageous creatives ready to collaborate.

ARTD B256  DANCE MOVEMENT THERAPY  (1.0 Credit)

In the fields of dance, embodiment, health, and movement, methodologies and practices of the being/body in motion are well-known as preventative art. This course will build a beginning understanding of dance/movement therapy or DMT. Through experiential exercises, lecture, discussion, and video presentations, students will explore contemporary structures of DMT and the intersection of DMT with social justice, psychology, and neuroscience, with a deep focus on the framework offered by anthropologist dancer Dr. Pearl Primus at the American Dance Therapy Conference in 1969. This course will review the historical roots of dance/movement as a healing art form prior to the western development of DMT, the origins of dance/movement therapy in the United States, and current theoretical frameworks and interventions of DMT. Critical analysis of theoretical structures will be applied in embodied practice throughout the course. This is a writing and dance attentive course. No dance experience necessary, just courage to move.

ARTD B260  DANCE EDUCATION: PRACTICE AND PERFORMANCE  (1.0 Credit)

Tammy Carrasco

Dance education is a world where teaching and performance coalesce to center being-with-our-bodies as a platform for learning. This course involves collaboratively creating an educational program for young audiences, communities, and participants in various educational sites. The seminar portion of the course engages students in reading, writing, and discussion on various perspectives of dance pedagogy, theory, and teaching strategies. The embodied component of the course brings students into a fluid relationship between theory and practice through teaching, peer-observation, and reflection on arts in education. There will be field visits during the course that include teaching and performance opportunities. This course is intended for students with experience in any dance form or theatrical performance at any level and we welcome students who are courageously beginning their journey with dance. It is embodied and writing attentive.

ARTD B280  PRACTICAL ANATOMY: MUSCLES, BONES, MOVEMENT  (1.0 Credit)

KNOW THYSELF! This course is designed as a human anatomy class for students interested in the application of anatomy to physical activities including dance, sport, and movement in general. Students will learn musculoskeletal anatomy, basic kinesiology, strengthening and stretching practices, and injury identification and management. Students will support theoretical knowledge with experiential movement analysis in class. The goal of the course is to present a scientific basis that will aid in a greater understanding of how individual's bodies are shaped and move, and how to achieve greater efficiency of movement and desired performance outcomes.

ARTD B315  DANCE ENSEMBLE: INTENSIVE  (1.0 Credit)

Lela Aisha Jones

Dance Ensemble Intensive invites intermediate and advanced dancers to grow their performance abilities extensively, learning choreography from 2-3 guest artists in varying genres and movement cultures. Engage in artistic inquiry and embodied/performance research culminating in an April performance. Dance ensembles are designed to offer students significant opportunities to develop dance technique and performance skills at a beginning professional level. Students audition for entrance into individual ensembles. Students are evaluated on their participation in rehearsals, demonstration of commitment, openness to the choreographic process, and integration of all elements in performance. This course is suitable for intermediate and advanced level dancers. Concurrent attendance in technique class per week is recommended. Students must commit to the full semester and be available for technical/dress rehearsals and performances in the Spring Dance Concert. If participating in a fall ensemble, students must also commit to scheduled rehearsals in the spring semester.

ARTD B330  MODERN: ADVANCED TECHNIQUE  (0.5 Credit)

Ama Ma'at Gora, Lela Aisha Jones

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

dvanced level technique courses continue to expand movement vocabulary and to introduce increasingly challenging movement phrases and repertory. The advanced modern course focuses on both intellectual and kinesthetic understanding of movement and command of technical challenges and performance. Students will be evaluated on their openness and commitment to the learning process, increased understanding of the technique, and demonstration in class of their technical and stylistic progress and accomplishment. Preparation: three semesters of Modern: Intermediate Technique, or its equivalent, or permission of the instructor. First-year students should contact Lela Aisha Jones at ljones2@brynmawr.edu to discuss placement at mcantor@brynmaw.r.edu.

ARTD B331  BALLET: ADVANCED TECHNIQUE  (0.5 Credit)

Staff

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

Advanced level technique courses continue to expand movement vocabulary and to introduce increasingly challenging movement phrases and repertory. The advanced ballet course focuses on both intellectual and kinesthetic understanding and command of technical challenges and performance. The last half hour of the class is used for optional pointe or variations with the permission of the instructor. Students will be evaluated on their openness and commitment to the learning process, increased understanding of the technique, and demonstration in class of progress and accomplishment. Preparation: minimum of 3 semesters of intermediate ballet, or its equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

ARTD B342  ADVANCED CHOREOGRAPHY  (1.0 Credit)

Lela Aisha Jones

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

Independent study in choreography under the guidance of the instructor. Students are expected to produce one major choreographic work and are responsible for all production considerations. Concurrent attendance in any level technique course is recommended. Pre-requisite: ARTD B142: Dance Composition: Process and Presence and ARTD B242: Dance Composition: Elements and Craft.

ARTD B345  DANCE ENSEMBLE: MODERN  (0.5 Credit)

Lela Aisha Jones

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

Dance ensembles are designed to offer students significant opportunities to develop dance technique and performance skills. Students audition for entrance into individual ensembles. Original works choreographed by faculty or guest choreographers or works reconstructed / restaged from classic or contemporary repertories are rehearsed and performed in concert. Students are evaluated on their participation in rehearsals, demonstration of commitment and openness to the choreographic process, and achievement in performance. This course is suitable for intermediate and advanced level dancers.

ARTD B346  DANCE ENSEMBLE: BALLET  (0.5 Credit)

Staff

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

Dance ensembles are designed to offer students significant opportunities to develop dance technique and performance skills. Students audition for entrance into individual ensembles. Original works choreographed by faculty or guest choreographers are rehearsed and performed in concert. Students are evaluated on their participation in rehearsals, demonstration of commitment and openness to the choreographic process, and achievement in performance. Preparation: This course is suitable for intermediate and advanced level dancers. Concurrent attendance in at least one technique class per week is recommended. Students must commit to the full semester and be available for rehearsal week and performances in the Spring Dance Concert.

(Offered: Fall 2026)

ARTD B347  DANCE ENSEMBLE: JAZZ  (0.5 Credit)

Staff

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

Dance ensembles are designed to offer students significant opportunities to develop dance technique and performance skills. Students audition for entrance into individual ensembles. Original works choreographed by faculty or guest choreographers are rehearsed and performed in concert. Students are evaluated on their participation in rehearsals, demonstration of commitment and openness to the choreographic process, and achievement in performance. Preparation: This course is suitable for intermediate and advanced level dancers. Concurrent attendance in at least one technique class per week is recommended. Students must commit to the full semester and be available for rehearsal week and performances in the Spring Dance Concert.

(Offered: Fall 2026)

ARTD B348  DANCE ENSEMBLE: AFRICAN DIASPORA DANCE  (0.5 Credit)

Patricia Jones

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

Dance ensembles are designed to offer students significant opportunities to develop dance technique and performance skills. Students audition for entrance into individual ensembles. Original works choreographed by faculty or guest choreographers are rehearsed and performed in concert. Students are evaluated on their participation in rehearsals, demonstration of commitment and openness to the choreographic process, and achievement in performance. Preparation: This course is suitable for intermediate and advanced level dancers. Concurrent attendance in at least one technique class per week is recommended. Students must commit to the full semester and be available for rehearsal week and performances in the Spring Dance Concert.

ARTD B350  DANCE ENSEMBLE: HIP HOP  (0.5 Credit)

Melanie Cotton

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

Dance ensembles are designed to offer students significant opportunities to develop dance technique and performance skills. Students audition for entrance into individual ensembles. Original works are choreographed by faculty or guest choreographers and performed in concert. Students are evaluated on their participation in rehearsals, demonstration of commitment and openness to the choreographic process, and achievement in performance. Preparation: This course is suitable for intermediate and advanced level dancers. Students must commit to the full semester and be available for rehearsal week and performances in the Spring Dance Concert.

ARTD B353  DANCE ENSEMBLE: CONTEMPORARY  (0.5 Credit)

Tammy Carrasco

Perform contemporary artistry that engages classical and traditional forms of various dance genres as fertile ground for manifesting the future of artistic inquiry and embodied research. Dance ensembles are designed to offer students significant opportunities to develop dance technique and performance skills at a beginning professional level. Students audition for entrance into individual ensembles. Original works choreographed by faculty or guest choreographers are rehearsed and performed in a final concert. Students are evaluated on their participation in rehearsals, demonstration of commitment and openness to the choreographic process, and achievement in performance. Preparation: This course is suitable for intermediate and advanced level dancers. Concurrent attendance in at least one technique class per week is recommended. Students must commit to the full semester and be available for rehearsal week and performances in the Spring Dance Concert. If participating in a fall ensemble, students must also commit to scheduled rehearsals in the spring semester.

ARTD B359  CONTEMPORARY: ADVANCED TECHNIQUE  (0.5 Credit)

Clarricia Golden, Lela Aisha Jones

Advanced level technique courses continue to expand dance vocabulary by integrating complex movement combinations, phrases, and repertory. The advanced contemporary course focuses on both intellectual and kinesthetic understanding of movement, artistic inquiry, and embodied/performance research currently relevant in the field of concert dance. Students will be evaluated on their openness and commitment to the learning process, increased understanding of the techniques, and demonstration in class of their technical and stylistic progress and accomplishment. This course will be taught by 2-3 faculty members who specialize in varied styles, genres, or forms. This course is suitable for students who have advanced intermediate or advanced levels of experience in dance. For placement, students attend the first week of classes.

ARTD B360  DANCE COMPOSITION: INTER-ARTS MAKING  (1.0 Credit)

Lela Aisha Jones

Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

This movement and performance based composition course is open to movers of any kind, from any performance background, who want to engage embodied making as intricately intertwined with other disciplines, especially within the arts (sound, costume, film, site, props, etc.). Further, the substance, material, or content which grounds dances will be explored. Collaboration in community and development of individual signature artistic patterns are primary objectives for the students in this course. Students will make artistic projects through engagement in artistic inquiry and embodied/performance research—developing, sketching, and structuring movement ideas in multi-dimensional works grounded in being with the body. Movement exercises, viewing of live and filmed work, discussions, and writing will help to sharpen visual analysis and kinesthetic responses. The course includes journaling, variety of text resources, and viewings but focuses primarily on weekly movement assignments. Concurrent participation in any Dance Program technique course, either for academic or PE credit, is highly recommended. This course is embodied and writing attentive.Course Prerequisite: requires a strong desire to develop a practice of making art individually and in collective.

ARTD B400  SENIOR PROJECT/THESIS  (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Humanities

Majors develop, in consultation with a faculty advisor, a senior capstone experience that will expand and deepen their work and interests within the field of dance. This can range from a significant research or expository paper to a substantial choreographic work that will be supported in a full studio performance. Students who elect to do choreographic or performance work must also submit a reflection paper. Work begins in the fall semester and should be completed by the middle of the spring semester.

(Offered: Fall 2026)

ARTD B403  SUPERVISED WORK  (0.5 Credit)

Lela Aisha Jones

Division: Humanities

Research in a particular topic of dance under the guidance of an instructor, resulting in a final paper or project. Permission of the instructor is required.

ARTD B425  PRAXIS III - INDEPENDENT STUDY  (1.0 Credit)

Tammy Carrasco

Praxis III - Independent Study

ARTT B150  INTRODUCTION TO THEATER  (1.0 Credit)

Marissa Fenley

Division: Humanities

This course offers an introduction to a number of significant dramatic works from Shakespeare, to Ibsen, to Suzan-Lori Parks, alongside seminal figures in the theorization of theater and performance from Aristotle, to Nietzsche, to Artaud. We will concentrate on the intersection of interpretation and enactment, asking how these texts appear on stage and why. This is not merely descriptive work, but interpretive and physical work. Students will be challenged to engage theater both on an embodied and conceptual level and ask: what thoughts does this particular performance or method enable us to think that we wouldn’t have thought otherwise?

(Offered: Fall 2026)

ARTT B214  PLAYWRITING: ADAPTATION AS TEXT & CRAFT  (1.0 Credit)

Meghan Brodie

What is an adaptation? In what ways are adaptations in conversation with source materials? How does one articulate a politics of adaptation? This course explores the theory and practice of dramatic adaptation. Students will study texts, representations, and receptions of adaptations. Building on this dramaturgical foundation, students will write their own adaptations.

ARTT B230  WOMEN IN THEATER  (1.0 Credit)

Meghan Brodie

Division: Humanities

This course explores provocative portraits of women in plays written by women. Students begin with a tenth-century nun and read their way right up to the present day. This is the subversive side of dramatic literature—the plays not included in most anthologies. We will investigate the objectification and reclamation of the female body, gendered language, intersectionality, and the politics of drama by and about women in their socio-historical contexts.

ARTT B234  LIGHTING DESIGN  (1.0 Credit)

Staff

This class is an introduction to the process of lighting design for the theatre. We will explore the steps and skills necessary to navigate the designer’s path from text to production. This course will focus on how to think about light, how light can function as a dramaturgical tool, and how we can communicate lighting ideas to our collaborators.

(Offered: Spring 2027)

ARTT B238  STAGE PROPERTIES  (1.0 Credit)

Stage properties is a varied discipline encompassing dozens of crafting/building challenges as well as textual analysis, historical and object research, cost estimation and planning, design analysis, and, most of all, the ability to think critically and creatively about some of the performing arts' weirdest challenges. This class will be part lectures and demos by the instructors, and a good part reading, research, presentations, and hands-on design and building work by the students. We'll explore a wide variety of construction and craft techniques as we learn about organizing, researching, acquiring, designing, and building the objects required to create the worlds in which the plays we read are set. This class will exercise students' abilities to think creatively about unexpected and unusual design issues and give them a chance to solve problems in an experiential way.

ARTT B245  STAGING THE REVOLUTION  (1.0 Credit)

Catharine Slusar

We will look at and engage with the tradition of revolutionary acts of theater, such as Bertolt Brecht's Epic Theatre, which used plays to critique social issues and incite change, The Living Theatre's performances protesting war and capitalism, Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed empowering marginalized communities, and more recently, the movement started by We See You W.A.T. (White American Theater). Our readings will also include plays by Vaclav Haval, that influenced Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution. We will create our own piece of revolutionary theater to be performed both at Bryn Mawr and in Prague, asking if theater can provoke revolution, or if is it, as Boal says, merely rehearsal for revolution.

ARTT B251  ACTING I  (1.0 Credit)

Catharine Slusar

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

This studio course provides an introduction to the basic processes of acting to students of various experience levels. We develop tools and a shared vocabulary using performance exercises, games, improvisation and scene work.

(Offered: Fall 2026)

ARTT B252  TECHNICAL THEATER I  (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

This course is an introduction to the building blocks of technical theater production and covers a wide range of topics in various technical disciplines. Through a combination of lectures, in-class demonstrations, and hands-on experience, students gain a basic understanding of terminology, materials, techniques, personnel, and processes involved in technical theater production. Students will gain some proficiency with tools and technology that will be useful in both theatrical and non-theatrical environments.

(Offered: Fall 2026)

ARTT B253  PERFORMANCE ENSEMBLE  (0.5 Credit)

Catharine Slusar

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

An intensive workshop in the methodologies and aesthetics of theater performance, this course is open to students with significant experience in performance. In collaboration with the director of theater, students will explore a range of performance techniques and styles in the context of rehearsing a performance project. Admission to the class is by audition or permission of the instructor. The class is offered for a half-unit of credit.

(Offered: Fall 2026, Spring 2027)

ARTT B254  FUNDAMENTALS OF THEATER DESIGN  (1.0 Credit)

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

An introduction to the creative process of visual design for theater, exploring dramatic context and influence of cultural, social, and ideological forces on theater and examining practical applications of various technical elements such as scenery, costume, and lighting while emphasizing their aesthetic integration.

(Offered: Spring 2027)

ARTT B255  COSTUME DESIGN I  (1.0 Credit)

Katherine Fritz

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

This is an entry-level course in the study and practice of costume design for the theatre. Students will explore the role of the designer within the larger context of the theatrical environment, analyze ideas as they are reflected in conception and reading of a play, and examine how these ideas about interpretation and aesthetic can be reflected in production. Students will leave with an understanding of research methods and practices, sketching and rendering techniques, and execution of a costume design from both aesthetic and practical standpoints. We will also emphasize the role of collaboration and communication in the design process.

(Offered: Fall 2026)

ARTT B258  INTERMEDIATE TOPICS IN TECHNICAL THEATER PRODUCTION  (1.0 Credit)

Staff

This course is a deeper exploration of the process of technical theater production introduced in ARTT B252 – Fundamentals of Technical Theater Production. Through a combination of lecture, in-class and out-of-class analysis, and hands-on experience students will gain a more thorough understanding of the processes of technical theatrical production. The course focuses on five sections of technical production: basic technical drawing, advanced scenic construction techniques, electricity for the entertainment industry (lighting, sound, motors), basic rigging, and basic sound system design and execution. While mathematics is not the focus of the class, basic math and some algebra and trigonometry will be necessary. Prerequisite: ARTT B252 or Permission of Instructor

ARTT B265  SPACES OF POSSIBILITY: SHAKESPEARE AND THE CLASSROOM  (1.0 Credit)

Catharine Slusar

Focused on creating and collaborating, this course examines how we access Shakespeare and make Shakespeare accessible while working with 8th graders in Philadelphia. We will work as performers, creators, directors, designers, mentors and audience members. This course will be collaborative, sharing ideas and working as an ensemble comprised of college students and 8th graders. Prerequisite: ARTT B251 Fundamentals of Acting or permission of the instructor.

(Offered: Spring 2027)

ARTT B311  FABULATION, ERASURE AND DISTORTION: FEMINISM ON STAGE  (1.0 Credit)

Marissa Fenley

This course asks students to take up feminism (and its numerous intersections) as a method for theatrical presentation and composition, rather than merely a question of representation. We will not only interrogate the criteria by which a performance is deemed “feminist” but will also identify, analyze, and put into practice specific strategies and techniques for staging feminist questions and provocations onstage. Such techniques may range from erasure, to saturation, to fabulation, to distortion—a list that we will build upon as throughout our course. We will apply critical texts across feminist philosophy, critical race studies, and queer theory (including Simone de Beauvoir, Judith Butler, Iris Marion Young, and bell hooks among others) and analyze how these approaches to feminism are taken up by playwrights, performance artists, and dancers (including Caryl Churchill, Suzan-Lori Parks, Judy Chicago, and Narcissister among others).

(Offered: Fall 2026)

ARTT B314  MODERN QUEER DRAMA  (1.0 Credit)

Meghan Brodie

This seminar explores provocative portraits of queer life in modern drama including the evolution, reclamation, and employment of gender- and sexuality-specific language and stereotypes within and outside of queer communities. How does the socio-historical environment in which a queer play is written inform its content and reception? Are plays about or written by queer individuals necessarily political? Does queer theater intervene in culture differently from the manner in which other theater does?

ARTT B351  ACTING II: SOLO PERFORMANCE  (1.0 Credit)

Jennifer Kidwell

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

A continuation of the methods of inquiry in Fundamentals of Acting, this course is structured as a series of project-based learning explorations in acting. Recommended preparation: Prior experience in theater is recommended but not required, ARTT B251 (Fundamentals of Acting) or permission of instructor.

(Offered: Fall 2026)

ARTT B353  ADVANCED PERFORMANCE ENSEMBLE  (1.0 Credit)

Catharine Slusar

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

An advanced, intensive workshop in theater performance. Students explore a range of performance techniques in the context of rehearsing a performance project, and participate in weekly seminars in which the aesthetic and theatrical principles of the play and production will be developed and challenged. The course may be repeated. Prerequisite: ARTT B253 or permission of the instructor.

(Offered: Spring 2027)

ARTT B354  SHAKESPEARE ON THE STAGE  (1.0 Credit)

Catharine Slusar

Division: Humanities

An exploration of Shakespeare’s texts from the point of view of the performer. A historical survey of the various approaches to producing Shakespeare from Elizabethan to contemporary times, with intensive scene work culminating in on-campus performances. Prerequisite: ARTT B251 Fundamentals of Acting or permission of the instructor.

ARTT B356  THEATERS OF AND AFTER SAMUEL BECKETT  (1.0 Credit)

Division: Humanities

An exploration of Beckett’s theater work conducted through both reading and practical exercises in performance techniques. Points of special interest include the monologue form of the early novels and its translation into theater, Beckett’s influences (particularly silent film) and collaborations, and the relationship between the texts of the major dramatic works and the development of both modern and postmodern performance techniques.

ARTT B403  SUPERVISED WORK  (1.0 Credit)

Catharine Slusar, Staff

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression

Research and work in a particular topic of theater under the guidance of an instructor.

(Offered: Fall 2026, Spring 2027)

ARTT B420  PRODUCTION ENSEMBLE: PRAXIS II  (1.0 Credit)

Staff

(Offered: Fall 2026, Spring 2027)

ARTT B425  PRODUCTION ENSEMBLE: PRAXIS III  (1.0 Credit)

ARTT B430  PRACTICUM IN STAGE MANAGEMENT  (1.0 Credit)

Staff

This seminar course is made up of the four to seven students each semester who serve as production team leads for the semester-long theater production. Each student will work in a practicum fashion as the leader of a theatrical production department (depending on the needs of a specific production, that will potentially include stage management, sound, electrics, carpentry, technical direction, stage properties, projections, and more). Students will gather weekly with the instructors to go over readings and conduct shared critiques, as well as to discuss the practical, day-to-day concerns of each of their departments. The class will also read about and examine the deeper overall concerns of production and personnel management and the ways that theater makers collaborate to integrate production elements into a fully realized work of art. Students will gain high-level professional management skills as they plan and execute the steps necessary to fulfill the needs of their individual departments; learn to delegate work to and manage the student technicians who work under them; communicate regularly with professional directors, designers, and consultants from positions of real authority; and work collaboratively with their fellow production leads, including their instructors. They will work closely with a variety of professional theater makers, including their professors and artist consultants from outside the college.

(Offered: Spring 2027)