Theater Courses
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- Fall 2020
- Spring 2020
- Winter 2020
Fall 2020▲
See complete information about these courses in the course offerings database. For more information about a specific course, including course type, schedule and location, click on its title.
Introduction to Theater
THTR 100 - Mish, Robert W.
An introduction to drama and the theater arts, including a brief historical survey, selected examples of dramatic literature, and a sequence on theater disciplines such as acting, designing, and directing.
University Theater
THTR 109 - Sandberg, Stephanie L.
Participation in a university theater production for a minimum of 40 hours. A journal recording the production process is required. May be repeated for degree credit with permission. Maximum seven credits for students with a major or minor in theater, eight credits for others.
Script Analysis for Stage and Screen
THTR 121 - Collins, Owen
The study of selected plays and screenplays from the standpoint of the theatre and screen artists. Emphasis on thorough examination of the scripts preparatory to production. This course is focused on developing script analysis skills directly applicable to work in production. Students work collaboratively in various creative capacities to transform texts into productions.
Stage Acting 1
THTR 141 - Levy, Jemma A.
An introduction to acting for the stage. In this hands-on class, students learn and develop physical and vocal techniques for text-based and improvisational performance, focusing on relationships, objectives, and actions. Work includes in-class scene presentations from modern scripts.
Stage Management
THTR 209 - Evans, Shawn Paul
Stage management is an essential position for all theatrical productions. Students develop personal management style through the study of techniques and skill sets necessary to manage and run stage and film productions. Students hone their management techniques by applying management solutions to specific production problems of a theatrical, dance, or film project produced by the department. Students are required to participate in a production in a stage-management capacity.
Western Theater History
THTR 211 - Sandberg, Stephanie L.
This course examines theater from the Renaissance period up to the modern era. Students read, analyze, and perform texts from this period, studying in detail how the theater is culturally created and maintained. The goal of the course is to gain a general overview of how the theater came to be what it is today. Since theater is primarily a cultural institution, we simultaneously examine politics, philosophy, religion, science, and other factors that influence how the art form is created, maintained, and culturally preserved. We also examine history itself as an important cultural tool for assessing the events of the past.
Introduction to Performance Design
THTR 251 - Collins, Owen
An introduction to the history, fundamentals and aesthetics of design for theater and dance with an emphasis on the collaborative nature of the design disciplines. Design projects are required. Lab fee required
Lighting Design
THTR 336 - Evans, Shawn Paul
A study of the practice of stage lighting, focusing on styles of production, historical methods and artistic theory. Culminates in a light design for a public theatrical production. Lab fee required.
Directed Individual Project
THTR 423 - Evans, Shawn Paul
This course permits the student to follow a program of specialized applied research in order to widen the scope of experience and to build upon concepts covered in other courses. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.
University Theater IV: Capstone
THTR 471 - Evans, Shawn Paul
Participation in a university theater production for a minimum of 50 hours. A journal recording the production process and a portfolio documenting the student's productions at Washington and Lee University are required.
Spring 2020▲
See complete information about these courses in the course offerings database. For more information about a specific course, including course type, schedule and location, click on its title.
Total Theater
THTR 239 - Mish, Robert W.
A practical study of design, directing, production and acting problems in a specific style of dramatic literature, culminating in a public theatrical production.
Design Storm
THTR 256 - Collins, Owen
A course that explores the creative selection process of all aspects of design for a performance. The focus of the course centers on the generation of ideas that reveal meaning of a given dramatic text in different ways, and how to refine those choices. Different modes of collaboration and cooperation will be explored in group projects that utilize, as examples, the titles that the department will produce next year.
Winter 2020▲
See complete information about these courses in the course offerings database. For more information about a specific course, including course type, schedule and location, click on its title.
Introduction to Theater
THTR 100 - Mish, Robert W.
An introduction to drama and the theater arts, including a brief historical survey, selected examples of dramatic literature, and a sequence on theater disciplines such as acting, designing, and directing.
University Theater
THTR 109 - Sandberg, Stephanie L.
Participation in a university theater production for a minimum of 40 hours. A journal recording the production process is required. May be repeated for degree credit with permission. Maximum seven credits for students with a major or minor in theater, eight credits for others.
University Theater
THTR 109 - Collins, Owen
Participation in a university theater production for a minimum of 40 hours. A journal recording the production process is required. May be repeated for degree credit with permission. Maximum seven credits for students with a major or minor in theater, eight credits for others.
Fundamentals of Theater Art
THTR 131 - Evans, Shawn Paul
An introduction to modern theater practice involving two hours of lecture per week and participation of approximately 45-60 hours of work in a large-scale production spread throughout the term. A practical course, emphasizing scene-craft, stage lighting, and prop making. The student applies the methods and theories discussed in class to work on actual productions. Laboratory course with THTR 132.
Laboratory for Fundamentals of Theater Art
THTR 132 - Evans, Shawn Paul
An introduction to modern theater practice involving four hours of laboratory work per week. A practical course, emphasizing scenecraft, stage lighting, and prop making. The student applies the methods and theories discussed in class to work on actual productions.
Stage Acting 1
THTR 141 - Levy, Jemma A.
An introduction to acting for the stage. In this hands-on class, students learn and develop physical and vocal techniques for text-based and improvisational performance, focusing on relationships, objectives, and actions. Work includes in-class scene presentations from modern scripts.
Stage Management
THTR 209 - Evans, Shawn Paul
Stage management is an essential position for all theatrical productions. Students develop personal management style through the study of techniques and skill sets necessary to manage and run stage and film productions. Students hone their management techniques by applying management solutions to specific production problems of a theatrical, dance, or film project produced by the department. Students are required to participate in a production in a stage-management capacity.
Modern Drama
THTR 215 - Sandberg, Stephanie L.
This course explores the principal movements and aesthetics in the modern period in European and American theater history from the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century. Significant plays, playwrights, theatre artists and theorists are studied in context of the successive waves of modern movements: realism, symbolism, expressionism, surrealism, epic theater and theater of the absurd. Oral presentations, short research papers and performance projects will be required.
3D Printing & Desktop Manufacturing for the Theater
THTR 238 - Collins, Owen
Desktop manufacturing has revolutionized the design and prototyping of objects. This course is an introduction to the use of desktop manufacturing technologies. Students learn how to create digital designs, publish them electronically and create physical versions of those digital ideas. The course concentrates on how these technologies can be used in theater design and technology.
University Theater 3
THTR 309 - Levy, Jemma A.
Participation in a university theater production for a minimum of 40 hours. A journal recording the production process is required.
Scene Painting and Scenic Art
THTR 337 - Collins, Owen
This course is an exploration and application of the methods and materials used in painting and finishing scenery for the theater. The course covers both historical and current scene painting techniques, as well as the tools and paints that have been developed to support those techniques. Outside projects are required. Lab fee required.
Acting 3: Styles
THTR 341 - Levy, Jemma A.
An advanced acting class focused on performing the work of a particular playwright or playwrights. In this course, students enhance their scene work by examining the theatrical and historical context in which the plays were written, thereby achieving a deeper understanding of a performance style other than contemporary realism. Topics change regularly. May be repeated twice for degree credit if the topics are different.
Winter 2020, THTR 341-01: Acting 3: Styles: Shakespeare (3). Prerequisite: THTR 141 or ENGL 252 or instructor consent. Through performance of monologues and small group scenes students learn by doing how we believe actors in Shakespeare's time would have performed his work, and how his writing informed the way actors performed. Students then use this knowledge to devise their own "mash-ups" that incorporate and/or build on Shakespeare's texts. Emphasis is placed on textual and metrical analysis, comprehension of rhetoric, clear physical and verbal storytelling, and engagement of the audience. Evans.
Directed Individual Project
THTR 423 - Evans, Shawn Paul
This course permits the student to follow a program of specialized applied research in order to widen the scope of experience and to build upon concepts covered in other courses. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.
Directed Individual Project
THTR 423 - Sandberg, Stephanie L.
This course permits the student to follow a program of specialized applied research in order to widen the scope of experience and to build upon concepts covered in other courses. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.
University Theater IV: Capstone
THTR 471 - Evans, Shawn Paul
Participation in a university theater production for a minimum of 50 hours. A journal recording the production process and a portfolio documenting the student's productions at Washington and Lee University are required.
University Theater IV: Capstone
THTR 471 - Collins, Owen
Participation in a university theater production for a minimum of 50 hours. A journal recording the production process and a portfolio documenting the student's productions at Washington and Lee University are required.
University Theater IV: Capstone
THTR 471 - Sandberg, Stephanie L.
Participation in a university theater production for a minimum of 50 hours. A journal recording the production process and a portfolio documenting the student's productions at Washington and Lee University are required.