Theater and Performance Studie (TPST)

Co-curricular theater groups involve students from across campus in making theater and community, with opportunities in technical theater, performance (by audition), directing and arts management in student-run theater shows. Students involved in Mask and Bauble, Nomadic Theater and sometimes other DPA-affiliated theater groups must register to ensure that these Performing Arts Advisory Council co-curricular groups get access to advisement by teaching-artists as well as Davis Center build hours. (Register for BTE's model separately.)

This gentle movement class for performing artists draws on yoga, Pilates and other traditions to help align the body and breath, supporting the whole self, Caring for your body as an instrument, and developing a practice to release tension and enhance mindful movement supports actors, musicians and dancers in your creative practice and range. Wear comfortable clothing.

These production labs involve experiential learning tied to scenic, costume and run crew areas as supervised by TPST faculty and staff. Majors must complete three graded credits of this class across different areas with the goal of developing a well-rounded, technically-responsible grasp of theater-making and roles, as well as cohort. Minors are required to take a single credit of any section. These supervised production labs connect to our TPST Home Season in the Davis Center, supervised by the Davis Center's Professional Production Staff. For majors, the three credits are typically filled by single credits over different semesters, however runcrew can be fulfilled by the two-credit stage management option, and, with approval, students may enroll in more than one section a semester. The Scenic and Costume Shop Practicums meet for regular weekly scheduled class times, typically for three hours; the mandatory runcrew assignment meets intensively (on weekends and evenings) for three to four weeks of the semester, only, tied to a show in the TPST Season.

This course examines performing arts concepts in relation to writing, directing and acting. This class is centered around the joy of learning. Each week, students will build their theatre skills and use theatre concepts to learn more about themselves. Students will learn how these three concepts (writing, directing, acting) of performing arts can be used to interpret text of any kind, and can be applied to empathize with and listen to others in a team setting.

Students in the class will explore connections between Caribbean performance and its European and African origins. This course serves as a TPST Gateway course and fulfills the university’s HALC requirement.

This course focuses on expanding each individual’s capacity for telling the truth. We cover practical techniques for public speaking, participating in groups, and performing both onstage and on camera. Students choose topics and deliver a variety of texts in order to develop greater self-awareness and self-confidence, and to polish presentation skills. We go deeply into relaxation, breath work, and body opening for voice and vibration in order to cultivate presence, connection with others, storytelling abilities, and public performance of all kinds.

This course is an introduction to the theory and practice of improvisation in connection with public speaking. Over the semester, we will learn the basic techniques of improvisation and how to apply them to communication and collaboration in a variety of settings. Through participatory exercises and group activities students will explore tools for improvisation in relation to ensemble building, listening, playfulness, creativity, and leadership skills. Based on the foundational “Yes, and...” principle of improvisation and approaches to storytelling, the course is designed to develop the ability to respond to unexpected speaking situations in clear, impactful, and engaging ways. Additionally, we will examine specific case studies demonstrating how improvisation has been utilized to affect the way people and organizations work in areas as diverse as business, science, education, government, healthcare, and non-profit sectors. Students will be asked to apply improvisational approaches to their own areas of study and personal interests through course readings, workshops, discussions, assignments, and class presentations.

The Performing Arts Colloquium is a dynamic community-centered space for students to engage with the many voices that shape the performing arts today. Each semester offers a unique theme led by rotating faculty who invite guest artists, scholars, and practitioners. Classes can include artist talks, panel discussions, workshops, performance showcases, and behind-the-scenes explorations of artistic processes.

Outside of Georgetown’s White-Gravenor Hall sits an iconic commemorative bench and statue honoring Holocaust witness, Polish World War II hero, spy and diplomat, Jan Karski, one of the most influential and legendary professors ever to teach at Georgetown University. This course explores Karski’s story and its contemporary resonance centered around Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski, a celebrated original theatrical production created by The Laboratory of Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown and starring Oscar-Nominated actor David Strathairn, who will participate as a guest in the course (in dialogue with Professor Derek Goldman who co-authored and directed the production). Karski’s remarkable legacy speaks to the importance of moral courage; of bearing witness to history; of respect for others, especially those who are different; of the responsibility to question; and of the role of the individual in speaking out, even when the message is not “convenient.” Using Karski’s life and teachings as inspiration, we will examine our own relationship to the current historical moment, how individuals may bear witness to history and, following Karski’s example, “shake the conscience of the world.” As part of the course, students will also attend a live performance of the production, interface with a dynamic, experiential web-based platform, and encounter archival clips and interviews with extraordinary leaders as we collectively engage Karski’s legacy today. Should these changes be applied to existing sections?: No Please list the term(s) and corresponding CRN(s) following the example format below: Comments: Section Description will be: BEARING WITNESS: THE LEGACY OF JAN KARSKI TODAY. Outside of Georgetown’s White-Gravenor Hall sits an iconic commemorative bench and statue honoring Holocaust witness, Polish World War II hero, spy and diplomat, Jan Karski, one of the most influential and legendary Professors ever to teach at Georgetown University. This course explores Karski’s story and its contemporary resonance, centering around the filmed version of Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski, a celebrated original theatrical production created by The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown and starring Oscar-Nominated actor David Strathairn, who will participate as a guest in the course (in dialogue with Professor Derek Goldman who co-authored and directed the production). Karski’s remarkable legacy speaks to the importance of moral courage; of bearing witness to history; of respect for others, especially those who are different; of the responsibility to question; and of the role of the individual in speaking out, even when the message is not “convenient.” Using Karski’s life and teachings as inspiration, we will examine our own relationship to the current historical moment, how individuals may bear witness to history and, following Karski’s example, “shake the conscience of the world.” The course will make use of a dynamic new experiential web-based platform that will include not only the filmed theatrical production, but archival clips and interviews with extraordinary leaders who will engage Karski’s legacy today.

This course introduces students to the fundamental principles of acting without working with a formal script. Through structured exercise and games, students study Concentration, Observation, Given Circumstances, and Stage Awareness. Students will create their own performance material, exploring the physical self, space/staging, working with props, and ensemble and interplay with fellow actors. The coursework is very physical and creative. The work is focused on understanding the art of acting through games, exercises, reading, discussions, and evaluations of one’s own work and the work of fellow classmates. No acting experience is required.

Registration by audition and permission of instructor only. These immersive special topics studio courses manifest as project-based rehearsal and performance in the TPST Home Season in the Davis Center, involving students in deep critical and creative learning in collaboration with faculty and guest artists. As each project is distinct, the artistic methods and focal subjects vary, often involving interdisciplinary research distinct to the play. Look to the Season brochure and DPA website to learn more about each specific project and its methods.

Registration by audition and permission of instructor only. These immersive special topics studio courses manifest as project-based rehearsal and performance in the TPST Home Season in the Davis Center, involving students in deep critical and creative learning in collaboration with faculty and guest artists. As each project is distinct, the artistic methods and focal subjects vary, often involving interdisciplinary research distinct to the play. Look to the Season brochure and DPA website to learn more about each specific project and its methods.

Registration by audition and permission of instructor only. These immersive special topics studio courses manifest as project-based rehearsal and performance in the TPST Home Season in the Davis Center, involving students in deep critical and creative learning in collaboration with faculty and guest artists. As each project is distinct, the artistic methods and focal subjects vary, often involving interdisciplinary research distinct to the play. Look to the Season brochure and DPA website to learn more about each specific project and its methods.

Taught by experts in the field, Acting I provides an experiential introduction to the study of acting for the stage based in psychological and physical realism. Emphasis is placed on the critical and creative theories and techniques to cultivate imagination, focus, embodied creativity, self-awareness, vocal range, collaboration, and script analysis. Acting projects include scenes, monologues, and acting exercises. Students will fulfill readings (e.g. by Stanislavski and Uta Hagen), writing assignments, and performance projects. Suitable for students with considerable performance experience but without college coursework in acting, and for complete beginners.

This course is an introduction to the fundamental practice and theory of public speaking and oral communication using theatrical techniques of both performance and the craft of storytelling. Students will investigate communication through the lens of the performer and apply performance techniques to enhance communication and presentation skills. The class will explore how to speak authentically to a group of people, use body language to express ideas, develop a more dynamic vocal presence, and engage more deeply with an audience. This class focuses particularly on how presence can be utilized to awaken powerful, persuasive and connected communication. Some of the performance techniques used in class include skills and exercises for voice, breath, body awareness, listening, relaxation, collaboration and improvisation. Emphasis will also be given to ways in which a performer uses language and text analysis to convey complex thoughts and emotions to an audience. Approaches to communication will be practiced in one-on-one conversations, small group work as well as speaking to large groups of people. Class topics will increase awareness of artful communication in daily social engagement, individual presentations, business practices, leadership roles and global citizenship.

This introductory course offers a highly participatory laboratory for individual and group/ ensemble exploration of socially engaged, improvisational performance. Throughout the semester, we will explore how a wide variety of artists and cultural workers have advanced and are continuing to advance social change, civic engagement, and community-based dialogue. Students will be asked to examine their own values and convictions and will develop skills and tools to put them into practice through embodied performative interventions into the social world. By focusing our attention on students’ own life experiences and the issues in our own local/ campus, regional, national, and global communities (local/ campus, national, and global) that each student cares about most deeply, students will draw connections between the intimate personal register of their own creative selves, and their active participation in the communities they occupy. Case studies and performance activities will focus not only on the content but also on the form and the context of diverse creative processes. Class exercises and assignments will emphasize experiential learning as we both participate in guided improvisational workshops and develop skills in creating and facilitating our own original performance workshops, and ultimately a final ensemble creation as a class. Reading will draw on Brecht, Boal and Jan Cohen-Cruz, among others. Students wishing to pursue a fourth credit CBL experience may do so by coordinating at semester's start with the professor and CSJ (via Amanda Munroe

Discover applied theater methodologies that can support the citizen-actor in bridging gaps and solving problems across varied communities and constituencies. Whether in the classroom, boardroom or in the halls of government, these tools can help the practitioner navigate the sometimes-turbulent waters of communal problem-solving. This experiential course is powered by the Racial Justice Institute’s EnActors. Several times during the semester, the class will participate in applied theater labs, from 4-7 on Fridays, with community partners.

This gateway humanities course introduces students how to read, analyze and write about plays in the context of cultural studies as well as theatrical production and dramatic criticism. By engaging with plays from a variety of periods, cultures, genres and styles - including plays from Ancient Greece to contemporary America, from Shakespeare to classical Noh drama - we will develop students’ ability to read plays closely while analyzing the host of production choices inspired by structure, theme, context and interpretive lens, for example. Plays studied range from classics to contemporary realism, farce to solo performance, and include plays from diverse cultural perspectives. This introductory seminar is required for all TPST majors and minors, and includes writing assignments designed to hone students’ emergent critical and creative voices.

The American War in Vietnam (popularly referred to as the Vietnam War) is considered the first televised war. American civilians witnessed atrocities through their television screens which garnered criticism as well as outrage. In this course, we will examine, critique, and give context to the cultural productions inspired by this conflict including (but not limited to) Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, Oliver Stone’s Platoon, Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, and Errol Morris’s Fog of War. The class structure includes a lecture, a Tuesday evening screening, and a weekly discussion. Lecture with film screening coordinated by Instructor and TA (to take place Tuesday evenings). X-list with FMST.

This course integrates scholarly investigation and studio practice to explore the art of theatrical directing. Skills and techniques explored in this course include, but are not limited to: analyzing plays and other texts for staging; crafting and communicating a vision for a production; collaborating with the design team; working with space; working with actors; giving and interpreting peer critique. In addition to discussions, readings, and theater outings, each student will take on their own directing projects throughout the semester. Restrictions: Instructor permission

This special version of Production Techniques is specifically designed for the current moment, in which so many in the field are engaging new virtual forms of theatrical practice. It will be co-taught by experienced theatrical practitioners who comprise our production team and bring deep strengths in scenery, lighting, costuming, multimedia/ projections, as well as production management.(Vanessa Gilbert, Dorothy Barnes-Driggers, Toby Clark, Bethany Taylor, Alberto Segarra). Each of these instructors will take the lead on individual units in their areas of specialization. In addition to units that develop skills in these areas, it will engage a range of issues that currently impact the field around labor regulations, and the ethics and politics of industry practices as they relate to equity, labor practices etc. Technical Production refers to a variety of theatrical disciplines that work in concert to support directors, designers, and actors to create the physical world of the play and enhance the audience’s experience of a production. Theatre production professionals combine the knowledge of materials and techniques with the skills to communicate meaning through line, shape, pattern, light, and sound. In this moment of performance of all types moving online, Technical Production considerations have essential impact on the success of a digital show. Using core texts on stagecraft and drawing on experiences of seasoned professionals, students will learn the methods that transform designers’ ideas into tangible objects on stage and online. Skills that students will acquire in the course will include, but are not limited to: communicating with specialized vocabulary and language of theatrical production; operating tools in the scene shop, costume shop, and in the backstage space; learning the properties of materials commonly used in theater; translating renderings, schematics, spreadsheets, diagrams, and sketches into three-dimensional objects; . Most importantly, however, students will learn to identify challenges, communicate ideas, and troubleshoot solutions.

Lighting and Sound Technologies, co-taught by Callan Daniel and Lex Allenbaugh, is designed as a hands-on introduction to both technologies and theories relevant to live lighting and sound for music, dance, and theater. Class sessions will be a mix of lecture and project based learning. No pre-requisites are required, students with questions about interactions of past classes are welcome to discuss with the instructors.

Arts Management is widely considered the financial and administrative stewardship of artists and their works, but what exactly does Arts Management encompass? This course introduces successful arts management practices, highlighting a range of organizational models, ranging from socially-engaged performance companies, to established non-profit theaters in the DC area, as well as presenting organizations and more commercial artistic enterprises. Through a combination of case studies and practical exercises, students will be introduced to a variety of mission/artistic statements, and will learn hands-on the fundamentals of Producing (budgeting and managing a project, fulfilling contracts, creating a marketing plan) and Development (audience engagement, fundraising, and grant writing.) Guest speakers from a range of regional and national arts organizations round out the course experience, providing windows into the depth of career opportunities in the field. Students from all disciplines welcome and encouraged.

"This is an intensive introductory course that explores visual and spatial creativity through artistic composition, script analysis, and theatrical design. This overview course acquaints students with design elements and techniques as non-verbal communication tools to express the creative imagination in theatrical contexts. Lecture, discussion, reading, and project work in a variety of media will place emphasis on imagining the theatrical world of plays and other texts. The course will examine traditional areas of design including scenery, lighting, costumes, and sound, as well as the collaborative process with directors and other theater artists.

In this course, students will explore intersections between performance, storytelling, and go-go, DC’s own native genre of music. Go-go is characterized by elements of funk, hip hop, and reggae, with emphasis on percussive instruments such as congas, timbales, and rata toms. The music elicits active audience participation in the form of call-and-response. Georgetown students will collaborate with four young artists-in-residence, all DC residents on their journey to becoming go-go musicians, devising an original performance together. The course is team-led by Natsu Onoda Power (TPST faculty; director/ designer) and Charles “Shorty Corleone” Harris (Go-go musician/ producer/ educator), along with other DPA faculty and guest artists. Performers will be admitted by auditions during the first two weeks of the semester. Students interested in non-performing roles (design/ technical/ dramaturgy/ community engagement, etc.) should contact the instructor for permission.

Registration by audition and permission of instructor only. These immersive special topics studio courses manifest as project-based rehearsal and performance in the TPST Home Season in the Davis Center, involving students in deep critical and creative learning in collaboration with faculty and guest artists. As each project is distinct, the artistic methods and focal subjects vary, often involving interdisciplinary research distinct to the play. Look to the Season brochure and DPA website to learn more about each specific project and its methods.

Registration by audition and permission of instructor only. These immersive special topics studio courses manifest as project-based rehearsal and performance in the TPST Home Season in the Davis Center, involving students in deep critical and creative learning in collaboration with faculty and guest artists. As each project is distinct, the artistic methods and focal subjects vary, often involving interdisciplinary research distinct to the play. Look to the Season brochure and DPA website to learn more about each specific project and its methods.

Registration by audition and permission of instructor only. These immersive special topics studio courses manifest as project-based rehearsal and performance in the TPST Home Season in the Davis Center, involving students in deep critical and creative learning in collaboration with faculty and guest artists. As each project is distinct, the artistic methods and focal subjects vary, often involving interdisciplinary research distinct to the play. Look to the Season brochure and DPA website to learn more about each specific project and its methods.

Registration by audition and permission of instructor only. These immersive special topics studio courses manifest as project-based rehearsal and performance in the TPST Home Season in the Davis Center, involving students in deep critical and creative learning in collaboration with faculty and guest artists. As each project is distinct, the artistic methods and focal subjects vary, often involving interdisciplinary research distinct to the play. Look to the Season brochure and DPA website to learn more about each specific project and its methods.

Performance Lab

Performance Lab

This is an Independent Study project that needs Instructor Approval for Enrollment. Students will be mentored on individual basis and work on a project.

Established in 1979, Georgetown University's Black Theatre Ensemble (BTE) is dedicated to producing dramatic works that celebrate and enrich the Black American cultural heritage and the cultural heritages of all minority communities. This course is intended for students involved in BTE. Participation in this course involves the following: season planning, administration, production, build calls, performance, PR, community engagement and other activities as necessary for the work of the ensemble. It also involves interaction with guest artists and participation in monthly BTE coffeehouses.

This interdisciplinary intermediate course engages students in an experiential and experimental approach to the adaptation, staging, and performance of literature (poetry, fiction, non-fiction), drawing on works from across a variety of cultures, genres and styles. Students will develop original performances, acting as the adapter, director, and performer in their works. Students will work collaboratively, as well as independently, as they pursue the intersection of critical and creative values.

This course offers an introductory hands-on approach from screenwriting to acting for screen, you will learn techniques of digital filmmaking from pre-production to post! These technical processes will be taught using a workshop-model that puts the equipment in your hands and you will learn by doing. With each new tool/skill, there will be supplemental readings to theoretically support our creative practice. Each project is considered “iterative play” which means that the assignments will build upon each other and evolve throughout the timeline of the course. Students are to work collaboratively using the skills harnessed to create performances, short films, and other creative bodies of work that will lead to a cumulative final project.

How is dance used as a tool in relation to conflict, whether it be to prepare for it, survive it, subvert it, or heal from it? In this course we explore and experience dance’s relationship to violence and adversity. We investigate and imitate how it is used to train and prepare for fighting, to avoid or replace fighting, to sublimate conflict and rage, and to tell the stories and heal from what went down when conflict does take place. This is a studio course with key contextual readings and an emphasis on in-person work and the use of the body for sharing experience and gaining knowledge. Excellent course for students interested in Conflict Resolution, Psychology, Art Therapy, Culture and Politics, and kinesthetic learning.

This course explores creative approaches to forging live performance born from autobiography. Students will write, direct, and act in autobiographically-based short performances built on their own narratives, those of their peers, and extant personal histories. Students will engage with a range of dramatic material that harnesses first-person narrative as a theatrical engine, including the work of acclaimed playwrights, verbatim/documentary theatre works, and community-based performance models. Students will fulfill readings, writing assignments, interview projects, reflection papers, and performance projects. Suitable for students with considerable performance experience and for complete beginners. The course culminates in a showing of short, original autobiographical theatre works created and honed over the course of the semester.

At a time when the world faces myriad challenges ranging from polarization to climate crisis to violent conflict and forced migration, artists and change-makers across the globe are finding innovative ways to humanize global politics through performance. This course offers students a chance to engage firsthand with artistic practices, projects, and methods --as well as with a diverse range of cutting-edge artists from around the world who are finding resilient and transformative models for how performance can operate as a humanizing force in the realm of politics and world affairs. Georgetown houses a distinctive center for this work in The Laboratory for Global Performance & Politics. Through interactions with The Lab's team and its expansive global community of artists and thought-leaders -- as well as in-depth interactions with inspiring Global Fellows working in challenging circumstances around the world, students will develop an understanding of this expansive ecosystem of performance practices, as well as honing creative skills and techniques for deploying performance to engage pressing issues in our world in meaningful ways.

How is “performance” a significant lens and paradigm for understanding the historical and cultural production of “Asian America”? And what does “performance” as creative expression, critical inquiry, and public engagement, offer for Asian/American politics and consciousness? Intro to Asian American Performance surveys the performing body and Asian racialization through the lens of performance studies, theater, and Asian American studies. Students will examine performance as it encompasses plays and staged performances, experimental performance, performance poetry, film and television, social media, activism, and the everyday. Students will gain a critical understanding of performance, as theory and art, and be introduced to key themes and issues in Asian American performance studies, like immigration and exclusion, abjection, yellow face, orientalism, disidentification, hypersexuality, disability, gender, and sexuality.

In this studio class we will investigate the many modes of movement that bring us together as humans across linguistic, cultural, generational, and national borders. We explore the concept of the body as a culture-bearer and its movement as a mode of connection with the otherwise "other." Through character studies, partner exercises, nonverbal conversations, and dances from around the world, students will practice empathy through embodiment and learn to use it as a tool in everything from psychology to diplomacy. The class will introduce character archetypes from Commedia to Kuttiyattam with the intent of deepening an understanding of our humanity, both shared and varied. We will study techniques to foster empathy and understanding as well as develop our own. As part of this class, students may have the opportunity to participate in the Resonant Bodies project to be presented at The Gathering, an international convening of artists and activists from around the world at Georgetown May 4-8, 2022. (This is an excellent complimentary course to studies in peace, restorative justice, international politics, and cross cultural relations.)

The objective of this course is to learn a professional approach to writing a screenplay from conception of the idea through the outlining process and onto a finished short script, the course will conclude with a table read of your finished script. The focus will be on learning how to break a story, develop an idea, create character arcs, all while discovering your creative voice. This course is tailored for those who wish to develop scripts for short films, episodic, and animation.

In this intensive intermediate studio class, students develop creative and critical skills that build on the foundational work of Acting I through in-depth character and scene work from plays that deepen our engagement with realism and extend into the realms of heightened physical and verbal style, both classic and contemporary. Readings will include selections by Stanislavsky, Adler, Hagen, Meisner, Michael Chekhov, or similar theorist/practitioners. Social research, interpretation, play analysis and physical and vocal work are the primary methodologies. Focus on imagination and creation of character will be emphasized through research-to-performance projects and applied scene work. Students will reflect critically on their progress through written and oral critiques. Class work will require extensive preparation outside of class.

At a time when our world faces myriad intertwined crises, this course offers students an opportunity to engage firsthand with performative practices, projects, and methods for building trust, cultivating new understandings and strategies of resistance, and exploring their own agency as citizens. Via GU's Laboratory for Global Performance & Politics, students will engage with a diversity of cutting-edge artists from around the world who are finding resilient and transformative models for how performance can operate as a humanizing force in world affairs. We will explore ways in which performance can operate to rethink and rehearse notions of community and care, as well as power, justice, citizenship, and democracy. Students with experience in performance practice will develop a deeper understanding of their work in a geopolitical context — just as students with interests in international relations, politics, diplomacy, global health, justice & peace studies etc. will develop an experiential appreciation of the role of performance in those contexts. Previous performance experience is not required. X-listed with CULP and JUPS. This class fulfills the comparative methods / breadth requirement for TPST.

In this course, we will explore foundational concerns and practices for screen acting. Including scene analysis, rehearsal, sizing performance for the camera, and performing with the edit in mind. Students will be exposed to basic lessons on camera work by creating and portraying characters for most effective capture by the camera. The course will expand upon the student’s theatre foundation and also discover and implement the various techniques involved in on-camera performance.

Treated today as an elite art-form, opera was the pop culture of its day. A true gesamtkunstwerk, or “total work of art” melding theater, dance, music, and visual arts, opera carries the potential to pack a powerful punch in any era. Couching political sentiment within performance, elaborate artistry could and can change political history. Students will unpack the politics and poetry within a classical work to propose their own remixes and shed light on current concerns.

This is an experiential class covering relaxation and release techniques to increase vocal range and self-expression and to explore the physical aspects of communicating through storytelling. We focus on freeing your natural voice and speaking up for yourself in challenging situations while remaining calm and clear. We introduce methods for living more fully in your body in order to be more present and more connected with others in your world. For: Public Speakers, Actors, Directors, Diplomats, CEO’s, Management and Leaders in any field

This studio-style course explores the historical and artistic foundations of Cabaret Performance. Countercultural in nature and inherently political, the form is powered by short acts that employ an intimate and often wild performance energy synthesizing raw, humorous, poetic, and musical theatrical styles with community-specific sociopolitical critique, all while acknowledging the audience's presence from start to finish (no "4th wall"). The form encompasses performance ranging from French puppet theatre to American Jazz shows; Mexican La Carpa to concentration camp cabarets to Dada poetry shares and beyond. Artistic “risks”, solo and small group musical numbers, eccentric character creations, poetry performance, drag acts and live interplay form the creative backbone of this course. Rehearsal, creation, and group collaborations outside-of-class is necessary for successful completion of coursework. Suitable for students with substantial performance experience and for beginners.

Sustainable fashion and costume goes beyond understanding sustainability in clothing. Broken into two parts, this course teaches students design and sewing techniques that they will utilize to repair, alter and recreate existing garments. Through this hands-on experience students will be empowered to create their own sustainable wardrobes that reflect their personal style.

In a world of securitized borders and higher walls, migration becomes easier for some and increasingly difficult, even dangerous, for others. There are certain performances expected of the migrant: visa interviews, airport compliances, gratitude for the host country — and performances carried out by the state: immigration quotas, enhanced security measures, bodily and technological surveillance — that make up the reality of modern migration. In this class, students will analyze migration stories and policy through an intersectional performance studies lens. We will explore questions of borders, nationalism, and security made real through performative acts. We will also consider the ethics of migratory representation and complexities of transitory borderlands identities. Through a combination of virtual classroom discussion, performance viewings, ethnographic research assignments, guest artist workshops, and creative projects, students will embark on a multidisciplinary journey to understand the social and political issues of modern migration.

In this interdisciplinary seminar, we will investigate the themes, forms, and functions of five influential world theater traditions, including: the ancient theaters of Greece, Rome and India; the golden ages of classical Chinese and Japanese dance-theater-song; and the religious ritual as well as secular comedies of medieval Europe (and Japan). By engaging case studies of early theater traditions, we will consider their relation to other performance modes--such as religious ritual, civic performance, and/or spectacle. Comparative focus on theater’s early sources and the migrations in and between specific, varied cultures will also help students to develop critical and creative respect for theater’s possibilities and historical role/s. In so doing, we will also consider divergent manifestations of meaning, power, play, culture, divinity, gender, aesthetics, and identity as negotiated through theater. Our comparative methods, paired with case studies, will help students to recognize diverse cultural and social legacies in today's world. Audio-visual materials, live performance, lecture, and group discussion are included. This seminar is intended for students from varied disciplines, including TPST, Comp Lit, CULP, History, and Anthropology, among others. It fulfills the HALC and a Diversity distribution requirement.

Beyond offering a comprehensive practicum in physical comedy skills and the high art of the lowly Clown, this course also provides a deep exploration into our sixth sense, Humor, through a variety of academic disciplines including History, Theater studies, Cultural studies, Mythic studies, Psychology, and Comic Theory. Students immerse in exercises and discussions that reveal chaos to be order, obstacles to be opportunities, and humility to be the wellspring of creativity. Perhaps the one class where the more mistakes made, the better the experience, a willingness to rush toward embarrassment while supporting others in that artistic risk is mandatory.

This course explores creative approaches to the theatrical adaptation and embodiment of historical LGBTQ+ materials. Students are invited to serve as artist-investigators who research, adapt, and perform in short theatre works born verbatim from the oral histories and archival documents of LGBTQ+ activists, change-makers, and allies. Interview transcripts, letters, video recordings, newspaper coverage, diaries, and more will serve as creative material for short performances seeking to give voice to the many who have fought for queer justice at Georgetown, in the United States, and around the world. Students will engage with a range of core dramatic texts and primary source materials, harnessing the documentary theatre model (also called verbatim theatre, docudrama, ethnodrama) to illuminate our intersectional humanities in innovative and imaginative ways. Primary assignments include student-led creative research projects, live interviews and transcriptions, monologue-making, core text analysis, and self-reflection posts. Students will work solo, in pairs, and in small groups to produce work throughout the semester. Students are expected to attend plays, talks, and other events as relevant to the core curriculum. This course culminates in a sharing of works created over the course of the semester. Suitable for students with considerable performance experience and for beginners.

In an era of intense ideological, social, and political polarization, how can we learn not merely to converse, but also to listen and respect one another? How can we articulate and share our deepest concerns, hopes, fears, and dreams with others who hold very different perspectives on politics, community, economics, or faith? Since 2018, the In Your Shoes project has been a way to move beyond the political divide and by illuminating the hopes, fears, and dreams that animate the daily lives of students. This course will draw from the earlier In Your Shoes iterations by employing a myriad of techniques, skills, and exercises drawn from theater and performance and developed by Georgetown’s Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics, as one potential avenue for developing the skills, habits, and emotional foundation necessary for productive and respectful dialogue and understanding. From here, students will engage further on themes that emerge from the In Your Shoes project, including intergroup, interfaith, and antiracist dialogue. This class will bring together an intentionally diverse student cohort (with regard to race, religion, cultural background, gender, sexuality, disciplinary emphasis, etc.) co-led by faculty, staff, and previous In Your Shoes student participants. Throughout the course, we will foster respectful, probing, honest, and empathetic communication rooted in the Lab’s signature “performing one another” approach in which two-way pair conversations between student participants, based on a simple prompt, are mutually recorded, curated, transcribed, and then shared with the group in excerpted form through performance. The goals of this process are not to erase difference or conflict in the name of finding “common ground.” Rather, we will use performance as an experiential vehicle for stepping into one another's' shoes”—that is, for listening deeply, speaking honestly, engaging difference respectfully, and finally expressing in an embodied, empathetic way the words, insights, concerns and perspectives of others. This course is available to all disciplines and all years and levels (undergraduate and graduate) with no previous performance experience required. Interested students should respond to a short series of questions at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1R9kbk5U1hS7UCFB7NqcKLpNGYNXIgPTC5AUZNiUF9HA/viewform?gxids=7757&edit_requested=true to apply for the class.

This course engages in an actively experiential investigation of the art of directing for the stage. In our workshops, we will focus on the development of skills in the areas of composition and use of theatrical space, picturization and the creation of stage imagery, dramaturgy and historical research, script analysis and textual interpretation, casting and the development of a production concept, collaboration and communication with actors and designers, ensemble development and the creation of "style". Through a variety of readings from theorists and practitioners, as well as viewings of performances on campus and in local professional theatres, we will also engage many of the issues and themes at the forefront of the consciousness of practicing directors and theatre scholars. For example, we will explore questions about the relationship between politics and aesthetic practice, the role of the audience, the institutional realities of professional theatre, classical texts and questions of fidelity and "auteurism," mulitculturalism and the politics of representation, and, most broadly, the role of theatre-making in our society. It is an assumption of the course that stage directing is by its nature one of the ultimate "interdisciplinary" activities. In order to develop any sense of a directoral point of view, the stage director becomes a student not only of theatrical practice but of politics, literature, visual art, music, philosophy, science, religion, current events, and so forth. As much as imparting skills, the course asks students to begin to think as directors, and to bring diverse aspects of their own identities to the work. Faculty approval required after 1st week.

This introductory course in design will focus on the costume designer’s process from inspiration through the sketch. Topics covered will include visual research techniques, script analysis, elements of design, character psychology and figure study. Students will learn how to effectively utilize visual research and costume sketches as a means to communicate and collaborate with directors, designers and actors. The course will include figure drawing, watercolor, and alternative techniques as part of learning the costume designer's craft. No prior drawing or design experience is necessary.

In this course, students will explore the sociology, psychology, theory and history of color and learn how to apply this knowledge into theatrical design. Students will delve into the cross-cultural implications of color and the wide spectrum with which humans use color to tell their stories, particularly on stage. Alongside this look at the more sociological aspects of color, students will also gain a fundamental understanding of color theory and its application in theatrical design. Several studio design projects will give students an opportunity to explore their ideas about the deeper implications of color in the world by using the art of color as a medium. By forming design teams in class, students will have the experience of collaborating with other designers to create a color palette for a particular play. In addition, students will attend realized design projects and assess the ways in which designers have used color to convey both conscious and subconscious meaning.

In this intensive, intermediate-level workshop, students will develop a one-act play through several drafts, along with fulfilling weekly assignments, reading selected critical texts and published plays, and attending performances. The central focus will be on developing each writer’s unique vision and voice, in association with close attention to craft, form and style. In-class discussion of one’s own and others’ work is an essential part of the class. The semester will conclude with script-in-hand readings of each student’s final project (the one-act play). Students will work in small groups and receive guidance in ways to discuss and develop their work in progress. In addition to weekly meetings, students will attend and consider several performances at professional DC theatres. Course open to Juniors and Seniors only. Sophomores with creative writing experience may contact faculty to seek approval. Priority to TPST majors/minors. TPST-280 may be retaken as TPST-380.

This workshop-based seminar introduces students to the art of adaptation for the stage from a playwriting perspective. Each student will adapt a literary, historical or fact-based work as a one-act play, developed in the context of reading and discussion of the theory and practice of adaptation. Together, the class will develop critical and creative fluency by considering disparate theatrical texts adapted for the stage (including from other media, times, cultures). X-List: Comparative Literature, English

This multidisciplinary course examines the relationship between madness/mental illness and performance. Using texts from history, dramatic literature, philosophy, medical science and film, we will investigate how the idea of mental illness is represented and/or performed (in theatrical or non-theatrical context). We will take case studies from a variety of cultures and historical moments, exploring how the notion of what is "normal" and "abnormal" transform through time and context. In addition to discussions and presentations, we will engage in a variety of performance and other creative workshops throughout the semester.

In this high-brain-calorie course, we will explore intersections between food/eating and performance/theatre. Readings include literary texts (Shakespeare, Proust, Wallace Stevens), literary criticism, critical theory (Barthes, Foucault), and popular/ journalistic texts (recipes, food writings from a wide range of cultures and historical periods). Our concerns range from the theoretical (when is eating “performative”?) to the artistic (what are ways of staging the act of “eating”?); from the historical (how do we stage the human-mea-banquet in Titus Andronicus?) to the contemporary (how do we craft performances adapted from food blogs?); from the local (how is food “performed” in Washington DC?) to the global (how does a culture construct its identity through food preparation and eating?), and more. The course includes other experiential components—such as a field trip to local restaurant kitchens, and preparation of “performative feasts."

Black performance has resisted oppression across several historical frames. In this course, you will read, watch, and listen to performances that illustrate various forms of artistic protest from the African Diaspora. Students will study historical black performance styles and identify ways in which patterns of resistance from the past contribute to ongoing social justice movements. After investigating the history of Black performance as social protest, students will produce a reflective manifesto for achieving racial equity through performance. The course incorporates an online learning tool about Black Performance as Social Protest.

The course engages the politics and poetics of cultural memory through engaging diverse representations of the Holocaust and other 20th and 21st Century atrocities in theatrical performance, film and other mediums. While German philosopher Theodor Adorno famously offered that "there can be no poetry after Auschwitz," the Holocaust and other genocides continue to be the source for scores of artistic works, as artists play a critical role play in preventing the erasure of past violence from current memory and in catalyzing new political visions and histories. .As we explore different artistic strategies for representing traumatic histories, our work will engage artistic choices in genre, structure, imagery, and point of view. We will grapple with complex ethical and philosophical questions about the limits of representation and the responsibility of bearing witness and remembering. Examples will be drawn from a variety of cultural perspectives and a range of forms, from first-hand and testimonial accounts, to documentaries /documentary theater, from abstract and ritualized expressions to a critical look at narrative portrayals that have been popularized by Hollywood and on Broadway (Schindler's List, Diary of Anne Frank etc). We will engage personally with survivors and make active use of extraordinary resources such as the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the legacy of Holocaust witness and World War II hero and former Georgetown Professor Jan Karski. The course will be offered concurrently with a number of theatrical opportunities including the Theater and Performance Studies Program's production of the award-winning Polish play Our Class, {directed by Professor Goldman) set against the backdrop of the demise of Polish Jews during World War II.

The art form that we call “performance art” is diverse and difficult to define, intersecting with a variety of other disciplines such as theatre, photography, sculpture, music, film/video, and more recently, technology and new media. Unlike theatrical performances, performance art is rarely concerned with linear narrative/ structure, acting, or other physical constraints of the theater world such as “runtime”, “audience size” or “repeatability”. Instead, it often embraces provocation, subversion, temporality, as well as direct and immediate artist-audience relationships. In this course, we will explore the practice of performance/ live/ body/ time art, with a strong focus on visually-driven work. We will learn about seminal artists in this genre through readings, discussions, and viewing, but the core of the course will be creating our own work. No experience required; spirit of experimentation and open mind are strongly encouraged.

Designed for advanced students this studio workshop course is taught by one of DC’s leading actors. Students will develop skills to deepen their creative and critical understanding of given circumstances, moment-to-moment stimulus response, objectives/obstacles/tactics, transitions, decisions, discoveries, interplay, subtext and character development. Class projects will include scenes from the works of modern classics by Chekov, Ibsen, Inge, Williams, Miller, Hellman, O'Neill, Wilson and others deeply rooted in the realist tradition. Students will participate in a rigorous approach to the critical analysis of acting through character research, through evaluating performances of their own and fellow students’ work, and through written analysis of plays attended on and off campus. Pre-requisites: TPST-120. DUS or instructor approval required. Majors and Minors and Juniors and Seniors receive priority. Theater Lab Fee: $50

In this upper-level seminar, we will discuss works by some of America’s greatest contemporary playwrights, and work they have premiered within the past 10 years. Playwrights whose work we may study include Paula Vogel, Sarah Ruhl, Suzan-Lori Parks, Robert O'Hara, Lauren Yee, Karen Zacarías, Adrienne Kennedy and more. This interactive seminar aims to deepen students' understanding of contemporary theater, examine diverse approaches to dramatic writing, and meditate on current questions, conflicts, and conversations in the industry of new plays. This course will explore the current cultural, social, and historical demands that inform American playwriting and production. Students will engage in seminar-style discussion, critical and creative writing, personal reflection, performance analysis, and attend new plays on campus and in D.C. Together we will ask, what does a playwright make, and why? What engines, themes, forms, and cultures emerge in their writing? What role(s) does the playwright assume in our theatrical and national cultures? What does our country demand of its dramatists? And what do our dramatists demand in return?

This seminar explores aspects of theater and performance by and about Asian Americans and Asians in the world: with emphasis on actors, plays and screenplays this course aims to engage students with issues central to Asian American theatre and performance. We will examine plays, screenplays and their analysis, scholarly writings on Asian American theater and performance, and various elements of theater-making. By the end of the course, students should know the basic history of Asian American theatre and obtain a substantial understanding of the dramatic literature. Intended for students from diverse majors.

This course centers on reading and analyzing an aesthetically and culturally diverse group of political plays. We will ask what “political” might mean in the context of art-making, and examine artistic strategies in the plays that range from documentary or “verbatim” theater, to performance-art interventions, to sci-fi dystopian plays, to plays that decenter white-cis-straight dominant narratives by placing other bodies and lives center stage. The course will involve both creative and critical work, and at least one trip to see a live local performance.

This course investigates the plays, poetics, and politics of a diverse array of feminist plays and their playwrights who are influential today. Students will develop fluency in larger questions about gender, representation, and reception, as well as dynamic, even contested, relationships between performance, social imaginaries, culture and identity. The plays and playwrights engage diverse cultural, sex/gender. racial, artistic, geographic and social concerns, and in so doing challenge and diversify our understanding of 'women's writing,' 'America,' gender and the role/s of theater today. This seminar aims to engage intermediate and advanced students of TPST, Comp Lit, Women & Gender Studies, English, and American Studies, among other fields. Scholars, artists, and play-lovers are welcome.

How are various identities performed in the US and the UK? What does it look like when performance tackles issues of identity? This course revolves around an examination of key types of identities in British and US society, and how they are represented on and off stage. Using an array of performance and theatrical examples, this course considers the roles of race, religion, age, and gender/sexuality in transatlantic performance. The course draws primarily on research from performance studies, critical race studies, and sociology/anthropology. Students will leave this course with a deeper knowledge of the ways in which contemporary performance forms in the US and the UK reflect and resist societal norms.

This course explores the connection between movement and text with an emphasis on deepening the relationship between the poetic voice and the poetic body. The physical movement is based on the neutral mask technique developed by Jacques Lecoq and will be applied to text, scene study, chorus, and character development. The vocal work is grounded in the practices of Kristin Linklater and Patsy Rodenburg with particular attention to the voice in relation to poetry and heightened language. Students will work to develop a personal understanding of the connection between body and voice through implementing a physical approach to create greater complexity and specificity in performance. This technique invites the performer to delve deeper into themselves as well as the world around them and develop skills of observation to be applied to the creative process. Written assignments and presentations (solo/group) will be based on observations of nature, elements, colors, and spaces. In addition, the class will introduce exercises to students around ensemble inquiry, language of movement, rhythm, and tension states. Course readings will engage in the writings of Jacques Lecoq as well as artists and theater companies influenced by his concept of the “actor-creator” (Complicité, Mnouchkine, Pig Iron). The course will challenge the student to have a more dynamic relationship between body and voice, create work with a sense of play, and develop a more vital presence on stage.

In Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry, Imani Perry describes Baldwin, Hansberry and Simone as the trinity. Baldwin, Hansberry and Simone offer a singular unity in black cultural production because of their shared commitment to aesthetics and activism. The three figures, each working expertly in a different genre, also shared a fierce friendship. While all three had individual areas of emphasis, Hansberry’s materialism, Simone’s black feminism, and Baldwin’s black nationalism, they learned from each other and taught one another lessons about how to navigate American racism, heterosexism, and patriarchy during the Cold War and Civil Rights Movement periods. Through an examination of primary and secondary sources, this course will examine the individual aesthetic practices of Baldwin, Hansberry and Simone and consider how their artistic and activist work informs one another. Organized around themes from the artists’ works, the class begins with an examination of the 1950s and the Cold War, shifts into the artists’ engagement with the Village Scene, and ends with an exploration of the Civil Rights Movement. In class discussion and written assignments, students will engage with and develop an in-depth understanding of the historical, social, philosophical, and political theories and practices that distinguish the artistic contributions of Baldwin, Hansberry and Simone. We will examine how these artists not only fashioned themselves but shaped communities, organizations, political movements and the nation.

This advanced studio course meets simultaneously with TPST-280. See that description for more information. Course open to Seniors only or those who have previously taken TPST-280. Priority to TPST majors/minors.

Upper Level Performance Lab Course! Registration by audition and permission of instructor only. These immersive special topics studio courses manifest as project-based rehearsal and performance in the TPST Home Season in the Davis Center, involving students in deep critical and creative learning in collaboration with faculty and guest artists. As each project is distinct, the artistic methods and focal subjects vary, often involving interdisciplinary research distinct to the play. Look to the Season brochure and DPA website to learn more about each specific project and its methods.

Performance Lab - Advanced

Performance Lab - Advanced

Lower Level Directed Study for TPST Students

Intended for intermediate and advanced students of theater—and/or creatives grounded in liberal arts —this class utilizes a research to performance model in order to cross-fertilize critical and creative inquiry. All students will pursue interdisciplinary research; all students will fulfill a creative role. Each semester, a play or adaptation of a literary text to performance will be chosen by the professor which matches the interests and strengths of our ensemble and which stretches their talent. We will engage in co-creation. Some slots will be reserved for majors and minors in TPST. Some slots will be open to any student from across campus, with permission of instructor, and a deep interest in collaboration and creative process that leverages liberal arts scholarship from disparate disciplines, as well.

This course brings together six students each from Georgetown and Patrick Henry College, a conservative Christian college in Virginia, to use performative performative techniques of deep listening, interpersonal dialogue, devised performance, and call-and-response to engage the perspectives of individuals across real and perceived ideological divides. This five -credit course offers students a space in which to develop a deeper understanding of their own beliefs and how these beliefs have been cultivated, as well as to explore the shared hopes, dreams and fears that cut across America's increasingly polarized society. It builds off of a successful pilot project last year and will again culminate in public presentations on both campuses. Please note the course is open by application and interview only.

The concept of cool comprises many meanings from composure to popularity; but cool also offers a dynamic and conflicted optics or surface where race, gender, capital, illness, violence, and resistance, come together or fall apart. This course introduces students to theories and iterations of “cool” as it crosses contemporary African American, Asian American, and Afro Asian history, art, activism, and culture. Students will consider a range of cultural texts and histories such as the iconic Civil Rights-era images of Elizabeth Eckford and her children’s memoir; the Indian philosophy of non-violence and Black Civil Rights direct action; experiments with race and endurance in the performances of artists like Adrian Piper, Yoko Ono, Ayana Evans, and William Pope.L; the popular culture of Eastern spiritual practices and martial arts; and the composed women of color characters in the sensational television shows of the Shondaland franchise.

This interdisciplinary class investigates intersections of law and theater, drawing from plays, cultural performances and public life in the Americas. Taught by Mary Kathryn Nagle, a playwright and an attorney specializing in tribal sovereignty of Native nations and peoples, this lecture class will consider creative and social practices as mediating human rights issues. Students will engage mixed methods, from field trips and visits with guest artists and public advocates to analysis of art and social history as lenses onto staging justice. Intended for advanced students, this TPST class is cross-listed with Justice and Peace Studies, American Studies and will count toward the minor in Law, Justice and Society, as well as Pathways to Social Justice.

Intended for Students who have taken Scenic or Costume Design, this studio course will meet simultaneously with Introduction to Scenic Design. Students will review and explore the principles of scenic design, including the role of a Scenic Designer and the typical scenic/set design process. Students will pursue original projects, inspired by engaging in script analysis, visual and interdisciplinary research, sketching, and model making presented for feedback to the professor and working artists. Emphasizing hands-on projects, this class is designed for upper-level and grad students from all backgrounds, with experience in design required. Registration is by permission of instructor.

This course is required for TPST senior majors. Senior minors may participate with the instructor's permission.

For advanced students of design involved closely in the TPST Season and/or professional design apprenticeship in scenery, costumes, lighting, and sound.