Class Schedules

In this course, first-year students critically attend live dance and theater performances in the exciting arts scene of the Twin Cities, and articulate their individual reactions by writing reviews, responses, and essays. In this process of studied spectatorship, students acquire the vocabularies of the field. Readings include seminal texts in dance and theatre criticism, as well as manifestos and scholarly articles. We will attend dance and theater performances at professional venues such as the Walker Arts Center, the Guthrie, Penumbra Theatre, Mixed Blood, Northrop Auditorium, and Cowles Center.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

Acting I introduces students to the art of acting. By the end of this semester, students will have acquired fundamental acting skills and insight into performance analysis. Students will develop a detailed understanding of the actor's craft; engage the body/voice as the actor's performing instrument; explore internal (memory, impulses, and so forth) and external (the other actors, the environment, objects, and so forth) stimuli as creative sources; rediscover of play and imagination; learn how to focus effort and attention while performing; and develop work ethics and discipline. Students in this course will engage in physical activity and be required to spend 3-5 hours in rehearsals outside of scheduled class time.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

An introduction to the fundamentals of the human voice. Using techniques of Lessac, Linklater, and Rodenburg, students learn elements of elocution: communication awareness, breath support, healthy voice production, projection, posture, speech articulation, Standard American English pronunciation, and vocal delivery. Essential performers and useful for anyone choosing a career such as law, teaching, politics, leadership, that use public speaking. This is a dynamic and highly experiential performance-based lab course. The semester culminates with a public solo performance of oratory and poetry. No previous acting experience required.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This course is the study and discipline of dance-making. Students learn the tools of the choreographer - time, space, energy - and how they can be shaped to give the body expressive power. The relationships between form, content, and technique are explored. Students choreograph short studies, improvise, discuss, and view dance on film and in live performance. The course values risk-taking and collaboration in a supportive, shared space. Through the creative process, we seek energy from a sense of investigation as opposed to the pressure to "succeed". The solo form is emphasized. May be repeated for credit.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

As our society shifts away from a human connection to the tangible, this course seeks to reconnect the student to the tangible object. Our focus will be on the process of "thinking through making." Through a series of project based learning opportunities, students will develop a deeper understanding of themselves, the process of "critical making," and current performance production technologies.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

As our society shifts away from a human connection to the tangible, this course seeks to reconnect the student to the tangible object. Our focus will be on the process of "thinking through making." Through a series of project based learning opportunities, students will develop a deeper understanding of themselves, the process of "critical making," and current performance production technologies.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

Scenography is the creation of imagined spaces for performance. In this course we will study the fundamentals of scenography holistically, including scenic, lighting, costume, sound, and projection design. Students will develop the ability to analyze and critique elements of performance design, articulate design ideas through written and verbal means, and complete a design project from textual analysis to tangible object.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

The study of anatomy and somatics provide concrete pathways to deepening our understanding of self and the mind-body connection. We will study the musculoskeletal human anatomy on both a theoretical and practical level. Countering the notion that the body is an assemblage parts to be trained, strengthened, and disciplined, we will delve into various mind-body practices that illuminate anatomy from a first-person perspective. We will focus on experiential learning including embodied anatomy and movement practices that provide direct knowledge of anatomy and alignment while providing opportunities for an integrated experience from within and increased self-awareness. In-class work will be supplemented by readings, journaling, physical practice, writing and research.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This course proposes several varieties of contemporary creative nonfiction as templates for solo performance creation. Diary, investigative journalism, lyric essay, memoir – through these and other forms, CNF is a creative writing practice that proposes, essais, worlds for the page akin to solo works’s provisional worlds for the stage. Students will read CNF essays through questions of strategy, scene, and voice; then, they will study solo performance as embodied essay. Through this cross-genre investigation, students will be fortified in making their own creative nonfiction performance essays for the course. Performing experience helpful, but keenness is all.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This course introduces students to debates, methods, and conceptual frameworks in race and gender, as represented in performance. It engages students in an interdisciplinary exploration of key terms--such as corporeality, embodiment, intersectionality, and performativity--that remain central to the fields of gender and sexuality, critical race theory, and performance. Through drafts and revisions of written work, critical dialogues and oral presentations in small groups, peer feedback, and analytical reading, students will engage in questions around identity formation, structural inequality, and the politics of citizenship.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

Performing heightened text is one of the greatest challenges of any performer. You need understanding of the context and meaning of the poetry, the writer, and the time it was written, strong voice and speech technique to handle the poetry of the language, AND access to the emotional intensity that characters in these texts are immersed in. This class will explore poetic analysis of heightened text and learn acting techniques needed to bring the texts to life. You will learn how to perform Shakespeare and other great classical writers so you can be heard, understood, and most importantly, to be felt!

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

The course explores scenic design in traditional theatrical buildings and alternative sites. Students will learn how to bridge script analysis and visual research, deepen their knowledge of spatial composition, acquire drafting skills, and practice design conceptualization with reference to historical and contemporary practices. The course outcome is a design portfolio, the collection of the various course projects each student will create during the semester. Prerequisite(s): THDA 232 or THDA 235 recommended, but not required. Students with a background in studio art or design are welcome to enroll.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This is a reading and writing intensive course that engages theories from the fields of aesthetics and cultural studies to support each student's in-depth research into a topic of their choice. Discussions examine how particular uses of the body, space, and narrative intersect to inform our experience of "performance", broadly defined, and engage the interplay between real and fictional in both artistic productions and performative social contexts. Students may pursue archival and library research, analysis of live performance, and analysis of documents of various kinds, including visual materials. Required for Theater and Dance majors, open to Dance, Theater, and Performance Design and Technologies minors.

General Education Requirements:

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Course Materials

This African-based Movement course focuses on dance inspired by West Africa, other African regions, the Caribbean, Americas, and the African Diaspora at large. It is a class rooted in a communal environment where students learn technique, characteristics, and the fundamental connection between the music, rhythms, and the dance. Students will create in-class movement projects and presentations. Though this class may focus on traditional dance at times, it is not a traditional-specific class. All are welcome. May be repeated for credit. S/N grading only.

General Education Requirements:

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Course Materials

This introductory level course is a joyous and demanding exploration of the theory, technique, and terminology of modern dance as a performing art. Students engage fully with their bodies and minds as they deepen their strength, sense of rhythm, flexibility, and coordination. The course develops skills in inversions, floorwork, and balance based in clear alignment. May be repeated for credit. S/N grading only.

General Education Requirements:

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Course Materials

This intermediate to advanced level technique course values expression, precision, and stamina. Students develop an understanding of how to use tiny muscles hidden within large muscles as they practice complex movement phrases on the ground, in the center, and across the floor. They learn a range of turns, jumps and movement sequences that build strength and agility. May be repeated for credit. S/N grading only.

General Education Requirements:

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Course Materials

This is a beginning ballet technique class. The goal is to demonstrate fundamental understanding and execution of ballet technique. It will include barre work, center-floor, and across-the-floor combinations. May be repeated for credit. S/N grading only.

General Education Requirements:

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Course Materials

This is an intermediate ballet class and is geared for students who have developed proficient skills at the barre and in the center. Center will include pirouettes, adage, beats, and more complex combinations. Students will develop a more advanced vocabulary while continuing to focus on placement, alignment, flexibility, strength, and fluidity and connection of movement. The refinement of technical skills and performance skills with longer combinations will be emphasized. May be repeated for credit. S/N grading only.

General Education Requirements:

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Course Materials

African-based Movement Ensemble focuses on selected histories and techniques of dance forms from West Africa and the African Diaspora, including the Caribbean and the Americas. Students perform in the yearly Fall Dance Concerts of the Theater and Dance Department. They have also performed at events such as the Black History Month Showcase, Afrika Week, and Family Fest. Completion of African-based Movement I and/or II is recommended. 2 credits are awarded upon successful completion of Ensemble. 4 credits of fine arts general distribution are awarded upon completion of two semesters of Ensemble. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the Ensemble is by audition/permission of instructor only.

General Education Requirements:

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Course Materials

Students are involved in production as actors, assistant choreographers or choreographers, assistant directors or directors, assistant designers or designers, dramaturgs and playwrights. Two credits awarded at the end of the semester. May be repeated for credit.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

Students are involved in set, costume, lighting and sound engineering and construction, and running crew. Two credits awarded at the end of the semester. May be repeated for credit.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This is a survey course that welcomes majors and non-majors. Students are exposed to a variety of contemporary dance and theatre pieces, screenings, plays, essays, and criticism to explore the intersections of performance and identity from a historical perspective. Assignments include attending screenings and/or performances; script analyses and close readings; individual research; short written projects and a final paper.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

An introduction to the fundamental techniques of realistic acting. Through improvisation, physical and vocal exercises, text and character analysis, and scene studies, the student is introduced to the process of acting preparation and performance. Limited to 16 students.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

Games and Improvisation are methods of discovery for performers. A given text or situation offers only so much: it is the actor who must supply the offstage histories, the unimagined details, the impulses that make a character, a world, onstage. In Playing for Life, students will examine the histories, applications and purposes of many games contemporary performers play, through key texts and exercise descriptions. We will play games and use improvisation techniques developed by the great proponents of imagination training in theatre: Stanislavski, Chilton, Spolin, Boal and others. We will not just sample but rather repeat significant games and techniques, to experience the effects of repetition and the development of kinesthetic (“whole body”) listening. We will look at extra-theatrical applications of games, in sites like activist training, therapy training, special needs and language education, business and senior living centers. As a class we will attend at least one performance involving improvisation. Final projects may include designing a games- or improvisation-based curriculum for a target group, and a performance. Students should be prepared for physical movement in all class periods.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

An introduction to the fundamentals of successful playing of the vocal instrument of the individual human body. Using techniques of Lessac, Linklater, and Rodenburg, students learn elements of elocution: communication awareness; breath support; healthy voice production and projection; posture and poise; speech articulation; Standard American English pronunciation; vocal expressiveness and delivery. Essential for theatre performance majors, including singers, and very useful for anyone choosing a career such as law, teaching, politics, leadership, etc., which demands speaking to groups and presenting publicly. Students craft a personal process of vocal support practice through continuous self-analysis, journaling of exercises, rehearsal and delivery. This is a dynamic, physical, highly experiential, practical, and performance-based lab course. Semester culminates with a public solo performance of oratory and poetry. No previous experience required.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This laboratory course offers intensive training in making theatre from action. Based on the teaching of Jacques Lecoq and his school of physical theater training in Paris, work will focus on the observation, re-creation, and transposition of daily life to create a theater that is at once playful, emotional, and creative. Course work will include an examination of the natural world and all its movements, our relationship with space and time, the neutral and larval masks, and object manipulation. We will use improvisation, games, and exercises to develop physical and creative skills with which to create original work. Applied analyses of professional productions are required, as are written analyses of course work and individual progress. The goal of the course is to encourage curiosity and exploration to engage the student as creator, designer and performer. THDA 120 or other performance training encouraged

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

The quote, “plays are meant to be seen, not read” means that playwrights must write to create an experience for their audience. This class is focused on the fundamentals of developing a play, while also learning how to take full advantage of theatrical elements that can help enhance their story on stage. Students will read a variety of new and contemporary plays with different storytelling techniques that embrace the unlimited possibilities of theatricality, and exemplify why we write for the stage. In this course students will develop a “playwriting toolkit” while exploring their artistic interests through a series of time-bound conventions: the 1-minute, 5-minute, 10-minute, and ultimately one-act form. In-class exercises and prompts, and small-group workshopping and reading will challenge writers' development. A mid-term and final play reading series will allow students to hear their work read in a supportive public setting.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WC

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This course is an introduction to basic lighting design and the history of lighting. While emphasis is on theater, it also teaches the lighting design of film, television, dance, opera, and environmental settings. This course is primarily an approach to lighting design, but the student will be expected to have a basic grasp of lighting hardware as well. The first aim of the course is to make the student more aware of color and light around him/her every day. Demonstrations are an integral part of the lectures.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

From classic theater and dance performance to CosPlay and Re-enactments, clothing as costume is one of the main ways we visually build a character and present it to the viewer. This class will present an overview of fashion and costume history as the basis for the design process. We will examine design techniques and media, both traditional and digital, and design the clothing for characters based on scripted, devised, or choreographer work. We will then look at the systems for translating these two-dimensional designs to fit the human form via drafting and crafting methods. Prerequisite(s): THDA 232

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

The assignments are twofold. First, we will study the Festival of Nations (International Institute) in the Twin Cities that for the past 85 years brings together cultural performers from over 100 nations every May, providing a critical opportunity to engage with “multiculturalism” in our own community. Given that the Festival brings to the fore the performances of the self carried out from the perspective of the collective, it is a rich ethnographic site for group identity negotiation and embodiment of culture (i.e. dance, food, and crafts), as well as a site for intercultural negotiations. The students will engage in various communities’ preparations for participation in the Festival, which begins in January and runs through early May. The Festival will also allow us to explore, expand, and challenge current notions about multiculturalism. Second, in parallel to this ethnographic research, the students will engage in assignments based on auto-ethnography, which will focus on active critical engagement using the sociological perspectives they will acquire during the semester.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

“Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story?” Oral history-based performance is a dynamic practice that moves peoples’ own words and stories directly onto the stage. It is a theatre form pioneered by solo artists Anna Deavere Smith, Roger Guenveur Smith and Danny Hoch, among many others, and by playwrights using transcripts to assemble Working, The Laramie Project, The Exonerated, and many other plays. OHiP creates a living platform for the stories of workplaces, migration journeys, trauma aftermath, activist struggles and other testimonies, and the immediacy of an audience creates powerful witnessing and story transmission. In this course, we will study the theories, methods and examples of 20th and 21st-century oral history-based performance, while also learning interview techniques that ensure the “site of the interview” is a consensual, open, and interviewee-affirming project. Students will conduct interviews and co-create new oral history-based short plays for a culminating staged reading of new works. Students will gain valuable skills as listeners, transcribers and playwrights, and as theatre-makers and activists.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

In the Lab sessions, students will practice oral history methods. Activities will include: witnessing an oral history interview; visiting an oral history archive; conducting and transcribing brief interviews; viewing video of oral history-based performance; compiling and reading new oral history-based performance. "Community" is an important feature of oral history projects, and building course-based community through ensemble lab work will be OHiP's activist praxis.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

You want to learn how to be a theater director?  Students in this course will have hands on experience at developing directing skills that include composition, visual and textual storytelling, staging, script analysis, vocabulary, creative collaboration, casting, and communication practices.  The first part of the semester will be focused on composition and non-textual storytelling and the second half will be creating a theatrical work based on a dramatic text. Prerequisite(s): THDA 120, THDA 125 and THDA 235, or permission of the instructor

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

Advanced work in characterization and additional acting techniques with continued focus on voice, movement, improvisation and textual analysis. A continuation of Acting I, this course is designed to deepen the student's understanding of his/her instrument as well as develop an individualized working method. Included in the course is a consideration of style through scene work in other genres. Enrollment limited to 12 students. Prerequisite(s): THDA 120 sophomore standing and permission of instructor required.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This course focuses on dance inspired by West African and other African regions, the Caribbean, and the Americas. It is rooted in a communal environment and is supported and accompanied by a live musician/drummer. Students continue building on fundamental principles and technique, including more complex polyrhythmic aspects of the movement, while deepening the inter-connected relationship with the drums. They also create in-class dance projects and presentations. May be repeated for credit. S/N grading only. Prerequisite(s): THDA 21 or permission of instructor

General Education Requirements:

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Course Materials

Find expression and embodiment through the practice of movement improvisation. Open to all levels of ability. Come with a desire to move, an open mind and a willingness to explore in a non-competitive environment. We will learn to fall, roll and work with gravity in relationship to ourselves and others. The class will introduce you to contact improvisation, the "art-sport" developed by Steve Paxton in 1972. Relieve stress and balance your mind and body through physical awareness. May be repeated for credit. S/N grading only.

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Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This beginning/advanced-beginning level course deepens further into the theory, technique, and terminology of modern dance as introduced in Modern Dance I. May be repeated for credit. S/N grading only.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This ballet technique class is for students with some experience in classical ballet. The goal is to demonstrate a beginning to intermediate dancer's understanding and execution of ballet technique. It will include barre work, center-floor, and across-the-floor combinations. May be repeated for credit. S/N grading only.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This is the highest level of ballet at Macalester and is a continuation and progression of Ballet III. It is assumed at this level that the student has acquired and practiced work covered in previous levels. Students will refine vocabulary and strive to increase strength, flexibility, coordination, and artistry within their movements. Proper alignment, musicality, clarity of movement will be emphasized. Students are expected to pick up movement quickly and dance with speed and accuracy and demonstrate control. Corrections should be applied and refined quickly. May be repeated for credit. S/N grading only. Prerequisite(s): THDA 51, THDA 52, and THDA 53

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

Macalester's African-based Movement Ensemble focuses on selected histories and techniques of dance forms from West Africa and the African diaspora, including the Caribbean and the Americas. Students perform in Theater and Dance Department concerts, as well as Macalester events such as Afrika Week, Black History Month, and Family Fest. Completion of African-based Movement I and/or II is recommended. Two credits are awarded upon successful completion of the ensemble. Four credits of fine arts general distribution awarded upon completion of two semesters of the ensemble. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the Ensemble is by audition/permission of instructor only.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

Students are involved in production as actors, assistant choreographers or choreographers, assistant directors or directors, assistant designers or designers, dramatrugs and playwrights. Two credits awarded at the end of the semester. May be repeated for credit.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

Students are involved in set, costume, lighting and sound engineering and construction, and running crew. Two credits awarded at the end of the semester. May be repeated for credit.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

In this course, first-year students critically attend live dance and theatre performances in the exciting arts scene of the Twin Cities, and articulate their individual reactions by writing reviews, responses, and essays. In this process of studied spectatorship, students acquire the vocabularies of the field. Readings include seminal texts in dance and theatre criticism, as well as manifestos and scholarly articles. We will attend dance and theatre performances at professional venues such as the Walker Arts Center, the Guthrie, Penumbra Theatre, Mixed Blood, Northrop Auditorium, and Cowles Center.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

In this course, first-year students critically attend live dance and theatre performances in the exciting arts scene of the Twin Cities, and articulate their individual reactions by writing reviews, responses, and essays. In this process of studied spectatorship, students acquire the vocabularies of the field. Readings include seminal texts in dance and theatre criticism, as well as manifestos and scholarly articles. We will attend dance and theatre performances at professional venues such as the Walker Arts Center, the Guthrie, Penumbra Theatre, Mixed Blood, Northrop Auditorium, and Cowles Center.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

An introduction to the fundamental techniques of realistic acting. Through improvisation, physical and vocal exercises, text and character analysis, and scene studies, the student is introduced to the process of acting preparation and performance. Limited to 16 students.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

An introduction to the fundamental techniques of realistic acting. Through improvisation, physical and vocal exercises, text and character analysis, and scene studies, the student is introduced to the process of acting preparation and performance. Limited to 16 students.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This course is the study and discipline of dance-making. Students learn the tools of the choreographer - time, space, energy - and how they can be shaped to give the body expressive power. The relationships between form, content, and technique are explored. Students choreograph short studies, improvise, discuss, and view dance on film and in live performance. The course values risk-taking and collaboration in a supportive, shared space. Through the creative process, we seek energy from a sense of investigation as opposed to the pressure to "succeed." The solo form is emphasized. No dance experience is necessary. Either this course or Intermediate Dance Composition is required for a dance minor.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

An introduction to the fundamentals of successful playing of the vocal instrument of the individual human body. Using techniques of Lessac, Linklater, and Rodenburg, students learn elements of elocution: communication awareness; breath support; healthy voice production and projection; posture and poise; speech articulation; Standard American English pronunciation; vocal expressiveness and delivery. Essential for theatre performance majors, including singers, and very useful for anyone choosing a career such as law, teaching, politics, leadership, etc., which demands speaking to groups and presenting publicly. Students craft a personal process of vocal support practice through continuous self-analysis, journaling of exercises, rehearsal and delivery. This is a dynamic, physical, highly experiential, practical, and performance-based lab course. Semester culminates with a public solo performance of oratory and poetry. No previous experience required.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

Scenography is the creation of imagined spaces for performance. In this course we will study the fundamentals of scenography holistically, including scenic, lighting, costume, sound, and projection design. Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze and critique elements of performance design, articulating design ideas verbally and through writing, and completing a design project from analysis to tangible object. (4 credits)

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This course is an experiential survey of influential performance histories, practitioners and methods, 1600-present. Through readings in performance history and theory, students will investigate the social forces and performance lineages that have shaped contemporary embodied performance on the spectrum from acting to dancing.  Material covered may include: Shakespeare in performance; commedia dell'arte's contemporary clown forms;  court dance; classical Indian dance forms; Stanislavski's "magic if,"  contemporary Japanese butoh. In a weekly intensive lab component, students will learn the specific techniques developed by these practitioners and genres, taught by guest specialists in rotation with the course professor. How these forms get passed on, through embodied transmission, documentation and pedagogies will be a focus of the course.  Final projects will culminate in an open community workshop of exercises and techniques, taught by the students in the course. Required for Theatre and Dance majors. Prerequisite(s): Preference given to Theatre and Dance major and/or minors.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This course is an experiential survey of influential performance histories, practitioners and methods, 1600-present. Through readings in performance history and theory, students will investigate the social forces and performance lineages that have shaped contemporary embodied performance on the spectrum from acting to dancing.  Material covered may include: Shakespeare in performance; commedia dell'arte's contemporary clown forms;  court dance; classical Indian dance forms; Stanislavski's "magic if,"  contemporary Japanese butoh. In a weekly intensive lab component, students will learn the specific techniques developed by these practitioners and genres, taught by guest specialists in rotation with the course professor. How these forms get passed on, through embodied transmission, documentation and pedagogies will be a focus of the course.  Final projects will culminate in an open community workshop of exercises and techniques, taught by the students in the course. Required for Theatre and Dance majors. Prerequisite(s): Preference given to Theatre and Dance major and/or minors.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This course is an overview of the development of theatre by and about Black Americans. It examines the historical, social, political, and cultural context of African-American Theatre. After investigating the roots of African-American Theatre in African culture, performance modes, and social values, it focuses on a study of plays written by Black Americans in the 19th and 20th centuries. Prerequisite(s): sophomore standing or permission of instructor

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

Auditions. Memorization. Presentation. Imagination. Theatre and performance techniques for getting cast in stage productions, film, television, and commercials. But do not be deceived: These are important elements for any number of career paths. How you present yourself, the awareness you have that others are perceiving your work and “first impressions” are key in job interviews, for example. Throughout the course you will be learning and sharing specific techniques to select appropriate texts, monologues and/or scenes to address a number of topics. In addition, we will be bringing in professional casting agents and commercial agents to review and advise your work. This is an opportunity to prepare for Graduate School – URTA – auditions which happen in Jan, Feb, and March around the country.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

Join Sarah Bellamy, Artistic Director of Penumbra Theatre, to explore how the performing arts can promote positive social change. This course will investigate how artists (playwrights, performing artists, and theatre collectives) are uniquely situated to advocate for social justice and human rights. Students will read plays designed to raise awareness about various social justice issues and explore theatre techniques designed to deepen comprehension and stimulate civic engagement. Students will also devise artistic intervention projects using skills learned in the course, test them on campus, and then evaluate the impact and efficacy of their projects using rubrics designed collectively in class. Classes are three hours and meet off-campus at Penumbra Theatre. Each class will be split between seminar style discussion and praxis, so students can expect to discuss texts each week and to explore embodied art for social change practices.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This course will provide the student with an introduction to the creative process of sound design in contemporary theatre. Through lecture, demonstration, and projects, students will learn the aesthetic of sound design, the basic technology of audio software, and the process of collaboration. Students will acquire the skills to analyze a script; to edit, manipulate, and program files; and to present and defend a design project.THDA294, Sound Design will hold workshops on Saturday, September 15, 1-4pm; and in Saturday, October 13, 1-4pm.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This course introduces students to debates, methods, and conceptual frameworks in race and gender, as represented in performance. It engages students in an interdisciplinary exploration of key terms--such as corporeality, embodiment, intersectionality, and performativity--that remain central to the fields of gender and sexuality, critical race theory, and performance. Through drafts and revisions of written work, critical dialogues and oral presentations in small groups, peer feedback, and analytical reading, students will engage in questions around identity formation, structural inequality, and the politics of citizenship.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This class surveys Russian theater from its medieval origins in the traveling storytellers called skomorokhi to the present. We will cover: ancient storytelling traditions; court theater in the 18th century; Pushkin, Gogol, Ostrovsky and the formation of a Russian national theater tradition in the 19th century; Chekhov, Stanislavsky and the pivotal era of the Moscow Art Theater; Gorky, Meyerhold and Bulgakov and the effect of the Soviet Revolution on theatrical performance and theory; Soviet theater as a realm of self-expression under a regime of censorship; the free era of perestroika and the repressed era of Putin. Given its importance to American and world theater, we will spend considerable time focusing on the figures of the Moscow Art Theater from its inception through the early Soviet period. Additionally, we will approach contemporary Russian theater as a political phenomenon repressed by and speaking out against Putin’s regime. All readings are in English translation; no knowledge of Russian is required for the course.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

In this course, the student has the opportunity to deepen their understanding of the craft of dancing-making. They embody the tools of space, time and energy with greater clarity, and become fluent with compositional structures as they choreograph solo, duet, and group forms. They begin to touch more deeply into their distinct power and vision as an artist. Collaboration, risk-taking, investigation, and joy are valued within the support of a shared space. Prerequisite(s): THDA 121 or permission of instructor

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This African Based Movement course focuses on dance inspired by West Africa, as well as other regions of the continent, the Caribbean, Americas, and the African Diaspora at large. This physically rigorous class is rooted in a communal environment and is accompanied by a drummer. Students will learn African- based dance technique, characteristics, and the fundamental connection between the drums and the dance. They will also create in-class movement projects and presentations. Though this class may focus on traditional dance at times, it is not a tradition-specific class. All are welcome. May be repeated for credit. S/N grading only.

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This introductory level course is a joyous and demanding exploration of the theory, technique, and terminology of modern dance as a performing art. Students engage fully with their bodies and minds as they deepen their strength, sense of rhythm, flexibility, and coordination. The course develops skills in inversions, floorwork, and balance based in clear alignment. May be repeated for credit. S/N grading only.

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In this joyous and highly physical intermediate course, students continue to build upon their skills as expressive dancers through active alignment, coordination, musicality, spatial awareness and nuanced moving. Clarity in increasingly complex movement sequences is emphasized. May be repeated for credit. S/N grading only.

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This is a beginning ballet technique class. The goal is to demonstrate fundamental understanding and execution of ballet technique. It will include barre work, center-floor, and across-the-floor combinations. May be repeated for credit. S/N grading only.

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This is an intermediate ballet class and is geared for students who have developed proficient skills at the barre and in the center. Center will include pirouettes, adage, beats, and more complex combinations. Students will develop a more advanced vocabulary while continuing to focus on placement, alignment, flexibility, strength, and fluidity and connection of movement. The refinement of technical skills and performance skills with longer combinations will be emphasized. May be repeated for credit. S/N grading only.

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Macalester's African-based Ensemble focuses on selected histories and techniques of dance forms from West Africa and the African diaspora, including the Caribbean and the Americas. Students perform in Theatre and Dance Department concerts, as well as Macalester events such as Africa Week, Black History Month, and Family Fest. Completion of African-based Movement I and/or II is recommended. 2 credits is awarded upon successful completion of the ensemble. 4 credits of fine arts general distribution awarded upon completion of two semesters of the ensemble. Prerequisite(s): Admission to the Ensemble is by audition/permission of instructor only.

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Students are involved in production as actors, assistant choreographers or choreographers, assistant directors or directors, assistant designers or designers, dramatrugs and playwrights. Two credits awarded at the end of the semester. May be repeated for credit.

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Students are involved in set, costume, lighting and sound engineering and construction, and running crew. Two credits awarded at the end of the semester. May be repeated for credit.

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