WELCOME TO HONORS THEATRE ENSMEBLE!

“...that is what the title of artist means: one who perceives more than his fellows, and who records more than he has seen.”                                                 --Edward Gordon Craig


“A play in a book is only the shadow of a play and not even a clear shadow of it…The printed script of a play is hardly more than a blueprint of a house not yet built…The color, the grace and levitation, the structural pattern in motion, the quick interplay of live beings, these things are the play, not words on paper…
                                                                                    -- Tennessee Williams

HONORS THEATRE ENSEMBLE   2009-10

The art of theatre can be an essential tool for humans to understand themselves, each other, and the world around them. The technique, imagination and individual voices of the playwright, director, actor and designer are at the center of the process of making theatre.

Honors Theatre Ensemble will be an intensive (and fun) year-long study of the role those artists play in making theatre in a wide variety of traditions, styles, periods, and forms. You will learn by doing in this course, by making and performing theatre, developing a directorial and critical eye for performance. We will ask what is effective or what “works” on stage and how that is affected by the specific choices we make.

Much of the work will look like “play.” This work begins in playfulness and imagination, yet it is to be played hard and with commitment. It is largely that commitment to the work on which you will be evaluated.

We will begin with basic exercises addressing movement and text, ensemble building, composition, stage pictures, mood, direction of actors. As directors you need to be able to make strong, supported, exciting choices. As performers, acting in scenes directed by your classmates, you will learn to make strong choices independently of the director, and to productively take direction and work with choices the director makes.

Note: As we come to the end of the first decade of the 21^st century (!!!), it seems like the role of theatre in our society is changing. There are things which theatre has done over the last many centuries which television, film, and now internet media can do more believably, more spectacularly, more effectively. Instead of theatre trying to imitate these other media, artists have begun to explore theatre’s role in speaking to community, to creating worlds and ideas that would not be something you would see on television. In that moment of live connection between audience and performer, there is the opportunity to ask some important questions and to challenge the audience to see and hear and think in ways that are new or unfamiliar to them. Our work together will explore this idea of different ways that we can imagine theatre working.

In the Spring term, you will be asked to write or adapt a ten minute piece which you will then direct as part of the One-Acts Marathon weekend.

In addition to that project, we will be working as an ensemble on a play or devised piece which you will perform in as your final culminating project in the last week of school.

In the course, play texts (as well as non text-based performance styles) from various traditions and styles will be the basis for: 

• scene study (acting and directing)                                   
• play analysis/directorial concept
• design projects
• in-depth research into a certain theatre tradition
• critical analysis of live theatre production
• study of theatre and society (political theatre)
• workshops on specific theatre techniques       

Genres/Styles/Periods covered may include: 

Ancient Greek theatre                                    Modern realism

Commedia dell’Arte                                         Mime

Japanese Noh/Kabuki/Bunraku                       Puppet theatre

Epic Theatre/Brecht                                        Morality drama of the Middle Ages

Melodrama                                                     Mask Theatre

Elizabethan drama                                           French comedy

Theatre of the Absurd                                     Forum Theatre

There will be required reading of play texts for the purposes stated above. 

Possible playwrights include: 

Aristophanes, Samuel Beckett, Berthold Brecht, Anton Chekhov, Carlo Goldoni, Caryl Churchill,  Dario Fo, Susan Glaspell, Vaclav Havel, Henrik Ibsen, Eugene Ionesco, Ben Johnson, Federico Garcia Lorca, Moliere, Arthur Miller, Harold Pinter, Luigi Pirandello, Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, Sophocles, Tom Stoppard, Oscar Wilde, Thornton Wilder

Other required reading will be essays and texts on theatre by and/or about:

Aristotle, Stanislavsky, Brecht, Michael Chekhov, Jerzy Grotowski, Peter Brook, Antonin Artaud, Augusto Boal, Anne Bogart, Dario Fo, Meyerhold, John Barton, Jacques Copeau, Cecily Berry, Tadashi Suzuki and others. 

There will be required viewing of live theatre performance (outside of school) during the course, which you will critique in writing afterward. These performances will likely be in the evening and sometimes on weekends. We will also use these live performances as well as performances on video to analyze the choices made, the effectiveness of those choices and the style of the performance.

Assessment/Homework:

You will be required to keep a theatre notebook (journal)* which is a detailed record of and reflection on our work and your rehearsal processes. It should include responses to texts you read, performances you see in or out of class, as well as observations on the world around you that might be relevant to the work.

*The entries written in the notebook must be legible! The notebooks will be collected and assessed every two weeks.

Solo and group performance assignments should be completed on time and prepared thoroughly (and of course recorded in the theatre notebook!)

Homework not turned in or performed when due will result in a lowering of the grade on that assignment. The seriousness with which you take the in-class skills work, and the effort that you put forth, figure very heavily in assessment. 

To earn an A, you must participate always with commitment, concentration, a good sense of play, and a willingness to take risks; you must always come prepared for class; you must contribute to class discussion in insightful and appropriate ways; your written record of and reflection on our work must be thorough, consistent and in depth; your work must be of high quality and you must do more than is required of you.

To earn a B, you must make an above average effort at participating with commitment, concentration, a sense of play and a willingness to take risks; you must complete required work on time; you must make an effort at contributing to class discussion in appropriate ways; your effort at keeping a written record of and reflection on the work must be consistent; you must make significant progress in the work

To earn a C, you must make an effort at commitment and concentration in your participation; you must complete most required work satisfactorily and on time; you must come prepared most of the time; you must make an effort at keeping a written record of and reflection on the work; you must show some improvement in your work.

Please don’t do less than the above.

• BE ON TIME to class, as we begin class warming up as an ensemble
• always have pen or pencil with you in class, as well as your notebook
• we will work without shoes in the theatre space
• dress in clothes that you can move in...like gym, you can have an extra set of clothes for theatre and change in the dressing room here before.
• only water allowed (and a good idea to have!)...No food or other drink or chewing gum allowed in the class space

The course requirements are: a spirit of adventure! a willingness to risk looking silly! a commitment to the work! a respect for your classmates!