College Bulletin 2022-2023 
    
    Apr 30, 2024  
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College Bulletin 2022-2023 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

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Theater - Introductory Courses
  

  • THEA 004B. Lighting Design

    This class explores the fundamentals of lighting design. The course objective is to introduce lighting concepts and how to express them for both theater and dance. It is intended to demystify an enormously powerful medium. Reading and class discussion provide a theoretical basis for such creativity while the assignments and projects provide the practice for this artistic endeavor. The course is designed to serve all students regardless of prior experience in theater production.
    Fulfills a general requirement for all theater majors and minors.
    Humanities.
    1 credit.
    Fall 2022. Murphy.
    Fall 2023. Murphy
    Fall 2024. Murphy.
    Catalog chapter: Theater  
    Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/department-theater


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • THEA 004C. Intro to Costume Design for Performance

    This course will focus on costume design and introduce methods that apply to designing for stage.  In the studio, we will take a look at the costume designer’s responsibilities as an artist and collaborator and explore the relationship between text, concept, and production. In addition, we will explore different mediums and techniques for presentation of a design. A lab component of this class will introduce the student to costume shop operation and use of equipment through a variety of sewing projects. The course is designed to serve all students regardless of prior experience in theater production. 
    Fulfills a general requirement for all theater majors and minors.
    Humanities.
    1 credit.
    Fall 2022. Swanson.
    Spring 2024. Swanson.
    Catalog chapter: Theater  
    Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/department-theater


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • THEA 004D. Integrated Media Design for Live Performance

    The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the application of various visual and audio technologies in live theater and dance performance. Discussion of the historical and theoretical context of contemporary mixed-media performance will be combined with an orientation to the available technologies found at Swarthmore and beyond. The class will include the conceptualization and preparation of a series of individual studio projects. The course is designed to serve all students regardless of prior experience in theater production.
    Fulfills a general requirement for all theater majors and minors.
    Humanities.
    1 credit.
    Eligible for FMST
    Catalog chapter: Theater  
    Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/department-theater


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • THEA 004E. Sound Design

    MUSI 004E  
    This course will provide an introduction to sound design concepts for live performance. Course work will emphasize research, design development, collaboration, and the creative process. Laboratory work will focus on basic audio engineering, software, field recording, and documentation in a theatrical context. The course is designed to serve all students regardless of prior experience in theater production.
    Fulfills a general requirement for all theater majors and minors.
    Humanities.
    1 credit.
    Spring 2023. Atkinson.
    Spring 2024. Atkinson.
    Spring 2025. Atkinson.
    Catalog chapter: Theater  
    Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/department-theater


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  
  

  • THEA 005D. Warming Up: Performing Ecology

    DANC 014  , ENVS 046  
    This introductory course focuses on creative opportunities for students wishing to explore ecology, environmental studies, and the performing arts, specifically focusing on eco-performance and design. Class goals will aim to support a better understanding of environmental studies via an artistic lens, allowing students to combine creative processes with environmental sciences. Emphasis will be placed on interdisciplinary skills and experiences that raise awareness around environmental studies and simultaneously engage culture and community.
    Humanities.
    Spring 2023. Stevens.
    Catalog chapter: Theater  


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • THEA 006. Playwriting Workshop

    This course will focus on playwriting and introduce methods that apply to writing for live performance. Weekly writing assignments will lead to the development of scenes, characters, and dramatic worlds culminating in the creation of two short plays. Weekly readings and discussion of 21st century plays will introduce and explore a wide range of stylistic approaches to playmaking. Students will hear their work read aloud in class, and will develop their own theatrical voice through the creation of characters, images, and stories for the stage.
    Fulfills a general requirement for all theater majors and minors.
    Humanities.
    1 credit.
    Spring 2023. Shaplin.
    Spring 2024. Staff.
    Spring 2025. Staff.
    Catalog chapter: Theater  
    Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/department-theater


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • THEA 008. Movement Theater Workshop

    (Cross-listed as DANC 049)
    Starting with the fundamentals of how to stay grounded and present in stillness and motion, this class will explore movement vocabulary and articulation grounded in metaphor, Suzuki, the teachings of Jacques Lecoq as well as pop culture and the quotidian. The class will invite rehearsal and discovery with other students outside of class time and will culminate with a public showing of work generated by students.
    Note: Movement Theater Workshop cannot be taken in lieu of THEA 012  by students seeking a major or a minor with an emphasis in acting.
    Prerequisite: THEA 002A , any dance course numbered 040-044, or consent of the instructor.
    Humanities.
    1 credit.
    Catalog chapter: Theater  
    Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/department-theater


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • THEA 026. Resisting the Apocalypse: Activism, Theater, and Envisioning a Good Future (Performance Research Workshop)

    (Cross-listed as ENVS 054 )
    Many of us are just…tired. We’re exhausted, frustrated, or we’ve grown numb to the state of the world. It’s hard to continuously and repeatedly summon the strength and the will to practice optimism. How do we, as artists, as activists, as humans living on this planet, find ways to imagine a future where things work out? Where suffering and disaster aren’t the inevitable end-state?

    This course explores how we build emotional, collective resilience in the face of the many crises of our time. Working through the lens of climate crisis, students will engage with: 1) the work of local activists (e.g. The Sunrise Movement, PhillyThrive, the Earth Quaker Action Team), 2) the writings of facilitators/authors working on collective action and building a sustainable future (e.g. Joanna Macy, Adrienne Maree Brown, Robin Wall Kimmerer), and 3) the tools of theater (e.g. vulnerability, creativity, embodiment) to explore: How do we process our intense, exhausted, or numbed feelings? What do we mean by collective power, and how will we fuel movements for the future together? How do we begin to dream of our future with practicality, hope, and even joy?

    No prior experience in activism or theater required.
    1 credit.
    Catalog chapter: Theater  


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.

Theater - Intermediate Courses
  

  • THEA 012. Acting II

    This course provides a foundation for ensemble devising-developing original work through collective creation. The in-studio process will be divided into four parts: training the actor’s instrument (body, voice, presence) and cultivating collective attunement; developing a shared performance language through improvisation dynamics with movement, voice, and text; generating creative writing; and synthesizing these elements into original scenes inspired by short prompts, which we will refine by using different organizational structures within the ensemble.  Actors will continue to train, develop their writing, and rehearse their pieces outside of class, to be presented in front of the group. 
    Prerequisite: THEA 002A  
    Humanities.
    1 credit.
    Spring 2023. Pernell.
    Spring 2024. Staff.
    Spring 2025. Staff.
    Catalog chapter: Theater  
    Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/department-theater


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  
  

  • THEA 012B. Acting II: Voice Workshop

    MUSI 093A  
    This course provides foundations for opening possibilities in the full range of the human voice-from speaking to singing to raw sound expression-to help students cultivate an integrative personal practice, unlock creative potential, and connect with what their unique voices have to say. Themes to explore: vocal mechanics and self-care; the voice as a bridge between body, emotion, and imagination; working with song and text; tools for improvisation and composition.  The class is strongly recommended to all acting students and may be taken without prerequisite. 
    0.5 credit.
    Catalog chapter: Theater  
    Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/department-theater


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  • THEA 015. Performance Theory and Practice

    This seminar-format course provides a global road map to written and embodied theories and practices of live performance: cross-culturally, cross-historically, and across genres.  The emphasis is on the aspects of live performance that complete and complement the work of playwrights, with particular attention to performers, director/choreographers, designers, composers, etc.  Rather than pre-scripted drama and commodified models of theatrical production, we emphasize movement-based, ensemble-generated, non-verbal/non-discursive, interdisciplinary, political and ritual dimensions of performance.  The class includes units on performance traditions and genres beyond Europe, North America, and the anglophone world.  Assigned readings will emphasize the practice-based writings by or about theater artists such as Bharata Muni, Zeami, Stanislavsky, Artaud, Brecht, Mei Lan Fang, Lecoq, Grotowski,Schechner, Chaikin, Mnouchkine, Wilson, and Castellucci, along with selected theoretical and critical texts by nonpractitioners.  Each week will include a video lab of relevant performances (and field trips to live performances when possible).  Assigned writing will consist of a series of short analytical seminar papers and two major research papers, at least one of which will be devoted to research on performance beyond the Euro-American/anglophone cultural context.  The course will be taught remotely, and each week will consist of a required non-synchronous weekly video screening, a non-synchronous recorded lecture by the professor, and a 75-minute seminar discussion centered around student papers.  The course will end with final critical research paper on a topic of the student’s choice (no final exam).  

    Recommended in sophomore or junior year.
    Fulfills a general requirement for all theater majors and minors.
    Prerequisite: THEA 001  or consent of instructor.
    Humanities.
    Writing course.
    1 credit.
    Eligible for GLBL-Core
    Fall 2022. Wooden.
    Fall 2024. Staff.
    Catalog chapter: Theater  
    Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/department-theater


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  
  

  • THEA 021A. Fundamentals of Dramaturgy

    This course defines dramaturgy as studying the architecture of a play; the historical context in which it was made, its structure and style, and the many different ways to live inside of it. We will take a deep dive into many plays, including one current campus production, as well as exploring the role of a Dramaturg and speaking with professionals working in the field today. Each student will choose two plays over the course of the semester, one canonical and one contemporary, and develop a full dramaturgical packet for each, including historical research, script analysis, and program notes for an imaginary production. Students who have completed this course will be prepared to take on roles as the Production Dramaturg for future Swarthmore Theater productions. This writing and research based course is perfect for readers who are interested in theater, writers who are interested in structure, and anyone who has ever wanted to take apart a play, lay out all the parts, and figure out what makes it tick. 
    Prerequisite: THEA 001   helpful but not required.
    Humanities
    Writing course.
    0.5 - 1 credit.
    Fall 2023. Reich.
    Catalog chapter: Theater  
    Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/department-theater


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • THEA 022. Production Ensemble I

    This course offers students an opportunity to participate in a professionally directed and designed production. With particular emphasis on experiential learning and ensemble, students will rehearse a formally inventive and thematically complex theatrical project and work collaboratively to stage it for audiences. Required for all course majors and honors majors in acting, directing, and dramaturgy; also required for course minors in acting, directing, and dramaturgy.
    Fulfills a general requirement for all theater majors and minors.
    Humanities.
    1 credit.
    Fall 2022. Torra.
    Fall 2023. Wooden.
    Fall 2024. Staff.
    Catalog chapter: Theater  
    Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/department-theater


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  
  
  

  • THEA 025. Solo Performance

    This course serves as both a study and practice of different forms of solo performance including the first-person autobiographical monologue, multiple-characters played by a single performer, and performance art. Part-survey course, part-performance workshop, students will be asked to intellectually engage with the work of renowned solo performance makers and to create their own work, generating original performance material on a weekly basis. Over the course of the semester, students will create 3-4 individual solo performance pieces, culminating in a final showing for the public. The work made during the course will explore personal storytelling, devising, the body as subject, and the transformative actor.  This class is rooted in empowering artists to articulate what matters to them and finding a translation of that into performance. 
    Fulfills a general requirement for all theater majors and minors.
    Humanities.
    1 credit.
    Fall 2023. Torra.
    Catalog chapter: Theater  
    Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/department-theater


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • THEA 033. Supporting Literacy Among Deaf Children

    LING 063  
    In this course, we will develop ebooks for young deaf children. Adults can “read” these books with the children regardless of their knowledge of American Sign Language (or lack thereof). Working from beloved picture books, we will add video clips of actors signing the stories as well as voice-overs and questions about sign language that the interested reader can click on to find information.   ​Students from Gallaudet University will join Swarthmore College students in this jointly taught course. We will travel to Gallaudet University three times and students from Gallaudet University will travel to Swarthmore College three times over the semester.

    A background in linguistics, theater, film, early childhood development, or education would be helpful. 

     
    Prerequisite: Students must have a rudimentary knowledge of American Sign Language or concurrently take an attachment in ASL language.
    Social sciences.
    1 credit.
    Eligible for INTP, GLBL - Core
    Spring 2023. Napoli.
    Catalog chapter: Theater  


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  
  
  
  
  
  

  • THEA 035. Directing I: Directors’ Lab

    This course introduces students to the theater director’s role in a rehearsal and production process, exploring directing tools, the responsibilities of leadership, and the values/principles one might use to guide processes towards performance. Set up as a studio-based, laboratory-styled class, the course will be broken up into units that include the director’s work with playscripts, staging, actors, staff, and designers. The course’s final project consists of an extended scene to be performed as part of a public presentation.
    Fulfills a general requirement for all theater majors and minors.
    Prerequisite: THEA 001 , THEA 002A  
    Humanities.
    1 credit.
    Fall 2022. Stevens.
    Fall 2023. Torra.
    Fall 2024. Staff.
    Catalog chapter: Theater  
    Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/department-theater


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  
  
  

Theater - Advanced Courses
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  • THEA 055. Directing II: Advanced Directing Workshop

    Directing II requires students to apply the exercises from THEA 035: Directing I to a variety of scene assignments. These will address a variety of theatrical genres (farce, epic theater, verse drama, etc.) and various approaches to dramatic text (improvisation, cutting, and/or augmentation of play scripts, adaptation of nondramatic texts for performance, etc.). Projects will usually be presented for public performance. Prerequisites: THEA 001, 002A, 015, THEA 035, and any class in design.
    Humanities.
    1 credit.
    Spring 2023. Stevens.
    Spring 2024. Torra.
    Spring 2025. Staff.
    Catalog chapter: Theater  
    Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/department-theater


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  • THEA 099. Senior Company

    A workshop course emphasizing issues of collaborative play making across lines of specialization, ensemble development of performance projects, and the collective dynamics of forming the prototype of a theater company. Work with an audience in performance of a single project or a series of projects.
    This course is required of all theater majors in their senior year and can not be taken for external examination in the Honors Program. Class members will consult with the instructor during spring semester of their junior year, before registration, to organize and make preparations. Course and honors minors may petition to enroll, provided they have met the prerequisites.
    Fulfills a general requirement for all theater majors and minors.
    Prerequisite: THEA 001 , THEA 002A ; any course in design; THEA 015 ; THEA 006 , THEA 025 , or THEA 035 ; THEA 022 ; a 100-level seminar; and the completion of one three-course sequence in theater.
    Humanities.
    1 credit.
    Fall 2022. Saunders.
    Fall 2023. Swanson.
    Fall 2024. Staff.
    Catalog chapter: Theater  
    Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/department-theater


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • THEA 102A. Acting Capstone

    Originally designed as a two-semester project for Honors Acting majors, this course has become an opportunity for all theater majors and minors who are focusing on acting to synthesize and showcase their cumulative knowledge and skills attained in the Theater Department. The course will culminate in a spring semester production of a play directed by the acting faculty. It will continue to be offered as a two-semester course when Honors majors are involved and will otherwise be a one-semester course in the spring. Students will be expected to meet with the faculty director during the fall semester to discuss the process.
    By arrangement with the theater faculty. 
    Humanities.
    1.0
    Fall 2023. Staff.
    Fall 2024. Staff.
    Catalog chapter: Theater  
    Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/department-theater


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.

Theater - Seminars
  

  • THEA 102B. Acting Capstone

    Originally designed as a two-semester project for Honors Acting majors, this course has become an opportunity for all theater majors and minors who are focusing on acting to synthesize and showcase their cumulative knowledge and skills attained in the Theater Department. The course will culminate in a spring semester production of a play directed by the acting faculty. It will continue to be offered as a two-semester course when Honors majors are involved and will otherwise be a one-semester course in the spring. Students will be expected to meet with the faculty director during the fall semester to discuss the process.
    By arrangement with the theater faculty. 
    1.0
    Spring 2023. Staff.
    Spring 2024. Staff.
    Spring 2025. Staff.
    Catalog chapter: Theater  
    Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/department-theater


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  

  • THEA 106. Theater History Seminar

    A comparative study of theater history from its origins through the 21st century, along with a critical examination of a given theatrical company as a case study. Emphasis on the coherence of specific performance traditions and periods, significant companies as well as individual artists, the placement of theatrical performance within specific cultural contexts, and their relevance to contemporary theatrical practice. Readings will include, but not be limited to, dramatic texts as one form of artifact of the theatrical event. 
    Prerequisite: THEA 015 .
    Humanities.
    Writing course.
    2 credits.
    Eligible for GLBL-Core
    Spring 2023. Wooden.
    Spring 2024. Wooden.
    Catalog chapter: Theater  
    Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/department-theater


    Access the class schedule to search for sections.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 

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