ARTT.SP24

This course is an introduction to acting based on the Stanislavsky’s approach to acting among others.
What is acting and when is the audience compelled to listen and receive what the actor is doing? How do we recreate life with more specificity and truth so we can touch and reach an audience? What is your body, breath and mind doing while you are on stage? And how can you depart from yourself to bring a character to life?
My training is very physical so I will invite you to get in touch with your instrument (your body) and create characters that are rooted in your breath and body and true to the text you will be performing. How do we move a text or how does a text move? What are you trying to do, to achieve with your words?
Theater is a large genre and there are many, but acting is often the same action. Wether you use words or not, tools and techniques are there to help you achieve your goal as a performer. We will look at many different tools to create compelling performances.

ARTT B254-001 Fundamentals of Theatre Design
Students will gain a fundamental understanding of Scenic Design as a critical tool for analyzing performance texts, dramatic themes, mood and imagery and atmosphere in live performance. This class invites students to research, propose, and create scenic designs for theoretical and aspirational theater productions.
Division III: Humanities
1.0 Unit
Room: Rockefeller Theater Design Studio (Room 146)
Days and Times: Tuesdays1:10pm-4pm
Instructor: Maiko Matsushima
Email: mmatsushim@brynmawr.edu
Phone(text): 917-915-6291
Office Hours: Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday

Required Text ( You will receive PDF version):
No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre (1944)
Are we the undamaged others? by Toshiki Okada (2015)
Fairview by Jackie Sibblies Drury (2018)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare (1595-6)
The House of Bernarda Alba by Federico Garcia Lorca (1947)
John Proctor is the Villain by Kimbery Beleflower (2022)

Reference Books:
Ways of Seeing by John Berger
Backwards & Forwards: A Technical Manual for Reading Plays by David Ball and Michael Langham
The Empty Space: A Book About the Theatre: Deadly, Holy, Rough, Immediate by Peter Brook
Drafting Scenery for Theater, Film and Television by Rich Rose
The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton
Art as Experience by John Dewey



Course Objectives:
Students will develop and articulate strong visual ideas and create space for performance. We’ll explore performance space in both stage design and site-specific design. As they create the visual design of a scenic design, students will learn to consider the psychology and physicality of performers/ characters and the space that embodies them all. Defining space and shaping their philosophy through creating architecture/space is the major goal of this class. Class time is divided between student presentations, group discussion and studio time. In the studio, students will create collage and drawings, learn basic hand drafting and construct space through 1/4” scale model making. Artistic and technical concerns as they apply to a scenic design will be addressed through lectures, discussions, and critiques. Students will explore design as it relates to texts from a wide range of plays, both classical and contemporary, as well as the role of scenic design in the development of contemporary and experimental performance.

Requirements:
A) Complete and submit all projects by their scheduled due dates.
B) Successful completion of assignments and final project.
C) Attendance at all class meetings, providing effective and thoughtful ideas to the discussions

Class Attendance and Late Policy:
This is a studio class. It is necessary for the student to attend all class periods in order to understand the full trajectory of the course. Projects are due at the start of class time and will be critiqued during that session. Failure to have a project ready on time reduces the effectiveness of the class meeting. To avoid falling further behind in the course work, extensions are not customarily granted on the weekly assignments. Students are responsible for making up any missed assignments or material due to an absence, excused or otherwise. Absences (including any absence after one excused absence) will affect final grade.

Projects and Assignments:
Save all process work. Hand in all rough sketches and "studies". Make one sketchbook/folder to compile research and ideas and bring it to every class. A project without "process work" is considered incomplete and will be graded accordingly.

Materials/Supplies:
Mechanical pencil – HB, 2H
Bristol Pad -11” X 14”
Straightedge ruler with anti-slip back
Scale Ruler, triangle
X-Acto knife & blades
Paint Brushes
Acrylic Paints
Colored Pencils, Markers as needed
Art papers or boards for projects
Tape measure
Foam core boards (Black)x3
Illustration boards
Self-healing Cutting Matt
Liquid glue and Tape

Units may include:
Thinking Visually
From text to image
Psychological space and Naturalistic space
Rough drawings and Renderings
Research into idea; Idea into research
2Dimentional scenic tone and idea collage
3Dimensional transformation
History of architecture and traditional scenery
Period research and analysis
Script analysis
Prop research and drawing
Dimension and proportions
Variety of materials, texture, and color
Transforming air in the space




Grading:
Students are graded individually and based on the progress made from assignment to assignment. Each assignment is as valuable as the other, but progress and improvement is expected with each one. For those students who have more experience than others in the class, it is expected that you will make a personal effort to stretch beyond familiar terrain. These projects will not be realized in the workroom nor are they subject to budgetary concerns so go ahead and dream.
Assignments= 40%
Class Participation=30%
Final Exam=30%
95-100% = 4.0; 94-90%= 3.7; 89-85% =3.3; 84-80%=3.0; 79-75%=2.7; 74-70%=2.3; 69-65%=2.0; 64-60%=1.7; 59% or less = F