The third year is about concentrating on amalgamating skills already learned, thus allowing students to work with a greater sense of freedom and power.

Individual schedules arranged according to specialization: Acting Practicum, Directing Practicum, Creating Original Work, or Eclectic Study.

This Advanced Scene Study Class uses Grotowski's action, Stanislavski's scoring and other forms of improvisation to develop the depth and range of each member of the ensemble. The actors work on Classic European texts as well as current writers such as Adam Rapp and Sarah Ruhl. This training combines rigorous instinctive physical exercises with intellectual research and interpretation to integrate the actor and the script. Second semester the ensemble works on acting on camera. A Film Project is developed which culminates in two days at a production studio shooting scenes. The final performance project is a Theater piece using the texts of a living writer from the current New York theater scene.

Required for Acting Practicum.

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This advanced class presents and intermixes specific performance and aesthetic tools and ideas from the classical theater and ritual traditions of Japan, India, Bali, Iran, China, Thailand and Mexico.   The class expands on Theater Mitu's idea of WHOLE THEATER   (a theatrical experience that is rigorously visual, aural, emotional, intellectual and spiritual) as presented in Acting Laboratory and Directing Laboratory. The class takes these ideas from the theoretical to the practical. Ultimately focusing on these essential tools towards creation, performance and aesthetics. Focusing on artistic discipline, intense physicality, full-bodied vocalization, live music, and ritual, this class seeks to engage artist in the rigor of inhabiting theatrically impactful work .

Acting Laboratory and/or Directing Laboratory, though recommended, are not required.

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BODY WORKS
Dan Weltner

This class examines basic human anatomy as it relates to external body movement. Each session consists of a rigorous Pilates mat series followed by an interactive anatomy lesson. Students are expected to develop the ability to use their anatomical knowledge in order to identify range of motion-in the hopes of extending that range. Ultimately, this class is designed to deepen the students understanding of core strength, increase stamina and allow the actor to visualize how the body works, from the inside out.

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A two-semester course open to third year Acting Practicum students designed to introduce the tools necessary for crafting truthful and personal music performances.  Using active language and specific behavior-based techniques, students are challenged to re-evaluate their preconceptions about musical theater, to identify and break bad habits, and to bring their own unique experience and history to their work.  Students are encouraged to integrate previous styles and acting techniques with the goal of leaving the class with their own individualized process for working.  Special attention is paid to text and music analysis as a means of making positive acting choices.  The year finishes with a final semi-produced performance. 

Required for Acting Practicum.

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PRACTICUM VOICE & SPEECH: Characterization, Transformation, Interpretation
Marika Becz

This course focuses on the full integration of Voice, Movement, and Text in self-created, self-generated, "environmental and experiential" performance.   Students explore the uses, applications, and organic interpretations of deep characterization, and meditations on transformation (vocally, physically, emotionally, and textually).   The goal of the course is to equip the student with a creative use for technique, recognizing that technique is only a starting point for true creative work.   Other goals include:   cementing the notion that a full warm-up/preparation is essential for all performance work, recognition that the artist is responsible for his/her own creative work, and an increased respect for the value of the voice/body connection in performance.   The course will refer to the work of Chuck Jones, Catherine Fitzmaurice, Jerzy Grotowski, Joseph Chaikin, Stanislavski, Laban, and Michael Chekhov, among others. Students are also introduced to yoga and meditation.

Required for Acting Practicum.

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PRACTICUM VOICE & SPEECH: Intensive
Joanna Battles and Doug Paulson

The semester long course that continues the development of the actor's vocal skills through the study of Fitzmaurice Voice Work, Chuck Jones Vocal Production and a contemporary General American Dialect.  We thoroughly explore those techniques in order to familiarize the actor with the language and ideas taught throughout the Voice and Speech curriculum at PHTS. Our goal is to expand the actor's vocal and physical awareness, as well as strengthen vocal range, variety, and support. This semester's efforts to develop a fully integrated physical and vocal instrument will allow an easier transition into the spring semester's explorations and text work in the Practicum Voice and Speech class.

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A continuation of Director/Designer Collaboration from the spring, and required for all 3rd year directors and designers.  The class requires every 3rd year production team to give clear and dynamic presentations of production and design concepts 3 weeks in advance of opening. 

Fall semester. Required for Directing Practicum.

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A one-semester course that introduces playwrights and directors to the art of collaborating on a new play, exploring the boundaries between literary work and theatrical reality. For the director trained in working with existing texts, this course focuses on how a director helps discover and reveal a new, often fluid and volatile world, as well as practical experience in how to mount a staged reading of a new play. For the writer, the course concentrates on how one productively works with others to effect the transformation of a script from page to stage.

Spring semester. Required for Directing Practicum.

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DESIGN III
Michael Krass

The objective of the course is to isolate the various design disciplines (Light, New Media, Space, Clothing, Sound) for a few sessions each and bring in a professional to teach, simply, "telling a story" within that discipline. A clip light in the black box: use it to tell a story, or to make us understand or feel your objective, for example. Students explore the idea that the individual elements of design carry different and concurrent burdens in conveying story and emotion to the audience. The purpose of the class is to remind students that the design elements serve their own elemental and creative needs of communication, far beyond the technical aspects that can too easily dominate or overwhelm both production and audience.

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Focuses on an intensive training in Theater Mitu's methodology of Whole Theater. This is defined as a theatrical experience that is rigorously visual, aural, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. By Transliterating primary theater and ritual traditions from India, Japan, Bali, Iran, China, Thailand and Mexico, Theater Mitu has developed a methodology and training (The Major and Minor Steps) that is designed to push artists in new and unexpected directions. The laboratory focuses on exploring intense physicality, full-bodied vocalization, aural & textual response, theories of artistic discipline and dynamic improvisational tools. We have found that this training allows artists to create vibrant and vital theater. Directors gain effective physical & vocal exercises and ideas to increase their range as theater makers and theater thinkers. They also gain various tools with which to fuel Actors physically, vocally, and emotionally. Directors also learn essential ideas of world aesthetics and theories of collaboration, as well as philosophies of ensemble. All students walk away with a greater understanding of World Theater and its historical effect on contemporary forms.

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A two-semester course in which the process of production is discussed, from the choosing of the text through its final realization in performance.   The goals of the course are (1) to strengthen tools of analysis both of text and of production; (2) to investigate the director's conceptualization of the whole; (3) to develop solid rehearsal techniques; (4) to integrate practical and artistic concerns into the production; and (5) to develop skills in critiquing the work of others. While the class is heavily weighted towards post-production analysis, each director is responsible for articulating his/her rehearsal process during seminar.

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An advanced composition class for directors that applies the use of choreographic tools to stage direction techniques. When the subtle use of space and time is understood, action can be moved forward, relationships established, or subtext inferred in innovative ways. Students screen the work of directors and choreographers on video, and participate in class discussions, joint research projects, in-class composition exercises, and project work. In all, the class encourages and supports the growth of individual directors toward their particular area of interest.

Fall semester.

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A two-semester course in which student directors select, cast and direct one act plays under the supervision of the instructors. All productions are presented in a studio theater at the Department of Drama at NYU. The student director is assigned a mentor for each production and other faculty members are available to assist with special problems. A weekly meeting of the artistic teams is designed to assist with production problems (see below).

 

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Lead by the Studio Theater Production Supervisor this seminar serves as a weekly support class for all Directing & COW Projects being performed in the Studio Theater.  Students are encouraged to use this time to troubleshoot design elements and seek guidance about physical production from the Production Supervisor as well as their peers.  Areas of discussion also include production related matters in both professional and amateur environments.

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Students mounting a production in the Studio Theater are required to attend one production meeting, lead by the Studio Theater Production Supervisor, three weeks prior to load-in.  At this meeting, students must present detailed technical plots, research, and design concepts in their entirety.  The complete production team, including designers and stage managers, are required to attend - no exceptions.  Students receive a more comprehensive guide outlining the production meeting requirements from the Studio Theater Production Supervisor at the beginning of the semester.

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These sections are reserved for students who have completed COW I and II. Students may propose longer projects, perform solo or with additional cast members, collaborate with designers, and utilize technical support. Proposals must be discussed and approved by the instructors prior to registration. The core C.O.W. class provides students with an opportunity to explore the three tiers of process -- personal process, project process, and collaborative process -- and functions both as a community and a collection of individuals in problem-solving through each of these tiers in relation to the current C.O.W. projects.

Required for Upper Level COW Track.

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This class is required for COW III/IV/V/VI and available as an elective to any student who has completed either one directing project or one COW project.   Students learn how to devise original performances as an ensemble, based on the collective of individual impulses and interests, without any designated playwrights, directors, actors, or designers.  Students bring in text, music, architecture, objects, themes, and imagery as source material, experiment with rehearsal techniques for devisement, and eventually develop a process for generating work that is unique to their collective.   This class is one semester long, and culminates in a showing.

Required for Upper Level C.O.W.

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Introduces basic principals of theatrical producing using fourth year COW & Directing Projects as the application model.  Specific areas of study include but are not limited to budgeting, marketing, grant writing, fundraising, royalties and contracts.  This course also offers a look at post-graduate resources and will help prepare a graduating theater artist for their transition into the professional world.

Required for all 4th year directors and COW IV students.

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The content of R&D revolves around the specific areas of interest expressed by COW project directors.   Members of the class are able to extend the range of their work by sharing ideas and working together to experiment with new techniques to create, develop, rehearse, and collaborate on original material.   To support this process, the instructor will curate master-classes, lectures, fieldtrips, and workshops that serve to enrich these explorations.

Required for Upper Level COW Track.

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See description in 2nd Year

 

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See description in 2nd Year

 

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Unleashing the power of a Shakespearean text requires equal measures of technique, scholarship and creativity. The student learns how to recognize the rhetorical structures in the language and discover how these structures help shape performance and interpretation. Throughout the course the actor exercises these skills in the performance of short scenes and monologues from Elizabethan plays. Our goal is to empower the actor with the tools to make bold choices.

Elective for 3rd & 4th Year Students

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Art doesn't exist in a vacuum, regrettably, and while everyone insists on pronouncing the imminent demise of the Old Grey Lady, theater is alive and well.  But aside from your skills and talents as an artist, you must hone your business savvy in order to navigate a successful career in theater.  The class offers an overview of what it means to produce plays, how theater companies form and operate, the various ways and means to present work (and yourself), and finally, explores the greater philosophical issues for the future artistic directors and producers in the 21st century.  This course is for any actor or director who seeks to understand how the industry functions in order to be in control of her or his artistic journey.

Elective for 3rd & 4th Year Students.

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