Summer Session Curriculum

About
Curriculum
Faculty
Applications & Logistics

Each week, participants will train in acrobatics, movement analysis, core training, voice and ensemble work. Every day students will work on themes through improvisation, developing the necessary skills of writing on one's feet, understanding the moment-to-moment choices of the actor, play onstage, connection to the ensemble, the space and the audience and an internalized sense of dramatic rhythm and structure. Improvisation will be developed as a critical skill in writing, performing and directing. Additionally, each day there will be time for ensemble creation work, the results of which will be presented to the faculty throughout the program.

Week 1 Themes
Stillness, silence, the Neutral Mask
Expanding physical presence onstage
Focus on breathing, gaze and developing a sense of theatrical space and the energy needed to suspend the theatre
The birth of the chorus

Week 2 Themes
Larval masks, character masks, “playfulness”
Animal work as an approach to character development
The expressive, articulate body

Week 3 Themes
Clown
Our own innate sense of play
Connection to the audience
Playing a comic form
Comic duos and trios in performance