Drama
Course Offerings
Oral Interpretation of Literature
(Full year elective for sophomores; meets three days per week; for .6 credit; no prerequisite)
Interpretation is the art of communicating to an audience, from the printed page, a work of literary art in its intellectual , emotional and aesthetic entirety. Students will learn to analyze, prepare and present material from prose, poetry and drama. The course will include the study of solo, small group and large group performance techniques. We will focus on developing body posture, strong vocal production, eye contact and gestural skills in service of the given texts. Sophomores who take this course would be able to take Physical Education or Weights the other two days per week.
Oral Communication
(One-semester elective; sophomores, juniors and seniors)
The purposes of the course are three fold: (1) A basic understanding of the processes and methods of communication; (2) The practice of these processes through a number of oral presentations; and (3) An increase in general knowledge. The basic understanding is achieved through readings and class discussion. Examples of the oral presentations are informative speeches, demonstration speeches, persuasive speeches, etc. The general knowledge comes from listening to the above presentations.
Acting Improvisation
(One-semester elective; sophomores, juniors, and seniors)
Through a series of exercises, i.e. warm-ups, slow-motion sports, theater games, juggling, clowning, story theater, etc., the student gets a basic understanding of one of the fundamentals of acting - Improvisation. There are a number of public performance-exams given throughout the semester. During the semester, there are at least two field trips to local professional theater productions in order to observe acting and production for class discussion and student enrichment. Students are required to see two shows outside of school time. One must be a SLUH production and the second can be any approved production.
Acting Scenes
(One-semester elective; juniors, seniors)
The purpose of this course is to give the student a basic understanding to the creative process of the actor as he approaches a scene from a script. The course starts with a study of some of the fundamentals of acting and script analysis. The theories learned in the first section are then applied to a number of solo and multiple person scenes presented in class. During the semester, there are at least two field trips to local professional theater productions in order to observe acting and production for class discussion and student enrichment.
Introduction to Technical Theater
(Full year elective; meets two days per week for .5 credit; juniors and seniors; no prerequisite)
The purpose of this course is to teach students the fundamentals of technical theater. The topics covered include the following: tool identification, use, and safety; reading and translation of blue prints; making simple flats, parallels, and stair units; lighting, its identification, use, and safety; sound, its identification, use, and safety. Student class projects will probably require work in studio/shop outside of class time.
Advanced Technical Theater
(Full year elective; meets two days per week for .5 credit; juniors and seniors; prerequisite is Introduction to Technical Theater or Departmental Approval)
In addition to the review of those items taught in Introduction to Technical Theater, the student will study: scenic painting, lighting design, sound design, fundamentals of scene design, i.e., script analysis, design problems, floor plans, rendering, and model making. Student class projects will probably require work in studio/shop outside of class time.
Fundamentals of Film
(one-semester elective; freshman)
The central purpose of this course is to train a student to watch a movie intelligently, to "read" it as he would any text. The student is trained to examine movies for their specific details of plot, dialogue, camera placement, etc. Through this process, the student will begin to watch movies actively and to think critically about them. Among the movies that will be watched are: Hitchcock's North By Northwest, Chaplin's The Gold Rush, the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Rebel Without a Cause, On the Waterfront, Breaking Away, and Schindler's List. The films screened in class will serve as the primary texts. However, students will do some reading at home from a textbook and handouts. They will also have some written homework and will take short-answer tests. They will constantly be working to think about what they see.
American Film Directors
(One-semester elective; juniors and seniors)
The central goal of this course is to train students to watch film intelligently. Another goal is to equip students with a more intelligent understanding of the major directors who worked in American film. The course attempts to analyze their cinematic methods and recurring themes. Among the movies we will watch are: Psycho, Rear Window, Citizen Kane, The Searchers, The Godfather, and Raging Bull. In-class and out of class work is required to indicate the student's ability for film criticism and evaluation and for critical thinking.
American Film Genres
(One-semester elective; juniors and seniors)
The central goal of this course is to train students to watch film intelligently. Another goal is to equip students with a more intelligent understanding of the genres of American film. The course focuses on: gangster, film noir, horror/science fiction, comedy, war, and Westerns. Each of these types has a specific tradition--recurring themes, plots, and characters. Among the movies we will watch are: Bonnie & Clyde, Chinatown, The Fly, The Road Warrior, Platoon, and The Wild Bunch. In class and out of class work is required to indicate the student's ability for film criticism and evaluation and for critical thinking.
