Courses

THEATER

Wesleyan has multiple opportunities for students to engage in theater—whether you are an actor, critic, designer, director, playwright, researcher, stage manager, or interested in the many aspects of technical direction. The Theater Department offers a broad range of courses and sponsors several productions per year, when students work directly with its world renowned faculty and with peers in Theater majors’ senior theses. Second Stage, Wesleyan’s student run theater company, sponsors performances every weekend and is open to students at all levels of experience. If you enjoy writing about theater, Wesleyan’s newspaper The Argus publishes student reviews of on-campus productions on a weekly basis.

The 100 level classes in the Theater Department are open to frosh interested in training in the areas of acting, design, community outreach, and theatre criticism & literature. THE105: Production Lab introduces students to the technical elements of scenic, costume, or lighting—it is a prerequisite for design courses and a gateway course for the Theater major. First year students are welcome to audition for THEA245: Acting I, also a major gateway course and a prerequisite for advanced acting classes and THEA281: Directing I. Please check the Theater Department callboard for auditions for “Acting I” in the first week of the fall semester! 

First year students still undecided about their major should look at First Year Initiative courses. These small class courses are especially created for and only offered to frosh. Theater FYI courses in the 2011-12 year are: THEA185: Text and the Visual Imagination, THEA150: Plays for Performance, THEA140: Middletown Arts: Social Justice and Community Development, THEA175: August Wilson, THEA170: Provocative Plays, and THEA199: Introduction to Playwriting. The FYI THEA115: Applied Theater: Working in Prisons involves teaching Shakespeare and Dante to incarcerated women in Connecticut. Theater FYI courses are equally recommended to those considering the major and students who want to learn more about theater.

Every year the Theater Department hosts workshops and talks by guest artists, as well as visiting productions. First year students should feel free to stop by the Theater Department to visit the facilities, check the callboard for upcoming events, sign up for department and Second Stage auditions, and talk to faculty and students about courses and the major.

Spring 2013:

 

Fall 2012: 

 

Spring 2012:

 

Fall 2011:

 

Summer 2011:

  • THEA380-01 - The Deepwater Horizon Tragedy: A Scientific and Artistic Inquiry

 

Spring 2011:

  • THEA140-01 - Middletown Arts: Social Justice and Community Development
  • THEA204-01 - Special Topics in Theater History, Theory, and Aesthetics
  • THEA214-01 - Theater of Anton Chekhov: Research, Analysis, and Performance
  • THEA234-01 - Scripts and Shows: Modern Drama as Literature and Performance
  • THEA253-01 - Families on Stage: Individual, Society, and the Nation in Spanish Theater from 1600 to the Present
  • THEA280-01 - Special Topics: Dramatic Analysis and Criticism - Black Playwrights
  • THEA310-01 - Public Life in the Age of Theater: Madrid and London, 1580-1680
  • THEA329-01 - Intermediate Technical Theater Practice A
  • THEA331-01 - Intermediate Technical Theater Practice B
  • THEA331-02 - Intermediate Technical Theater Practice B
  • THEA347-01 - Latina/o Literary Cultures and Counter-Cultures
  • THEA427-01 - Advanced Practice in Acting and Directing A
  • THEA427-02 - Advanced Practice in Acting and Directing A
  • THEA431-01 - Advanced Practice in Acting and Directing B
  • THEA431-02 - Advanced Practice in Acting and Directing B
  • THEA431-03 - Advanced Practice in Acting and Directing B
  • THEA433-01 - Advanced Practice in Acting and Directing C
  • THEA435-01 - Advanced Design and Technical Practice A
  • THEA435-02 - Advanced Design and Technical Practice A
  • THEA435-03 - Advanced Design and Technical Practice A
  • THEA437-01 - Advanced Design and Technical Practice B
  • THEA437-02 - Advanced Design and Technical Practice B
  • THEA437-03 - Advanced Design and Technical Practice B

*Denotes courses the department considers appropriate for first-year students.

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Contact: Andrew Chatfield
achatfield@wesleyan.edu
860.685.2806