Collaborative Theater and the Theatrical Essay
At a Glance
- Professor Adrianne Krstansky
- Summer 2010, eight weeks (June 1- July 23)
- 12 credits
- Program Flyer (pdf)
Program Overview
This is a conservatory-style summer theater program in devising theater using the model of the Theatrical Essay. A Theatrical Essay is an original theater piece that explores a topic of deep personal passion/interest/obsession. The form is non-linear and associative — much like the personal essay in literature.
The writer is struggling with a question, challenges conventional forms, exposes something of him/herself and speaks from personal experience. The essay is not meant to expose or judge others, it is not political or didactic in nature, and the author is not speaking from a place of authority. The author speaks from a place of self-revelation, questioning and vulnerability.
This JBS program will also involve extensive training in performance and methods of creating theater. Students will engage in intensive physical training in the Suzuki Method. Viewpoint training will also be taught as a means of understanding space and time onstage through the performance and design elements of theater.
Two-Fold Educational Focus: Research/Experiential Learning
- Students immerse themselves in the challenge of creating original work collaboratively. They examine and experience some of the questions that arise through creative conflict, problem solving and ensemble dynamic.
- Students learn specific techniques (Suzuki and Viewpoints Training) that translate "research" - (written and spoken text, interviews, images, music, sound) to the world of the stage - learning how to fashion time and space, image and sound into a theatrical world that is non-linear, poetic and deeply personal. They see a project through inception from an idea to final public performance.
Slideshow photographs represent past Theater department productions.