Course Descriptions

Design Practice (TART/ARTS) 3 credits

This course focuses on the ways that designers develop, refine, and convey their ideas to others. Students learn the fundamental steps of a traditional design process in conjunction with necessary studio techniques and skills. This provides them with an indispensable artistic tool kit that they can tailor to their individual needs and interests. The course covers a broad range of interests, exploring design disciplines including scenery, costume, lights, sound, and projection. Throughout the course, both practical and imaginative aspects of theatrical space will be considered as equal, vital elements of artistic expression.

Classes

• Design Studio
• Life Drawing

Architecture & Theatrical Space (TART/ARTS) 3 credits

This course is devoted to deepening students’ connection to architectural space and the surrounding environment, specifically within a performance context. Italy’s rich urban landscape gives students the opportunity to examine historical, contemporary, and non-traditional theatrical settings with an instructor. Guided visits to important theaters, structures, and sites are paired with visual recognition and memory exercises for an enhanced physical and visceral understanding of theatrical space. Learning is developed further through art historical readings and discussion. This course recognizes that theater is a three-dimensional art form that takes its most expressive form only when narrative and human interaction are paired with the right atmosphere. 

Classes

• Field Studies: Architectural History of the Theatre
• Devising Lab

Workshop  (ARTS/TART i24) 3 credits

This course gives students the opportunity to work hands-on, designing and building performance elements such as masks, puppets, properties, costumes or scenic elements intended for use on stage in a dell’Arte production or showcase. Emphasis is given to working directly with project materials and objects that will appear on stage. Students learn craft traditions and have the opportunity for individual artistic exploration. Additionally, students will work collaboratively with directors and performers in the development of their projects for use on the stage, gaining a deeper understanding of the real-world skills required to collaborate on a theatrical production.

Classes

• Mask & Costume

Fast and Furious: Social Change & the Avant Garde (LBST i31) 3 credits
This course is an interdisciplinary survey that looks at the Avant-Garde art movements and the way they challenged not only aesthetic values but philosophical and cultural values more broadly. Movements including Futurism, Dada, and Surrealism were responding to the most significant scientific, social, and political events on the world scene. Avant-Garde artistic expression blossomed in a wide variety of media, from painting to literature and even live performance. Students will leave with an understanding of the intersection between accelerated change in social forms of the 19th and 20th century and the perception of those changes as expressed through contemporary Avant-Garde counterparts (such as mechanized speed and Futurism or Industrialized Ware and Dada).

Italian Language: Beginner or Intermediate 3 credits (ITAL i10/i11) 3 credits

The Beginner course introduces students to basic grammatical structures of the Italian language. Students acquire a basic vocabulary and speaking practice as well as an understanding of various aspects of Italian culture and society. The course focus is on building conversational skill in Italian, using readings in the text as a point of departure.

The intermediate course moves students toward fluency in Italian by focusing on communication and the exposure to a non-stereotypical, more complex and up-to-date picture of modern Italy and Italians. Grammar from the first semester course is reviewed, and new grammar points are presented, always with the intention of developing and strengthening students’ abilities to communicate. A wide range of cultural topics and different aspects of Italian life will be explored while improving grammar, vocabulary, listening comprehension and writing in Italian.