TAPS 1. Introduction to Theater and Performance Studies. 4 Units.
TAPS 1 provides you with a solid foundation in Theater Studies and traces the development of the burgeoning field of Performance Studies. We will consider a range of canonical plays and emerging performance forms, and explore how performance can also function as an interpretive framework for analyzing a broad range of social behaviors, sites, and institutions. Through a series of close readings, discussions, written and practical exercises, and viewings of live performance, this course will help you achieve a richer understanding of the performances you see and the performances you may wish to make. This quarter, TAPS 1 will serve as the platform for the Theater & Performance Studies professionalization series. We will host several guest speakers (directors, actors, playwrights, and dance practitioners), who will give you some real connections in the theater world and will provide you with information and skills to help you build a career in the arts.
TAPS 101P. Theater and Performance Making. 4 Units.
A creative workshop offering a range of generative exercises and techniques in order to devise, compose and perform original works. Students will explore a variety of texts (plays, poems, short stories, paintings) and work with the body, object and site. nnStudents will be encouraged to think critically about various compositional themes and ideas including: the relationship between form and content, aesthetics, space, proximity, and audience. Students will work independently and collaboratively creating original performances.nnTAPS PhD students and declared TAPS majors/minors will be permitted enrollment automatically. Please email instructor Michael Rau (mjrau@stanford.edu) to receive a permission number.nnStudents who are not currently TAPS PhDs, majors, or minors: To enroll in this course, please email instructor Michael Rau (mjrau@stanford.edu) with: your name, your major (or prospective major), any relevant experience in theater or classes that you¿ve taken, and a short (2-3 sentences) statement of why you are interested in taking this course.
Same as: TAPS 371P
TAPS 103. Beginning Improvising. 3 Units.
The improvisational theater techniques that teach spontaneity, cooperation, team building, and rapid problem solving, emphasizing common sense, attention to reality, and helping your partner. Based on TheatreSports by Keith Johnstone. Readings, papers, and attendance at performances of improvisational theater. Limited enrollment. Improv, Improvisation, creativity and creative expression. All who sign up are placed on a waitlist. Official enrollment will be determined after the first day of class. Attendance at the first class session is mandatory to be considered for enrollment in the course.
TAPS 104. Intermediate Improvisation. 3 Units.
This class is the continued study of improvisational theater with a focus on stage skills, short and long form performance formats, and offstage applications of collaborative creativity. It is open to any students who have taken TAPS 103 or have previous onstage improv experience AND consent of the instructor. May be repeat for credit.
TAPS 108. Introduction to Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. 4-5 Units.
Introduction to interdisciplinary approaches to gender, sexuality, queer, trans and feminist studies. Topics include the emergence of sexuality studies in the academy, social justice and new subjects, science and technology, art and activism, history, film and memory, the documentation and performance of difference, and relevant socio-economic and political formations such as work and the family. Students learn to think critically about race, gender, and sexuality from local and global perspectives.
Same as: AMSTUD 107, CSRE 108, FEMGEN 101
TAPS 11. Introduction to Dance Studies. 4 Units.
This class is an introduction to dance studies and the complex meanings bodily performances carry both onstage and off. Using critical frames drawn from dance criticism, history and ethnography and performance studies, and readings from cultural studies, dance, theater and critical theory, the class explores how performing bodies make meanings. We will read theoretical and historical texts and recorded dance as a means of developing tools for viewing and analyzing dance and understanding its place in larger social, cultural, and political structures. Special attention will be given to new turns in queer and feminist dance studies. TAPS 11 has been certified to fulfill the Writing in the Major (WIM) requirement.
Same as: DANCE 11
TAPS 115. Musical Theater. 1-3 Unit.
In this workshop we will traverse the landscape of world of Musical Theater. It will serve as an introduction for the beginning actor and singer, and expand the more experienced performer's range in this genre. The world of Musical Theater is filled with stories of love, passion, joy, violence, heartbreak and rage. The class will include an introduction to vocal and movement skills for musical theater, beginning with exercises to build an ensemble and encourage a sense of play and relaxation in supportive environment. Our class must be a place where everyone feels safe. As ensemble members, we will be responsible for each other in this environment. nStudents will choose one solo song, and perform in a group number from this exciting discipline. The instructor will work with the actors on technique, utilization of action, specificity of language, personalization, and emotional truth. A professional coach from the theater community will conduct vocal coaching. Physical warm-ups and choreography will be suited for both the dancer and non-dancer.nThe class will culminate in the last week with live performance for friends and family.nSTUDENTS ARE ENCOURAGED TO BRING THEIR OWN SUGGESTIONS. (Isn't there a role you've always wanted to sing?)nRequired text: Broadway Musicals Show by Show: Sixth Edition - Stanley Green; Paperback.
Same as: MUSIC 183D
TAPS 115A. Vocal Audition for Musical Theater: Acting and Singing Technique for Musical Theater Auditions. 3 Units.
The world of Musical Theater is filled with stories of love, passion, joy, violence, heartbreak and rage. nnIn this workshop we will research, study and practice audition pieces from this exciting performance discipline. The class will serve as an introduction for the beginning actor and singer, and expand the more experienced performer¿s range in this genre. nnThe class will include an introduction to vocal warm-ups and skills, with exercises to develop and determine vocal range with an accompanist. In preparation for a well-rounded audition, the instructor will work with the actors on utilization of action, specificity of language, personalization, and emotional truth. nnOur class must be a place where everyone feels safe. As ensemble members, we will be responsible for each other and encourage a sense of play and relaxation in supportive environment.nnSTUDENTS ARE ENCOURAGED TO BRING THEIR OWN SUGGESTIONS. (Isn¿t there a role you¿ve always wanted to sing?).
TAPS 115F. Tragedy: Forms and Conflicts. 3-5 Units.
This course introduces students to central questions of tragedy. Why do we find tragic spectacle so compelling, even pleasurable? What role does conflict play in individual selfhood and social formation? And why does tragedy elicit such strong theoretical and philosophical responses? At the same time, the course provides an introduction to literary history through the study of genre. What might connect modern tragedy to ancient Greek drama? How are genres transformed through reading, commentary, and adaptation? The course will be based on close reading and discussion of authors including Sophocles, Seneca, Shakespeare, Calderon, Milton, and Buchner.
Same as: ENGLISH 115F
TAPS 119. Modern Theatre. 1-5 Unit.
Modern theatre in Europe and the US, with a focus on the most influential works from roughly 1880 to the present. What were the conventions of theatrical practice that modern theatre displaced? What were the principal innovations of modern playwriting, acting, stage design, and theatrical architecture? How did modern theatrical artists wrestle with the revolutionary transformations of the modern age? Plays by Büchner, Ibsen, Strindberg, Shaw, Chekhov, Wilde, Wedekind, Treadwell, Pirandello, Brecht, O¿Neill, Beckett, Smith, Parks, and Nottage.
Same as: GERMAN 319, TAPS 319
TAPS 119M. Special Topics: multi-hyphenate // liberating our artistic selves.. 3 Units.
TAPS 119M Special Topics courses feature the annual Mohr Visiting Artist. The Mohr Visiting Artist program brings acclaimed and emerging artists to campus for a one-term period to teach a credited course and provide a presentation, exhibition or performance for the Stanford community and the public.nnThe Winter 2020 course is titled multi-hyphenate // liberating our artistic selves and is taught by Haruna Lee: n From Donald Glover to Yoko Ono, Beyoncé to Gertrude Stein, the multi-hyphenate artist who has not one but many disciplines continues to innovate and thrive across time, space and cultures. This course invites you to liberate all your creative selves- writer, director, designer, performer, producer, organizer, leader- by seeding an original theater or performance project that centers your freedom first and foremost. We will move our bodies together, find breath and ritual, engage with our own creative writing practice, find inspiration in unlikely and charming poetics and landscapes, devise and collaborate with each other, and share our creative material while learning to give and receive constructive feedback and direction. We will often look to Adrienne Maree Brown for guidance on how to call in our collective liberation, pleasure, ancestor work and healing, while using anti-oppression frameworks and emergent strategies to discuss ethical and equitable collaboration. This course is open to persons with a strong desire to embody a multi-hyphenate artistic practice and share creative work within a guided community.
TAPS 11N. Dramatic Tensions: Theater and the Marketplace. 3 Units.
Preference to freshmen. The current state of the American theater and its artists. Conventional wisdom says that theater is a dying art, and a lost cause, especially in an age of multi-media entertainment. But there are more young playwrights, actors, and directors entering the field today than at any other time in American history. Focus is on the work of today's theater artists, with an emphasis on an emerging generation of playwrights. Students read a cross-section of plays from writers currently working in the US and UK, covering a spectrum of subjects and styles from serious to comic, from the musical to the straight play. Hits and misses from recent seasons of the New York and London stages and some of the differences of artistic taste across the Atlantic. Hands-on exploration of the arts and skills necessary to make a play succeed. Students develop their own areas of interest, in guided projects in design, direction or performance. Conversations with playwrights, designers ,and directors. Labs and master classes to solve problems posed in areas of creative production. Class meets literary managers and producers who are on the frontlines of underwriting new talent. Class trips include two plays at major Bay Area Stages.
TAPS 11Q. Art in the Metropolis. 3 Units.
This seminar is offered in conjunction with the annual "Arts Immersion" trip to New York that takes place over the spring break and is organized by the Stanford Arts Institute (SAI). Participation in the trip is a requirement for taking part in the seminar (and vice versa). The trip is designed to provide a group of students with the opportunity to immerse themselves in the cultural life of New York City guided by faculty and SAI staff. Students will experience a broad range and variety of art forms (visual arts, theater, opera, dance, etc.) and will meet with prominent arts administrators and practitioners, some of whom are Stanford alumni. For further details and updates about the trip, see https://arts.stanford.edu/for-students/academics/arts-immersion/new-york/.
Same as: ARTSINST 11Q, ENGLISH 11Q, MUSIC 11Q
TAPS 120A. Acting I: Fundamentals of Acting. 4 Units.
A substantive introduction to the basics of the craft of acting, this course gives all incoming students the foundation of a common vocabulary. Students will learn fundamental elements of dramatic analysis, and how to apply it in action. Topics include scene analysis, environment work, psychological and physical scoring, and development of a sound and serviceable rehearsal technique. Scene work will be chosen from accessible, contemporary, and realistic plays. Outside rehearsal time required.
TAPS 120B. Acting II: Advanced Acting. 3 Units.
Learn how to expand character work, beyond what is immediately familiar. Continuing basic practices from the first part of the sequence, in this quarter they will look beyond the strictly contemporary, and may begin to approach roles drawn from more challenging dramatic texts. This might include plays chosen from mid-century American classics, World Theater, or other works with specific historic or cultural requirements. Actors begin to learn how a performing artist researches and how that research can be used to enrich and deepen performance. Prerequisite: 120A or consent of instructor. Priority given to TAPS majors and minors.
TAPS 121V. Voice for the Actor. 3 Units.
This course will focus on releasing a voice that effectively reaches the listener and is responsive to the actor's thoughts and feelings. Through work on breath awareness, alignment, resonance, and muscularity, students will learn to identify habits that help or hinder performance. Students will practice exercises to develop vocal strength, clarity, ease, and expressiveness while exploring the vocal demands of various texts and performing environments. Course will culminate in a presentation of classical and contemporary monologues. This course is a good preparation for auditions, rehearsal, and performance, and is appropriate for all levels. Priority space reserved for TAPS majors and minors.
TAPS 122A. Expressive Techniques in Multimedia Installation And Live Art. 4 Units.
The course focus on multimedia installation and live performances. The theme of the course will be an offshoot of the campus wide celebration of the 200th year anniversary of the ¿Frankenstein¿ novel written by Mary Shelly. For the course the issues of advance medical science in the areas of artificial life forms, stem cell research, biological ethical questions, fictional and non fictional approaches and mythical creation stories will be included. Students will obtain an understanding of alternative ways to speak to issues using various art forms.
Same as: ARTSTUDI 122A
TAPS 122M. Main Stage Theater Project. 3-5 Units.
The Main Stage Theater Project provides students the opportunity to receive units for participating in a TAPS Main Stage Show. In Autumn 2020, the main stage show is Beyond the Wound is a Portal. In Winter 2021, the main stage show is StageCast.
TAPS 122P. Undergrad Performance Project. 1-9 Unit.
The Undergraduate Performance Project provides students the opportunity to study and perform in major dramatic works. Students learn to form an artistic ensemble, develop dramaturgical materials, learn professional arts protocols and practice, devise within the ensemble, and develop live performance ability. Audition required. Preference to majors/minors. Evening rehearsals are required. Full schedule will be released during casting. Maybe repeated for credit. 3 maximum completions allowed. If repeated, 15 total units allowed.
TAPS 124D. Acting for Non-Majors. 1-3 Unit.
Formerly TAPS 20. Creative play, ensemble work in a supportive environment. Designed for the student to experience a range of new creative skills, from group improvisation to partner work. Introductory work on freeing the natural voice and physical relaxation. Emphasis on rediscovering imaginative and creative impulses. Movement improvisation, listening exercises, and theater games release the energy, playfulness and willingness to take risks that is the essence of free and powerful performance. Course culminates with work on dramatic text.
TAPS 125. Acting Shakespeare. 3 Units.
This course explores the unique demands of playing Shakespeare on the stage. Through deep exploration of language and performance techniques in sonnets, speeches and scenes, the student will learn how to bring Shakespeare's passions to life through research, analysis, and a dynamic use of voice, body and imagination. This course is designed to increase the actor's physical, vocal, emotional, and intellectual responsiveness to the demands, challenges and joys of playing Shakespeare.
TAPS 125C. Acting Chekhov. 3 Units.
Playwright Anton Chekhov helped revolutionize the theater with his naturalistic representation of life onstage. In this course, students will explore the creation of character and ensemble by doing scenes from Chekhov's plays with a particular focus on relationship, subtext, sensory life, and Russian history and culture in 1900. Students will practice the improvisational technique of Active Analysis to connect with and embody characters and events, as well as exploring various exercises of Michael Chekhov's such as the Psychological Gesture, and exercises involving tempo-rhythm, physical centers, and archetypes. Prerequisite: Acting 120A. Priority given to TAPS majors and minors.
TAPS 125S. Shakespeare Now: An Actor's Lab. 3 Units.
This active workshop will provide the actor with skills for performing Shakespeare with clarity, joy and power. Actors work with scenes and monologues to develop ease with scansion, freedom of voice, and to expand their physical and imaginative range. nnWe will also become acquainted with some of the ways that Shakespeare and other classic texts are being re-invigorated at the hands of modern writers and adapters. We will investigate the world of styles and approaches an actor may encounter in new takes on classic plays in our own time.nn(Priority to TAPS majors-minors. Previous acting class required, or instructor permission.).
TAPS 126. Sound Stories. 4 Units.
This special seminar is designed for students interested in creating stories for radio, podcast, and other sound media. Students will learn both the core principles of telling strong stories, whatever the medium, and the strategies of telling entertaining, persuasive stories for the ear. Just like film or the novel, sonic stories offer a fascinating mix of constraints and opportunities, and you¿ll learn how to invite listeners into an experience or insight that combines theories, facts and feelings into a single space of empathy. This is a hybrid class¿equal parts classic seminar and creative workshop¿and students will create stories from start to finish and learn skills from pitching and interviewing to writing, editing, and digital production. Students will work in small groups to document places through the stories that inhabit them¿from the Menlo Park Police department to local shelters and community centers. Recommended for students interested in creative nonfiction, documentary, film, and even sound art. No prior experience necessary. Students wishing to enroll in this course must complete the following survey: nhttp://web.stanford.edu/~jwarga/S17TAPS126.fb (Cardinal Course certified by the Haas Center).
TAPS 127. Movement for the Actor. 3 Units.
This course is an exploration of movement techniques for the actor, designed to provide a foundation for performance practice. Students will develop a more grounded sense of ease and breath onstage, learn fundamentals of physical partnership, and acquire an expanded physical vocabulary. Areas of study include Laban movement analysis, observation and embodiment, basic contact improvisation, and physical characterization. Students will also engage a personalized warmup process for rehearsal and performance. All coursework will be entirely experiential, practical, and participatory. No previous experience necessary. Some outside rehearsal/investigation time required.
TAPS 127A. Commedia dell'Arte. 3 Units.
This course is an introduction to the technique and spirit of Commedia dell'Arte: the form which began in Italy in the 16th century and lives on in contemporary comedy. Through the observation and embodiment of archetypes and the use of character masks, students will explore active, physical improvisation and partnership (improviso), personalized comic routines (lazzi), and ensemble storytelling based on a theme. Areas of study include partnership and status play, timing, audience awareness, improvisation, characterization, size and scale. All coursework will be experiential and practical. Some stage and improvisation experience is recommended but not required. Some outside rehearsal/investigation time required.
TAPS 127M. Introduction to Mask. 3 Units.
This course is an exploration of the use of masks for the theatre - as a performance tool, a method of character creation, and a means of training for actors. Through the use of a wide range of mask types and techniques, we will identify and practice a variety of methods for performance and character creation. Areas of study include neutral mask, body mask, found-object mask, and character masks. Students will develop an understanding of breath, play, size and scale, stillness, ensemble, and character point of view. Mask study enables actors to become more physically clear, expressive, and present onstage in any form: it requires a heightened degree of awareness, observation, and embodiment - necessary attributes for any performer. Performance experience or movement training are not required, though they are recommended. All coursework will be practical and participatory. Some weekly outside rehearsal time required.
TAPS 127W. Introduction to Clown. 3 Units.
This course is an introduction to the world and play of the theatrical clown, constructed for actors to explore truth in size, vulnerability, and a personal sense of humor. Students will develop their ability to play with the audience, a greater capacity for freedom and abandon onstage, and a healthier relationship to failure and human idiocy. Areas of study include partnership and status play, comic rhythm and timing, the structure and development of comic material, and the beginnings of a personal eccentric Clown character. All coursework will be experiential and practical. Some stage experience is recommended but not required. Some outside rehearsal/investigation time required.
TAPS 128. Acting Intensive: On Camera Acting Technique. 3 Units.
In this workshop we will explore film scripts and research iconic performances to introduce the beginning film actor to this exciting genre. nnThe class will begin with familiarization of performance skills to relax and relate to the camera. Students will then choose one scene and one monologue from online scripts provided by the instructor, or though their own research. Scripts will range from contemporary film to the ¿Golden Age of Black and White¿-- from screwball comedy to film noir. nnThe actors will learn on camera technique, utilization of action, specificity of language, personalization, and emotional truth. nnSTUDENTS ARE ENCOURAGED TO BRING THEIR OWN SUGGESTIONS. (Isn't there a role you've always wanted to play?).
TAPS 12N. To Die For: Antigone and Political Dissent. 3 Units.
(Formerly CLASSGEN 6N.) Preference to freshmen. Tensions inherent in the democracy of ancient Athens; how the character of Antigone emerges in later drama, film, and political thought as a figure of resistance against illegitimate authority; and her relevance to contemporary struggles for women's and workers' rights and national liberation. Readings and screenings include versions of Antigone by Sophocles, Anouilh, Brecht, Fugard/Kani/Ntshona, Paulin, Glowacki, Gurney, and von Trotta.
Same as: CLASSICS 17N
TAPS 130M. Music Listening Lab. 1 Unit.
How do we listen differently to different musical genres? How do the technologies with which we listen shape our experience? What's the difference between attending a live concert and listening to a recording? How do we communicate our own private listening experiences with others? In this one-unit course, we will explore these questions by listening to recorded and live-streamed performances, discussing our listening experiences and aesthetic preferences, and thinking critically about how we listen across different genres and media. Assessment will be based on attendance, discussion participation, and short written reflections. No prior experience in music is expected--just bring your ears.
Same as: MUSIC 103
TAPS 131. Lighting Design. 4 Units.
With the tools newly acquired from the previous quarter, this hands-on course features laboratory projects in lighting and designing live stage productions. Prerequisite TAPS 31.
TAPS 132. Costume Design. 4 Units.
This course introduces the goals, directives and techniques of designing costumes for performance. From the first reading of the script to opening night, all aspects will be covered including director/designer relationships, design approach, research, rendering, fabric selection, procurement or construction of costumes, fittings and final dress rehearsals. Each student will work on, or be assigned one main project of their choice. This class can coincide or be taken in advance of a student¿s involvement in a campus show, utilizing the campus project as their main project in the class. Smaller exercises will be given throughout the quarter to emphasize principles and invigorate design discussions. All students will be required to attend the performances of their peers¿ projects. One field trip to a professional theater may be planned.
TAPS 132F. Costume in Film. 4 Units.
Costume in Film will explore the process of costume design from the page to the screen. This course will discuss a range of period and contemporary films in order to discover how character development, storytelling and iconography relates to clothing and costume. In addition to film analysis, there will be assignments where students will explore the practical process of design and how it relates to film.
TAPS 133. Set Design. 3-4 Units.
Designing space as it relates to theater productions in our contemporary world. Visual research, spatial organization, found spaces, video experimentation, sketching, and model building will be a part of this course.
TAPS 133D. Set Design Practicum. 3-4 Units.
This course is intended for students who are in the process of designing scenery for a Stanford club or department production and seek guidance in developing and refining their design. It is also open to students who have not yet committed to a fully realized set design project but would like to in the future, or anyone who would like to focus on the practical aspects of set design in general. Each week students present their work on a current or future set design and receive feedback and suggestions from classmates and the instructor. Also, the instructor will create project oriented assignments adapted to the needs and timeline of each individual project and student. Topics include: visual research, sketching, computer and hand drafting, and model making. During the first two weeks of the course students and instructor will determine a final project, such as a color model or design drafting, which will be required for completion of the course.
TAPS 133T. Transgender Performance and Performativity. 4 Units.
This course examines theater, performance art, dance, and embodied practice by transgender artists. Students will learn the history and politics of transgender performance while considering the creative processes and formal aesthetics trans artists use to make art. We will analyze creative work in conversation with critical and theoretical texts from the fields of performance studies, art history, and queer studies.
Same as: FEMGEN 133
TAPS 134. Stage Management Project. 3-5 Units.
For students stage managing a production in the Department of Theater and Performance Studies.
TAPS 135C. Theory & Craft of the Scenographic Model. 3 Units.
Students learn studio techniques for constructing dimensional models for stage designs. Students will work with their hands using common materials such as cardboard, paint and wood. Use of Stanford's Product Realization Lab encouraged for specialty items such as miniature furniture depending on departmental coordination.
TAPS 135M. Introduction to Multimedia Production. 3 Units.
Students will learn filmmaking basics and apply them by creating a number of short multimedia projects to be shown and discussed in class. Hands-on practical instruction will cover the fundamentals of story, cinematography, sound recording, picture and sound editing, directing for camera, and producing. Critical analysis will focus on a variety of uses of prerecorded sound and video in theater productions, podcasts, web series and other digital media, as well as film and television.
TAPS 136P. Introduction to Producing. 4 Units.
From Youtube star to performing at Coachella, every performance needs a producer. The struggle to produce a work is quite astonishing, and often unbelievable. The challenging process of germinating an idea, deciding on a venue, assembling a collaborative team, sticking within a limited budget, to finally getting audience to attend. This class will not only give you the knowledge and skills to make it big, but more importantly prevent you from being the next box office flop or Fyre Fest failure.
TAPS 136V. Design for Movement & Music. 4 Units.
From Beethoven to Beyonce, music inspires us. It rushes through our body, mind, and soul, inspiring us to move and be moved. Choreographers like Twyla, Taylor, and Todrick have us all express ourselves in different and amazing ways. Almost as important as how they move, is how they look doing it. Michael Jackson¿s jacket in Thriller, Liza Minnelli¿s bowler cap and chair in Cabaret, the lighting in Janet Jackson¿s Rhythm Nation...all design choices that have shaped our memories of these performances. A strong and thoughtful design can emphasize a moment within a performance causing a stir in the subconscious of its observer creating a lasting impression. The intention of this course is to push past the page and learn design and practices for non-play/musical/opera live production. From circus, to dance, to music festivals, this course will focus on research, concept, design, and implementation for these live performances.
TAPS 138. Introduction to Theater Sound Design. 4 Units.
This course explores the history and aesthetics,of theatre sound design, and provides the basic technical knowledge to create your own work. Learn how to analyze a script for sound design elements, gain practical knowledge of microphones and loudspeakers, sound editing and cueing software, and put your knowledge to work creating your own design.
Same as: MUSIC 184F
TAPS 13N. Law and Drama. 4 Units.
Preference to Freshmen. If the purpose of criminal justice is to punish wrongdoers and deter crime, the objective of restorative justice to heal communities. It brings together perpetrators and victims to forge a dialogue, acknowledgment of harm, and acceptance of responsibility. This unique purpose creates restorative justice procedures that are participatory and theatrical. This course is part of a larger effort to initiate and develop restorative justice processes that address racial and other forms systemic injustice in the US.
TAPS 140. Introduction to Projects in Theatrical Production. 1-4 Unit.
A seminar course for students performing significant production work on Theater and Performance Studies Department or other Stanford University student theater projects. Students serving as producers, directors, designers or stage managers, who wish mentorship and credit for their production work sign up for this course and contact the instructor, Laxmi Kumaran. nPrerequisite: consent of instructor.
TAPS 150G. Performing Race, Gender, and Sexuality. 4 Units.
In this theory and practice-based course, students will examine performances by and scholarly texts about artists who critically and mindfully engage race, gender, and sexuality. Students will cultivate their skills as artist-scholars through written assignments and the creation of performances in response to the assigned material. Attendance and written reflection about a live performance event on campus are required. Students will also learn various meditation practices as tools for making and critiquing performance, in both our seminar discussions and performance workshops. We will approach mindfulness as method and theory in our own practice, as well as in relation to the works studied. We will also consider the ethics and current debates concerning the mindfulness industry. Examples of artists studied include James Luna, Nao Bustamante, Renee Cox, William Pope.L, Cassils, boychild, Curious, Adrian Piper, Xandra Ibarra, Valérie Reding, Guillermo Gomez-Peña, and Ana Mendieta.
Same as: ARTSINST 150G, CSRE 150G, CSRE 350G, FEMGEN 150G, LIFE 150G
TAPS 150V. The Idea of Virtual Reality. 4 Units.
What is virtual reality and where is it heading? Was there VR before digital technology? What is the value of the real in a virtual culture? How, where, and when do we draw the line between the virtual and the real, the live and the mediated today? Concentrating on three aspects of VR simulation, immersion, and interactivity this course will examine recent experiments alongside a long history of virtual performance, from Plato's Cave to contemporary CAVEs, from baroque theatre design to Oculus Rift.
Same as: TAPS 350V
TAPS 150W. Computers & Performance. 4 Units.
From elaborately costumed avatars in virtual worlds, to professional live-streamers working 12-hour shifts, to digitally animated celebrities existing only through their social media accounts, the computer has become a creative engine not of literature or film, but of performance -- a genre traditionally thought to depend on the presence of a body. This seminar asks: why performance? We will adopt methods of performance research and direct them at MMORPGs, hacktivists, YouTube lip-synchers, Instagram feeds, Fortnite dances, and even a few plays. Students will discuss the various utopian affordances and dystopian structures of digital life, and study how conversations about computing have changed over history. They will learn how performances highlight the degree to which contemporary digital culture is constituted by, and further entrenches, race and gender. Ultimately, they will develop their own artworks (games, websites, dances, videos, podcasts) that will embody and question the fraught intersection between computers and performance.
TAPS 151. Dramaturgy. 4 Units.
This class examines the role of narrativity in live performance. Class topics range from the classics, to contemporary theater, dance, new media, performance art curatorship, and beyond, to grand social narratives. Integration of scholarship and practice is one of basic principles of dramaturgy, and this class follows in that spirit. Exploration of dramaturgical techniques is aimed to help students prepare to work on production dramaturgy. To that end, they will have an option to complete their final course assignment by serving as production dramaturgs on one of TAPS shows.
Same as: TAPS 315
TAPS 151C. Hamlet and the Critics. 3-5 Units.
Focus is on Shakespeare's Hamlet as a site of rich critical controversy from the eighteenth century to the present. Aim is to read, discuss, and evaluate different approaches to the play, from biographical, theatrical, and psychological to formalist, materialist, feminist, new historicist, and, most recently, quantitative. The ambition is to see whether there can be great literature without (a) great (deal of) criticism. The challenge is to understand the theory of literature through the study of its criticism.
Same as: ENGLISH 115C
TAPS 151P. Transpacific Performance. 4 Units.
Building on exciting new work in transpacific studies, this course explores how performance reveals the many ways in which cultures and communities intersect across the diverse and dynamic Pacific Ocean world, covering works from the Americas and Asia, Pacific Islands, and Australia. In an era when the Pacific has emerged as the center of global cultural and financial power, what critical and ethical role does performance play in treating the region's entangled histories, its urgent contemporary issues, and possible futures?.
Same as: CSRE 151P, TAPS 351P
TAPS 151T. Global Great Books: Dramatic Dialogues. 3-5 Units.
The most influential and enduring texts in the dramatic canon from Sophocles to Shakespeare, Chekhov to Soyinka. Their historical and geopolitical contexts. Questions about the power dynamics involved in the formation of canons. This course counts as a Writing in the Major course for TAPS in 2016-17.
Same as: TAPS 351
TAPS 152G. Cultural Fusions, Global Flows: Dance History and Practice. 4 Units.
This course examines how dance is produced from a confluence of different social, cultural, and historical forces. Focusing on dance practices from Africa, Latin America, and Oceania, we investigate how attention to dance¿s entangled genealogies can teach us about issues of diaspora, globalization, and trans-indigeneity. Students have the opportunity to engage in stimulating discussion and debate, to participate in practical dance workshops, and to interact with specialist guest artists.
TAPS 152L. Nietzsche: Life as Performance. 3-5 Units.
Nietzsche famously considered that "there is no 'being' behind the deed, its effect, and what becomes of it; the 'doer' is invented as an afterthought - the doing is everything." How should we understand this idea of a deed without a doer, how might it relate to performance, and what influence has it had on modern culture? In order to answer these questions, we will consider Nietzsche's writings alongside some of the artworks that influenced Nietzsche or were influenced by him.
Same as: GERMAN 125, GERMAN 325, TAPS 325
TAPS 153. Revenge: From Aeschylus to ABC. 4 Units.
How has the topic of revenge inspired some of theatre history¿s most dramatic masterpieces? Covering works from ancient Greek and Roman tragedy to Chinese Opera, from Japanese samurai intrigues to Renaissance drama, and from nineteenth-century comedy to postcolonial plays, this course examines how the powerful impetus to take revenge has spurred or stymied some of theatre¿s most compelling characters. Blending theory and practice, we will experiment with an array of theatrical forms and styles; we will also discuss the philosophical dimensions and moral implications of revenge, including various cultural understandings of retribution and redress.
TAPS 153H. History of Directing. 4 Units.
In this class, students will examine the work of directors who shaped modern theater. Some of directors we are going to explore are Konstantin Stanislavski, Jerzy Grotowski, and director-choreographer Pina Bausch. In order to engage closely with directorial styles of these and other landmark directors, we will focus on their career-defining productions. The class will include readings, screenings of recorded performances whenever possible, and workshops with professionals in the field. Capped enrollment.
Same as: TAPS 253H
TAPS 153M. Mechanics of the Theater: The Technologies of Stagecraft. 3-4 Units.
This course explores the history of technologies vital to the theatre: traps, lifts, lights, and sounds have been crucial for creating stage illusion. Divided into three main sections, Mechanics and Machines, Lighting and Projections, and Acoustics and Sound, we will examine the history of technological innovation and theatrical experimentation from the Enlightenment to the present. We will also be conducting case studies for each section with a core text or texts. We will cover Shakespeare's Hamlet, Ibsen's Ghosts, Chekhov's The Seagull, and Dreamgirls, The Musical. n nTechnologies such as mechanical traps, electrical lights, and sound machines have been used to create stunning illusions and spectacular theater. Many of these technologies were also significant for the histories of industrialization and modernization. We will ask: How did theater makers develop and innovate using technological innovations? What role does technological aesthetics play in understanding human culture? What are the relationships between theater, technology, and society? In class, we will be reading, experimenting, and performing with various technological artifacts. We will be conducting experiments alongside our reading practice to better understand our historical subjects.
TAPS 153P. Black Artistry: Performance in the Black Diaspora. 4 Units.
Charting a course from colonial America to contemporary London, this course explores the long history of Black performance throughout an Atlantic diaspora. Defining performance as "forms of cultural staging," from Thomas DeFrantz and Anita Gonzalez's Black Performance Theory, this course takes up scripted plays, live theatre, devised works, performance art, and cinematic performance in its survey of the field. We will engage with theorists, performer, artists, and revolutionaries such as Ignatius Sancho, Maria Stewart, William Wells Brown, Zora Neale Hurston, Derek Walcott, Danai Gurira, and Yvonne Orji. We will address questions around Black identity, history, time, and futurity, as well as other essential strategies Black performers have engaged in their performance making. The course includes essential methodological readings for Black Studies as well as formational writings in Black performance theory and theatre studies. Students will establish a foothold in both AAAS (theory & methodology) and in performance history (plays and performances). As a WIM course, students will gain expertise in devising, drafting, and revising written essays.
Same as: AFRICAAM 153P, CSRE 153P, TAPS 353P
TAPS 153W. Warhol's World. 5 Units.
Andy Warhol's art has never before been more widely exhibited, published, or licensed for commercial use, product design, and publication than it is today. For all Warhol's promiscuous visibility and global cachet at the current moment, there is much we have yet to learn about his work and the conditions of its making. This course considers the wide world of Warhol's art and life, including his commercial work of the 1950s, Pop art and films of the 1960s, and celebrity portraiture of the 1970s and 80s. Of particular interest throughout will be Warhol's photography as it reflects his interest in wealth and celebrity on the one hand and on the everyday life of everyday people on the other. The course will include multiple visits to Contact Warhol: Photography without End, an exhibition co-curated by Prof. Meyer on view throughout the quarter at the Cantor Arts Center.
Same as: AMSTUD 153, ARTHIST 153, ARTHIST 353, FEMGEN 153, TAPS 353W
TAPS 154G. Black Magic: Ethnicity, Race, and Identity in Performance Cultures. 3-4 Units.
In 2013, CaShawn Thompson devised a Twitter hashtag, #blackgirlmagic, to celebrate the beauty and intelligence of black women. Twitter users quickly adopted the slogan, using the hashtag to celebrate everyday moments of beauty, accomplishment, and magic. The slogan offered a contemporary iteration of an historical alignment: namely, the concept of "magic" with both Black people as well as "blackness." This course explores the legacy of Black magic--and black magic--through performance texts including plays, poetry, films, and novels. We will investigate the creation of magical worlds, the discursive alignment of magic with blackness, and the contemporary manifestation of a historical phenomenon. We will cover, through lecture and discussion, the history of black magic representation as well as the relationship between magic and religion. Our goal will be to understand the impact and history of discursive alignments: what relationship does "black magic" have to and for "black bodies"? How do we understand a history of performance practice as being caught up in complicated legacies of suspicion, celebration, self-definition? The course will give participants a grounding in black performance texts, plays, and theoretical writings. *This course will also satisfy the TAPS department WIM requirement.*.
Same as: AFRICAAM 154G, CSRE 154D, FEMGEN 154G
TAPS 155. Social Sculpture. 4 Units.
This course investigates the immediacy of the body as material and sculpture in order to investigate private and social spaces. Actions are often used to understand or question the function and psychological aspects of a space and are documented for the perpetuation of these ideas. Throughout the quarter we will investigate the body as material and develop site specific performances enacted for: Private/Domestic and Public Space; Constructed Space & Physical Space; ecological systems; and generate both Individual & Collaborative based Actions, Interventions, & Events.".
Same as: ARTSTUDI 155
TAPS 156. Performing History: Race, Politics, and Staging the Plays of August Wilson. 4 Units.
This course purposefully and explicitly mixes theory and practice. Students will read and discuss the plays of August Wilson, the most celebrated and most produced contemporary American playwright, that comprise his 20th Century History Cycle. Class stages scenes from each of these plays, culminating in a final showcase of longer scenes from his work as a final project.
Same as: AFRICAAM 156, CSRE 156T, TAPS 356
TAPS 156A. Warhol: Painting, Photography, Performance. 4 Units.
This course focuses on the career of Andy Warhol as a means to consider the broader history of American art and culture since 1950. It examines little-studied aspects of Warhol¿s visual production (e.g. his career as a commercial artist in the 1950s and his everyday photographs of the 1970s and 1980s) alongside his now-canonical Pop paintings of the 1960s. Warhol?s critical and scholarly reception will be scrutinized in detail, as will published interviews of and writings by the artist. Finally, we will consider Warhol¿s legacy and wide-ranging influence on American culture in the decades since his death in 1987.
Same as: ARTHIST 156A, ARTHIST 356A, TAPS 356A
TAPS 156V. Vital Signs: Performance in the 21st Century. 1 Unit.
The first decade and a half of the 21st century have been transformative for performance art. On the one hand, it brought an unprecedented cultural acceptance of this art form, which is now featured in most prestigious museums and art festivals; on the other, the most recent generation of performance artists is showing a great awareness of the historicity and complexity of this form. In this class, we will try to recognize and investigate these and other prominent features of performance art produced since the turn of the millennium. We will use as our primary case studies performances that will be featured in the series Vital Signs: Contemporary Performance Art Series, hosted by TAPS in 2017-2018. The primary objective of the series is to highlight and showcase underrepresented performance forms such as experimental performance art, durational art, and body art, among others, by artists from communities that remain invisible or underrepresented in mainstream performing arts. The series is curated by the Los Angeles-based artist Cassils, who has been listed by the Huffington Post as 'one of ten transgender artists who are changing the landscape of contemporary art' and has achieved international recognition for a rigorous engagement with the body as a form of social sculpture. Cassils's curatorial vision is to present established performance artists alongside emerging artists. Each quarter, a pair of artists will visit Stanford for two days (Thursday-Friday). On day one of their visit they will offer a workshop or a public performance, and on the second day they will engage in a public dialogue. The class will meet each quarter for three weeks: before, during, and after the artists' visit. This way, the students will have an opportunity to prepare for the visit, engage with the visiting artists, and reflect on their work. They will receive their grades upon completion of the class, in the spring of 2018.
Same as: ARTSTUDI 256V, TAPS 256V
TAPS 157. World Drama and Performance. 4 Units.
This course takes up a geographically expansive conversation by looking at modern and contemporary drama from nations including Ghana, Egypt, India, Argentina, among others. Considering influential texts from the Global South will also enable us to explore a range of themes and methodologies that are radically re-shaping the field of Performance Studies. We will examine the relationship between colonialism and globalization, empire and capital, cosmopolitanism and neoliberalism. Re-situating our perspective from the Global South and the non-western world, we will ¿provincialize Europe¿ and probe the limits of its universalizing discourses.
Same as: TAPS 357
TAPS 157P. Performing Arabs and Others in Theory and Practice. 4 Units.
How deeply must the artist engage to be satisfied with a representation? Is there such a thing as `good representation¿? When must artists persist and when should they resist? In this class, we will dare to make mistakes, challenge formulaic popular critiques and struggle to formulate our personal manifestos on casting. We¿ll let a diverse cast of Arab characters help us in a quarter-long rehearsal of the artist and scholar we wish to be. All course materials are in English, but proficient speakers of Arabic may be given Arabic language texts, if they ask. The majority of the works in our reading list will fit four categories: Orientalist representation, works by Arabs for Arabs, works by non-Arabs for non-Arabs, and works by Arab-Americans. In this class, we learn the theory, practice it, and intelligently attempt to compromise in a deeply flawed and gratifying artform.
Same as: CSRE 157A, TAPS 257P
TAPS 157S. Edward Said, or Scholar vs Empire. 3-4 Units.
How can an intellectual fight forces far larger than a single individual? How can solidarity be an antidote to racism? Why is there no distinction between the local and the global? What is the scholar's role in an alienating political climate? Why are criticism and humanism necessary partners? The author of Orientalism and world-changing frameworks such as Travelling Theory, Permission To Narrate, and Contrapuntal Reading, as well as remarkable texts, such as On Late Style and Representations of the Intellectual, teaches us how criticism can blunt instruments of empire. In this course, students observe the journey of one scholar as he writes between worlds against imperialist supremacy and colonial logic. They'll move from Exile to Indigeneity, Silence to Music, Centers to Margins, Victimhood to Dignity, West to East, Peace to Terror, Theory to Practice, Politics to Knowledge, Religiosity to Secularism, Statehood to Fragmentation, and back.
Same as: CSRE 357, ENGLISH 357S, GLOBAL 157, TAPS 357S
TAPS 160. Performance and History: Rethinking the Ballerina. 4 Units.
The ballerina occupies a unique place in popular imagination as an object of over-determined femininity as well as an emblem of extreme physical accomplishment for the female dancer. This seminar is designed as an investigation into histories of the ballerina as an iconographic symbol and cultural reference point for challenges to political and gender ideals. Through readings, videos, discussions and viewings of live performances this class investigates pivotal works, artists and eras in the global histories of ballet from its origins as a symbol of patronage and power in the 15th century through to its radical experiments as a site of cultural obedience and disobedience in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Same as: FEMGEN 160, TAPS 260
TAPS 160M. Introduction to Representations of the Middle East in Dance, Performance, & Popular Culture. 3-4 Units.
This course will introduce students to the ways in which the Middle East has been represented and performed by/in the 'West' through dance, performance, and popular culture in both historical and contemporary contexts. A brief look through today's media sources exposes a wide range of racialized and gendered representations of the Middle East that shape the way the world imagines the Middle East to be. As postcolonial theorist Edward Said explains, the framework we call Orientalism establishes the ontological character of the Orient and the Oriental as inherently `Other'. Starting with 19th century colonialism and continuing into the post-9/11 era, this course will trace the Western production, circulation, and consumption of representations of the Middle East as 'Other' in relation to global geopolitics. We will further examine dance forms produced in mid-twentieth century Iran and Egypt, with particular attention to nation-state building and constructions of gender. Finally, we will examine artistic productions and practices from the Middle East and Middle Eastern diasporic communities that respond to colonialism, war, displacement, secularism, and Euro-American Empire. Using dance studies, postcolonial feminist, and critical race theoretical frameworks, we will consider the gender, racial, political, and cultural implications of selected performance works and practices in order to analyze how bodies produce meaning in dance, performance art, theater, film, photography, and new media. Students will engage in multiple modes of learning; the course will include lectures, engaged group discussions, viewing of live and recorded performance, embodied participation in dance practice, student oral presentations, and a variety of writing exercises. Course assignments will culminate in a final research project related to class themes and methods.
Same as: CSRE 160M, DANCE 160M, FEMGEN 160M
TAPS 161. Dance & Conflict. 4 Units.
This seminar investigates how moving bodies are compelling agents of social, cultural, and political change.Through readings, videos, discussions and viewings of live performances this class questions the impact of social conflict and war on selected 20th and 21st century dances and dance practices. This class asks to what extent dance, in its history as well as contemporary development, is linked to concepts of the political and conflict.
TAPS 161D. Introduction to Dance Studies: Dancing Across Stages, Clubs, Screens, and Borders. 3-4 Units.
This introduction to dance studies course explores dance practice and performance as means for producing cultural meaning. Through theoretical and historical texts and viewing live and recorded dance, we will develop tools for analyzing dance and understanding its place in social, cultural, and political structures. This uses dance and choreography as a lens to more deeply understand a wide range of identity and cultural formations, such as gender, race, sexuality, (dis)ability, (trans)nationality, and empire. We will analyze dancing bodies that move across stages, dance clubs, film screens, and border zones. We will examine dance from diverse locales and time periods including ballet, modern and contemporary dance, contact improvisation, folkloric dance, burlesque, street dance, queer club dance, drag performance, music videos, TV dance competitions, and intermedia/new media performance. In addition to providing theoretical and methodological grounding in dance studies, this course develops performance analysis skills and hones the ability to write critically and skillfully about dance. No previous experience in dance is necessary to successfully complete the course.
Same as: CSRE 61, DANCE 161D, FEMGEN 161D
TAPS 161H. Dance, History and Conflict. 4 Units.
This seminar investigates how moving bodies are compelling agents of social, cultural, and political change.Through readings, videos, discussions and viewings of live performances this class questions the impact of social conflict and war on selected 20th and 21st century dances and dance practices. This class asks to what extent dance, in its history as well as contemporary development, is linked to concepts of the political and conflict.
TAPS 161P. Dance and the Politics of Movement. 4 Units.
This course examines how the dancing body has been viewed, exhibited, analyzed, and interpreted from the late nineteenth century to the present. We will discuss how ideologies about race, gender, and sexual orientation are mapped onto the body, as well as investigate the body's place in discourses on religion, health, war, performance, and consumer culture. We will explore how people create meaning through dance and how dance, in turn, shapes social norms, political institutions, and cultural practices. The course's structure challenges the Western/non-Western binary by comparing dance forms across the globe.
Same as: DANCE 161P, LIFE 161P, TAPS 361P
TAPS 162I. The Idea of a Theater. 5 Units.
Examines the idea of a theater from the religious street theater of Medieval York, though Shakespeare's Globe, and onto the mental theater of the Romantic reader and the alienation effects of Brecht's radical playhouse in the 20th cent.
TAPS 162L. Latin/x America in Motion: An Introduction to Dance Studies. 3-4 Units.
This course introduces students to the field of Dance Studies by examining the histories of Latin American and Caribbean dances and their relationship to developing notions of race and nation in the Americas. We will study the historical emergence and transformation of ¿indigeneity,¿ ¿blackness,¿ ¿whiteness,¿ and ¿Latin/@/x¿ and consider how dance practices interacted with these identifications. No prior experience with Dance or Latin America and the Caribbean necessary.
Same as: CHILATST 162, CSRE 162D, DANCE 162L, TAPS 262L
TAPS 164. Race and Performance. 3-5 Units.
How does race function in performance and dare we say ¿live and in living color?¿ How does one deconstruct discrimination at its roots?n nFrom a perspective of global solidarity and recognition of shared plight among BIPOC communities, we will read and perform plays that represent material and psychological conditions under a common supremacist regime. Where and when possible, we will host a member of the creative team of some plays in our class for a live discussion. Assigned materials include works by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Amiri Baraka, Young Jean Lee, Ayad Akhtar, Susan Lori Parks, David Henry Hwang, Betty Shamieh, Jeremy O. Harris, and Christopher Demos Brown.n nThis class offers undergraduate students a discussion that does not center whiteness, but takes power, history, culture, philosophy, and hierarchy as core points of debate. In the first two weeks, we will establish the common terms of the discussion about stereotypes, representation, and historical claims, but then we will quickly move toward an advanced conversation about effective discourse and activism through art, performance, and cultural production. In this class, we assume that colonialism, slavery, white supremacy, and oppressive contemporary state apparatuses are real, undeniable, and manifest. Since our starting point is clear, our central question is not about recognizing or delineating the issues, but rather, it is a debate about how to identify the target of our criticism in order to counter oppression effectively and dismantle long-standing structures.n nNot all BIPOC communities are represented in this syllabus, as such claim of inclusion in a single quarter would be tokenistic and disingenuous. Instead, we will aspire to understand and negotiate some of the complexities related to race in several communities locally in the U.S. and beyond.
Same as: AFRICAAM 164A, CSRE 164A, CSRE 364A
TAPS 165. Introduction to Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. 5 Units.
How different disciplines approach topics and issues central to the study of ethnic and race relations in the U.S. and elsewhere. Lectures by senior faculty affiliated with CSRE. Discussions led by CSRE teaching fellows. Includes an optional Haas Center for Public Service certified Community Engaged Learning section. In accordance with Stanford virtual learning policies implemented for the Spring Quarter, all community engagement activities for this section will be conducted virtually. Please sign up for section 2 #33285 with Kendra, A. if you are interested in participating in virtual community engagement.
Same as: CSRE 196C, ENGLISH 172D, PSYCH 155, SOC 146
TAPS 167. Introduction to Greek Tragedy: Gods, Heroes, Fate, and Justice. 4 Units.
Gods and heroes, fate and free choice, gender conflict, the justice or injustice of the universe: these are just some of the fundamental human issues that we will explore in about ten of the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.
Same as: CLASSICS 112
TAPS 167H. Revolutions in Theater. 4 Units.
This course surveys the period from the turn of the 20th century until WII, during which the European avant-garde movements transformed modern art. This period in history is marked by dynamic political events that had a deep impact on experimental art and on culture in general. This interaction between poetics and politics makes the first decades of the 20th century the formative period of western and global theater.
Same as: TAPS 267
TAPS 169. Hysteria and Modern Culture. 3-5 Units.
The term "hysteria" has been used for centuries to categorize the mysterious ailments of others. This course will focus on the history of hysteria's representation and production from the late nineteenth century through WWI. Readings will include medical writings (Charcot, Bernheim, Freud), plays (Ibsen, Strindberg, Toller), and feminist theory (Cixous, Clément, Diamond). We will also devote some attention to the ongoing influence of the discourse of hysteria on contemporary medical and popular cultures.
TAPS 169R. Reality TV and American Society. 4 Units.
Class will explore the ways reality tv over the past 25 years has affected the way Americans see and relate to one another, then consider what comes next. Students will analyze and discuss seminal reality tv shows and print criticism thereof, and in groups will conceive and develop reality show ideas to effect social change.
TAPS 170A. The Director's Craft. 4 Units.
This workshop class guides students through the directing process from investigating the big ideas of a play and analysing the action to organizing and running rehearsals to building up the world of the play through character work and visual composition. Over the quarter we will look at the use of creative visualization and improvisation alongside working with actors on ideas, emotions, relationships, textual analysis and blocking. This course also attends to the process of communicating with designers and production teams as well as structuring rehearsals, run-throughs and technical and dress rehearsals. Each student will select a theatrical text to work from across the quarter. In many cases the student's text will be a play that they are planning to direct in future, such as productions for student groups like Ram's Head or Stanford Shakespeare Company, TAPS capstone projects, TAPS 2nd year grad shows and/or TAPS Second Stage productions. No previous directing experience in necessary.nnTAPS PhD students and declared TAPS majors/minors will be permitted enrollment automatically. Please email instructor Michael Rau (mjrau@stanford.edu) to receive a permission number.nnStudents who are not currently TAPS PhDs, majors, or minors: To enroll in this course, please email instructor Michael Rau (mjrau@stanford.edu) with: your name, your major (or prospective major), any relevant experience in theater or classes that you¿ve taken, and a short (2-3 sentences) statement of why you are interested in taking this course.
Same as: TAPS 370A
TAPS 170B. Directing Workshop: The Actor-Director Dialogue. 2-4 Units.
This course focuses on the actor-director dialogue. We will work with actors and directors developing approaches to collaboration that make the actor-director dialogue in theater. TAPS Ph.D. students are required to enroll in TAPS 372 for 4 units. This course must be taken for a minimum of 3 units and a letter grade to be eligible for Ways-AII credit.
Same as: TAPS 372
TAPS 170W. Laughter & Play for Wellbeing. 1-2 Unit.
Learn about and practice laughter yoga, combined with theater exercises. Laughter yoga (distinct from traditional movement-based yoga) is a modality that integrates laughter exercises with yogic breathing. Explore the growing field of research on laughter yoga and its positive effects on wellbeing and other health outcomes. Examine the various dimensions of laughter yoga as a form of cardiovascular and aerobic exercise, mindfulness, and play. Use theater exercises to leverage the power of performative, healing laughter and to cultivate embodied awareness, creativity, resilience, and joy. Readings and exercises will draw from the work of pioneers in the fields of laughter wellness and socially engaged theater, such as Madan Kataria and Augusto Boal.
Same as: WELLNESS 170
TAPS 173. Making Your Solo Show. 3 Units.
Are you tired of the classics? Were you frustrated by casting choices in the past? Sometimes, you have to step away from the canon and create your own work. Do you have something to say about race, gender, ethnicity, nationalism, yourself, and the Other? Did you ever want to create and perform your own show but didn't know how to start? This is your chance. In this course, you will go through a series of workshops leading to the creation of your own performance. It is an all-in-one acting, writing, directing, and design class, leading to a festival of solo performances in the Nitery. At the end of the quarter, you will receive feedback about how to take your show on the road. Course requirements include: creating a solo play that is at least 15 minutes long; performing your solo show as part of the Nitery season at the end of the quarter; committing to 10-15 hours of rehearsal per week. To request enrollment, email salsaber@stanford.edu answering the following questions: Which contemporary issues would be central to your solo play? How do issues of race and ethnicity centrally affect the overall drama or throughline of your solo play? Why should you be accepted in this class/festival?.
Same as: TAPS 273
TAPS 173D. Theater Production Lab: Dramaturgy and Development. 4 Units.
173/373: In this course students will explore general dramaturgical history and methodology as well as engaging in applied dramaturgy from evaluating works for a productions seasons, to developing dramaturgical materials for specific productions. Students will agree the focus of their course-work with the instructor depending on their specific interests. The TAPS 2nd year grad students enrolled in this course will act as a dramaturgical team, supporting the TAPS winter production of The Tempest in Pigott Theater March 2-11 2017, directed by Amy Freed. Students will support the actors and the creative team through providing research materials and presentations and helping actors with guided research, write program essays for general audiences, attend rehearsals and provide constructive notes, and curate and/or present on a Preface panel prior to opening night.
TAPS 174. Digital Theater-Making: Creative Code and Performance. 4 Units.
A creative workshop offering a range of techniques and technologies in order to create original works of theater that are performed over the internet. Students will be invited to explore different artistic strategies combined with demonstrations of emerging technologies. Students will have an opportunity to practice and develop these skills with weekly short digital theater composition assignments. Students will be given readings and short videos about the artistic practices of certain artists along with guest speakers. The course will culminate in a final group performance.
Same as: TAPS 374
TAPS 174V. Staging Change: from A Doll's House to Votes for Women!. 4 Units.
A practice-led exploration of women in theater at the rise of feminism and realism: 75% workshop 25% seminar with 2 public table reads and a class production (play TBD depending on class size and constituency) to be staged in Roble or Pigott theater at the end of Fall quarter. Students will use Hill's new book Sex, Suffrage and the Stage (2017) for historical context in their readings and scene work on 12 iconic plays that transformed stage representations of women, including A Doll's House, The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith, A Woman of No Importance, Mrs Warren's Profession and Votes for Women!.
TAPS 175T. Collaborative Theater-Making. 1-4 Unit.
Instructor Young Jean Lee has written and directed ten shows with her theater company and toured her work to over thirty cities around the world. In 2018, she became the first Asian-American female to have had her play produced in Broadway. In this workshop, students will collaborate on the creation, development, and performance of an original short play directed by Young Jean, culminating in an invited performance during the last class. The students will be responsible for researching, writing, designing, and performing the play. This class will teach the basics of creating a play, the process of theatrical collaboration, and the tools of devised ensemble work. Students must email the instructor at yjl@stanford.edu for permission to enroll in the class.
Same as: TAPS 275T
TAPS 176. Living with Mindfulness, Meaning, and Compassion. 5 Units.
Living with mindfulness, meaning, and compassion is a journey of contemplation, self reflection, and guided action. We examine "the good life" through the insightful eyes and inspirational words of others as well as through the light of our own experience. We explore success, happiness, and well being through the wisdom of spiritual traditions and scientific discoveries. Our focus is on acceptance, vulnerability, humility, kindness, and courage. Our integrative learning approach creates a transformative, synergistic community through appreciative inquiry and connected knowing.
TAPS 176N. The Inside Story. 3 Units.
The Inside Story is a workshop that focuses on the generation of autobiographical material by exploring the connections between biology and biography. Students will gather autobiological and autobiographical material, investigate stories of their bodies and explore `gut feelings¿. They will work on individual and group exercises looking at cellular and body memory from which they will create text, gesture, image, performance and installation. The exercises will include autobiographical writing prompts, body memory exercises, Yin Yoga, and body mapping.
TAPS 176S. Finding Meaning in Life's Struggles: Narrative Ways of Healing. 5 Units.
We can find meaning in life's struggles through narrative ways of healing. The self-reflective, dynamic process of finding, telling, and living our stories connects us with our whole selves as well as with others. We find our stories through vulnerability and courage; tell them with humility and honesty; and live them authentically and responsibly. Our shared stories will focus on gratitude, acceptance, reconciliation, forgiveness and compassion, empowering us to overcome personal, community, and historical traumas and wounds. In a respectful, caring community we will discover our hidden wholeness by improvising with various experiential and embodied means of finding our stories; telling our stories in diverse ways, including writing, storytelling, music, and art; and living our stories by putting values into action.
Same as: CSRE 176S
TAPS 177. Dramatic Writing: The Fundamentals. 4 Units.
Course introduces students to the basic elements of playwriting and creative experimentation for the stage. Topics include: character development, conflict and plot construction, staging and setting, and play structure. Script analysis of works by contemporary playwrights may include: Marsha Norman, Patrick Shanley, August Wilson, Suzan-Lori Parks, Paula Vogel, Octavio Solis and others. Table readings of one-act length work required by quarter's end.
Same as: TAPS 277
TAPS 177C. Creating a Musical. 4 Units.
This practical, hands on class in the making of musicals explores all aspects of creating musical theater, including writing, composing, producing, directing, designing, and casting this most American of theater genres. The class will include direct engagement and discussion with the producers and artists of TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's production of The Bridges of Madison County, book by Marsha Norman and music by Jason Robert Brown, including off-campus field trip to rehearsal of the show. The class will explore the creation of several renowned musicals including Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along, and will include live Skype interviews with Broadway composers Andrew Lippa (The Wild Party), Paul Gordon (Jane Eyre), and David Hein and Irene Sankoff (Come from Away, winner of the 2017 Drama Desk Award for Best Musical). The quarter will culminate in the creation, production, and performance of several mini-musicals created by members of the class. Instructor Robert Kelley is the Founding Artistic Director of TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, where he has directed 170 productions, including many world and regional premieres.
Same as: MUSIC 184D
TAPS 177W. Workshop with Young Jean Lee. 2-4 Units.
Instructor Young Jean Lee is a playwright and director who will have two plays premiering on Broadway in 2018-2019. In this workshop, students will help to collaboratively perform, direct, and rewrite the script of one of these plays, which is about the intersection of class and race. The class will involve acting for students who want to act, directing for students who want to direct, and writing for students who want to write. The current character breakdown is as follows: 2 black women, 1 Asian-American woman, 1 Colombian woman, 1 Mexican-American man, 2 black men, 2 white women, 2 white men.
Same as: CSRE 177I, TAPS 277W
TAPS 178A. From the Page to the Stage: Intensive Playwriting Lab. 3 Units.
A playwright's process begins in solitude, develops in collaboration, and culminates in the public arena. Writers often find this difficult and contradictory, as inspiration meets reality and dramatic ideas change once they start taking shape in rehearsal. Add to that limited time and high stakes of theater practice, and for many writers, it¿s a time of shutting down right when their contribution can be most powerful. This is why theater collaborations -- particularly that of writer, actor, and director play such a powerful and necessary part in delivering a successful production. Not only does a writer need to write, they have to think like a director and actor, as well. This lab aims to strengthen both creative and creative collaboration skills for the aspiring dramatist, and provide the student with something of the process of script development in the rehearsal room, where a play finds its feet and takes its first steps. Class will function as a creative ensemble in which each writer will also serve as actor and director in a limited "festival" format. Culminates in an invited showing of selected portions of work developed during the quarter.
TAPS 178C. Playwriting Workshop. 1-4 Unit.
Instructor Young Jean Lee is the first Asian-American female to have had her play produced in Broadway. This workshop will guide you through the process of of creating a script for a full-length piece of theater (musicals are welcome, and screenplays are allowed for winter quarter only), and will focus on helping you to make significant progress on and/or complete a draft. You'll be required to write every week and give feedback on each others' work. You can be anywhere in your process from having no idea what you want to do to being close to a final draft. This class is open to a wide range of approaches and styles, including adaptations and devised work. Both students who have never written for theater and students who have worked on a script with Young Jean in a previous class are welcome. Students must email the instructor at yjl@stanford.edu for permission to enroll. This class will be taught at both 8:30am and 2:30pm, so please indicate your time preference.
Same as: TAPS 278C
TAPS 178D. Editing a Full-Length Play. 1-4 Unit.
To participate in this workshop, students must bring in a draft of a full length straight play for revision, which was written in part one of this course, WRITING A FULL-LENGTH PLAY. In conjunction with a variety of other editing techniques, students will focus on editing in collaboration with others. They will learn how to edit in response to hearing their plays read aloud; how to give and solicit the most useful kinds of feedback; how to cope with harsh criticism; what to do when people are offended by what they have written; how to know which notes to pay attention to and which notes to ignore; and how to let go of ideas and text that are not working. Other topics to be discussed: getting your work produced vs. self-producing; directing your own work vs. working with a director; and starting your own theater company. Enrollment for this course is closed.
Same as: TAPS 278D
TAPS 178E. Advanced Playwriting Workshop. 1-4 Unit.
Instructor Young Jean Lee is the first Asian-American female to have had her play produced in Broadway. This workshop will guide you through the process of of creating a script for a full-length piece of theater, and will focus on helping you to make significant progress on and/or complete a draft. You'll be required to write every week and give feedback on each others' work. You can be anywhere in your process--from having no idea what you want to do to being close to a final draft. This class is open to a wide range of approaches and styles--including adaptations and devised work. Both students who have never written for theater and students who have worked on a script with Young Jean in a previous class are welcome. This class is identical to TAPS 178C, except that preference is given to juniors, seniors, and graduate students. Students must email the instructor at yjl@stanford.edu for permission to enroll in the class.
Same as: TAPS 278E
TAPS 179P. Professional Development. 3 Units.
The goal of this class will be to prepare students in their final year to launch a career in film and television. We¿ll look at ways that successful professionals got their starts, explore entry-level jobs that can lead to work as a writer, director and/or producer, examine how Hollywood recruits talent from the theater world, and discuss ways to create, distribute and publicize independent projects from shorts to features. The class will focus heavily on pitching ideas for narrative and documentary television series and films. We¿ll study the types of materials used to make pitches and each student will generate and develop three ideas for film or television, then pitch their projects in a professional setting.
TAPS 17N. Acting for Activists. 3 Units.
Acting for Activists is designed for students who are interested in combining acting with activism, performance with politics. We will work with theatre that responds to specific political events and crisis such as hate crimes or war through the performance of activist texts. We will also explore works that challenge inequalities of income, race, gender and sexual orientation. By the end of the course students will cultivate a critical vocabulary for discussing and critiquing work within acting/activist contexts and develop new strategies for creating theatre in relation to issues they are passionate about. Acting for Activists encourages students to think about what they want to say and helps them craft how they want to say it.
TAPS 180Q. Noam Chomsky: The Drama of Resistance. 3 Units.
Preference to sophomores. Chomsky's ideas and work which challenge the political and economic paradigms governing the U.S. Topics include his model for linguistics; cold war U.S. involvements in S.E. Asia, the Middle East, Central and S. America, the Caribbean, and Indonesia and E. Timor; the media, terrorism, ideology, and culture; student and popular movements; and the role of resistance.
TAPS 183C. Interpretation of Musical Theater Repertoire. 1-2 Unit.
By audition only: Contact instructor prior to enrolling (mlcats@stanford.edu). Ability to read music expected, but students with experience singing in musical theater can be accepted. For singers and pianists as partners. Performance class in a workshop setting along with lecture/discussion of important eras of musical theater history. Composers include Kern, Porter, Gershwin, Rodgers, Sondheim, Lloyd Weber, Jason Robert Brown and others. May be repeated for credit a total of 2 times. Enrollment limit: 20 (ten singers maximum). Prerequisite: consent of instructor. Recommended prerequisite: 170 (pianists).
Same as: MUSIC 183C
TAPS 183E. Singing for Musicals. 2 Units.
Do you love singing in musicals? Do you know how to sing in musicals? This course provides training in vocal technique and acting for students interested in performing musical theater. Students will learn about the physical process of singing, including posture, breath support, and vocal exercises. They will incorporate vocal technique with the study of phrasing in different styles of Broadway repertoire, and apply both to the art of acting the song. Each student will work on solo selections and ensembles, and sing in most classes. Through understanding vocal technique, students will become more confident and joyful performers. The course will culminate in a final public workshop performance. Admission to course by audition or permission of the instructor. Due to the COVID-19 situation, the Singing for Musicals class will be taught online. As this can pose a problem with students in various time zones and internet arrangements, the instructor will contact all waitlisted students with more detailed information regarding video auditions and a questionnaire.
Same as: MUSIC 183E
TAPS 184C. Dramatic Vocal Arts: Songs and Scenes Onstage. 1-2 Unit.
Studies in stagecraft, acting and performance for singers, culminating in a public performance. Repertoire to be drawn from the art song, opera, American Songbook and musical theater genres. Enrollment by audition only. May be repeated for credit a total of 4 times. Zero unit enrollment option available with instructor permission. See website: (http://music.stanford.edu) for policy and procedure. By enrolling in this course you are giving consent for the video and audio recording and distribution of your image and performance for use by any entity at Stanford University.
Same as: MUSIC 184C
TAPS 186F. Broadway Songbook. 3 Units.
Close study of about two dozen of the songs from across the history of the Broadway musical: from the Tin Pan Alley era (Jerome Kern, the Gershwins, Cole Porter, Harold Arlen) through the so-called "Golden Age" (Rodgers & Hammerstein, Lerner & Lowe, Kander and Ebb) to Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Stephen Schwartz, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Pasek and Paul. Analysis of lyrics, melody, harmony, instrumental/vocal arrangements, classic and contemporary performances. Workshop development of 2-3 songs per student including arrangement, performance, and discussion.
Same as: MUSIC 186F
TAPS 190. Special Research. 1-5 Unit.
Individual project on the work of a playwright, period, or genre. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
TAPS 192. Nitery Board Practicum. 1 Unit.
Credit given for undergraduate student board members of the Experimental Nitery Studio.
TAPS 196. Dancing Black: Embodying the African Diaspora in the United States and the Caribbean. 4 Units.
What does it mean to dance black? How can studying comparative dance practices across the United States and the Caribbean expose continuities and differences in African diaspora experience? How can we draw strategies from black performance to inform our current movements for social change? This class will explore how dance and writing about performance have shaped notions of what it means to identify or be marked as an African diaspora subject. From the ring shouts of captive Africans to the 20th-century concert dance stage, from New York queer ballroom culture to Tiktok fads, this class will expose students to both historical and ethnographic methods for using dance to study the formation of black community in the New World. Looking beyond the surface of skin, we¿ll explore how race is experienced in muscle and flesh, and how black performers have historically taken advantage of or disavowed racialized ideas of how they can/should move. We will read theories of diaspora, queer of color critique and black feminist theory, and performance theory. We will search for the common questions and conversations about embodiment, the spectator¿s gaze, and black belonging that run through all three disciplines. Students will be required to do some movement research (through accessible, at-home dance practice), write weekly journals, and complete short essay projects. Students develop will skills for writing, speaking, and making performance to explore the intersections between race, sexuality, and dance.
Same as: AFRICAAM 196, DANCE 196, TAPS 396
TAPS 197. Dance in Prison: The Arts, Juvenile Justice, and Rehabilitation in America. 3 Units.
This class uses the lens of performance, and particularly dance, to explore the aesthetic, cultural, historical, and legal issues in the lives of incarcerated youth. In the process students gain an understanding of incarceration and its cultural dimensions. Class readings and discussions foreground the legal and social contexts surrounding prisons in the U.S., Particular attention will be paid to the nexus of art, community, and social action, and how dance might be used to study the performing arts effects on self-construction, perception, experiences of embodiment, and social control for incarcerated teenagers. The class includes guest speakers who bring important perspectives on criminal justice including returned citizens, a juvenile justice attorney, a restorative conferencing facilitator and a dancer who teaches women in prison to be their own dance instructors.
Same as: AMSTUD 197, DANCE 197
TAPS 200. Senior Project. 1-4 Unit.
All TAPS Majors must complete a Senior Project that represents significant work in any area of theater and/or performance. The project must be an original contribution and can consist of any of the following: devising a performance, choreographing a dance, stage managing a production, designing a large theater work, performing a major role, writing a play, directing a show, or researching and writing a senior essay. Work for this project normally begins in Spring Quarter of the junior year and must be completed by the end of the senior year. Students receive credit for senior projects through TAPS 200. A minimum of 4 units is required, but additional units are available for larger projects. Students pursuing senior projects must submit a two-page proposal to a faculty advisor of their choice, which must be approved by the Undergraduate Advisor and the department faculty no later than the end of Spring Quarter of the junior year.
TAPS 201. Theater History. 4 Units.
A survey of the history of theatre and dance from the ancient Greeks to the modern world. While primarily intended to help TAPS graduate students prepare for their Comprehensive Exam, this course may also be taken by undergraduates or non-TAPS graduate students in order to gain a broad understanding of some of the seminal plays, dances, theories, and performance practices of the past 2500 years.
TAPS 202. Honors Thesis. 1-2 Unit.
An advanced written project to fulfill the requirements for the Honors degree in TAPS. There are two ways to undertake an honors thesis. The first is to write a 40-50 page essay, which presents research on an important issue or subject of the student¿s choice. The second option is a 30-page essay that takes the student¿s capstone project as a case study and critically analyzes the creative work. Students are expected to work consistently throughout the year with their advisor, whom they identify at the time of application. Advisors can be selected from Academic Council faculty or artists-in-residence. Students should enroll in TAPS 202 each quarter during the senior year (1 unit in Autumn; 1 unit in Winter; 2 units in Spring).
TAPS 20N. Prisons and Performance. 3 Units.
Preference to Freshmen. This seminar starts with the unlikely question of what can the performing arts, particularly dance and theater, illuminate about the situation of mass incarceration in America. Part seminar, part immersive context building, students will read and view a cross-section of dance and theater works where the subject, performers, choreographers or authors, belong to part of the 2.4 million people currently behind bars in US prisons. Class includes conversations with formerly incarcerated youth, prison staff, juvenile justice lawyers and artists working in juvenile and adult prisons as well as those who are part of the 7.3 million people currently on parole or probation. Using performance as our lens we will investigate the unique kinds of understanding the arts make possible as well as the growing use of theater and dance to affect social change and personal transformation among prison inmates. Class trips will include visits to locked facilities and meetings with artists and inmates working behind bars.
TAPS 21. StoryCraft. 2 Units.
StoryCraft is a hands-on, experiential workshop offering participants the opportunity, structure and guidance to craft compelling personal stories to be shared in front of a live audience. The class will focus on several areas of storytelling: Mining (how do you find your stories and extract the richest details?); Crafting (how do you structure the content and shape the language?); and Performing (how do you share your stories with presence, authenticity and connection?).
TAPS 21AR. StoryCraft: Athlete Relationships. 2 Units.
What is intimacy like as an athlete? What are the stereotypes and the realities? In this class, athletic-identifying students will learn about relationships from the inside out: through an examination and telling of their lived experiences. We will explore various perspectives on intimacy and relationships that illuminate different aspects of our lives and then dive into our own stories to discover the many facets of intimacy. Due to the personal nature of the topic, we will emphasize safety, trust, and confidentiality throughout. The class offers the structure and guidance to 1) mine your life for stories, 2) craft the structure and shape of your stories, and 3) perform with presence, authenticity, and connection. nPlease fill out this short application where we will determine the best day+time to hold this class given the changing schedules for athletes during COVID: bit.ly/Winter2021StoryCraft.
Same as: FEMGEN 21R
TAPS 21N. The Idea of Virtual Reality. 3 Units.
What is virtual reality and where is it heading? Was there VR before digital technology? What is the value of the real in a virtual culture? How, where, and when do we draw the line between the virtual and the real, the live and the mediated today? Concentrating on three aspects of VR simulation, immersion, and interactivity this course will examine recent experiments alongside a long history of virtual performance, from Plato's Cave to contemporary CAVEs, from baroque theatre design to Oculus Rift.
TAPS 21S. StoryCraft: On Relationships. 2 Units.
Do we need love? And if so, what does it look like? In this class, students will learn about relationships from the inside out: through an examination and telling of their lived experiences. We will explore various perspectives on intimacy and relationships that illuminate different aspects of our lives, and then dive into our own stories to discover the many facets of intimacy. Due to the personal nature of the topic, we will emphasize safety, trust, and confidentiality throughout. The class offers the structure and guidance to 1) mine your life for stories, 2) craft the structure and shape of your stories, and 3) perform with presence, authenticity, and connection. Please fill out this short application for enrollment: bit.ly/Fall2020StoryCraft.
Same as: FEMGEN 21S
TAPS 21T. StoryCraft: Sexuality, Intimacy & Relationships. 2 Units.
What are the roles of sexuality, intimacy, and relationships in my life? How do I tell a compelling story? In this class, students will learn about these topics from the inside out. We will explore various perspectives on sexuality, intimacy, and relationships and then dive into our own stories to discover the richness and vibrancy of this part of our lives. Due to the personal nature of the topic, we will emphasize safety, trust, and confidentiality throughout. The class offers the structure and guidance to 1) mine your life for stories, 2) craft the structure and shape of your stories, and 3) perform with presence, authenticity, and connection. Students will be selected from this class to tell their stories in Beyond Sex Ed Part 1 during NSO 2020. Please fill out this short application for enrollment: bit.ly/Spring2020StoryCraft. Class will be held in KINGSCOTE Gardens 140.
Same as: FEMGEN 21T
TAPS 220. Academic Publishing. 3-5 Units.
This course offers systematic opportunities for students to develop a publishable article for a scholarly journal. We will examine a range of successful articles in journals and carefully consider a variety of effective writing techniques and styles.
TAPS 220A. Being John Wayne. 5 Units.
John Wayne's imposing corporeality and easy comportment combined to create an icon of masculinity, the American West, and America itself. Focus is on the films that contributed most to the establishment, maturation, and deconstruction of the iconography and mythology of the John Wayne character. The western and war film as genres; the crisis of and performance of masculinity in postwar culture; gender and sexuality in American national identity; relations among individualism, community, and the state; the Western and national memory; and patriotism and the Vietnam War.
Same as: AMSTUD 220B, FILMSTUD 220
TAPS 22N. Culture, Conflict, and the Modern Middle East. 3 Units.
In this course, you will encounter the Middle East through places, peoples, and performances, beyond the basic study of identifying the region and learning its history. The main question that we will contend with is: how can one achieve an ideal encounter with a people? Through experience and experimentation, we will attempt to approach the region from different angles, perspectives, and disciplines. You can expect to be surprised again and again as we find ways to see, hear, touch, smell, and taste the Middle East through carefully curated readings, viewings, practices, assignments, and events, each teaching us a different way of thinking, creating, and living. Yet, in all these encounters, the theme of performance will return to remind us that knowledge of ourselves and the other is but a tangible exhibit of performances of everyday life. From virtually visiting architectural wonders such as Petra and the Pyramids, to encountering classic literatures such as the Arabian Nights, to finding the best Shawarma in town, to performing the Middle East, to confronting political realities and investigating historical myths, you can expect to immerse yourself with a region and its people. In our search for an ideal encounter, we will be sure to shed some fantasies, experience some realities, imagine some possibilities, and find a version of ourselves.
TAPS 231. Advanced Stage Lighting Design. 1-4 Unit.
Individually structured class in lighting mechanics and design through experimentation, discussions, and written reports. Prerequisite: 131 or consent of instructor.
TAPS 232. Advanced Costume Design. 1-5 Unit.
Individually structured tutorial for costume designers. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: 132 or consent of instructor.
TAPS 233. Advanced Scene Design. 1-4 Unit.
Individually structured workshop. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: 133 or consent of instructor.
TAPS 234. Advanced Stage Management Project. 2-4 Units.
For students stage managing a Department of Theater and Performance Studies production. May be repeat for credit. Prerequisite: 134.
TAPS 235. Advanced Dramaturgy Project. 1-5 Unit.
Independent Study for Graduate Students completing dramaturgy projects.
TAPS 23N. How to Create A Ghost: Theater, Magic, and Technology. 3 Units.
How do you conjure a ghost? Fly a bird? Make a person disappear? And why? What is the appeal of magic, illusions, and technological tricks? This course will explore the history of magic through its theatrical history, exploring important relationships between culture, technological innovation, and illusion-making. From traps, to lifts, to sugar glass props, the stage has absorbed and utilized technological and scientific innovations to create its illusions, narratives, and stories. Techniques of magic and stagecraft have been used since the sixteenth century to imagine other worlds. In creating these illusions, the theater also negotiated with emerging scientific theories and concepts. We will ask: What relationship does magic and theater have to the stories we tell? What contribution did technological innovations have on illusion making? How did theater makers develop and innovate using technological and scientific theories? What role does technological aesthetics play in understanding human culture? Together we will explore early writing about performance magic, alchemy, sleight of hand, and theatrical stagecraft. We will read across diverse practices of magic and theatre across the globe, exploring the relationship of magic, culture, and performance. We will read treatises, novels, and plays that explore the nature and legacy of magic. The course will include discussion, performance exercises, and hands-on activities. At the end of the seminar, students will be able to recognize and discuss historical texts and relate cultural artifacts (plays and novels) to major themes (magic and illusion). The course includes work and writing from authors with diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, and orientations. All are welcome!.
TAPS 25. Acting Short Narrative: From Shakespeare to YouTube. 2 Units.
This course will help beginning students understand basic dramatic structure for acting short scenes. Using classic models (Euripides, Shakespeare, Noel Coward, Stephen Sondheim), we will explore how compelling dramatic scenes are constructed. Students will work with the instructor and with professional actors from Stanford Repertory Theater to come to grips with what makes these scenes successful and how best to bring them to life. As a final project, students will work together to develop and write their own short dramatic scenes, suitable for posting on YouTube.
TAPS 250J. Baldwin and Hansberry: The Myriad Meanings of Love. 4 Units.
This course looks at major dramatic works by James Baldwin and Lorraine Hansberry. Both of these queer black writers had prophetic things to say about the world-historical significance of major dramas on the 20th Century including civil rights, revolution, gender, colonialism, racism, sexism, war, nationalism and as well as aesthetics and politics.
Same as: AFRICAAM 250J, AMSTUD 250J, CSRE 250J, FEMGEN 250J
TAPS 252. Objects and Things: Theater, Performance, and Material Culture. 4 Units.
Objects, devices, machines, technologies--how do we engage with the material things that come across our research, into our performances, and out of our lives? This course examines how various scholars, theorists, and practitioners have defined and engaged with material culture. We will read popular theories of thing-ness including but not limited to object-oriented ontology (Bill Brown and Jane Bennett), commodity things (Arjun Appadurai), actor-network theory (Bruno Latour), scriptive things (Robin Bernstein), and prop theory (Andrew Sofer). The course will use their theories as lenses on the objects of our own research, countering the Western historiography through case studies, alternative readings, and in-class presentations. New work from performance studies (Uri McMillian etc.) will also provide current case studies in scholarship. Focusing on theater and performance studies, this class will also draw on sociology, anthropology, the history of technology, and art history.
TAPS 253H. History of Directing. 4 Units.
In this class, students will examine the work of directors who shaped modern theater. Some of directors we are going to explore are Konstantin Stanislavski, Jerzy Grotowski, and director-choreographer Pina Bausch. In order to engage closely with directorial styles of these and other landmark directors, we will focus on their career-defining productions. The class will include readings, screenings of recorded performances whenever possible, and workshops with professionals in the field. Capped enrollment.
Same as: TAPS 153H
TAPS 253T. Virtual Realities: Art, Technology, Performance. 2-4 Units.
Contemporary virtual reality extends a long-standing quest to create a fully immersive, multisensory environment, a quest that may go back to the earliest cave paintings and includes such projects as cathedrals, operas, panoramas, theme parks, video games, and multimedia "happenings." What is VR's relation to this long and varied history? What are the ethics, aesthetics, promises, and perils of this new medium? What is meant by "immersion," "interactivity," and "presence," and how is VR changing those terms? How might VR relate to contemporary immersive theater and installation art - as well as to the mediatization of society more generally?.
TAPS 256V. Vital Signs: Performance in the 21st Century. 1 Unit.
The first decade and a half of the 21st century have been transformative for performance art. On the one hand, it brought an unprecedented cultural acceptance of this art form, which is now featured in most prestigious museums and art festivals; on the other, the most recent generation of performance artists is showing a great awareness of the historicity and complexity of this form. In this class, we will try to recognize and investigate these and other prominent features of performance art produced since the turn of the millennium. We will use as our primary case studies performances that will be featured in the series Vital Signs: Contemporary Performance Art Series, hosted by TAPS in 2017-2018. The primary objective of the series is to highlight and showcase underrepresented performance forms such as experimental performance art, durational art, and body art, among others, by artists from communities that remain invisible or underrepresented in mainstream performing arts. The series is curated by the Los Angeles-based artist Cassils, who has been listed by the Huffington Post as 'one of ten transgender artists who are changing the landscape of contemporary art' and has achieved international recognition for a rigorous engagement with the body as a form of social sculpture. Cassils's curatorial vision is to present established performance artists alongside emerging artists. Each quarter, a pair of artists will visit Stanford for two days (Thursday-Friday). On day one of their visit they will offer a workshop or a public performance, and on the second day they will engage in a public dialogue. The class will meet each quarter for three weeks: before, during, and after the artists' visit. This way, the students will have an opportunity to prepare for the visit, engage with the visiting artists, and reflect on their work. They will receive their grades upon completion of the class, in the spring of 2018.
Same as: ARTSTUDI 256V, TAPS 156V
TAPS 257P. Performing Arabs and Others in Theory and Practice. 4 Units.
How deeply must the artist engage to be satisfied with a representation? Is there such a thing as `good representation¿? When must artists persist and when should they resist? In this class, we will dare to make mistakes, challenge formulaic popular critiques and struggle to formulate our personal manifestos on casting. We¿ll let a diverse cast of Arab characters help us in a quarter-long rehearsal of the artist and scholar we wish to be. All course materials are in English, but proficient speakers of Arabic may be given Arabic language texts, if they ask. The majority of the works in our reading list will fit four categories: Orientalist representation, works by Arabs for Arabs, works by non-Arabs for non-Arabs, and works by Arab-Americans. In this class, we learn the theory, practice it, and intelligently attempt to compromise in a deeply flawed and gratifying artform.
Same as: CSRE 157A, TAPS 157P
TAPS 258. Black Feminist Theater and Theory. 4 Units.
From the rave reviews garnered by Angelina Weld Grimke's lynching play, Rachel to recent work by Lynn Nottage on Rwanda, black women playwrights have addressed key issues in modern culture and politics. We will analyze and perform work written by black women in the U.S., Britain and the Caribbean in the 20th and 21st centuries. Topics include: sexuality, surrealism, colonialism, freedom, violence, colorism, love, history, community and more. Playwrights include: Angelina Grimke, Lorriane Hansberry, Winsome Pinnock, Adrienne Kennedy, Suzan- Lori Parks, Ntzoke Shange, Pearl Cleage, Sarah Jones, Anna DeVeare Smith, Alice Childress, Lydia Diamond and Zora Neale Hurston.).
Same as: AFRICAAM 258, CSRE 258, FEMGEN 258X
TAPS 260. Performance and History: Rethinking the Ballerina. 4 Units.
The ballerina occupies a unique place in popular imagination as an object of over-determined femininity as well as an emblem of extreme physical accomplishment for the female dancer. This seminar is designed as an investigation into histories of the ballerina as an iconographic symbol and cultural reference point for challenges to political and gender ideals. Through readings, videos, discussions and viewings of live performances this class investigates pivotal works, artists and eras in the global histories of ballet from its origins as a symbol of patronage and power in the 15th century through to its radical experiments as a site of cultural obedience and disobedience in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Same as: FEMGEN 160, TAPS 160
TAPS 262L. Latin/x America in Motion: An Introduction to Dance Studies. 3-4 Units.
This course introduces students to the field of Dance Studies by examining the histories of Latin American and Caribbean dances and their relationship to developing notions of race and nation in the Americas. We will study the historical emergence and transformation of ¿indigeneity,¿ ¿blackness,¿ ¿whiteness,¿ and ¿Latin/@/x¿ and consider how dance practices interacted with these identifications. No prior experience with Dance or Latin America and the Caribbean necessary.
Same as: CHILATST 162, CSRE 162D, DANCE 162L, TAPS 162L
TAPS 264S. Race, Gender, Justice. 4 Units.
The question of justice animates some of the most influential classics and contemporary plays in the dramatic canon. We will examine the relationship between state laws and kinship obligations in Sophocles's Antigone. We will trace the transnational circulation of this text and its adaptations in Gambaro's Argentinian Antigona Furiosa, and Fugard and Kani's South African The Island. We will read Shakespeare's Othello and consider questions of racism, misogyny, and intimate partner violence, investigate the reverberations of these themes in the OJ Simpson trial, and explore its afterlife in Toni Morrison's Desdemona. We will take up questions of sexual violence via John Patrick Shanley's Doubt and Ariel Dorfman's Chilean classic, Death and the Maiden. We will examine themes of police brutality and racial vulnerability in Anna Deavere Smith's Twilight and Aleshea Harris's What to Send Up When it Goes Down. Through close readings of plays, we will explore the inter-articulation of intimacy and violence, intimidation and transgression, vengeance and forgiveness within the context of larger struggles for gender and racial justice. We will read plays in light of contemporary reckonings with the US criminal justice system: the #MeToo movement and the Black Lives Matter movement. While the former appeals to the criminal justice system to restore victims¿ rights, the latter urges a thorough dismantling of the carceral state. How do we understand these divergent responses to augment or abolish punitive structures?.
Same as: COMPLIT 264T
TAPS 267. Revolutions in Theater. 4 Units.
This course surveys the period from the turn of the 20th century until WII, during which the European avant-garde movements transformed modern art. This period in history is marked by dynamic political events that had a deep impact on experimental art and on culture in general. This interaction between poetics and politics makes the first decades of the 20th century the formative period of western and global theater.
Same as: TAPS 167H
TAPS 268H. Poor Theater. 4 Units.
The goal of this class is not to offer a survey of Happenings and other happening-related art of the late twentieth century. Instead, we will use Happenings as a paradigm of "poor theater" and "poor art" - umbrella terms for a number of experimental performance and art practices that emerged in the aftermath of the WWII. We will use the idea of poor theater as an organizing principle in our investigation of the main currents in the experimental performance in the last five decades. The class has a tripartite structure. First we will outline the paradigm of happenings, then trace the origins of Happenings in music, visual arts and theater of the mid twentieth century, and finally look at Happenings' immediate impact, as well as at its ripple effects that continued to reverberate long after the disappearance of this new art form. This course counts as a Writing in the Major course for TAPS in 2016-17.
TAPS 273. Making Your Solo Show. 3 Units.
Are you tired of the classics? Were you frustrated by casting choices in the past? Sometimes, you have to step away from the canon and create your own work. Do you have something to say about race, gender, ethnicity, nationalism, yourself, and the Other? Did you ever want to create and perform your own show but didn't know how to start? This is your chance. In this course, you will go through a series of workshops leading to the creation of your own performance. It is an all-in-one acting, writing, directing, and design class, leading to a festival of solo performances in the Nitery. At the end of the quarter, you will receive feedback about how to take your show on the road. Course requirements include: creating a solo play that is at least 15 minutes long; performing your solo show as part of the Nitery season at the end of the quarter; committing to 10-15 hours of rehearsal per week. To request enrollment, email salsaber@stanford.edu answering the following questions: Which contemporary issues would be central to your solo play? How do issues of race and ethnicity centrally affect the overall drama or throughline of your solo play? Why should you be accepted in this class/festival?.
Same as: TAPS 173
TAPS 275T. Collaborative Theater-Making. 1-4 Unit.
Instructor Young Jean Lee has written and directed ten shows with her theater company and toured her work to over thirty cities around the world. In 2018, she became the first Asian-American female to have had her play produced in Broadway. In this workshop, students will collaborate on the creation, development, and performance of an original short play directed by Young Jean, culminating in an invited performance during the last class. The students will be responsible for researching, writing, designing, and performing the play. This class will teach the basics of creating a play, the process of theatrical collaboration, and the tools of devised ensemble work. Students must email the instructor at yjl@stanford.edu for permission to enroll in the class.
Same as: TAPS 175T
TAPS 277. Dramatic Writing: The Fundamentals. 4 Units.
Course introduces students to the basic elements of playwriting and creative experimentation for the stage. Topics include: character development, conflict and plot construction, staging and setting, and play structure. Script analysis of works by contemporary playwrights may include: Marsha Norman, Patrick Shanley, August Wilson, Suzan-Lori Parks, Paula Vogel, Octavio Solis and others. Table readings of one-act length work required by quarter's end.
Same as: TAPS 177
TAPS 277W. Workshop with Young Jean Lee. 2-4 Units.
Instructor Young Jean Lee is a playwright and director who will have two plays premiering on Broadway in 2018-2019. In this workshop, students will help to collaboratively perform, direct, and rewrite the script of one of these plays, which is about the intersection of class and race. The class will involve acting for students who want to act, directing for students who want to direct, and writing for students who want to write. The current character breakdown is as follows: 2 black women, 1 Asian-American woman, 1 Colombian woman, 1 Mexican-American man, 2 black men, 2 white women, 2 white men.
Same as: CSRE 177I, TAPS 177W
TAPS 278. Intensive Playwriting. 4 Units.
Intermediate level study of fundamentals of playwriting through an intensive play development process. Course emphasizes visual scripting for the stage and play revision. Script analysis of works by contemporary playwrights may include: Suzan-Lori Parks, Tony Kushner, Adrienne Kennedy, Edward Albee, Maria Irene Fornes and others. Table readings of full length work required by quarter¿s end.
Same as: CSRE 178B
TAPS 278C. Playwriting Workshop. 1-4 Unit.
Instructor Young Jean Lee is the first Asian-American female to have had her play produced in Broadway. This workshop will guide you through the process of of creating a script for a full-length piece of theater (musicals are welcome, and screenplays are allowed for winter quarter only), and will focus on helping you to make significant progress on and/or complete a draft. You'll be required to write every week and give feedback on each others' work. You can be anywhere in your process from having no idea what you want to do to being close to a final draft. This class is open to a wide range of approaches and styles, including adaptations and devised work. Both students who have never written for theater and students who have worked on a script with Young Jean in a previous class are welcome. Students must email the instructor at yjl@stanford.edu for permission to enroll. This class will be taught at both 8:30am and 2:30pm, so please indicate your time preference.
Same as: TAPS 178C
TAPS 278D. Editing a Full-Length Play. 1-4 Unit.
To participate in this workshop, students must bring in a draft of a full length straight play for revision, which was written in part one of this course, WRITING A FULL-LENGTH PLAY. In conjunction with a variety of other editing techniques, students will focus on editing in collaboration with others. They will learn how to edit in response to hearing their plays read aloud; how to give and solicit the most useful kinds of feedback; how to cope with harsh criticism; what to do when people are offended by what they have written; how to know which notes to pay attention to and which notes to ignore; and how to let go of ideas and text that are not working. Other topics to be discussed: getting your work produced vs. self-producing; directing your own work vs. working with a director; and starting your own theater company. Enrollment for this course is closed.
Same as: TAPS 178D
TAPS 278E. Advanced Playwriting Workshop. 1-4 Unit.
Instructor Young Jean Lee is the first Asian-American female to have had her play produced in Broadway. This workshop will guide you through the process of of creating a script for a full-length piece of theater, and will focus on helping you to make significant progress on and/or complete a draft. You'll be required to write every week and give feedback on each others' work. You can be anywhere in your process--from having no idea what you want to do to being close to a final draft. This class is open to a wide range of approaches and styles--including adaptations and devised work. Both students who have never written for theater and students who have worked on a script with Young Jean in a previous class are welcome. This class is identical to TAPS 178C, except that preference is given to juniors, seniors, and graduate students. Students must email the instructor at yjl@stanford.edu for permission to enroll in the class.
Same as: TAPS 178E
TAPS 28. Makeup for the Stage. 2 Units.
Techniques of make-up application and design for the actor and artist including corrective, age, character, and fantasy. Emphasis placed on utilizing make-up for development of character by the actor. Limited enrollment.
TAPS 289. Buechner and Wedekind. 3-5 Units.
Modern theatre owes an incalculable debt to two German playwrights: Georg Büchner (1813-1837) and Frank Wedekind (1864-1918). We will read their still-shocking portraits of sex, madness, and social brutality in plays such as Woyzeck and Spring's Awakening, and explore the international journeys these works have made from stage to film and from opera to musical theatre.
TAPS 29. Theater Performance: Acting. 1-3 Unit.
Students cast in department productions receive credit for their participation as actors; 1-2 units for graduate directing workshop projects and 1-3 units for major productions (units determined by instructor). May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
TAPS 290. Special Research. 1-4 Unit.
Individual project on the work of a playwright, period, or genre.
TAPS 30. Introduction to Theatrical Design. 4 Units.
Introduction to Theatrical Design is aimed at students interested in exploring the fundamentals of design for the stage. Students are introduced to the practical and theoretical basics of design and are challenged to answer the question: What makes good design? Students should expect to try their hand at communicating their ideas visually through research, drawing, sketching and model making. Readings, field trips, guest lecturers and class discussion will complement these projects. This course is intended as a gateway to more specialized courses in set, costume and lighting design and is also an excellent primer for actors, directors and scholars who wish to know more about design. Collaboration will be emphasized. No prior experience in these areas is necessary.
TAPS 301. World Theater History. 2 Units.
This seminar offers a global survey of theater and performance from antiquity to 1945. Students will read plays and historical texts to broaden and enrich their knowledge of theater history and research. The course takes place during the Fall and Winter quarters, with students attending class every other week. This extended course structure is designed to allow more time for students to work through the course material. The final two sessions in each quarter will be reserved for students to present material of their own interest.nnPlease note: TAPS 301 is a required course for TAPS first-year PhD students. It is designed to prepare them for the comprehensive exam, which takes place at the end of the Winter quarter. Other students are welcome to take the course as a regular theater history seminar. Regardless, students should treat the course as one integrated sequence and enroll in both quarters (not just one or the other). nnnThe course will be graded Pass/Fail for first-year TAPS PhD students taking the exam; any other students may take the course as Pass/Fail or for a letter grade at the discretion of the instructor.
TAPS 31. Introduction to Lighting and Production. 4 Units.
Good visual storytelling begins and ends with good lighting. All visual storytelling forms--from photos to films to stage productions--provide a canvas in which lighting paints the scene. Lighting sets a mood, a tone, and can shape character and stories. This course teaches critical thinking, how to conduct thorough research, practical skills, and a mindfulness for live artforms.
TAPS 311. Performance and Historiography. 4 Units.
This graduate seminar focuses on questions of historiography and the archive as they relate to studies of theater, dance, and performance. It blends rigorous discussion and theoretical exploration with practical experience in libraries, museums, and other local archival repositories. Throughout the course, we will explore representation, memory, repertoire, and narrative through examples in theatre and performance history. We will examine how events have been historicized, how absence has been represented, and how individuals are remembered and refigured. Important principles and practices of documentation will also be addressed throughout our discussions and activities. Our discussions and field trips will examine the status of data and various forms of evidence in constructing critical performance history (including prompt scripts, set designs, costumes, publicity material and other ephemera, actorly life-writing, video and digital documents, artifacts, visual material, and embodied traces). TAPS 311 also functions as a gateway course for TAPS PhD students in your first quarter of study at Stanford, familiarizing you with resources at the university and in the broader Bay Area.
TAPS 313. Performance and Performativity. 5 Units.
Performance theory through topics including: affect/trauma, embodiment, empathy, theatricality/performativity, specularity/visibility, liveness/disappearance, belonging/abjection, and utopias and dystopias. Readings from Schechner, Phelan, Austin, Butler, Conquergood, Roach, Schneider, Silverman, Caruth, Fanon, Moten, Anzaldúa, Agamben, Freud, and Lacan. May be repeated for credit.
Same as: ENGLISH 313, FEMGEN 313
TAPS 314. Performing Identities. 4 Units.
This course examines claims and counter-claims of identity, a heated political and cultural concept over the past few decades. We will consider the ways in which theories of performance have offered generative discursive frameworks for the study of identities, variously shaped by vectors of race, gender, sexuality, religion, class, nation, ethnicity, among others. How is identity as a social category different from identity as a unique and personal attribute of selfhood? Throughout the course we will focus on the inter-locking ways in which certain dimensions of identity become salient at particular historical conjunctures. In addition, we will consider the complex discourses of identity within transnational and historical frameworks. Readings include Robin Bernstein, Ann Pellegrini, Tavia Nyong¿o, Jose Munoz, Michael Taussig, Wendy Brown, Talal Asad, Jasbir Puar, among others.
Same as: FEMGEN 314
TAPS 315. Dramaturgy. 4 Units.
This class examines the role of narrativity in live performance. Class topics range from the classics, to contemporary theater, dance, new media, performance art curatorship, and beyond, to grand social narratives. Integration of scholarship and practice is one of basic principles of dramaturgy, and this class follows in that spirit. Exploration of dramaturgical techniques is aimed to help students prepare to work on production dramaturgy. To that end, they will have an option to complete their final course assignment by serving as production dramaturgs on one of TAPS shows.
Same as: TAPS 151
TAPS 319. Modern Theatre. 1-5 Unit.
Modern theatre in Europe and the US, with a focus on the most influential works from roughly 1880 to the present. What were the conventions of theatrical practice that modern theatre displaced? What were the principal innovations of modern playwriting, acting, stage design, and theatrical architecture? How did modern theatrical artists wrestle with the revolutionary transformations of the modern age? Plays by Büchner, Ibsen, Strindberg, Shaw, Chekhov, Wilde, Wedekind, Treadwell, Pirandello, Brecht, O¿Neill, Beckett, Smith, Parks, and Nottage.
Same as: GERMAN 319, TAPS 119
TAPS 32. The 5th Element: Hip Hop Knowledge, Pedagogy, and Social Justice. 1-5 Unit.
This course-series brings together leading scholars with critically-acclaimed artists, local teachers, youth, and community organizations to consider the complex relationships between culture, knowledge, pedagogy and social justice. Participants will examine the cultural meaning of knowledge as "the 5th element" of Hip Hop Culture (in addition to MCing, DJing, graffiti, and dance) and how educators and cultural workers have leveraged this knowledge for social justice. Overall, participants will gain a strong theoretical knowledge of culturally relevant and culturally sustaining pedagogies and learn to apply this knowledge by engaging with guest artists, teachers, youth, and community youth arts organizations.
Same as: AFRICAAM 32, AMSTUD 32, CSRE 32A, EDUC 32, EDUC 432
TAPS 321. Proseminar. 3 Units.
Prepares PhD students for the academic profession by honing skills in presenting and publishing research, navigating the job market, and managing a career.
TAPS 325. Nietzsche: Life as Performance. 3-5 Units.
Nietzsche famously considered that "there is no 'being' behind the deed, its effect, and what becomes of it; the 'doer' is invented as an afterthought - the doing is everything." How should we understand this idea of a deed without a doer, how might it relate to performance, and what influence has it had on modern culture? In order to answer these questions, we will consider Nietzsche's writings alongside some of the artworks that influenced Nietzsche or were influenced by him.
Same as: GERMAN 125, GERMAN 325, TAPS 152L
TAPS 33. Introduction to Technical Theater and Production. 2-3 Units.
A fun, collaborative, hands-on course subjecting students to the basics of scenery, props, painting, rigging, sound, lighting, costumes, and other production elements used in theater. This class is good for all types of theater students interested in producing theater at Stanford and beyond.
TAPS 332. Performance and Ethnography. 3-4 Units.
This graduate seminar explores the relationship between performance and ethnography. We will discuss different critical perspectives on ethnographic methods and data gathering, and learn about participant-observation fieldwork and interview techniques, with an emphasis on developing ethical, generative research approaches that are beneficial to the subject as well as to the scholar. This course purposefully blends theory and practice, connecting philosophical discussions to concrete case studies, field trips, and your own research practices.
TAPS 335. Introduction to Graduate Production. 1 Unit.
This course introduces first-year TAPS PhD student to the TAPS production process and resources. Meetings will be scheduled ad hoc.
TAPS 336. Comprehensive 1st Year Exam. 2 Units.
Required course for first-year Ph.D. students in Theater & Performance Studies. Credits for work toward the Comprehensive 1st-year Exam taken in late February or Early March.
TAPS 34. Stage Management Techniques. 3 Units.
The production process, duties, and responsibilities of a stage manager. Skills needed to stage manage a production.
TAPS 340. An Other Art: Creativity and Neurodiversity. 4 Units.
From its initial institutional recognition in the first decades of the 20th century, there were repeated attempts to bring creative work of the mentally ill within the fold of art: from pioneering psychiatric work informed by psychoanalysis, to its exaltation by French Surrealists, to Art Brut, to the budding industry of Outsider Art. Still, created outside of art institutions this kind of art is an expression of an inner necessity of artists, and not of their skills and professional savvy. Regardless of the level of recognition, creations of neuro-diverse people remain on distant margins not only of art institutions, but of the society. As such, this art marks the limits of the social as conceived in western contemporary culture. In this seminar, we will explore neuro-diversity in different art forms, from visual works, to music, to performance, all the way to the works that escape categorization, such as the spatial aesthetics of the homeless. Through the seminar, we will pay special attention to the social position of this, most vulnerable of all forms of artistic production: the stigma attached to madness, neglect of neuro diverse people, and social, political, and economic challenges related to (de)institutionalization of the mentally ill in the United States.
Same as: ARTHIST 477A
TAPS 341. Ars Theoretica: On Scholar-Artists. 4 Units.
Interdisciplinarity is one of the hallmarks of performance studies, and integration of scholarly research and creative practice is at the core of our educational mission in TAPS. In this seminar, we will investigate the promise of mutual enrichment between these two areas. In exploring the work of scholar-artists who are working in theater and performance, we will ask what are some of the principles, methods, and procedures artists are using in their studios that can be productively employed in scholarly work, and vice versa: how scholarly research can support and engage the process of artistic creation. Interdisciplinarity thrives on collaboration, so accordingly, we will make efforts to explore the modes of collaborative scholarly work. In doing that we will try to perform, rather than just study and observe, the intersection between theory and practice in our discipline.
TAPS 341E. English Drama Before Shakespeare. 5 Units.
English dramatic and theatrical culture from the mystery cycles of the late medieval period to the establishment of professional playhouses in late sixteenth-century London. Different dramatic genres (interludes, moralities, farces, tragedies, comedies, histories, pastoral plays), performance venues (streets, households, inns, schools, universities, court, playhouses), and dramatic traditions (classical, native, continental European) will be represented. Authors (of those who have names) range from Medwall, Skelton, Heywood, Preston, and Edwards to Lyly, Kyd, Greene, Peele, and Marlowe.
TAPS 342. Counter-Institution: Performance and Institutional Critique. 4 Units.
What are institutions? How do they think? What motivates their actions? What is their relationship to communities and individual artists? Do they promote or constrain free artistic exploration? These are some of the questions that have been animating critique of institutions in Western art over the past several decades. Contemporaneous with performance art, institutional critique transformed and expanded the very idea of this art practice. In asking, for example, how a museum performs, what it performs, and for whom, institutional critique points to its own position inside complex institutional web generated by modern capitalist society. In this class, we will look at sources of institutional critique in the work of Kazimir Malevich and Marcel Duchamp, the representatives of the first generation such as Adrian Piper, Hans Haacke and Art & Language, and the second generation, such as Fred Wilson and Andrea Frazer, to recent engagements with institutional critique by artists such as Hito Steyerl.
Same as: ARTHIST 444
TAPS 350V. The Idea of Virtual Reality. 4 Units.
What is virtual reality and where is it heading? Was there VR before digital technology? What is the value of the real in a virtual culture? How, where, and when do we draw the line between the virtual and the real, the live and the mediated today? Concentrating on three aspects of VR simulation, immersion, and interactivity this course will examine recent experiments alongside a long history of virtual performance, from Plato's Cave to contemporary CAVEs, from baroque theatre design to Oculus Rift.
Same as: TAPS 150V
TAPS 351. Global Great Books: Dramatic Dialogues. 3-5 Units.
The most influential and enduring texts in the dramatic canon from Sophocles to Shakespeare, Chekhov to Soyinka. Their historical and geopolitical contexts. Questions about the power dynamics involved in the formation of canons. This course counts as a Writing in the Major course for TAPS in 2016-17.
Same as: TAPS 151T
TAPS 351P. Transpacific Performance. 4 Units.
Building on exciting new work in transpacific studies, this course explores how performance reveals the many ways in which cultures and communities intersect across the diverse and dynamic Pacific Ocean world, covering works from the Americas and Asia, Pacific Islands, and Australia. In an era when the Pacific has emerged as the center of global cultural and financial power, what critical and ethical role does performance play in treating the region's entangled histories, its urgent contemporary issues, and possible futures?.
Same as: CSRE 151P, TAPS 151P
TAPS 353P. Black Artistry: Performance in the Black Diaspora. 4 Units.
Charting a course from colonial America to contemporary London, this course explores the long history of Black performance throughout an Atlantic diaspora. Defining performance as "forms of cultural staging," from Thomas DeFrantz and Anita Gonzalez's Black Performance Theory, this course takes up scripted plays, live theatre, devised works, performance art, and cinematic performance in its survey of the field. We will engage with theorists, performer, artists, and revolutionaries such as Ignatius Sancho, Maria Stewart, William Wells Brown, Zora Neale Hurston, Derek Walcott, Danai Gurira, and Yvonne Orji. We will address questions around Black identity, history, time, and futurity, as well as other essential strategies Black performers have engaged in their performance making. The course includes essential methodological readings for Black Studies as well as formational writings in Black performance theory and theatre studies. Students will establish a foothold in both AAAS (theory & methodology) and in performance history (plays and performances). As a WIM course, students will gain expertise in devising, drafting, and revising written essays.
Same as: AFRICAAM 153P, CSRE 153P, TAPS 153P
TAPS 353W. Warhol's World. 5 Units.
Andy Warhol's art has never before been more widely exhibited, published, or licensed for commercial use, product design, and publication than it is today. For all Warhol's promiscuous visibility and global cachet at the current moment, there is much we have yet to learn about his work and the conditions of its making. This course considers the wide world of Warhol's art and life, including his commercial work of the 1950s, Pop art and films of the 1960s, and celebrity portraiture of the 1970s and 80s. Of particular interest throughout will be Warhol's photography as it reflects his interest in wealth and celebrity on the one hand and on the everyday life of everyday people on the other. The course will include multiple visits to Contact Warhol: Photography without End, an exhibition co-curated by Prof. Meyer on view throughout the quarter at the Cantor Arts Center.
Same as: AMSTUD 153, ARTHIST 153, ARTHIST 353, FEMGEN 153, TAPS 153W
TAPS 356. Performing History: Race, Politics, and Staging the Plays of August Wilson. 4 Units.
This course purposefully and explicitly mixes theory and practice. Students will read and discuss the plays of August Wilson, the most celebrated and most produced contemporary American playwright, that comprise his 20th Century History Cycle. Class stages scenes from each of these plays, culminating in a final showcase of longer scenes from his work as a final project.
Same as: AFRICAAM 156, CSRE 156T, TAPS 156
TAPS 356A. Warhol: Painting, Photography, Performance. 4 Units.
This course focuses on the career of Andy Warhol as a means to consider the broader history of American art and culture since 1950. It examines little-studied aspects of Warhol¿s visual production (e.g. his career as a commercial artist in the 1950s and his everyday photographs of the 1970s and 1980s) alongside his now-canonical Pop paintings of the 1960s. Warhol?s critical and scholarly reception will be scrutinized in detail, as will published interviews of and writings by the artist. Finally, we will consider Warhol¿s legacy and wide-ranging influence on American culture in the decades since his death in 1987.
Same as: ARTHIST 156A, ARTHIST 356A, TAPS 156A
TAPS 357. World Drama and Performance. 4 Units.
This course takes up a geographically expansive conversation by looking at modern and contemporary drama from nations including Ghana, Egypt, India, Argentina, among others. Considering influential texts from the Global South will also enable us to explore a range of themes and methodologies that are radically re-shaping the field of Performance Studies. We will examine the relationship between colonialism and globalization, empire and capital, cosmopolitanism and neoliberalism. Re-situating our perspective from the Global South and the non-western world, we will ¿provincialize Europe¿ and probe the limits of its universalizing discourses.
Same as: TAPS 157
TAPS 357S. Edward Said, or Scholar vs Empire. 3-4 Units.
How can an intellectual fight forces far larger than a single individual? How can solidarity be an antidote to racism? Why is there no distinction between the local and the global? What is the scholar's role in an alienating political climate? Why are criticism and humanism necessary partners? The author of Orientalism and world-changing frameworks such as Travelling Theory, Permission To Narrate, and Contrapuntal Reading, as well as remarkable texts, such as On Late Style and Representations of the Intellectual, teaches us how criticism can blunt instruments of empire. In this course, students observe the journey of one scholar as he writes between worlds against imperialist supremacy and colonial logic. They'll move from Exile to Indigeneity, Silence to Music, Centers to Margins, Victimhood to Dignity, West to East, Peace to Terror, Theory to Practice, Politics to Knowledge, Religiosity to Secularism, Statehood to Fragmentation, and back.
Same as: CSRE 357, ENGLISH 357S, GLOBAL 157, TAPS 157S
TAPS 360. Greek Tragedy. 3-5 Units.
The seminar explores the intellectual, political, and cultural background of 5th-century Athenian tragedy, with special focus on the theatrical dynamics of the major plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Although the seminar emphasizes a close reading of the tragedies themselves, secondary sources include selections from Homer, Thucydides, Aristophanes, Aristotle, Hegel, and Nietzsche, as well as modern and contemporary classical scholars (Jebb, Dodds, Segal, Taplin, Goldhill, Nussbaum, Easterling, Foley, Seidensticker, Griffiths, Rehm, Wiles, Hall, Budelmann, and others). The seminar assigns the plays in English translation, but students with ancient Greek are encouraged to enroll, and accommodations can be made to attend to their interests. Plays include Persians, Prometheus Bound, the Oresteia trilogy (Aeschylus); Antigone, Oedipus, Oedipus at Colonus, Electra, and Philoctetes (Sophocles); and Medea, Heracles, Electra, Ion, Helen, and Bacchae (Euripides).
TAPS 361P. Dance and the Politics of Movement. 4 Units.
This course examines how the dancing body has been viewed, exhibited, analyzed, and interpreted from the late nineteenth century to the present. We will discuss how ideologies about race, gender, and sexual orientation are mapped onto the body, as well as investigate the body's place in discourses on religion, health, war, performance, and consumer culture. We will explore how people create meaning through dance and how dance, in turn, shapes social norms, political institutions, and cultural practices. The course's structure challenges the Western/non-Western binary by comparing dance forms across the globe.
Same as: DANCE 161P, LIFE 161P, TAPS 161P
TAPS 370A. The Director's Craft. 4 Units.
This workshop class guides students through the directing process from investigating the big ideas of a play and analysing the action to organizing and running rehearsals to building up the world of the play through character work and visual composition. Over the quarter we will look at the use of creative visualization and improvisation alongside working with actors on ideas, emotions, relationships, textual analysis and blocking. This course also attends to the process of communicating with designers and production teams as well as structuring rehearsals, run-throughs and technical and dress rehearsals. Each student will select a theatrical text to work from across the quarter. In many cases the student's text will be a play that they are planning to direct in future, such as productions for student groups like Ram's Head or Stanford Shakespeare Company, TAPS capstone projects, TAPS 2nd year grad shows and/or TAPS Second Stage productions. No previous directing experience in necessary.nnTAPS PhD students and declared TAPS majors/minors will be permitted enrollment automatically. Please email instructor Michael Rau (mjrau@stanford.edu) to receive a permission number.nnStudents who are not currently TAPS PhDs, majors, or minors: To enroll in this course, please email instructor Michael Rau (mjrau@stanford.edu) with: your name, your major (or prospective major), any relevant experience in theater or classes that you¿ve taken, and a short (2-3 sentences) statement of why you are interested in taking this course.
Same as: TAPS 170A
TAPS 371. Performance Making. 4 Units.
A studio course focused on creative processes and generating original material. Students will be encouraged to think critically about the relationship between form and content exploring the possibilities of site specific, gallery and theatre settings. Students will reflect throughout on the types of contact and communication uniquely possible in the live moment, such as interaction or the engagement of the senses. The emphasis is on weekly experimentation in the creation of short works rather than on a final production.
TAPS 371P. Theater and Performance Making. 4 Units.
A creative workshop offering a range of generative exercises and techniques in order to devise, compose and perform original works. Students will explore a variety of texts (plays, poems, short stories, paintings) and work with the body, object and site. nnStudents will be encouraged to think critically about various compositional themes and ideas including: the relationship between form and content, aesthetics, space, proximity, and audience. Students will work independently and collaboratively creating original performances.nnTAPS PhD students and declared TAPS majors/minors will be permitted enrollment automatically. Please email instructor Michael Rau (mjrau@stanford.edu) to receive a permission number.nnStudents who are not currently TAPS PhDs, majors, or minors: To enroll in this course, please email instructor Michael Rau (mjrau@stanford.edu) with: your name, your major (or prospective major), any relevant experience in theater or classes that you¿ve taken, and a short (2-3 sentences) statement of why you are interested in taking this course.
Same as: TAPS 101P
TAPS 372. Directing Workshop: The Actor-Director Dialogue. 2-4 Units.
This course focuses on the actor-director dialogue. We will work with actors and directors developing approaches to collaboration that make the actor-director dialogue in theater. TAPS Ph.D. students are required to enroll in TAPS 372 for 4 units. This course must be taken for a minimum of 3 units and a letter grade to be eligible for Ways-AII credit.
Same as: TAPS 170B
TAPS 374. Digital Theater-Making: Creative Code and Performance. 4 Units.
A creative workshop offering a range of techniques and technologies in order to create original works of theater that are performed over the internet. Students will be invited to explore different artistic strategies combined with demonstrations of emerging technologies. Students will have an opportunity to practice and develop these skills with weekly short digital theater composition assignments. Students will be given readings and short videos about the artistic practices of certain artists along with guest speakers. The course will culminate in a final group performance.
Same as: TAPS 174
TAPS 376. Projects in Performance. 4 Units.
Creative projects to be determined in consultation with Drama graduate faculty and production advisor.
TAPS 379. Chicano & Chicana Theater: Politics In Performance. 4 Units.
This is a practicum course, where the basic tenets and evolving politic and philosophies of Chicano and Latin American liberationist theater are examined through direct engagement with its theatrical forms, including, social protest & agit-prop, myth & ritual, scripting through improvisation, in-depth character and solo work, collective conceptualization and more. The course will culminate in an end-of-the quarter play performance in the Nitery Theater (Old Union) and at a Mission District theater in San Francisco.
Same as: CHILATST 179
TAPS 388B. Critical Theory: New Direction. 3-5 Units.
A survey of five new(ish) approaches to literature and the visual/performing arts crucial for graduate work. These are: critical race theory, eco-criticism, ethics, sexuality and machine learning.
Same as: ENGLISH 388B
TAPS 39. Theater Crew. 1-3 Unit.
For students working backstage, on run crew, or in the theater shops on TAPS department productions. Night and weekend time required. Pre-approval from Jane Casamajor (janecasa@stanford.edu) is required for enrollment.
TAPS 390. Directed Reading. 1-6 Unit.
Students may take directing reading only with the permission of their dissertation advisor. Might be repeatable for credit twice for 6 units total.
TAPS 396. Dancing Black: Embodying the African Diaspora in the United States and the Caribbean. 4 Units.
What does it mean to dance black? How can studying comparative dance practices across the United States and the Caribbean expose continuities and differences in African diaspora experience? How can we draw strategies from black performance to inform our current movements for social change? This class will explore how dance and writing about performance have shaped notions of what it means to identify or be marked as an African diaspora subject. From the ring shouts of captive Africans to the 20th-century concert dance stage, from New York queer ballroom culture to Tiktok fads, this class will expose students to both historical and ethnographic methods for using dance to study the formation of black community in the New World. Looking beyond the surface of skin, we¿ll explore how race is experienced in muscle and flesh, and how black performers have historically taken advantage of or disavowed racialized ideas of how they can/should move. We will read theories of diaspora, queer of color critique and black feminist theory, and performance theory. We will search for the common questions and conversations about embodiment, the spectator¿s gaze, and black belonging that run through all three disciplines. Students will be required to do some movement research (through accessible, at-home dance practice), write weekly journals, and complete short essay projects. Students develop will skills for writing, speaking, and making performance to explore the intersections between race, sexuality, and dance.
Same as: AFRICAAM 196, DANCE 196, TAPS 196
TAPS 39D. Small Project Stage Management. 2-4 Units.
For students Stage Mananging a TAPS Senior Project or Assistant Stage Managing a TAPS department production. Pre-approval by Laxmi Kumaran (laxmik@stanford.edu) required for enrollment.
TAPS 40N. Family Drama: American Plays about Families. 3 Units.
Focus on great dramas about family life (Albee, Kushner, Shephard, Vogel, Kron, Nottage, Parks). Communication in writing and speaking about conflict central to learning in this class.
Same as: AMSTUD 41N, ENGLISH 41N
TAPS 41N. Inventing Modern Theatre: Georg Büchner and Frank Wedekind. 3 Units.
The German writers Georg Büchner (1813-1837) and Frank Wedekind (1864-1918). Many of the most important theater and film directors of the last century, including Max Reinhardt, G. W. Pabst, Orson Welles, Robert Wilson, and Werner Herzog, have wrestled with their works, as have composers and writers from Alban Berg and Bertolt Brecht through Christa Wolf and Thalia Field. Rock artists as diverse as Tom Waits, Lou Reed, Duncan Sheik, and Metallica have recently rediscovered their urgency. Reading these works in translation and examining artistic creations they inspired. Classroom discussions and written responses; students also rehearse and present in-class performances of excerpts from the plays. The aim of these performances is not to produce polished stagings but to creatively engage with the texts and their interpretive traditions. No previous theatrical experience required.
TAPS 42. Costume Construction. 2 Units.
Course will cover the basics of costume and garment construction. Includes hand and machine skills as well as basic patterning ideas that may be applied to more advanced projects. Lecture/Lab.
TAPS 60. How We Sing: The Voice, How It Functions, and the Singer's Mind. 1 Unit.
A weekly lecture course for singers, pianists, directors, conductors, and anyone who is interested in the art and craft of the voice. The voice is an instrument whose sounds are determined by its structure and the choices the singer makes. Students will learn how the voice works: the physiology of the instrument, breathing, resonance, and adjustments the singer makes to the instrument to produce sounds appropriate for various styles of vocal music. This course is intended for singers, pianists, conductors, musical directors and directors of groups that include singers, regardless of style or size of ensemble, with the goal of promoting excellent and healthy vocal performance. Ability to sing and/or read music is not required; this is not a voice class.
Same as: MUSIC 60
TAPS 802. TGR Dissertation. 0 Units.
(Staff).
TAPS 89N. Literature of Adoption. 3 Units.
Why does adoption figure so prominently in western narrative? From Oedipus to Harry Potter, the classical and popular traditions of literature often include stories of displaced children, orphans and adoptees. This course will examine the allure of the adoption narrative, both to authors and to audiences. Issues of transracial adoption will also be discussed and we will be concerned with memoir and documentary film toward the end of the quarter. No previous knowledge of adoption is required.
Same as: ENGLISH 89N
