Graduate General Theatre Topics Classes

Please note that not all courses are offered every semester. This listing is not considered authoritative. Please visit Access.SMU for authoritative course offerings including meeting times, professor, and more.

THEA 5101, THEA 5201, THEA 5301: Directed Studies in Theater

THEA 5398, THEA 5399: Production Research and Development
Script analysis, background research and performance design for actors, designers and directors.

THEA 6101, THEA 6201, THEA 6301: Directed Studies in Theater

THEA 6216: Theories of Modern Theater Practice
An examination of the role theory has played in the development of modern and postmodern theater practice. Significant attention will be devoted to theorist/practitioners working prior to 1960: Wagner, Appia, Craig, Stanislavski, Brecht, Artaud, the Prague School and Grotowski. After 1960, readings and viewings will foreground myriad issues, among them the formative impact of theories of textuality, semiotics, colonialism, race and gender on contemporary theater constructs.

THEA 6217: Text Analysis II
Development of analytical skills in verse drama from Aeschylus to Derrick Walcott. Focus will rest on the text as a blueprint for action.

THEA 6315: Text Analysis I
An interdisciplinary and integrated approach to the analysis of modern and postmodern dramatic literature for acting, design and directing students. Students will acquire the skills necessary to use texts as the blueprints for interpretation and/or departure. Reading, discussion and written analyses of selected texts will form the basis of class interaction, but secondary critical literature will be used selectively to foreground key issues. Texts will range from Dumas fils (c. 1850) to contemporary dramatists.

THEA 6338
A course that makes the Shakespearean text accessible to the contemporary actor, student and audience through performance. Political, social and humanistic aspects of Shakespearean drama are examined as they relate to contemporary society. Intense scene study workshops culminate in public performance.