This program was designed for the student who has an interest in exploring the roots of the performing arts: music, theatre, and dance. Through readings, seminars, lectures on the history and selected works of art, critiques of these works, response papers and hands-on workshops, the students were given both a broad and specific introduction to the performing arts. Lectures (three hours each week) showed the historical development of the performing arts as they grew in several areas of the world, including Russia, India, Japan, Western Europe prior to the Renaissance, and Africa. Film/video, audio and live performance presentations of the periods studied (three hours each week) were used to develop critique skills and aesthetic awareness of the performing arts. Weekly seminars (two hours each week) were based on readings, lectures and critiquing works of art. Students wrote a response paper to bring to each seminar, which was based on the readings and suggested perspectives. Each student kept a program notebook during the program, which contained notes from lectures, critiques of films, videos and presentations, reactions to seminars, and progress records of workshop activities. The largest part of the program was the workshop segment. Students attended a workshop (six hours each week) in which they developed practical skills in music, dance or theatre. These workshops are summarized as follows:
Composition Workshop: The focus of the composition workshop was on music theory, analysis and composition, with a secondary emphasis on ear training and building performance skills. Basic music theory training included clefs, key signatures, time signatures, syncopation, melody, four-part harmony, scales (major, minor, modal, and blues), chords (major, minor, diminished, augmented, and inversions), modes, interlocking patterns, and polyrhythms. Composition exercises included basic melodies (major, minor, modal, and blues), three-part rounds, four-part choral writing, polyrhythmic percussive works, lyrics experimenting with various rhyming schemes, and creating a minuet. Students performed their own compositions twice during the program, and developed basic notation skills. Analysis exercises focused primarily on notated pieces, while ear training involved listening, vocalizing, and learning to recognize intervals, chords, rhythms and styles.
Choreography Workshop: This workshop was designed to introduce the students to the use of movement to create dances. No previous dance experience was expected and each student worked in movements which were developed over the quarter. Assignments were given to develop skills in use of space, rhythm, performance and critical awareness. Their walk dance was a short piece based on three walks which they observed and reproduced. The graph dance was an assignment to take a pattern on paper and teach it to three students with the stipulation that they predetermine two or more meetings. The round dance was an eight count combination which was taught to four students and performed in four, two and one count sequences and to have predetermined actions and interactions. They developed a story to a piece of music, performed a solo dance to free-rhythm music, taught a dance to another student using Baroque music and their final project was a collaborative piece to music of their choice.
Acting Workshop (fall quarter only): The Acting Workshop was structured to present seven aspects of acting: relaxation and use of the body (through exercise and warm-up games), imitation (imitating walks of others and imitating animals), story and conflict (improvisational scenes), use of the voice (vocal exercises and work on choral passages from Oedipus), creating a character through a monologue (performance of monologues), working with another actor (dialog scenes), and working with an ensemble (scenes from “Major Barbara”). Students began by learning exercise and relation techniques to reduce tension and become aware of the expressive aspects of all parts of the body. Next they concentrated on imitation — making audience members believe you are someone or something else. This was first accomplished by imitating walks of other people on campus. We also made masks/costumes of animals in an attempt to catch the essence of the animals. Improvisational scenes developed story and conflict resolution.
The many qualities of the voice were examined in vocal exercises and a group reading of choral passages from Oedipus. Students were then asked to combine all of these skills in scenes from plays. Beginning with two to five minute monologues, this work continued in a set of dialog scenes with a partner. The final experience was to work ensembles on two scenes from “Major Barbara” by George Bernard Shaw. Student directors prepared the scenes, which were shared with the entire program during the tenth week. In addition to developing their individual acting skills, the students got an excellent insight into the collaborative nature of the performing arts. Arranging schedules, making rehearsals, giving constructive critiques, and taking chances were all part of the experience gained in the Acting Workshop.
Acting Workshop (winter quarter only): The acting workshop was designed to parallel the program’s dance and music workshops. That is, we aimed to introduce concepts and skills in the arts through hands-on learning experience. The first five weeks of Acting Workshop consisted of exercises, improvisations and in-house assignments meant to relax the beginning actor. Story telling, voice and body warmups, mime, movement, word games, monologues, observation games, awareness exercises, stretching and quick study tasks were used to help build confidence, focus and skills. More independent in the second half, small teams worked to dramatize stories, rehearse and direct each other’s scenes, and present work to be critiqued and repeated.
Performances for the whole program week five drew scenes from the contemporary plays Cowboy Mouth by Sam Shepherd, Elm Circle by Mick Casale, Am I Blue by Beth Henley, The Art of Dining by Tina Howe, and from A. A. Milne’s classic Winnie the Pooh. The final performances week ten included scenes from Goethe’s Faust, Moliere’s Tartuffe, Congreve’s The Way of the World, a children’s story Tog the Ribber by Paul Coltman, and the film spoof Monthy Python and the Holy Grail. Students decided upon and were responsible for concept, staging, costumes and props. Each faculty member was responsible for a third of the lectures, a performing arts workshop, and seminars. Students were divided so that most had different seminar and workshop leaders; this increased the diversity of faculty contact for the students.
Spring quarter:
This quarter was designed for the student who is interested in exploring the modern evolution of the performing arts: music, theatre, and dance. Through readings, seminars, lectures on the selected works of art, critiques of these works, response papers and hands-on workshops, the students were given both a broad and specific introduction to the performing arts. Lectures (three hours each week) focused on the performing arts of the late nineteenth and most of the twentieth century. Video, audio and live performance presentations of the periods studied (three hours each week) were used to develop critique skills and aesthetic awareness of the performing arts. Weekly seminars (two hours each week) were based on readings, lectures and critiquing works of art. Students wrote a response paper to bring to each seminar, which was based on the readings and suggested perspectives. Each student kept a program notebook during the program, which contained notes from lectures, critiques of films, videos and presentations, reactions to seminars, and progress records of workshop activities.
Students read the following books: Listen, by Joseph Kerman; Hedda Gabler, by Henrik Ibsen, Ballet and Modern Dance, by Jack Anderson; Beauty and the Beast; The Cherry Orchard, by Anton Chekhov; Henry IV, by Luigi Pirandello; Mother Courage, by Bertolt Brecht; The Children’s Hour, by Lillian Hellman); For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, by Ntozake Shange; Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, by August Wilson, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller; A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams; M. Butterfly, by David Hwang; and Orpheus, by Ovid. Videos included The Green Table, Afternoon of a Faun, Black Orpheus, La Sylphide, The Rite of Spring, Beauty and the Beast, The Front, Singing in the Rain, La Spectre de la Rose, Koyaanisqatsi, A Doll’s House, Appalachian Spring, and A Streetcar Named Desire.
The largest part of the program was the workshop segment. Students attended a workshop (six hours each week) in which they developed practical skills in composition, choreography or acting. During weeks six through ten, the second weekly workshop was devoted to collaborative inter-arts work. That is, students from the three skills workshops (acting, choreography, and music) teamed together to prepare ten-minute performances. Each faculty member was assigned to three performance groups and met with them at the collaborative workshop period. These performances were held in week ten in the Experimental Theater.