Tamilla Woodard, Chair
Grace Zandarski, Associate Chair
The Acting program admits talented and committed individuals from a wide range of backgrounds who possess a lively intelligence, a strong imagination, a collaborative ethos, and a physical and vocal instrument capable of development and transformation and prepares them for work as professional actors. The program combines in-depth classroom training and extensive personalized tutorials with interdisciplinary production opportunities. The Acting program further recognizes and affirms the call for our field, our faculty, and our theater-makers-in-training to prioritize anti-racist and anti-oppressive practices and pedagogies in order to create a more just, joyful, and liberated profession. At the conclusion of their training, graduates will be prepared to work on a wide range of material in multiple genres, venues, and collaborative processes.
The first year is a highly disciplined period of training, with a concentration on the basic principles of craft that lead to extraordinary acting: active listening, authentic response, expansive imagination, and a spirit of play. Models of realism are explored through work on a variety of scenes by contemporary and modern playwrights, as actors identify practical tools for mining the printed text for given circumstances, character, objective, and action while also acquiring voice and speech skills. The second year begins with a focus on verse drama and physical storytelling, creating embodied performances of Shakespeare and beginning explorations of clown. The second term of the second year continues with the emphasis on developing an expansive sense of truth through heightened and extended language and movement with work on noncontemporary texts from world literature. The third year includes work on nonnaturalistic texts with challenging theatricality, as well as a semester-long solo verbatim project and development of self-generated performance material. Voice and accents work includes developing the expanded and extended voice, as well as independent exploration of accents and dialects. Students also have multiple courses in learning to work on camera and in front of a microphone, transferring their acquired skills to the mediums of film and audio recording.
School production opportunities include work in a wide-ranging season of directors’ thesis productions, Shakespeare Repertory Projects, new plays by student playwrights, and program projects led by faculty or a professional guest director. All casting is assigned by the Chair of the Acting program (pending approval by the dean) based on the developmental needs of each student, the needs of the specific project as articulated by its director, and the desire to achieve a balance of collaborative opportunity between all students. Actors should take note of the casting policy, described under Program Assignments. During the academic year, and due in part to the highly interdependent and collaborative nature of the School, permission to act in projects outside the School is rarely given.
Yale Repertory Theatre serves as an advanced training center for the program. Most Acting students will work at Yale Rep as understudies, observing and working alongside professional actors and directors. Students may be cast in Yale Rep productions during the season, depending upon their appropriateness to the roles available. Through work at Yale Repertory Theatre, those students who are not members of Actors’ Equity will attain membership to the union upon graduation.
Yale Cabaret provides an additional, although strictly extracurricular, outlet for the exploration of a wide range of material, including self-scripted pieces, company-devised original work, adaptations, and musicals. The program’s chair works directly with the Yale Cabaret artistic directors regarding approval of Cabaret participation by actors. Participation in Yale Cabaret productions is dependent on students’ program-related casting obligations and academic standing.
As adult learners in training for a demanding profession and members of a highly interdependent community of co-learners, attendance at all scheduled classes, tutorials, conferences, rehearsal calls, work-study assignments, production assignments, and productions is expected and mandatory. If students are unable to be in attendance as expected due to personal illness or family emergency, they have a responsibility to notify all those who will be affected by their absence and in as timely a manner as possible.
Plan of Study: Acting
Required Sequence
Year One
| Course | Subject |
|---|---|
| DRAM 50a | The Theatrical Event |
| DRAM 51b | New Play Lab |
| DRAM 53a | Authentic Collaboration |
| DRAM 103a/b | Acting I |
| DRAM 113a/b | Voice I |
| DRAM 123a/b | Speech and Accents I |
| DRAM 133a/b | The Body as Source I |
| DRAM 143a/b | Alexander Technique I |
| DRAM 153a | Play |
| DRAM 163b | Text Analysis I |
| DRAM 173a | Movement I |
| DRAM 180a | Rehearsal Practicum: Meeting the Play |
| DRAM 403a/b | Acting Intimacy and Combat for the Stage |
| DRAM 563a | Activated Analysis |
| DRAM 863b | Principles of Anti-Racist Theater |
| DRAM 873a/b | Global Theater and Performance: A Theater History Survey |
Year Two
| Course | Subject |
|---|---|
| DRAM 163a | Text Analysis II |
| DRAM 190a | Shakespeare Practicum |
| DRAM 203a/b | Acting II: Plays of Extended and Heightened Language |
| DRAM 213a/b | Voice II |
| DRAM 223a/b | Speech and Accents II |
| DRAM 233b | The Body as Source II |
| DRAM 243a/b | Alexander Technique II Tutorials |
| DRAM 263a/b | Clown |
| DRAM 273a | Character Analysis and Movement |
| DRAM 405a/b | Advanced Principles of Acting Stage Combat |
| DRAM 413a/b | Singing II and Tutorials |
| DRAM 733a | Mapping the Energetic Body |
Year Three
| Course | Subject |
|---|---|
| DRAM 253a | Commedia |
| DRAM 273b | Character Analysis and Movement |
| DRAM 303a | Acting III |
| DRAM 313a | Voice III |
| DRAM 323a/b | Speech and Accents III |
| DRAM 333a | The Body on Set |
| DRAM 343a/b | Alexander Technique III Tutorials |
| DRAM 363a | You Are the Creator |
| DRAM 383b | Voiceover Workshop |
| DRAM 423a/b | Acting Through Song |
| DRAM 463a | On-Camera Acting Technique |
| DRAM 473b | Taming the Cyclops |
| DRAM 723a | Voices for Animation and other Mediums |
| DRAM 743b | Professional Preparation and Audition Workshop |
| DRAM 763a | The Art of Self-Tape for Television, Motion Pictures, and Theater |
| DRAM 793b | Actor Showcase |
Additional Requirements for the Degree
Anti-Racist Theater Practice Requirement
Acting students are required to enroll in DRAM 863b, Principles of Anti-Racist Theater, in order to fulfill the School’s anti-racist theater practice requirement. Combined with the prerequisite workshop, Everyday Justice: Anti-Racism as Daily Practice, this course offers vital strategies for the lifelong development of individual and communal anti-racist practice.
Theater History Requirement
Acting students are required to enroll in a DRAM 873a/b, Global Theater and Performance, in order to fulfill the School’s theater history requirement. This course is considered a crucial foundation for all of the program’s students.
Participation in Commencement
In order to be eligible for participation in the Actor Showcase and to participate in Commencement ceremonies, any acting student carrying an outstanding Incomplete grade in any coursework must satisfy the course requirements by the fourth week of their final semester and before course DRAM 793b, Actor Showcase, begins.
Courses of Instruction
DRAM 50a, The Theatrical Event See description under Directing.
DRAM 51b, New Play Lab See description under Playwriting.
DRAM 53a, Authentic Collaboration Artists and their organizations are often urged to “collaborate,” and indeed, many of us recognize the value of collective work. Yet few of us are formally trained to create together. In this one-week intensive class, students explore seven collaborative principles, illuminated by their own experiences, which serve as a springboard for exploring how theoretical models can be converted to practical skills. A discussion of the five interactive strategies of effective collaborators leads to three hands-on collaborative projects, offering a visceral opportunity to actually practice collaborating in an environment free from the production pressures in which collaboration is usually encountered. Written and visual support materials are provided. Ben Krywosz
DRAM 103a/b, Acting I This is a studio-based exploration of the internal and external preparation an actor must undergo in order to effectively render the moment-to-moment life of a given character. This course is meant to promote a rigorous investigation of how the actor uses the self as the foundation for transformation. The first term of this class employs a series of questions to examine the principles and craft behind acting technique while exploring the plays of a wide variety of twentieth- and twenty-first-century playwrights. The second term includes a sequence of simulated rehearsals in order to put those principles and craft into practice. Gregory Wallace
DRAM 113a/b, Voice I The first year of voice training is structured as a progression of exercises/experiences designed to liberate the individual’s natural voice from habitual psychophysical tensions; to connect image, intention, and emotion to breath and sound; to develop the voice’s potential for expression and awaken the actor’s appetite for language; and to promote vocal ease, clarity, power, stamina, range, and sensitivity to impulse. Walton Wilson
DRAM 123a/b, Speech and Accents I Speech training seeks to broaden the actor’s range of imaginative vocal expression and to deepen the actor’s sensory relationship to language. Actors conduct a rigorous examination of their own speech habits, idiolects, and linguistic identity through exploration of vocal physiology. Through this examination of their own idiolects, actors build the tools of accent transformation, including vocal tract posture, prosody (melody and rhythm), and phonetics. To encourage speech that flows freely from impulse and breath, the approach uses exercises that are actively rooted in the whole body rather than being limited to the surfaces of the mouth. In the second term, the actors broaden the boundaries of their language use through the study of accents in connection with dramatic text, including texts used in acting classes. Julie Foh
DRAM 133a/b, The Body as Source I This course works to bring awareness and integration to the physical, mental, emotional, and energetic aspects of the actor. Through specific physical training exercises, participants are encouraged to identify and release holdings in the mind/body system, allowing them to deepen a connection to imagery, physical impulses, and acting choices. The class also includes application to character creation and a body-first approach to scene-work. Erica Fae
DRAM 143a/b, Alexander Technique I Offered in all three years through class work and private tutorials, this work develops the actor’s kinesthetic and spatial awareness, fosters balance and alignment, and, through breath work, promotes the connection between voice and body. Fabio Tavares
DRAM 153a, Play This course explores the actor’s playful spirit and the notion of the theatrical event as “game.” Through a series of games and improvisation and composition exercises, students develop complicity with fellow actors/the audience and discover qualities of openness, spontaneity, generosity, and attack as they are encouraged to take risks, access their imagination, and play fully with their voice and body. Exercises explore status, focus, scale, presence, flow, and impulse while delving into the mysterious nature of “le jeu,” the actor’s pleasure in playing. Justine Williams
DRAM 163a, Text Analysis II This course seeks to provide students with tools to mine the printed text for given circumstances, character, objective, and action, noting the opportunities and limitations that the printed play script presents and promoting the freedom and responsibility of the actor as an interpretive artist. James Bundy
DRAM 163b, Text Analysis I This course seeks to provide students with tools to mine the printed text for given circumstances, character, objective, and action, noting the opportunities and limitations that the printed play script presents, and promoting the freedom and responsibility of the actor as an interpretive artist. James Bundy
DRAM 173a, Movement I This class explores some anatomical fundamentals of movement through a rigorous daily warm-up. Movement phrases are embodied investigating weight, intention, direction, and freedom. Warm-up clothes are worn. Jennifer Archibald
DRAM 180a, Rehearsal Practicum: Meeting the Play See description under Directing.
DRAM 190a, Shakespeare Practicum This practicum focuses on the director-actor collaboration in rehearsals, focusing specifically on the plays of Shakespeare. In this lab, second-year actors and directors learn “by doing” how to mine the form and content of a Shakespearean text. Students work together to unpack given circumstances, character objectives, and the central dramatic conflicts of scenes and plays, exploring these in on-the-feet work while negotiating the space, with the goal of strengthening their ability to make and receive offers, and to test and develop production ideas within the rehearsal process. Taught in conjunction with DRAM 120a. Karin Coonrod
DRAM 203a, Acting II: Plays of Extended and Heightened Language Acting in the plays of Shakespeare begins by appreciating that the substance of his language is, by turns, poetic, elevated, heightened, or enlarged in some way. It is also, however, remarkably simple and straightforward. In this fall semester course, second-year actors and directors undertake the shifting challenges of the language in Shakespeare’s texts, plays which are interwoven with events great and small, levels which require of the theater artist great commitment, courage, agility, imagination and skill. The course begins by drawing actors and directors onto the same page regarding the technical elements of Shakespeare’s language and quickly moves to the actor’s craft and process and an exploration of Shakespeare’s events and characters through studio-based scene work. This work provides actors the opportunity to synthesize the external and the internal of Shakespeare’s work and experience the immediacy, the specificity, and the embodiment of spoken thought. Material for the course is taken from scenes, speeches, and other set texts of Shakespeare. Tutorials are scheduled to augment classwork. Mary Lou Rosato
DRAM 203b, Acting II: Plays of Extended and Heightened Language The language in plays written prior to the twenty-first century comes in all shapes and sizes: poetic, heightened, extended, or enlarged in some way. With heightened language in its many guises comes the equally expansive and expressive characters who speak it. Drawing from a variety of playwrights from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, this spring-semester acting course follows the work on Shakespeare and takes on the particular challenges these plays present. It expands the actor’s craft by developing the skill and comprehension necessary to play characters in a range of styles and circumstances, all in the pursuit of truthful acting. The course is composed of studio-based scene work, and actors continue to make use of the myriad of tools that have been in development in the previous three semesters. By deepening their range of experience with these plays and characters, actors acquire the experience and knowledge necessary to approach them with confidence in the professional arena. Mary Lou Rosato
DRAM 213a/b, Voice II (Class and Tutorials) In the second year of voice training, students focus on deepening their awareness of voice as a kinesthetic experience rooted in the body and the need for expression. Voice II explores how to meet the demands of text with clarity, emotional depth, personal connection, generosity of scale, ease, and healthy habits. The actor develops the ability to embody the text through continued physical release work, discovery of resonant spaces, and advanced vocal skills along with visceral and imaginative text exploration. Voice II opens pathways for actors to access their most expansive selves in order to embody characters in every genre and style of play and in every space. Walton Wilson, Grace Zandarski
DRAM 223a/b, Speech and Accents II The second year of speech training continues to expand the actor’s range of vocal and imaginative expression away from their own idiolect to expand the actor’s toolbox and deepen sensory relationship to language as applied to heightened dramatic texts. In addition, this course supports the linguistic preparation for the Shakespeare Character Workshop. In the second term, this course offers an intensive study of accents and dialects to provide multiple opportunities for the experience of character transformation and embodying the work into integrative performances. Cynthia Santos DeCure
DRAM 233b, The Body as Source II This course continues the work of year one, deepening the training of the energetic body and the connection to imagery and physical impulses while beginning to explore physical scoring. The latter half of the semester bridges the training from theater to how the body can be a fertile resource for the actor’s work for film and television. This approach to psychophysical work helps the actor bring something tangible and felt to set, freeing the mind to manage the often flurry-like energy of a set and maintain solid footing while shooting. Erica Fae
DRAM 243a/b, Alexander Technique II Tutorials This work develops the actor’s kinesthetic awareness; fosters balance and alignment; coordinates movement; and, through breath work, promotes the connection between mind, voice, and body. All these elements are applied during rehearsal and performance. Through clarity of intention, the actor can find the organic physical life of the character. Bill Connington
DRAM 253a, Commedia This course explores the classical archetypes of the commedia dell’arte. It makes use of mask, physical articulation, sound, and rhythm to develop the transformational power of the actors. When the mask is alive and impulses begin to travel with abandon through the physical psychology of the body, the student begins to understand the actor/audience relationship in all its ferocious beauty. The work is primarily improvisational with the actor/creator at the center of the theatrical conversation. Christopher Bayes
DRAM 263a/b, Clown This course focuses on the discovery of the playful self through exercises in rhythm, balance, generosity, and abandon. The blocks and filters that prevent the actor from following impulses fully are removed. It allows the actor to listen with the body and begin to give more value to the pleasure of performance. Once actors learn to play without worry, they begin to discover the personal clown that lives in the center of the comic world. Christopher Bayes
DRAM 273a/b, Character Analysis and Movement This class explores some anatomical fundamentals of movement through a rigorous daily warm-up. Movement phrases are embodied investigating weight, intention, direction, and freedom. Original movement creations, musical theater styles, contact improvisation, and some vernacular dance forms are also done in class, culminating in combinations of text and movement where creative freedom in the physical realm is emphasized. Warm-up clothes are worn. Jennifer Archibald
DRAM 303a/b, Acting III This final scene-study class re-invests in and revisits the fundamentals of the craft by engaging works of contemporary theater that explore performance beyond the approaches of naturalism and psychological realism. Each round of “stretch” scenes will increase the actors’ confidence in and ability to connect with the tools of their practice to identify, personalize and embody a character’s given circumstances, pursue objective, activate language, and robustly occupy spaces of make believe in order to tell the story of the scene with specificity, depth, and ease. Running through the fall term is work on verbatim projects in which students embody and give voice to the verbatim text of persons they have interviewed, employing the fundamental tools of performance—deep and profound listening—while bringing to bear a synthesis of their vocal and physical training to date. Tamilla Woodard, Ron Van Lieu
DRAM 313a, Voice III (Class, Tutorials) The third-year curriculum reinforces and expands on the work of Voice II, preparing the actor to wholly embody the text and live believably in imaginary circumstances in every space, genre, and size of character. The actor deepens in self-awareness and ownership while acquiring greater skills and technique to maintain a healthy, expressive, and versatile voice and body able to react spontaneously in the moment, at one with the imagination. The course uses repeatable warmups, exploration of psycho-physical connection to text, and exercises that expand range, timbre, resonance, and overall expressivity. There is a continued focus on the breath as the bridge to imagination, ease, and economy of effort in free expression. The course also explores exercises that extend the voice into screaming, shouting, and other vocal extremes. The overall goal is for the actor to be confident in their ability to “go there,” wherever that may be, on stage or screen, and develop habits of healthy use free of excess muscular tension that serve the artist with the skills and stamina necessary for a long and rich career. Grace Zandarski
DRAM 323a/b, Speech and Accents III (Tutorials) In the third year of speech training, actors engage in a deep exploration of embodiment of someone else’s linguistic identity through the Interview Project. This course is a culmination of putting all the actors’ tools into practice. Speech tutorials in the first term focus on the analysis and embodiment of other idiolects. In the second term, material for tutorials can evolve from any areas of speech, accent, and text work that the actor wishes to explore. Julie Foh
DRAM 333a, The Body on Set This course picks up from the Body as Source II training and continues transitioning the work introduced in Body as Source I and II to the medium of film and television. We’ll explore how this physical work can aid in preparing for shooting despite a typically limited rehearsal process, scaling performances for various frames, and working through multiple takes. This course applies what we learned in the previous semester to a wider variety of scenes. We will mostly shoot “on location” in this course, giving participants the experience of doing their work outside of the comfortable (or known) energy of the studio and in tight, confined, public, or awkward environments. On set, no one makes that magic happen but you, and we get real-time practice in channeling “flow” through the chaos. We also save time for conversations about transitioning into the industry while tending to the actor’s heart through it all. Erica Fae
DRAM 343a/b, Alexander Technique III (Tutorials) This dedicated, one-on-one support focuses on awareness of unconscious habits and the experience of stress in your body. Intention affects your physicality, breathing, emotional impulses, voice, and attitude. You will learn to make choices to support your creative performance without the interference of unnecessary tension. The Alexander Technique fuels your imagination. Eleanor Taylor
DRAM 363a, You Are the Creator The course offers actors the space and time during the first term of their final year of training to explore, develop, and create their own individual performance pieces. Through mentoring, individual support, and meeting in small-class sections, the actors work on a performance project of their choosing throughout the semester in answer to questions like these: What are you passionate about? What are you longing to express? What are your concerns and desires? What have you always wanted to create, to share, to say through your art? This may take many creative forms, or combinations of forms, for example, writing, singing, dancing/movement, learning a musical instrument, writing and performing music, to name a few. The key is that a performance grows out of their exploration and experimentation, a performance that they ultimately share with the Acting Program community at the beginning of the second semester. This is a process-oriented, often joyous, always intimate journey that centers and celebrates their full potential as the actor artists they have always known themselves to be. Joan MacIntosh
DRAM 373b, Practices for Opening and Grounding This five-week class intensive will focus on practical tools for strength, stamina, and ease, bridging your training with the showcase/professional leap. Yoga, Qigong, breath work, and meditation will intersect in different places for each of you, and the aim is to finish with an individual physical/energetic sequence that you can use at any time, based on the things your body, heart, and mind need to feel healthy and ready to work. Annie Piper
DRAM 383b, Voiceover Workshop This course seeks to provide students with an overview of the voiceover business. Specifically, we focus both on the technical aspects of self-recording and on navigating through the process of auditioning for casting directors. We develop and increase the speed of the actor’s interpretive, analytical, and creative skills to adapt to a very quick creative process. Most important, actors learn to “find” the best part of their voice: where their vocal strengths lie and where their voice fits in the landscape of voiceover work. Keegan Monti-Kewley
DRAM 403a/b, Acting Intimacy and Combat for the Stage This course is designed to provide the first-year actor with an understanding of the techniques and safety measures employed in the practice of theatrical violence and intimacy and how to fully embody them in character. In the first term we investigate the process for consent and intimacy work and how to integrate them into the moment-to-moment life of a scene. In the second term we focus on physicalizing conflict and violence. We do so through individual, partner, and group physical exploration, exercises, scene work, and performance. This course fosters the understanding of collaboration, consent, organic response, and a deeper knowledge of the physical self and the group dynamic. Kelsey Rainwater, Michael Rossmy
DRAM 405a/b, Advanced Principles of Acting Stage Combat We continue building on the techniques learned in the first year, providing the second-year actor with an understanding of the techniques and safety measures employed in the practice of armed theatrical violence. We deepen the understanding of proprioception and weapon awareness when working with a partner and within a group. Upon learning these techniques, we engage in a deeper exploration of dramatic situation and characterization through scene study and performance. Kelsey Rainwater, Michael Rossmy
DRAM 413a/b, Singing II (Class, Tutorials) This work explores the interplay and integration of imagination, intention, and breath, and the coordinated physical processes that result in a free and expressive singing voice. The actors gain experience in acting sung material through the active investigation of the emotional, linguistic, and musical demands in songs and musical scene work. Glenn Seven Allen
DRAM 423a/b, Acting Through Song (Class, Tutorials) This course uses tutorials and group classes to continue a focus on breath support, ease, range of expression, and clarity, emphasizing the actor’s commitment to the material in performance. The course aims to give each student the experience of bringing healthy and expressive singing technique to bear while prioritizing the craft of the actor with respect to character, given circumstances, objectives, action, and stakes. A key goal is to give each student a sense of their own artistry—at any level of experience—as an actor/singer with individual agency. Students are required to put at least four songs into an audition binder and to perform in the end-of-year Singing Send-Off. Faculty
DRAM 453b, Independent Study: Yale Summer Cabaret Students who want to participate in the Yale Summer Cabaret may audition to be a performer or interview for positions in production, stage management, and administration. Yale Summer Cabaret offers an opportunity to participate in an ensemble company producing plays for the School, the larger Yale University community, and the city of New Haven. Through the Yale Summer Cabaret, participating students gain hands-on, collaborative experience in all aspects of producing and performing a full summer season. Auditions and interviews are open to non-Acting students. Tamilla Woodard
DRAM 463a, On-Camera Acting Technique This three-session course gives students experience working on camera. Brief scenes of the individual student’s choice are filmed, watched, discussed, and, when time permits, filmed again. Because the camera is always on the student who has chosen the scene, they can examine their work as both listeners and talkers. Ellen Novack
DRAM 473b, Taming the Cyclops This class begins with choosing, rehearsing for, and finally shooting film monologues. Carefully selected monologues from films or television that show the student at their best are rehearsed individually over two classes, and, with the help of a professional cinematographer and their equipment, each student’s monologue is shot in a situation that mimics a professional shoot as closely as possible. The monologues are edited professionally and posted on the DGSD website at the end of the final semester, so casting directors, representatives, and other professionals can experience our students’ work on camera. The class also includes workshops and meetings with some of the leading professional casting directors, agents, managers, entertainment lawyers, and actors working in the industry. All of this provides students with the skills and information needed to make a smooth transition into the professional world. At the end of the semester, students shoot, examine, and reshoot audition scenes from all genres of film and television, helping them, as they are about to enter the world as professional actors, reinforce the necessary skills to audition successfully both in the audition room and on self-tapes. Ellen Novack
DRAM 563a, Activated Analysis An introduction to a methodology for actors and directors developed from Stanislavski’s final experiments. Through a progression of physical improvisations—or “études”—students personalize all known given circumstances and investigate the unanswered questions of a play. The result is a deeply visceral connection to the world of the play and its characters. Actors and directors discover the text through the framework of their own imaginations, impulses, and artistic curiosities. Taught in conjunction with DRAM 180a. Annelise Lawson
DRAM 723a, Voices for Animation and Other Mediums This course is an introduction to creating voices for animation. Students explore a variety of speech exercises including shifting vocal tract posture, tone, placement, and tempo to develop unique character voices. Actors practice developing multiple character voices through working with original illustrations, animation copy, and various exercises to recall, embody, and sustain the voices consistently in performance. This course also offers instruction in various voice acting modalities taught by guest artists. Cynthia Santos DeCure
DRAM 733a, Mapping the Energetic Body A well-toned nervous system allows you to immerse in the situation at hand to listen and respond with courage and clarity. Understanding your own energetic signature via breath work, yoga asana, and qigong forms will help you feel where you are blocked both physically and emotionally. This class is designed to provide you with practices you can integrate into your own personal warm-up repertoire and to help you cultivate your greatest strength as an actor and a human: your ability to be present and open. Annie Piper
DRAM 743b, Professional Preparation and Audition Workshop This workshop addresses the complex social and artistic dynamics of theater auditions and gives students a chance to further develop their personal practice and craft in preparation for pursuing opportunities in the field. Students receive sides to prepare, work with a reader, and are asked to make adjustments in real time, as well as to observe each other closely with generosity in an effort to develop confidence in best practices and their own individuality. Tamilla Woodard
DRAM 763a, The Art of the Self-Tape for Television, Motion Pictures, and Theater This course explores what makes it possible for actors to show their best work and reveal their artistry through creating an intelligent, professional, unique, and dynamic self-tape. Johnny Wu
DRAM 793b, Actor Showcase In their final term, students choose and rehearse scenes, which are presented to agents, managers, casting directors, and other members of the industry in New York and Los Angeles. Gregory Wallace and Tamilla Woodard assist in the scene selection process with input from Ellen Novack and an industry guest. Paul Mullins directs the showcase performance. Gregory Wallace, Tamilla Woodard
DRAM 863b, Principles of Anti-Racist Theater This course delves into anti-racism through a multifaceted approach, integrating elements of social and restorative justice, cultural competency, self-care, and anti-racist theatre principles. By immersing actors in an experiential journey, it empowers them to wield their influence against the pervasive structures of white-supremacy culture within the realm of creativity. Through interactive discussions, independent work, and collaborative learning teams, participants engage deeply with the material. The culmination of the course is a group project that synthesizes their learning. Mandatory for first-year Acting program students, when combined with the prerequisite workshop “Everyday Justice: Anti-Racism as Daily Practice,” this course equips individuals with essential strategies for cultivating lifelong anti-racist habits both personally and within their communities. Nicole Brewer
DRAM 873a/b, Global Theater and Performance As a foundation for lasting creativity, inspiration, and incitement for innovation, this course offers a look at the history of theater and performance and its invitation to the future of the form. Tlaloc Rivas