B-CC Theater and Film Conservatory

Course Descriptions

Introductory Theater Programs:

B-CC Theater Conservatory Course of Study/IB Theater:

THEATER 1A: TheaterSports (Improvised Theater as a Spectator Sport)

Our study and practice of introductory theater performance skills in this class will follow a TheaterSports model, developed by Keith Johnstone and Lyn Pierse. TheaterSports is essentially improvised theater entertainment played as a spectator sport. Teams of players invent scenes from given suggestions, which are prewritten or taken from the audience. Team members play their scenes in structures called games. The players know the specific requirements of each game, but they do not know what will happen during the scene or what the final outcome will be.

Like any sport, we will train and practice tactics before we ever compete. We will hone our theater skills as a class through training exercises that build our ability to pantomime, be heard, characterize, react with your body, and think on our feet. We will regularly challenge each other to spontaneously tell a better story, enter a scene at the right moment, and generally improvise and solve problems with more invention, wit, and skill in our comedic and dramatic presentations.

The course of study aims to help you polish several key performance skills, including:
        1. Making an offer
        2. Finding the focus
        3. Advancing and extending the narrative
        4. Endowing offers
        5. Keeping the status even
        6. Making a transition
        7. Developing a character
This course is designed to get students of all ability and experience levels to take a closer look at what performing before a live audience really entails--its underlying philosophy, technical and aesthetic aspects, and processes--while also providing personal guidance in sharpening of individual performance skills.

THEATER 1B:  TheaterSports (Advanced Improvisation and Theater History)

Our study and practice of theater performance skills in this class will continue to build on the TheaterSports techniques developed in the first semester, now at a faster pace. In addition, we will explore several milestones in theater history, with an emphasis on the evolution of drama and its relation to improvisation. As with first semester, we will be on your feet every single class period.

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B-CC Theater Conservatory Course of Study/IB Theater:

IB Theater Arts Program Description and Course Syllabi

ADVANCED ACTING:  Performance Methods, Theory, and Practice

In Advanced Acting, you will explore and apply techniques developed by acting teachers Sanford Meisner, David Mamet, and others of your choice. Your exploration of these techniques is meant to instill in you the habitual use of the tools actors use to consistently "live in the moment"—a state in which one reacts impulsively to what the other actors in a scene do at any given instant while simultaneously "acting" in a way that accords with the demands of the script and director. Each approach strives to ignite the actor's imagination while disciplining the truth of his or her behavior; this, so that you may “live truthfully under imaginary circumstances.”

While you will receive training in particular techniques, the purpose of the class is not to teach you someone else's approach to acting but to help you develop your own. You will leave the class with a particular technique, but it will be something very broad and personal, perhaps best defined as "a knowledge of the tools that may be used by the actor and an understanding of how to apply them" (Mamet). The techniques associated with the class are presented in two phases:
        Phase One: Redirecting Your Focus (Meisner)
        --really listening: mechanical repetition
        --behaving truthfully: repetition from your point of view
        --being available: instinctive changes in repetition
        --existing in imaginary circumstances: repetition with an action
        --responding to heightened stakes: repetition with a motivated action
        Phase Two: Working with the Script (Mamet)
        --maintaining mental flexibility: neutral memorization
        --moving emotionally: acting a scene from impulse to impulse, instead of cue to cue
        --finding the essential action: physically pursuing a goal on stage
        --enriching the action with personal meaning: clarifying the text with "As if"
        --behaving instinctively: acting a scene from impulse to impulse, instead of cue to cue
        --adding externals: making physical adjustments
        --being alone on stage: how "live in the moment" during a monologue

(Student Reflections...)

PLAY DIRECTING:  Directing Methods, Theory, and Practice

In theater, it is the director who generates collaboration among diverse contributors, with a view to turning a play script into a theatrical production. This class is designed to develop your knowledge of theatrical practice and theory, along with your interpretative acuity and imagination, and give it expression, specifically from a directorial perspective. To accomplish this, you will build your knowledge of directorial practices by exploring play texts as “plans for action” and imagining play scripts from a director’s point of view (that is, imagining a play on stage and thinking about the practical implications of these imaginings). You will also have two opportunities to take your ideas from "page to stage" and direct your own scenes.

ADVANCED COMPOSITION:  Dramaturgy and Play Writing Methods, Theory, and Practice

In this class, you will focus on the art of play writing and research (or dramaturgy). Through the practical exploration of world theater traditions as a dramaturg (which entails in depth studies of theatrical practices, movements, playwrights, periods, styles, genres, and theories) during the first quarter, you will come learn to recognize the significance and possibilities of the play as an art form before they embark on the creation at least one short play during the second quarter. The play writing process itself will include play writing etudes, peer work shopping sessions, and readings with student actors.

STAGE DESIGN:  Designing Methods, Theory, and Practice

Designing for the stage means working within specific time limitations and a predetermined stage space while striving to remain true to the script and satisfy the visual and, to a lesser degree, audio requirements of each production. This class will provide you with the means that enable you to successfully manage your time, consider your space, and use the script to discover and anchor a particular production's technical design needs. In short, you will explore how, in all relevant specifics, design can help a script find expression in theater. All design work will be a practical undertaking involving plays under production in the theater program itself.

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