Course Syllabus

Course: THEA 2033

Division: Fine Arts, Comm, and New Media
Department: Theater Arts
Title: Acting II

Semester Approved: Spring 2022
Five-Year Review Semester: Fall 2026
End Semester: Fall 2027

Catalog Description: This course is intended to build upon the previous work of Acting I. It will explore and expand upon the craft of acting through practical experience and studio activities. Its purpose is to deepen students’ understanding of acting techniques. A primary goal of this course is to introduce a variety of techniques, increasing a student actor’s toolset. The class will emphasize two essential elements actors face: scene study and character/physical theatre work.

Semesters Offered: Spring
Credit/Time Requirement: Credit: 3; Lecture: 3; Lab: 0

Prerequisites: THEA 1033 or instructor

Corequisites: THEA 1033 or instructor


Justification: This course is a lower-division core requirement for undergraduate theatre performance majors with equivalent courses at all four-year institutions in Utah and elsewhere. It fills a major requirement for theatre arts majors and otherwise satisfies elective credit criteria.


Student Learning Outcomes:
As a result of this class students will be able to deepen their understanding and appreciation of the art and craft of acting, building upon their fundamental skills, and diversifying their avenues of approach to character and scene work. Students will demonstrate their expanding knowledge and appreciation of acting through participation in class discussions of differing acting philosophies framed by readings of prominent authorities of the stage such as Meisner, Hagen, Spolin, Boleslasky, Donnellan, Shurtleff, and others. Furthermore, students will use these tools in scene study of in-class exhibitions.They will also demonstrate their expanding 'actor toolbox' through instructor guided workshops and performances of scenes and monologues (oral presentations) as well as their active exploration and participation in in-class physical theatre and character work anchored upon the work such as Michael Chekhov acting technique, Viewpoints, and other "outside-in" approaches.

As a result of this class students will be able work independently and as an ensemble to accomplish more detailed performance tasks. Students will demonstrate these differing performance tasks through monologue and scene work respectively. Feedback and discussion following scenes and monologues will afford students to further demonstrate their process and analysis and allow for further investigation. Students will demonstrate individual nuanced work through script analysis assignments such as detailed annotation (script scoring), specific identification of usable and relevant given circumstances, personalization, and the application of inner monologue.Collective creative work will be evaluated through in-class acting explorations such as warm-ups based upon kinesthetic response, activities that relax and focus the body and voice, exercises based upon Boal, Grotowski, among others.

Following this class learners will be able to synthesize and apply critical evaluation to performance. Students will demonstration this ability through the evaluation plays read in class via a series of written responses. They will also be required to written critiques of live performances produced by the theatre department. These responses are based on criteria that will be examined in class lectures and readings.In addition, students will be tasked to reflect and evaluate their own performances, both in written form in post-scene analysis assignments, and following a performance (guided by the instructor) thereby demonstrating their facility with terminology and troubleshooting their own craft.

As result of this course a learner will be able to reason analytically, critically, and creatively through their own approach to an acting performance. Students read a variety of scripts and are asked to critically analyze both the texts as a whole and individual scenes from the perspective of one character they will later perform during in-class exhibitions and be tasked with evaluating their success in a reflection essay.Additionally, students are asked to synthesize what approaches work best for them in a final exhibition of scene and monologue work, having developed a personalized methodology from this course and Acting I. They will demonstrate their preparation and ability to analyze and think critically, interpret key concepts, and personalize characters primarily through scene presentations.


Content:
Through scene study, this class introduces students to methods of analyzing written play scripts from various genres and styles, and to encourage better understanding of the importance of objective, place, circumstances, relationship, and all the elements that collectively determine the play’s meaning. Scene study establishes the director/performer dialogue. Students will focus on truth in action, and adherence to the given circumstancesThis course’s primary avenue into character work will be through physical theatre practices such as the psychophysical work of Michael Chekhov, Anne Bogart’s Viewpoints, Laban movement studies, in addition to the work of Uta Hagan, internal monologue transcription and other variations on Stanislavski work.The ultimate purpose of the class is to aid all actors the ability to see the world through a different person's eyes. Content for scene work is encouraged to explore playwright's from diverse background, POC playwrights, and female playwrights.

Key Performance Indicators:
Each student will be evaluated on:

Participation 15 to 25%

Script and scene analysis assignments 15 to 25%

Production responses 5 to 15%

Monologue and scene work 20 to 30%

Final performance 20 to 30%


Representative Text and/or Supplies:
Challenge for the Actor, Uta Hagen. (current edition)


Pedagogy Statement:
Through readings and discussion, participation in acting exercises and explorations, ensemble work and scene study, monologue/scene workshops and performances, this course will aid students' further understanding of the art and craft of acting.This class welcomes the participation of actors of all kinds. Scene and monologue work are either self-prescribed or focused with the aid of the instructor, ensuring the learner's comfortable with the content covered. Performance work, both internal and external, is limited to the ability of the performer and encourages exploration of what one has, not what one must be.

Instructional Mediums:
Lecture

Maximum Class Size: 25
Optimum Class Size: 16