Theatre Laboratorium - Winter Syllabus

This program is a year long program that is experimental and collaborative in nature. It is the first attempt at creating a Theatre Laboratorium at Evergreen. A Theatre Laboratorium will provide participants interested in design, theatre and other topics with an environment to develop and research theoretical and practical approaches to important ideas using Theatre as a filter and a way of thinking. The program will depend on student initiative and collaboration to build an active learning community.

In the fall Students proposed questions related to contemporary professional practice in the US, design processes, relationship of design disciplines, and collaboration issues that will be incorporated into the program in short presentations and will be discussed in realtion to the design projects.

The Theatre Laboratorium will be organized around thematic units of varying lengths (see below) explored through two integrated components: Design projects and Cultural Studies and Theory. Each thematic unit will be approached through a project that will involve the creation and design of a short performance. Within each unit, participants will explore the intuitive and intellectual processes that inform the creation of contemporary theatre and performance by turning research, reading, writing and discussions into performance and design projects. These projects will be collected in the program "memory" and refined later for a potential presentation to a campus audience if appropriate. You will have the opportunity to explore ideas or issues related to the three major themes of the class (BODY/SEX, SPACE/PLACE, AND VOICE/TEXT) in performances created by you and your team-mates. This model basically uses contemporary avant-garde approaches to art making in which artists explore questions o issues of their interest through their work. Theatre Laboratorium transfers this model directly into the classroom.

THEMATIC UNITS EXPLAINED
Starting on the fall, and continuing on the winter and spring, Theatre Laboratorium participants will engage in a sequential study of major themes and theories. We will take on the systematic study of major theories that relate to creative processes of theatre makers in the Twentieth century as well as the analysis of performance elements, design elements and cultural patterns. We will address related themes including the performance of Identity, issues of performativity and the production of subjectivity.

THE SPACE/PLACE UNIT (Winter 1-4)
This complex segment will be an inquiry into how performance is affected by the poetics of space, different ideas of place, and how these are related within social and political contexts. Participants will continue to engage in projects studying the relationship of dramatic and physical space and lighting to the text. Students may study the idea of environment and the stage. Students will build models and work with the idea of scale. We will study movement and drawing as tools of exploring these dimensions as well. Students are encouraged to develop idea garnered during the previous unit with this added dimension in mind or to start new projects.

THE VOICE/TEXT UNIT (Winter Weeks 6-9)
Theatre and performance use text and drama to generate visual, auditory and other sensory imagery. In this unit we will explore the performative aspects of language and its relationship to visual images. We will think about the transition between text and speech. What happens when the written becomes oral, when a script is embodied by the voice? We will consider the realization that meaning is not simply transmitted from author to audience through performance. What role does the audience’s interpretation play in the making of meaning. How have we learned to read the movements of the body, the illusion of space created by the stage set, and the sounds animating the performance function as signs? How do these elements contribute to the poetics of the stage?

We will also use speech as sound, playing with patterns and getting playful with ways of de-constructing existing texts or playing with voice and scripts in unusual ways.

DESIGN COMPONENT One of the main components of the program will be the creation of design projects that explore the questions of the class. You will be expected to work hard and with focus. The emphasis will be on working on one large group project at a time, and on smaller individual projects. All projects will span several weeks to allow for re-iteration of the design process, critiques and honing of design skills. Students will be expected to advance their projects by re-designing them from one class to the next. Weekly critique sessions centered around student work and integration of the theoretical readings will allow for exchange of ideas and development of collaborative, artistic, theoretical and communication skills and ideas. Participants may decide to collaborate by taking responsibility of different aspects of a project individually or working in extended collaborations. You are encouraged to explore the use of puppets, toy theatre, ideas from other fields and a variety of technologies to find about what makes effective Theatre and visual imagery.

The program will involve a high number of opportunities for creating performance pieces as laboratories for ideas related to each Thematic Unit. On week 5 of winter quarter projects from Body and Space will be shown as works in progress. Following this presentation participants will work on more projects using idea from the VOICE A/TEXT unit.

The last five weeks of the program will be devoted to self-directed projects. Students may choose to spend the time developing portfolios, writing research papers, or working on specific performance or design projects. Details will be decided in accordance to student interest and program themes.

The program will address the theoretical aspects of art making through the filter of Cultural Criticism. A large part of the reading required for the class focuses on how Theatre and Art relate to our society and how artist and critics think about art and image making processes. This research will be the source of the questions that we will explore through theatre, design and performance. Students are expected to explore and question how the process of art making relates to the theories explored in readings and seminar. In this respect, the readings assigned for class will be starting points for self-directed individual and team contributions multi-modal research into topics related to each performance project. Participants will investigate creative processes, cultural issues, theatre and performance theories, and other themes so those ideas can feed the work on the projects. Mario Caro will lead this section of the program with lecture and video presentations on different topics.

A few Guest Artists will visit us during the year to offer Master workshops and provide challenging insights into the themes of the class.

We will visit theaters in Seattle and Portland to see contemporary theatre works and study them. Suggestions from students will be welcome.

Please be advised, again, that the contents of this syllabus will change as the program advances, depending on student interest, faculty insight and other circumstances

MON	TUE	WED	THU
		Office Hours	Faculty Seminar
	Movement 8:30-9:00 (optional)		Movement 8:30-9:00 am(optional)
Production Lab Scenic Shop Time TBA	Group Project Critique 9:00-12:00 noon	Design Studio 9:00-12:00 noon	Design Studio Ind. Project Critique 9:00-12:30 pm
	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch
	Seminar 1:30-3:30 pm COM 323 & 307 Lounge	Faculty Governance	Faculty Presentations 1:00 -3:00 pm Recital Hall

NOTE: This schedule will change weekly. Changes will be announced in class. Please keep yourself updated. Spaces and Times are subject to administrative confirmation and may change.