Faculty: Kathryn Hartman and Daniel Reitz

Sarah Lawrence’s award-winning improv and sketch comedy troupe unite each year to slay audiences with their infamous weekly campus shows. 

Faculty: Sterling Swann

Students learn the basics of armed and unarmed stage fighting, with an emphasis on safety. Actors are taught to create effective stage violence, from hair pulling and choking to sword fighting, with a minimum of risk. Basic techniques are incorporated into short scenes to give students experience performing fights in both classic and modern contexts. 

Faculty: Christine Farrell

Comedy Workshop is an exploration of the classic structures of comedy: the unique comic mind, improvisation, ensemble work, the athletics of the form, commedia dell’arte, vaudeville, parody, satire, and stand up comedy. 

Faculty: Caden Manson

Contemporary Practice focuses on Contemporary Performance artists and thinkers and looks at how we situate our practice in the field. During the first semester, students investigate current and emerging practices in Performing Care, Contemporary Choreography, Speculative Theater, Immersive Theatre, Co-Presence, Performance Cabaret, Post-Digital Strategies, Socially Engaged Art, and Mixed Reality Performance. During the second semester, students create individual artist statements, bios, resumes, and websites; develop pitches for new work; and learn how to engage with funders, artistic directors, and presenters.

Faculty: Liz Prince

Actors, directors, designers, and theatre-makers of all kinds are welcome to learn the basics of designing costumes, the language of clothes, script analysis, elements of design, color theory, fashion history, and figure drawing. While inspiring young designers, this course also covers various design-room techniques, including stitching by machine and by hand as well as working as a wardrobe technician.

Faculty: Liz Prince

Actors, directors, designers, and theatre-makers of all kinds are welcome to learn the basics of designing costumes, the language of clothes, script analysis, elements of design, color theory, fashion history, and figure drawing. While inspiring young designers, this course also covers various design-room techniques, including stitching by machine and by hand as well as working as a wardrobe technician.

Faculty: Graeme Gillis

DownStage is an intensive, hands-on conference in theatrical production. As part of this SLC Theatre component, students learn about all aspects of production and administration, including creating a board of directors, building a mission, budgeting, marketing, and artistic direction around an entire season of events and productions.

Faculty: Tei Blow

Explore the theory of sound, basic design principles, editing and playback software, content creation, and basic system design for linear and nonlinear performance. Learn the function and execution of video and sound in theatre, dance, and interdisciplinary forms. 

Faculty: Lake Simons

Learn basic elements of developing a scenic concept, drafting, and practical techniques for creating theatrical space. Develop tools to communicate visual ideas through research, sketches, and models for theatre, dance, and puppetry. 

Faculty: Greg McPhereson

Discover the basic elements of stage lighting, including tools and equipment, color theory, reading scripts for design elements, operation of lighting consoles and construction of lighting cues, and basic elements of lighting drawings and schedules. Learn through hands-on experience opportunities designing productions and assisting other designers through a creative process.

Faculty: Lake Simons

Explore a variety of puppetry techniques, including bunraku style, marionette, shadow puppetry, and toy theatre. Through hands-on learning, develop manipulation skills, gain an understanding of how to prepare the puppeteer’s body for performance, and create original puppetry pieces.

Faculty: Brianna Weintraub and Robert Gould

Learn the nuts and bolts of light-board and sound-board operation, projection technology, and the use of basic stage carpentry. Before designing a show, understand how to read and draft light plots, assemble and troubleshoot equipment, and comprehend basic skills of an electrics or scenic crew. 

Faculty: Stew Stewart

Investigate the work of prophets, faith healers, and wild politicians—as well as blues, gospel, and old-school rock-and-roll artists through an exploration of music-driven, song-centric, spirit-derived approaches to music-theatre creation.

Faculty: Sifiso Mabena

A syncretic theatre journey is enhanced by the observance of fellow theatre-makers and oneself that is informed concretely by the application of text, research, movement, music, design, puppetry, multimedia, as well as social and political debate in class. In collaboration with LaMaMa International, exchange ideas with visiting and local artists from around the world.