Course Syllabus
Course: THEA 2603
Division: Fine Arts, Comm, and New Media
Department: Theater Arts
Title: Performance Practicum III
Semester Approved: Fall 2021
Five-Year Review Semester: Summer 2026
End Semester: Summer 2027
Catalog Description: This course allows application of acting skills through supervised play rehearsals and performances.This course is repeatable for credit.
Semesters Offered: Fall, Spring
Credit/Time Requirement: Credit: 1-2; Lecture: 1-2; Lab: 1-2
Repeatable: Yes.
Prerequisites: Consent of 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.This specific course of Performance Practicum will be available to students participating in the third production of the theatrical season. Because a student may be involved in the third production of the season as a freshman, sophomore, etc. this course is repeatable for credit.
General Education Outcomes:
1: A student who completes the GE curriculum has a fundamental knowledge of human cultures and the natural world. The work of dramatic performance and the interpretation of texts from different perspectives than one's own is implicitly an exploration of humanity and the cultures of the world, from individual scale to that of entirely different societies, both current and of the past. A student participating in this practicum will demonstrate this knowledge through specific script analysis, an actor's dramaturgical work, close-reading, artistic interpretation and culminating in performance.
2: A student who completes the GE curriculum can read and research effectively within disciplines. Each student will be required to read and interpret the text of a play according to genre, style, theme, period, locale, mood/atmosphere, character relationships, and other relevant given circumstances which highlight the playwright's or director's vision in relationship to its origins, fictive world, and/or contemporary context. Each student develops his/her character on the basis of background, motivations, relationships, actions, and temperaments. The interpretation of each character will be evaluated, corrected, and re-evaluated by both the student and the director until performance. Students will demonstrate production work through performance and participation in all rehearsals and presentations, as well as completion of all role assignments such as character analysis, memorization of dialogue, execution of blocking, script scoring, and character constancy.
3: A student who completes the GE curriculum can draw from multiple disciplines to address complex problems. The work of the stage often requires exploration of any number of disciplines depending on the precise content and context of a production. Fields frequently drawn upon that require students' attention include aspects of sociology, psychology, anthropology, history, literature, and other areas of fine arts. The Snow College Theatre Department also encourages selections that delve into subject mater of other disciplines (both general education and non-GE) from mathematics, biology, medicine, political science, etc. As the work of a performer is to understand the plight of the character, the actor must first deconstruct actions and obstacles their character faces. Then, through an informed interpretive process, the actor must attempt to connect and realize the problem-solving of the character in the situations and scenarios outlined by the playwright. The student will demonstrate this work through the audition, rehearsal, and performance of the character.
4: A student who completes the GE curriculum can reason analytically, critically, and creatively. By its very nature, the art of acting requires the student to be able to analyze the script in order to retrieve, evaluate, interpret, and respond to the author's intent. This understanding will have a direct impact on their interpretation and performance of the character through speech and nonverbal components. The critical work of exploration of a role is inherent in the creation of cooperative performance through, live scene work, receiving directorial feedback, and self-reflection. Students will demonstrate these skills through rehearsals and performance.
Student Learning Outcomes:
Analyze a specific role on the basis of genre, style, theme, period, locale, mood/atmosphere, character relationship, and other relevant given circumstances using close-reading, textual analysis, dramaturgy, interpretation, and the rehearsal process. Students will demonstrate this through rehearsals and performance.
Evaluate a specific character on the basis of background, motivations, relationships, actions, objectives, super objective, tactics, beat-changes, temperaments/states, externalities, handling of language, diction, destinations, exceptions, inner-life, and/or any other acting practices appropriate for the production. Students will demonstration production work through performance and participation in all rehearsals and presentations, as well as completion of all role assignments such as character analysis, memorization of dialogue, execution of blocking, script scoring, and character constancy.
Memorize text, blocking, and notes. Students will demonstrate this through rehearsals and performance.
Perform before live audiences maintaining concentration, focus, character consistency, energy, tempo, pace, projection, articulation, connection, action, and truth. Students will be assessed through the final performances.
Content:
Credit will be awarded for performing in Snow College Theatre productions scheduled each semester.
Performance:
1. Auditions--participate in a one- to three-day audition sequence performing prepared and cold audition pieces as required by the director.
2. Rehearsals--participate in a three- to six-week rehearsal period as scheduled. The rehearsal sequence will consist of the following stages: Read-through/analysis, blocking/choreography, line/music, runthroughs, finishing, technical, costume/makeup.
3. Performance--perform before a live audience for four to seven performances.
Content may include intensives/workshops on additional applicable performance techniques and methodologies to expand the learners understanding of the art of acting, style, or performance approaches as determined by the instructor.
As this course is offered in concert with an individual productions scheduled in the Snow College Theatre Season. As such, the works and content explore include the following parameters to address diversity and inclusion:
Advocacy for production selections which open discourse and affect positive chance, while supporting rigorous cultural specificity to remove generalizations, harmful appropriation, and divisive depictions. Fostering rehearsal and performance culture to create safe and equitable spaces where every person’s story is heard and honored; where hate, bigotry, and intolerance are not given power, only context.
Key Performance Indicators:
Each student will be evaluated on:
Production assessment of student performance. 70 to 90%
Post-production performance evaluation. 10 to 30%
Representative Text and/or Supplies:
The script for the current play serves as the text for this course.
Pedagogy Statement:
This course provides opportunity for both theoretical and practical experience in the various aspects of theatrical performance through hands-on, high-impact experience at both the independent and group level. It is a key pedagogical piece of academic theatre programs to offer exploratory opportunities in the multidimensional field of study that is theatre. Students are given standards of practice in which to operate, real-world timetables, and professional level guidance and critique through the entirety of the production and rehearsal processes.
As this course is offered in concert with an individual production scheduled in the Snow College Theatre Season. As such, the practices and methodologies explored include the following parameters to address diversity and inclusion:
Practicums should be taught in a manner in which everyone has access to resources for their growth, success, and expression, and where instruction works to remove all impediments to that access. Talent and skill, in their many facets, are nurtured based solely upon merit and achievement, in order to foster the many facets artistic expression may take.
Instructional Mediums:
Lecture/Lab
Maximum Class Size: 50
Optimum Class Size: 12
