A student on stage in a theatrical production

Carleton combines Theater and Dance into a single department. Theater covers three main areas: design and technical, acting and directing, and literature and criticism. Dance gives students at all levels opportunities for participation in the areas of technique, choreography and analysis, and performance.

A student on stage in a theatrical production

About Theater and Dance

The Department of Theater and Dance offers courses spanning the major areas of interest in both disciplines. Theater offerings include acting, voice, movement, directing, design-technical, and devised performance as well as courses in literature, history and criticism. In all of our courses our goal is to examine the intersection of critical thought and creative practice. Theater is an ever-changing art, and we strive to expose students to its most recent innovations and the cultural currents that influence them.

Dance gives students at all levels opportunities for active participation in three basic areas: movement practice, choreography and analysis, and performance. The broadest goal of these offerings is to increase understanding of the art of dance as a contribution to a liberal arts education and to connect theory and practice through embodied learning. Goals that are more specific are the development of body knowledge; somatic research; cultural awareness of movement and performing practices; and the experience of Dance Studies as a way to understand current issues and art from a global and social justice perspective.

While there is a regular major in Theater, advanced students may apply to the chair of Dance for a special major in Dance.

Requirements for the Dance Minor

Minor Requirements – 36 Total Credits

The Minor in Dance is for the student who is interested in continuing and deepening their focus on dance. It can provide an opportunity for cross disciplinary work and connecting dance studies with another major. Acceptance to the program is based on personal interviews with the program director.

Movement Practice and Performance – Required Minimum 12 credits

It is recommended that at least one movement practice class be taken per term. Additional movement practice classes offered at Carleton or through OCS may qualify with permission from the program director.

Required Movement Practice and Performance Courses – (3 Credits)

At least one credit of each of the following:

  • DANC 205: Winter Dance (1 credit)
  • DANC 206: Spring Dance (1 credit)
  • DANC 215: Winter Dance, Student Choreography (1 credit)

Elective Movement Practice and Performance Courses – (9 credits)

Choreography Courses – Required Minimum 12 credits

  • DANC 190: Fields of Performance (not offered 2026-27)
  • DANC 268: The Body as Choreographer
  • DANC 295: Dance Lab (not offered 2026-27)

History, Theory, and Literature Course – Required Minimum 6 credits

  • DANC 211: Cultures of Dance (not offered 2026-27)
  • DANC 254: Jazz Dance: Roots and Grooves (not offered 2026-27)
  • DANC 266: Reading the Dancing Body (not offered 2026-27)
  • DANC 270: Performance As Ceremony (not offered 2026-27)

Required Elective Course – Required Minimum 6 credits

A minimum of 6 additional credits in any of the three categories:

  • Movement Practice and Performance
  • Choreography
  • History, Theory, and Literature

Dance Courses

All courses may be taken any number of terms at the appropriate level. A maximum of 24 credits from dance technique classes may be counted toward graduation.

  • DANC 100.01 Meaning In Motion: Reading and Writing Dance

    In this class we will look at dance through various lenses; queer/feminist, ethnographic, Africanist, disability studies, and activism. We will examine and broaden the definition of dance and situate it within the discourse of “performance,” recognizing the larger meaning of “performance” to include all bodily movements, acts and gestures, whether onstage or off. We will ask questions about the performance of culture, race, gender and ability in various dance contexts.  Researching through the body and movement as well as written and visual texts, students will develop skills of critical dance viewing, analysis, and writing through formal and informal writing assignments.  We will read, write, view, attend live performance, discuss and move.  No previous dance experience is necessary.

  • DANC 107 Ballet I

    A beginning course in ballet technique, including basic positions, beginning patterns and exercises. Students develop an awareness of the many ways their body can move, an appreciation of dance as an artistic expression and a recognition of the dancer as an athlete.

  • DANC 147 Moving Anatomy

    This course seeks to provide an underlying awareness of body structure and function. Using movement to expand knowledge of our anatomy will encourage participants to integrate information with experience. Heightened body awareness and class studies are designed to activate the general learning process.

  • DANC 148 Modern Dance I: Technique and Theory

    A physical exploration at the introductory level of the elements of dance: time, motion, space, shape and energy. Students are challenged physically as they increase their bodily awareness, balance, control, strength and flexibility and get a glimpse of the art of dance.

  • DANC 150 Contact Improvisation

    This is a course in techniques of spontaneous dancing shared by two or more people through a common point of physical contact. Basic skills such as support, counterbalance, rolling, falling and flying will be taught and developed in an environment of mutual creativity.

    Not offered in 2026-27

  • DANC 158 Contemporary Dance Forms I

    This course provides an introduction to a variety of movement approaches that develop an awareness of the body in space and moving through space. Students will learn approaches designed to strengthen muscles, support joint mobility, find breath support, enhance coordination, and encourage embodied learning.

  • DANC 171 Dance for Musical Theater

    This course focuses on development and execution of dance and performance skills as they relate to musical theater dance styles. Students will learn how to use dance as a method of storytelling to gain a better understanding of how dance and choreography create and bring dramatic elements to life. This course will also include some beginning tap steps.

    Repeatable: This course is repeatable.

  • DANC 189 Music Theatre Practicum

    This course is designed for dancers who have auditioned and been cast for the Theater and Dance Department musical. Students will learn and rehearse choreography for the show and will perform in the mainstage  musical theater production.  To register students will waitlist for the course and then enroll with permission from the instructor. Students taking this course should plan to register for THEA 190 in the term of the performance (the following term).

    Not offered in 2026-27

  • DANC 190 Fields of Performance

    This introductory course in choreography explores games, structures, systems and sports as sources and locations of movement composition and performance. Readings, viewings and discussion of postmodernist structures and choreographers as well as attendance and analysis of dance performances and sports events will be jumping off point for creative process and will pave the way for small individual compositions and one larger project. In an atmosphere of play, spontaneity and research participants will discover new ways of defining dance, pushing limits and bending the rules. Guest choreographers and coaches will be invited as part of the class. Open to all movers. No previous experience necessary.

    Not offered in 2026-27

  • DANC 200 Modern Dance II: Technique and Theory

    A continuation of Level I with more emphasis on the development of technique and expressive qualities.

  • DANC 205 Winter Dance

    Intensive rehearsal and performance of a work commissioned from professional guest choreographer.  The class will culminate in a performance in the Spring Term, so students taking this course should plan to register for DANC 206 in Spring. Open to all levels.

  • DANC 206 Spring Dance

    Rehearsal and full concert performance of student dance works created during the year and completed in the spring term. Open to all levels.

  • DANC 208 Ballet II

    For the student with previous ballet experience. This course emphasizes articulation of technique and development of ballet vocabulary.

  • DANC 210 Contemporary Dance Forms II

    This course is intended for students seeking to refine and deepen their awareness of embodied movement approaches. Through these approaches, students will work to develop an alert and articulate body. In both standing and floor work, momentum, dynamic shifts and spatial challenges are introduced.

  • DANC 211 Cultures of Dance

    In this class we will look at dance from a global viewpoint, investigating forms, styles and contexts through various lenses (feminist, ethnographic, Africanist). We will examine and broaden the definition of dance and situate it within the discourse of “performance,” recognizing the larger meaning of “performance” to include all bodily movements, acts and gestures, whether onstage or off. We will ask questions about the performance of culture and ethnography, race and gender in the various dance cultures presented. Reading, writing, moving, discussing, and viewing live performance will shape class inquiry. No prior dance experience needed.

    Not offered in 2026-27

  • DANC 215 Winter Dance, Student Choreography

    For students enrolled in Dance 205, supervised student choreography with two public showings.

  • DANC 253 Movement for the Performer

    This course investigates the structure and function of the body through movement and how it can be applied to the stage work of an actor, dancer and or singer.  Included will be a variety of somatic and performance approaches (Alexander Technique, improvisation Viewpoints, stage combat). The emphasis will be to discover effortless movement, body awareness, balance in the body and an integration of self in moving.

    Not offered in 2026-27

  • DANC 254 Jazz Dance: Roots and Grooves

    This course positions jazz and related social dance styles as forms with African diasporic roots and American branches. Composed of 60% in-class movement investigation and 40% both in-class and out of class reading, viewing, writing, and creating, Jazz Dance: Roots and Grooves will ask students to invest in how the elements of groove, improvisation and interaction unite different approaches to jazz and make it a form that appreciates the past, centers the present and innovates for the future. Some dance experience recommended.

    Not offered in 2026-27

  • DANC 266 Reading the Dancing Body

    Dance is a field in which bodies articulate a history of sexuality, nation, gender, and race. In this course, the investigation of the body as a “text” will be anchored by intersectional and feminist perspectives. We will re-center American concert dance history, emphasizing the Africanist base of American Dance performance, contemporary black choreographers, and Native American concert dance. Through reading, writing, discussing, moving, viewing videos and performances the class will “read” the gender, race, and politics of the dancing body in the cultural/historical context of Modern, Post Modern and Contemporary Dance.

    Not offered in 2026-27

  • DANC 268 The Body as Choreographer

    "The pleasure of the text is that moment when my body pursues its own ideas-for my body does not have the same ideas I do." -Roland Barthes. Through guided movement sessions we will explore the body as a source for ideas. Using "Authentic Movement," experiential anatomy practices and compositional strategies, students will generate several small compositions and one larger gallery project exploring alternative spaces and the influx of various media (movement, text, images, technology, objects, sites, fabric). This choreography "lab" will help answer the question: How do you make a dance? For both beginning and advanced dance students.

  • DANC 270 Performance As Ceremony

    This course re-frames Dance history and practice through the lens of “performance as ceremony,” foregrounding embodied knowledge as a site of cultural memory, resistance, and futurity. Students will examine Indigenous, Africanist, Latinx, and Asian modernisms, centering choreographers, performers, and theorists who challenge dominant narratives and the legacies of cultural appropriation. With particular attention to Indigenous contemporary performance and its cultural and historical contexts, students will engage in seminar discussions, embodied research, and site-based performance practices. Indigenous guest artist/scholar visits, and attendance at performances will be part of the class.

    Not offered in 2026-27

  • DANC 279 Tap Dance, Intermediate/Advanced

    Tap is an energetic form of dance that focuses on rhythm and percussion. Classes will include across the floor exercises that teach dynamics, shading, phrasing, and musicality along with extended rhythmic phrases and improvisation exercises. Tap dance originated in the southern United States as a fusion of West African dance roots and Europeanist influences. In this course students will learn tap skills as well as important aspects of tap dance history. Some previous experience with Tap dance is recommended. 

  • DANC 295 Dance Lab

    DANCE LAB will provide an adventurous and practical space where students of various levels can explore body-based performance with an emphasis on the solo form. Students will examine the choreographic elements of space, time, energy, action, framing, and environment as they discover personal aesthetics and investigate how to organize physical ideas in both immediate and virtual spaces. A community of deep listening will support creative acts that can effect change – socio-political-personal. Performance solos will be developed through discussion, peer feedback, and regular meetings with the faculty mentor. Work for the class will include your own rehearsals and, outside readings and viewings. The ability to record your work is required and access to a camera is recommended (phones are fine).

    Not offered in 2026-27

  • DANC 300 Modern Dance III: Technique and Theory

    Intensive work on technical, theoretical, and expressive problems for the experienced dancer.

    Not offered in 2026-27

  • DANC 301 West African Dance

    In this class you will be introduced to traditional West African dance movement accompanied by live drumming. A variety of dynamics such as grounding, centeredness, and footwork will be addressed. Each class will cover the cultural background of the rhythm as well as the conversation between drummer and dancer. All levels are welcome to join in this vigorous experience of West African dance forms.

  • DANC 309 Ballet III

    This is an advanced class for students who have some capabilities and proficiency in ballet technique. Content is sophisticated and demanding in its use of ballet vocabulary and musical phrasing.

  • DANC 310 Contemporary Dance Forms III

    This advanced course will continue to focus on a variety of embodied movement approaches to refine the awareness of the moving body and prepare for the rigors of performance and physical research. The aim will be on finding a personal connection to movement through subtlety, speed and effort.

  • DANC 350 Semaphore Repertory Dance Company

    Provides advanced dance students with an intensive opportunity to develop as performers in professional level dances. Skills to be honed are: the dancer as contributor to the process of art-making; defining individual technical and expressive gifts; working in a variety of new technical and philosophical dance frameworks. In addition to regular training during the academic terms, participation in a "preseason" rehearsal period before fall term is required. A few pieces of student choreography will be accepted for repertory. The group produces an annual concert, performs in the Twin Cities and makes dance exchanges with other college groups.

    Recommended Preparation: Admission by audition.

Requirements for the Theater Major

Major Requirements – 68 Total Credits

Note: any single course may satisfy only one requirement.

Theater History and Theory Courses – Required 12 credits

  • THEA 100.01: Indigenous Theater (26/FA)
  • THEA 225: Theater History and Theory (not offered 2026-27)
  • THEA 242: Modern American Drama (not offered 2026-27)

Design and Technical Theater Course – Required 6 credits

  • THEA 115: Principles of Design (not offered 2026-27)
  • THEA 234: Lighting Design for the Performing Arts
  • THEA 237: Scenic Design for the Performing Arts (not offered 2026-27)
  • THEA 238: Costume Design for the Performing Arts (not offered 2026-27)
  • THEA 256: Costume Construction
  • THEA 320: Live Performance and Digital Media (not offered 2026-27)

Practical Theater Courses – Required 18 credits

  • CAMS 176: A Collective Art: Collaborative Creation in Film
  • DANC 150: Contact Improvisation (not offered 2026-27)
  • DANC 189: Music Theatre Practicum (not offered 2026-27)
  • DANC 253: Movement for the Performer (not offered 2026-27)
  • DANC 254: Jazz Dance: Roots and Grooves (not offered 2026-27)
  • DANC 268: The Body as Choreographer
  • THEA 110: Beginning Acting
  • THEA 176: Collective Art: Collaborative Creation in Theater
  • THEA 185: The Speaking Voice
  • THEA 195: Acting Shakespeare (not offered 2026-27)
  • THEA 198: New Play Workshop (not offered 2026-27)
  • THEA 199: Theater Practicum
  • THEA 211: Intermediate Acting (not offered 2026-27)
  • THEA 226: Avant-garde Theater and Performance
  • THEA 227: Theatre for Social Change (not offered 2026-27)
  • THEA 235: Introduction to Stage Combat
  • THEA 245: Directing (not offered 2026-27)
  • THEA 246: Playwriting (not offered 2026-27)
  • THEA 312.01: Speaking and Acting Shakespeare (27/WI)
  • THEA 317: Theatrical Storytelling
  • THEA 345: Devised Theater and Collective Creation (not offered 2026-27)

300-level Theater Courses – Required 18 credits

18 credits at the 300 level. (Additional courses may be added to this group as approved.)

  • THEA 309.01: Measure for Measure: A Project Course (27/SP)
  • THEA 312.01: Speaking and Acting Shakespeare (27/WI)
  • THEA 314: Advanced Acting (not offered 2026-27)
  • THEA 317: Theatrical Storytelling
  • THEA 320: Live Performance and Digital Media (not offered 2026-27)
  • THEA 345: Devised Theater and Collective Creation (not offered 2026-27)
  • THEA 346: Advanced Playwriting

Literature, Criticism, or History Course – Required 6 credits

  • CLAS 116: Greek Drama in Performance (not offered 2026-27)
  • DANC 270: Performance As Ceremony (not offered 2026-27)
  • ENGL 144: Shakespeare I (not offered 2026-27)
  • ENGL 206: William Shakespeare: The Henriad (not offered 2026-27)
  • ENGL 209.01: Measure for Measure: A Project Course (27/SP)
  • ENGL 214: Revenge Tragedy (not offered 2026-27)
  • ENGL 219: Global Shakespeare (not offered 2026-27)
  • ENGL 244: Shakespeare I (not offered 2026-27)
  • ENGL 258: Playwrights of Color: Taking the Stage
  • ENGL 281.07: Reading London/Writing London (27/SP)
  • ENGL 282: Living London Program: London Theater
  • ENGL 381.07: Reading London/Writing London (27/SP)
  • HIST 234: Constantinople, 1453: History, Experience, Narrative (not offered 2026-27)
  • THEA 209.01: Measure for Measure: A Project Course (27/SP)
  • THEA 228: Performing Women (not offered 2026-27)
  • THEA 255: August Wilson: History and the Blues (not offered 2026-27)

Players Production Course – Required 2 credits

Senior Integrative Exercise – Required 6 credits

Requirements for the Theater Minor

Minor Requirements – 38 credits

The Theater minor requires 38 credits. It is designed for students who are interested in extending and deepening their exploration of Theater Arts. Theater is inherently cross disciplinary. Its sub-disciplines include acting, directing, design, playwriting, and literary analysis. The Minor has four tracks and two required courses. Students may choose one track or a combination of tracks to arrive at the minimum of 38 credits.

Required Courses – Required 12 credits

  • THEA 225: Theater History and Theory (not offered 2026-27)
  • THEA 242: Modern American Drama (not offered 2026-27)

Track Courses – Required 18 credits

Select one of the following tracks;

Acting

  • THEA 110: Beginning Acting
    OR THEA 195: Acting Shakespeare (not offered 2026-27)

12 additional credits from the list. Other courses may be used with approval of the minor coordinator.

  • CAMS 176: A Collective Art: Collaborative Creation in Film
  • CLAS 116: Greek Drama in Performance (not offered 2026-27)
  • THEA 110: Beginning Acting
  • THEA 185: The Speaking Voice
  • THEA 195: Acting Shakespeare (not offered 2026-27)
  • THEA 198: New Play Workshop (not offered 2026-27)
  • THEA 235: Introduction to Stage Combat
  • THEA 312.01: Speaking and Acting Shakespeare (27/WI)
  • THEA 314: Advanced Acting (not offered 2026-27)
  • THEA 345: Devised Theater and Collective Creation (not offered 2026-27)

Directing

All three of these courses are required.

  • THEA 115: Principles of Design (not offered 2026-27)
  • THEA 245: Directing (not offered 2026-27)
  • THEA 345: Devised Theater and Collective Creation (not offered 2026-27)

Design

  • THEA 115: Principles of Design (not offered 2026-27) (Required)

12 additional credits from the list. Other courses may be used with the approval of the minor coordinator.

  • THEA 115: Principles of Design (not offered 2026-27)
  • THEA 234: Lighting Design for the Performing Arts
  • THEA 237: Scenic Design for the Performing Arts (not offered 2026-27)
  • THEA 238: Costume Design for the Performing Arts (not offered 2026-27)
  • THEA 256: Costume Construction
  • THEA 320: Live Performance and Digital Media (not offered 2026-27)

Playwriting and Research

  • THEA 246: Playwriting (not offered 2026-27) (Required)

12 additional credits from the list. Other courses may be used with approval of the minor coordinator.

  • ENGL 144: Shakespeare I (not offered 2026-27)
  • ENGL 214: Revenge Tragedy (not offered 2026-27)
  • ENGL 258: Playwrights of Color: Taking the Stage
  • THEA 100.01: Indigenous Theater (26/FA)
  • THEA 246: Playwriting (not offered 2026-27)
  • THEA 255: August Wilson: History and the Blues (not offered 2026-27)
  • THEA 346: Advanced Playwriting

Elective Course – Required 6 credits

Six course credits outside the chosen sub-disciplinary track approved by the minor coordinator or department chair.

Theater Production Course – Required 2-3 credits

  • THEA 190: Carleton Players Production (2 credits)
    OR THEA 199: Theater Practicum (3 credits)

A student participating in a department production is allowed to enrolled in THEA 190: Carleton Players Production, which is allotted one academic credit. Students with significant roles in a production can earn three credits in THEA 199: Theater Practicum with permission from the faculty instructor.

Theater Courses

  • THEA 100.01 Indigenous Theater

    In partnership with New Native Theatre Artistic Producer Benjamin Wilson (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma), we explore the work of Indigenous playwrights and theater makers from the beginning of the Twentieth Century through the Red Power Movement and into today’s contemporary theater. How are Native worldviews embedded in the practices of these theater artists? How does Indigenous theater work politically and culturally to embody and perform tribal sovereignty? What are the challenges faced by Native theatre artists? How have Native identities been represented in Native and non-Native performances? Students investigate these questions through the analysis of texts, performances, and theatrical practices.

  • THEA 110 Beginning Acting

    Introduces students to fundamental acting skills, including preliminary physical training, improvisational techniques, and basic scene work. The course includes analysis of plays as bases for performance, with a strong emphasis on characterization.

  • THEA 115 Principles of Design

    Explores the process of communicating ideas and experience through visual means. Whether that process begins with a written text, choreographed movement or abstract idea, such elements as color, shape, space, value and balance inevitably come into play in its visual representation. This course teaches these fundamental principles and how to apply them in practice. Principles of Design is an essential course for students interested in any aspect of theater, dance, or performance.

    Not offered in 2026-27

  • THEA 176 Collective Art: Collaborative Creation in Theater

    Based around a series of exercises to develop devised theatrical work, the objective of this course is to share a working methodology where horizontal organization and collective discussion take a leading role in theatre making. The instructors function as tutors/participants during the ideation process to guide students in the creation of short theatrical pieces during the five-week course.

  • THEA 185 The Speaking Voice

    This course seeks to provide a practical understanding of the human voice, its anatomy, functioning and the underlying support mechanisms of body and breath. Using techniques rooted in the work of Berry, Linklater and Rodenburg, the course will explore the development of physical balance and ease and the awareness of the connection between thinking and breathing that will lead to the effortless, powerful and healthy use of the voice in public presentations and in dramatic performance.

  • THEA 190 Carleton Players Production

    Each term students may participate in one Players production, a hands-on, faculty-supervised process of conceptualization, construction, rehearsal, and performance. Credit is awarded for a predetermined minimum of time on the production, to be arranged with faculty. Productions explore our theatre heritage from Greek drama to new works. Students may participate through audition or through volunteering for production work.

  • THEA 195 Acting Shakespeare

    Though widely read, Shakespeare’s plays were written to be performed. This acting class, designed for students with no prior experience with Shakespeare, will explore approaches to performance with an emphasis on the use of the First Folio. Students will create performances using Shakespeare’s approaches to rhetoric, imagery and structure while examining some of the plays’ principal themes. Video and audio recordings will be used to develop a critical perspective on acting Shakespeare with an emphasis on the differing demands of live and recorded performance.

    Not offered in 2026-27

  • THEA 198 New Play Workshop

    This course focuses on rehearsing a new play in preparation for a staged reading. Students will learn essential techniques in analyzing, discussing, producing, and performing new work.  The course will be run like a professional new play workshop and will thus also prepare students for post-graduate careers.

    Repeatable: This course is repeatable.

    Not offered in 2026-27

  • THEA 199 Theater Practicum

    This course is designed for students who have major responsibilities in Carleton Players productions as Stage Managers, Actors and Designers. Students enrolled in this class will have more responsibility and be expected to commit to more time than the students registered in Theater 190, including additional time for research, design and role preparation. Students in this course will get in-depth learning experiences in the processes most central to the discipline; the creation of performances. Students will waitlist for the course; enrollment in the course will be by instructor’s permission depending on the responsibilities students have.

  • THEA 209.01 Measure for Measure: A Project Course

    This interdisciplinary course, taught in conjunction with a full-scale Carleton Players production, will explore Shakespeare's complex "comedy," Measure for Measure. We will investigate the play’s historical, social, and theatrical contexts as we try to understand not only the world that produced the play, but the world that came out of it. How should what we learn of the past inform a modern production? How can performance offer interpretive arguments about the play’s meanings? Mixing embodied and experiential learning, individual and group projects may involve dramaturgy, stagecraft, literary analysis, music, and research in Special Collections. Offered at both the 200 and 300 level for THEA majors ONLY; coursework will be adjusted accordingly.

    ENGL 209 is cross listed with THEA 209.

  • THEA 211 Intermediate Acting

    This course builds on the core principles of THEA 110 through scene study, improvisational exercises, and script analysis. Students will practice the techniques of Sanford Meisner, Uta Hagen, and Stella Adler as they deepen their ability to live truthfully in imaginary circumstances.

    Expected preparation: Theater 110 or significant acting experience. 

    Not offered in 2026-27

  • THEA 225 Theater History and Theory

    Throughout history, theatrical performance has been both a reflection of cultural values and a platform for envisioning social change. In this course, students will examine the theatre of the people: popular theatre, theatre that directly engages with the community in which it lives, and theatre that is woven into the rituals of the culture. This includes ancient Greek tragedy, medieval cycle plays, Yoruban Egungun Masquerade, commedia dell’arte, Japanese Kabuki, Elizabethan theatre, and American popular and grassroots performance. Class sessions will combine lecture, discussion, and performances of historical texts.

    Not offered in 2026-27

  • THEA 226 Avant-garde Theater and Performance

    "Make it new!" was the rallying cry of the modernists, and ever since, the theater has never ceased its efforts to break both aesthetic and social conventions, boundaries, and taboos. Beginning with some of the important precursors of the twentieth century–Artaud, Brecht, and Meyerhold–this course will explore the history and theory of the avant-garde, charting the rise of interdisciplinary “performance." Students will both analyze and perform work written and inspired by these avant-garde artists. 

  • THEA 227 Theatre for Social Change

    This class is an examination of significant artists who use theatre as a tool for envisioning and enacting social change. We will study the justice-making strategies of a variety of artists, including Augusto Boal, Cherríe Moraga, Anna Deavere Smith, among many other contemporary artists whose work continues to shape American society. We will also examine influential methods of using theatre for social change, including documentary theatre, Theatre of the Oppressed, theatre for young audiences, and theatre in prisons. The class will include a number of guest artist visits from people making work in the field. The final project will be an original theatrical creation that uses the strategies studied in class to address a contemporary social issue.

    Not offered in 2026-27

  • THEA 228 Performing Women

    Through a performance studies lens, this course analyzes performances of gender and race in American theatre, focusing on female-identified artists of color. Our starting questions are: How do we read “woman” on stage and how have artists disrupted or supported dominant understandings of “woman” through theatrical performances?  Additionally, how have artists intentionally challenged this gender binary in performance? Among other artists, we examine the work of Angelina Weld Grimké, Kristina Rae Colón. Larissa FastHorse, Teatro Luna, Young Jean Lee, and Aditi Brennan Kapil. At the end of the course students move from an analysis of performance to creation of their own performance pieces.

    Not offered in 2026-27

  • THEA 234 Lighting Design for the Performing Arts

    An introduction to and practice in stage lighting for the performing arts. Coursework will cover the function of light in design; lighting equipment and technology; communication graphics through practical laboratory explorations. Application of principles for performance events and contemporary lighting problems will be studied through hands-on application.

  • THEA 235 Introduction to Stage Combat

    In this hands-on course students will learn several techniques of unarmed stage combat, including slaps, punches, and falls. In the second half of the term, students will also be introduced to armed combat. Throughout the term, students will practice essential safety techniques that provide the necessary framework for convincing performances.

    Recommended Preparation: DANC 253 – Movement for the Performer or theatre and dance experience.

  • THEA 237 Scenic Design for the Performing Arts

    This course will focus on the art and practice of creating scenic designs for the performing arts. It will introduce basic design techniques while exploring the collaborative process involved in bringing scenery from concept to the stage. The course will include individual and group projects utilizing collage, sketching, and model-making.

    Not offered in 2026-27

  • THEA 238 Costume Design for the Performing Arts

    An introductory course in costume design. This course will examine the basic concepts of costume design and how they apply to the performing arts. The collaborative process, basic rendering techniques and clothing history will also be studied. In depth analysis of script, characters and choreography will lead to an exploration of how the principles of costume design can be used to enhance a production. The course will include individual projects, group projects and attendance at live performances.

    Not offered in 2026-27

  • THEA 242 Modern American Drama

    A study of significant American plays from the early twentieth century to the present, including playwrights such as Tennessee Williams, August Wilson, Alice Childress, Suzan Lori-Parks, and Lauren Yee. We will read plays from a theatrical lens, discussing them as blueprints for performance by examining their structure, characters, language, and theatricality. We will also discuss how these plays are in conversation with contextual historical events and notions of American identity.

    Not offered in 2026-27

  • THEA 245 Directing

    Although many directors begin their artistic careers in some other discipline (usually acting), there is a set of skills particular to the director’s art that is essential to creating life on stage. Central is the ability to translate dramatic action and narrative into the dimensions of theatrical time and space: the always-present challenge of “page to stage.” In this course, students will learn methods of text analysis strategic to this process as well as the rudiments of using that analysis to generate effective staging and powerful acting. Having mastered the fundamentals, students will then explore and enhance their theatrical imagination, that creative mode unique to the medium of live performance. Class time will be devoted to work on three major projects and almost daily exercises.

    Not offered in 2026-27

  • THEA 246 Playwriting

    A laboratory to explore the craft of playwriting, concentrating on structure, action and character. The class uses games, exercises, scenes, with the goal of producing a short play by the end of the term.

    Not offered in 2026-27

  • THEA 255 August Wilson: History and the Blues

    This course will explore the ten plays that comprise August Wilson’s “Century Cycle.” Wilson wrote one play for each decade of the twentieth century, exploring the movement of African-Americans, in critic John Lahr’s words, “from property to personhood.” Wilson’s work, inspired by the Black Arts movement of the 1960’s-70’s is rooted musically in the Blues, the African American musical form at the root of modern American popular music. We will read these plays, informed by the Blues, against the major historical events in African-American life during each of the decades they represent.

    Not offered in 2026-27

  • THEA 256 Costume Construction

    This specialized course in costume technology develops a number of technical skills. Students will focus on hand and machine sewing throughout the term and will also learn techniques in garment construction.

  • THEA 309.01 Measure for Measure: A Project Course

    This interdisciplinary course, taught in conjunction with a full-scale Carleton Players production, will explore Shakespeare's complex "comedy," Measure for Measure. We will investigate the play’s historical, social, and theatrical contexts as we try to understand not only the world that produced the play, but the world that came out of it. How should what we learn of the past inform a modern production? How can performance offer interpretive arguments about the play’s meanings? Mixing embodied and experiential learning, individual and group projects may involve dramaturgy, stagecraft, literary analysis, music, and research in Special Collections. Offered at both the 200 and 300 level for THEA majors ONLY; coursework will be adjusted accordingly.

  • THEA 312.01 Speaking and Acting Shakespeare

    This repeatable course focuses on specialized topics in acting at the advanced level. Topics offered may include non-Western performance forms, Theater of the Absurd, Chekhov, Comedy, and other period- or genre-based modes. The topic of the 2026-2027 course is Shakespeare.

    Recommended Preparation: THEA 110, THEA 211, or THEA 185

    Repeatable: Course is repeatable provided the topics are different.

  • THEA 314 Advanced Acting

    Advanced Acting focuses on in-depth scene study, auditioning, and acting for the camera. While Beginning Acting THEA 110 is recommended, students with other previous acting experience may also register.

    Not offered in 2026-27

  • THEA 317 Theatrical Storytelling

    This project-based course focuses on developing advanced skills in storytelling for the theater. Students will learn how professional directors, designers, and playwrights approach their craft, with a particular focus on staging, collaboration, and production approach. Students will engage in problem-based learning through weekly projects that focus them on breaking scripts and production ideas into smaller units of action.

    Recommended Preparation: Two courses in theater at the 100 or 200 level.

  • THEA 320 Live Performance and Digital Media

    We live in a world where the presence of digital technology is ubiquitous. Our reality is augmented by portals that open up universes of undiscovered possibilities for expanding, creating, archiving and documenting art. Yet these media have a physical presence that demands the artist find new ways of negotiating space and time on a stage. This class explores the ways in which digital media shape the everyday and ways in which they relate to performing and performance art in a historical, cultural and technological sense. Students will experiment with processes for incorporating digital technologies into their performances, while engaging in conversations around embodiment, identity and space.

    Recommended Preparation: Any course in Theater Arts, Dance, Cinema and Media Studies, Studio Art, creative writing or musical composition.

    Not offered in 2026-27

  • THEA 345 Devised Theater and Collective Creation

    A usual evening in the theater consists of seeing a text–the play–staged by a director and performed by actors. While this is certainly a collaborative endeavor, recent decades have seen a marked increase in “devised theater,” a mode intended to upset the traditional hierarchies of theatrical production. In practical terms, this means the abandonment of the extant text in favor of a performance “score”–sometimes textual, often physical–developed improvisationally in rehearsal by the performers. This course will explore the methods and approaches used to work in this collective and highly creative manner, and will culminate in a public performance. We will also discuss the history and cultural politics that inform devised practice.

    Not offered in 2026-27

  • THEA 346 Advanced Playwriting

    This course builds on the skills learned in Playwriting, THEA 246. Students will expand their playwriting toolkit while working on one act or full length plays. Particular attention will be paid to dramaturgical strategies for writing for the medium of live theatrical performance.

  • THEA 400 Integrative Exercise

    The comprehensive exercise in theater asks students to apply the skills gained in coursework to a major theatrical or scholarly project. Working with their advisors, students can choose to perform, write, design, direct, or produce their project.