24 courses with the subject THEA, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
THEA 10001 Performing Social Change6
This course examines the role of theatre in envisioning and enacting social change in the United States. Students will analyze the dramatic texts, live performances, and manifestos of influential theatre artists from the 1960s to today. Throughout the term, students will also practice embodied learning through theatre games, improvisational activities, and devised theatre-making. Offered: Fall 2025 Liberal Arts Requirements: AI/WR1, Argument & Inquiry/WR1 only allowed to register for one A&I course at a time. If a student wishes to change the A&I course they are enrolled in they must DROP the enrolled course and then ADD the new course. Please see our Workday guides Drop or 'Late' Drop a Course and Register or Waitlist for a Course Directly from the Course Listing for more information. Tags: CL: 100 level Faculty: Andrew Carlson
Student is a member of the First Year First Term class level cohort. Students are
THEA 110Beginning Acting6
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. Sophomore Priority section is available Offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026, Spring 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: ARP, Arts Practice Tags: CL: 100 level THEA Minor Acting THEA Practical Faculty: Jeanne Willcoxon · Andrew Carlson · David Wiles
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. Offered: Fall 2025
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. Offered: Fall 2025, Spring 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: ARP, Arts Practice Tags: CL: 100 level THEA Minor Acting THEA Practical Faculty: David Wiles
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.
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. Offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Grading: S/CR/NC Credits: 2 Liberal Arts Requirements: ARP, Arts Practice To request permission, click this link and fill out the request form. Please note: the link will open in a new window. Once you have received permission from the instructor, you will be able to return to this page to register for the course. Tags: THEA Practical Faculty: Andrew Carlson
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. Offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026, Spring 2026 Grading: S/CR/NC Credits: 3 Liberal Arts Requirements: ARP, Arts Practice Tags: CL: 100 level THEA Practical Faculty: Jeanne Willcoxon · Andrew Carlson
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. Offered: Winter 2026 Credits: 6 Liberal Arts Requirements: ARP, Arts Practice Tags: CL: 200 level THEA Practical Faculty: Andrew Carlson
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. Offered: Spring 2026 Credits: 6 Liberal Arts Requirements: LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: CL: 200 level THEA History and Theory THEA Pertinent Course Faculty: Jeanne Willcoxon
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 2025-26 Liberal Arts Requirements: LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: CL: 200 level GWSS Elective THEA Literature Criticism History
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. Not offered in 2025-26 Liberal Arts Requirements: ARP, Arts Practice
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. Offered: Spring 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: ARP, Arts Practice Tags: CL: 200 level THEA Design Technical Theater Faculty: John Polenek
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. Offered: Winter 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: CL: 200 level ENGL Historical Era 3 THEA History and Theory Faculty: David Wiles
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. Offered: Fall 2025 Grading: S/CR/NC Liberal Arts Requirements: ARP, Arts Practice Tags: CL: 200 level ENCW Creative Wtg Workshop THEA Minor Playwriting THEA
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. Offered: Spring 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: ARP, Arts Practice Tags: CL: 300 level THEA 300 Level THEA Minor Acting Faculty: David Wiles
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. Offered: Winter 2026, Spring 2026 Grading: S/NC Faculty: Andrew Carlson
