This course explores techniques for collaboration between the traditional theater disciplines of playwriting, acting, directing. What are the protocols of collaboration in rehearsal? What are the elements each discipline contributes to the development of a new text and performance? You’ll experience what this feels like from the “inside,” and experience the collaborative process in its entirety. You’ll be introduced to some of the questions that each discipline asks of a piece and the language that each discipline uses when coming together to tell a story. As the course progresses, you will focus on your own discipline and longer pieces will be developed with the goal of working on full scenes by the end of the semester. We’ll explore how actors, directors and writers talk to one another during rehearsals, how conflicts are resolved, and what professional behavior really means. One of the most important skills you will develop in this class is active listening. Active listening is concentration, akin to one of the first tenets of theatre: the importance of being completely present. It requires close attention to a scene whether you’re hearing it for the first or third time as you figure out why it is or isn’t working. It also means that you are ready at any point to share your ideas in class discussion, to jot down your insights in your notebook, or to enter a scene as a writer, actor or director if the piece needs to be reworked.

This course explores techniques for collaboration between the traditional theater disciplines of playwriting, acting, directing. What are the protocols of collaboration in rehearsal? What are the elements each discipline contributes to the development of a new text and performance? You’ll experience what this feels like from the “inside,” and experience the collaborative process in its entirety. You’ll be introduced to some of the questions that each discipline asks of a piece and the language that each discipline uses when coming together to tell a story. As the course progresses, you will focus on your own discipline and longer pieces will be developed with the goal of working on full scenes by the end of the semester. We’ll explore how actors, directors and writers talk to one another during rehearsals, how conflicts are resolved, and what professional behavior really means. One of the most important skills you will develop in this class is active listening. Active listening is concentration, akin to one of the first tenets of theatre: the importance of being completely present. It requires close attention to a scene whether you’re hearing it for the first or third time as you figure out why it is or isn’t working. It also means that you are ready at any point to share your ideas in class discussion, to jot down your insights in your notebook, or to enter a scene as a writer, actor or director if the piece needs to be reworked.