The mind on stage
Five years ago "New Work Week" was established to workshop student written work, and TAPS recently staged fifteen plays in six days, culminating with Suzan-Lori Parks' "365 Days / 365 Plays."
Every project begins with a question.
Within the context of the College the Theater and Performance Studies (TAPS) and University Theater (UT) strive to create a place to explore questions of expression and communication of values through the study of performance. Since its founding in 1898, TAPS/UT has been a place where intellectual discourse leads to theatrical experimentation. We believe that’s because of the unique perspective we bring to our work. The symbiosis of practical and theoretical coursework with student-driven productions has created a thriving program that is unique to the University of Chicago.
Theater and Performance Studies (TAPS) offers a rigorous academic program requiring students to acquire facility in the practice of two media (including but not limited to theater, film, video, dance, music, and creative writing) while gaining a fluency in specific methods of critical analysis. Students receive training in both performance practice and analysis, acquiring the fundamental tools necessary for artistic creation while at the same time developing a vocabulary with which to analyze creativity.
In this way, the program aims to contest the separation of academic theory and artistic practice (or, for that matter, theorists and practitioners). The program is designed to be flexible (in order to afford its majors as much latitude as possible in pursuing their particular interests) and exacting (in order to guarantee the development of comparative practical skills and rigorous analytic capacities).
