This two-quarter sequence is open only to fourth-year students who are majoring and/or minoring in theater and performance studies.
Stage Design: Worldbuilding explores various forms and processes of designing scenery for live performance. Emphasizing a cohesive reading of text, contextual and historical research, and visual and thematic analysis, the course also covers the documentation required to realize a production. Students will learn how to create and present key deliverables including storyboards, models, drafting, and paint elevations. The course examines diverse approaches and aesthetics in theater, dance, opera, and devised work. Conversations with guest artists will illuminate personal and cultural aesthetics and assigned readings will introduce major trends in modern stage design.
In this course, students will learn the basics of designing costumes for theatrical productions, encompassing the skills of theatrical rendering and sketching, as well as the implementation of the design and basic sewing techniques. Students will learn to adopt a vocabulary using the elements and principles of design, understand and experience the process intrinsic to producing costumes for the theater, analyze the production needs related to costumes, and prepare a finalized costume design for a theatrical production.
This course has a strong component of movement practice and is open to students of any experience level who are willing to move with creativity and generosity. The course takes a broad look at dance improvisation, exploring in equal parts key theoretical readings, historic and contemporary performance examples, and movement practices in the classroom. On its surface, improvisation is often understood to be based on total freedom or openness, where any movement choice can be made. Here, the notion of freedom in improvisation is reconsidered through the sociopolitical realities of how dancers’ bodies move through society, and across the studio or stage.
This course spans three quarters of attendance and is open to all students from all areas of the University. Dance technique classes meet weekly for 90 minutes. For each quarter you may choose one of three technique tracks: classical dance (primarily ballet), modern/contemporary, or Afro-diasporic forms (hip-hop, jazz, West African). Classes are taught by some of Chicago’s most recognized dance professionals and are open to all levels of experience.
To earn 100 units for your engagement in dance technique classes, you must earn a grade of ‘P’ in each of three courses. Ordinarily, dance technique courses are taken in consecutive quarters and you must attend eight of the ten class sessions offered during any given quarter to earn the subsequent grade of ‘P.’ Any interruptions to enrolling in consecutive quarters (e.g., summer session and/or travel abroad) would need to be approved by the Director of Undergraduate Studies and Director of Dance in Theater and Performance Studies. There is no option to enroll for a quality grade. For more information and for consent to enroll, please contact Julia Rhoads, Director of Dance: jrhoads1@uchicago.edu.
This course is designed to help the emerging writer focus their creativity into a viable feature film project and screenplay. This includes structure, format, exposition, characterization, dialogue, voice-over, and other aspects of visual storytelling for the screen. Weekly meetings include a brief lecture period, screenings of scenes from selected films, extended discussion, assorted readings and writing assignments. Because this is primarily a writing class, students should expect to deliver four to five pages of written material—including story development materials or screenplay pages—each week.
Students who are participating in the TAPS autumn quarter Pro Show as either performers or design/production assistants may opt in for course credit after securing approval from the Director of Performance and completing additional assignments.
This course explores the 360-degree nature of site-specific performance, creating immersive environments that engage audiences in shifting spatial narratives. It examines Antonin Artaud’s "Theater of Cruelty," which prioritizes visceral experiences and disrupts traditional storytelling for deeper emotional impact. Case studies include PunchDrunk’s Sleep No More, which reimagines Macbeth as a non-linear, interactive experience in a detailed hotel setting;.And Then She Fell by Third Rail, which crafts a surreal, Carroll-inspired world where spatial design shapes narrative interpretation; and Port of Entry in Chicago, which exemplifies audience-driven storytelling and reflects site-specific performance’s evolution.
For their final project, students will design performances within the Regenstein Library, leveraging its spaces for transformative experiences. Co-taught by Heidi Coleman and Shade Murray, the course redefines direction, design, and dramaturgy as active processes rather than fixed roles. Key texts include Off Sites (Ferdman), Making Site-Specific Theatre (Smith), The Punchdrunk Encyclopedia (Machon), and Performing Site-Specific Theatre (Birch & Tompkins).
This course will introduce students to the burgeoning field of immersive puzzle design. Students will develop, implement, and playtest puzzles that are suited for a range of experiences: from the tabletop to the immersive, from online puzzle hunts to broad-scoped alternate reality games (ARG). Students in this course will work directly with master puzzler Sandor Weisz, the commissioner of The Mystery League.
This workshop will explore the underlying mechanics that have made plays tick for the last 2,500-odd years, from Euripides to Shakespeare to Büchner to Caryl Churchill, Suzan-Lori Parks, and Annie Baker, etc. Students will be asked to shamelessly steal those playwrights' tricks and techniques (if they're found useful), and employ them in the creation of their own pieces. Designed for playwrights at any level (beginning or advanced), the workshop's primary goals will be to develop a personal sense of what "works" on stage within the context of what's worked in the past, and to generate a one-act play, start to finish.
