Theatre and Dance

Curriculum

Required Courses

Playwriting Workshop 387P
This course is taught every semester by either full-time Playwriting Faculty or Guest Playwrights brought to the Department by the Michener Center for Writers. The focus of this workshop is on student-generated writing, but teaching philosophies of each class vary according to the individual Instructor's approach

Advanced Playwriting Workshop 390J
In the Advanced Playwriting Workshop, second-year MFA students develop projects in preparation for a professional workshop with a guest director. Working closely with a dramaturg and a cadre of actors, playwrights explore, rehearse, revise and discuss plays in a variety of contexts in class and in a 3 to 5 day workshop with a guest director experienced in new play development.

Monday Night Lab 190J
This course provides a structured meeting once a week on Monday nights for Departmental and Michener Center playwrights to share their work and receive feedback from a community of writers and professors. Each playwright has access to one class meeting, and individual writers determine how best to use this time. Labs range from concert readings to mini-workshops to discussions to any combination of the three. Classes often meet off campus in venues the playwrights find most appropriate for sharing their work.

Playwriting Pedagogy 398T
During the course of their careers most playwrights will eventually find themselves teaching playwriting in some context. Whether it is in the formal structure of a college or university theatre program, or in a community workshop, or in a drama of language arts curriculum in a high school, elementary or middle school classroom, or as a guest artist leading the obligatory master class, sooner or later, most playwrights will face a room full of young, or not so young, writers clamoring for guidance. The propose of this course is to provide playwrights with a variety of techniques, strategies, activities, exercises and resources to help develop their own approaches to teaching the art and craft of playwriting.

Seminar in Writing WRT 380
In semesters when the Michener Center brings in a guest playwright, there will usually be a playwriting readings courses offered through the MCW. Topics vary with the choice of playwright. Some past examples include:

  • Alice Tuan: Toward the 21st Century
  • Naomi Iizuka: Political Theatre
  • Sherry Kramer: The Perception Shift
  • Denis Johnson: Favorite Plays

Thesis Requirements

In the third year students will focus upon a thesis project/production and will write a process essay that will accompany their written thesis document. In most cases students will be involved in some form of production of the play or plays in the Departmental production season or the biennial University Co-op presents Cohen New Works Festival, or in collaboration with a local producing theatre or new play development program. In some cases it may be more beneficial for a student to focus on creating a portfolio of plays reflecting his or her cumulative writing activity over the three years of the program. In these cases production is not a requirement. The process essay is intended to be an opportunity to reflect on some aspect of the thesis play(s) in greater depth and detail. It may contextualize a common theme or issue over the course of several plays or it may focus on a single work.