Mar 28, 2024  
2020-2021 University Catalog 
    
2020-2021 University Catalog [Archived Catalogue]

Directing, Playwriting + Production, BFA


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Amy Dugas Brown, Program Director
ambrown@uarts.edu
215.717.6572

C O N T E N T S

Description

The Bachelor of Fine Arts in Directing, Playwriting + Production (DPP) provides education and training in theater making and leadership across three disciplines.

The Directing, Playwriting + Production (DPP) curriculum trains the generative theater artist who wants to write, direct, produce, and/or stage manage theater. The DPP Program builds future theater leaders who have rigor, imagination, and a deep and diverse skill set. All coursework develops the student’s ability to lead through collaboration in order to reach their artistic goals with vibrancy and immediacy.

Coursework begins with a strong base of script analysis, stagecraft, style exploration, theater history, and dramaturgy. All students take the first level of each core discipline: directing, playwriting, and stage management. From there, each will deepen in one, and often two, of the disciplines. Courses in producing, design, performance, and new play development further round out their skill set. Each student takes six credits of professional internships, as well as Business of Theater, I Am My Own Company, and Theater Management, which allows them to bridge meaningfully into the professional landscape post graduation. All students take six credits of Senior Project, which results in a festival that further develops their artistic and productorial skills and is attended by professional theater artists so that students may showcase their work. Artistic innovation, leading through collaboration and entrepreneurship are at the core of this curriculum.

Program Objectives

In addition to the Learning Outcomes of the School of Theater Arts, Ira Brind, Directing, Playwriting + Production graduates will be able to:

  • Effectively analyze scripts and source material, apply research, and make specific choices about world building that serve both the needs of the script and the artist’s imaginative impulse.
  • Lead a collaboration, specifically communicating and effectively realizing their artistic goals and aesthetic.
  • Work deeply and adroitly in at least one of the three component disciplines (directing, playwriting, and/or management) in the service of initiating an artistic project, building it from the ground up and seeing it through to completion.
  • Assess different theater producing models, both nonprofit and commercial, as well as theater company structures and organizational functions.

Program Requirements (120 credits)

Major Requirements (69 credits)


Critical Studies (33 credits)


Composition (6-9 credits)


Students are placed into one of the following composition sequences after the completion of a writing placement exam. Students who do not complete the exam may be placed based on standardized tests scores (if available) or high school GPA.

CRIT Choice (9 credits)


  • Select 3 courses from subject CRIT

Science (3 credits)


  • Select 1 course from subject ANTH, PSYC, SOCI or SCIE

Critical Studies Electives (12-15 credits)


Students who complete the developmental composition sequence complete 12.0 credits of CS electives; all other students complete 15.0 credits.

  • Select courses from subjects:
    • AHST (Art History), HIST (History)
    • FRCH (French), ITAL (Italian), LITT (Literature)
    • PHIL (Philosophy), RELI (Religion)
    • SCIE (Science)
    • ANTH (Anthropology), PHIL (Philosophy), PSYC (Psychology), SOCI (Sociology)  
  • Select courses from  : Art History or Critical Studies Elective.

General Electives (9 credits)


  • Complete 9 credits. This requirement is satisfied by any undergraduate course that isn’t required by the program.

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