Proposal for an Experimental Course:
PERFA 55: Introduction to Design and Directing
Department: Performing Arts/Theatre Program
Title of Course: PERFA 55: Introduction to Design and Directing
Number and Type of Contact Hours: 190 minutes of class meeting time per week
Duration of Course: Fourteen weeks
Amount of Course Credit: 1.0 unit
Course Description:
An introduction to the visual languages of the stage, as seen through the lens of the close
collaborative relationship between director and designer. Through play analysis, practical
projects in composition, and exercises in scenic, costume, and lighting design we will explore
spacial relationships, proportions, movement, character, timing, transitions and more.
Particular emphasis will be placed on the way directors and designers work closely together to
imagine the fictional worlds of theatrical productions. The class will also consider the ways that
individual design elements, in combination, constitute the larger intellectual, emotional, and
physical contexts of the theatrical work as a whole. The course will be team-taught with the
dual perspectives of directing and design, allowing students to explore different creative roles
across the semester. Basic presentation skills and techniques, as well as methodologies for
critical feedback, will be considered as crucial elements of the design and directing process.
Learning Outcomes:
• To explore how directors and designers analyze and respond to texts, develop a point of
view in collaboration with one another, and communicate design ideas
• To discover how the visual/aural/kinesthetic environment of a theatrical production
contributes to its larger intellectual and emotional impact
• To develop a vocabulary for, and increase comfort with, giving and receiving constructive
feedback
• To cultivate the skills of visual expression in the context of a collaborative process
Assessment Methods:
Shared inquiry; classroom exercises in composition and design; written reflections on assigned
readings; four practical projects in response to texts; in-class group critique of projects.
Projects:
Assemblage in response to The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Set design and movement score for The America Play
Character profiles and costume sketches for Measure for Measure
Lighting design and scene shift plot for Bluebeard’s Castle
Proposed Reading List:
Bartók, Béla. Bluebeard’s Castle
Bogart, Anne. A Director Prepares
Bogart, Anne. The Viewpoints Book
Brook, Peter. The Empty Space
Calvino, Italo. Collection of Sand
Eliot, T. S. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Jones, Robert Edmund. The Dramatic Imagination
Kleon, Austin. Steal Like an Artist
Koren, Leonard. Arranging Things
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics
Parks, Suzan-Lori. The America Play
Shakespeare, William. Measure for Measure
Course Rationale:
In Fall 2010, the Performing Arts Theatre major was restructured, creating two major tracks:
Performance and Theatre Studies (fundamentally the original Theatre course of study), and a
new track in Design and Technical Theatre. The Performing Arts department hired its first
ranked faculty member in support of this new academic track in Fall 2014. Since her arrival,
Assistant Professor Deanna Zibello has had primary responsibility for the development of
Design and Technical Theatre curriculum.
Currently, the Performing Arts Department/Theatre Program offers several upper-division
courses in Theatrical Design (Perfa 148: Stage Lighting Design; Perfa 149-01: Scenic Design;
Perfa 149-02: Costume Design), but there is no lower-division course to introduce students to
fundamental skills and concepts. Similarly, there is an upper-division course in directing (Perfa
162: Directing for the Stage) but no lower-division analogue.
Professor Zibello notes that Theatrical Design and Technical Theatre are two distinct but related
disciplines, akin to Architecture and Engineering. Like Engineering, Technical Theatre requires a
deep understanding of materials, of their possibilities and limits, as well as of the skills and
processes through which materials become expressive of an artistic idea. Like Architecture, on
the other hand, Theatrical Design deals with artistic impulses, aesthetics, and the expression of
a concept in a visual medium. In this sense, Theatrical Design and Directing share considerable
conceptual and aesthetic ground.
Perfa 55 will provide introductory instruction in both Theatrical Design and Directing to
students, and will eventually become the prerequisite for the upper-division design courses as
well as the upper division directing course. After the course is established, it is our hope that it
will become a requirement for both tracks of the Theatre major, Performance and Theatre
Studies as well as Design and Technical Theatre. This new course has the added benefit of being
of interest to students in each discipline – students can adopt and “try on” various roles as they
explore the process of creation, and gain cross-disciplinary understanding. Perfa 55 will be an
elective for Theatre minors.
Prerequisites: None
Number and Type of Students Expected: As mentioned in the course rationale, we anticipate
that this course would eventually become a requirement for all Theatre majors (Performance
and Theatre Studies, as well as Design and Technical Theatre.) It also will eventually become the
prerequisite for all upper-division courses in design (Perfa 148: Stage Lighting Design; Perfa
149-01: Scenic Design; Perfa 149-02: Costume Design) and directing (Perfa 162: Directing for
the Stage). Perfa 55 will be an elective for Theatre minors. Additionally, the course is of general
interest: we are applying concurrently for designation in the Core Curriculum under Artistic
Understanding: Artistic Analysis and Creative Practice.
Currently, there are about 20 students majoring in one of the two tracks of the Theatre
Program, as well as about 10 Theatre minors.