THD 330-01 - Critical Approaches in Performance Design

4 credits (Spring)

Scenic Artistry and the Magic of Paint. From the moment theatre moved indoors, artists began transporting their audiences on fantastical journeys across the globe, and they introduced audiences to magical beasts. And they did all of this with paint and a brush. In this course, students will become those artists, exploring the techniques of scenic artistry in large scale. We will design and render worlds of diorama, Vaudeville, musical theatre, opera, and more, and we will explore the process of taking those designs from scaled renderings to full-sized back drops you might see on Broadway today. This is an advanced course in which we will dig deep into scenic artists’ bag of tricks, and the course is built to be an experiential, collaborative laboratory. We will learn by doing. Painting experience is not required and anyBODY can paint. However, intermediate level study of theatre, design, or studio art is a required foundation for this course.

Prerequisite: THD 230 or THD 231; with grades S, C, or better.
Note: Plus-2 option available.
Instructor: Thomas