The Theater Arts Department combines drama, dance, critical
studies, and theater design/ technology offering students
an intensive, unified undergraduate program. Combining theory
and practice, the program seeks to educate the mind, the body,
and the imagination of students. Graduates of the UCSC program
typically pursue careers in professional theater and dance
companies, in film and television, and in teaching at all
levels, from university to high school to grade school. Others
engage in careers in arts administration, dramatic writing,
and related fields.
The program stresses the interrrelation of dance, drama,
and theatrical design and technology as essential to the successful
practice of the theater arts in the contemporary world. The
lower-division curriculum requires a range of practical work
in the various subdisciplines and a rigorous exposure to the
history of drama and dance. At the upper-division level, students
are given the opportunity to focus on an area of interest
within the discipline in limited-enrollment studios and through
direct interaction with faculty. At the same time, they are
asked to expand their theoretical perspectives through confrontation
with the range of dramatic theories and focused course work
in the history and theory of dance, drama, and design. The
impact of digital and new media on theater is also explored.
A wealth of production opportunities is offered to students.
This includes major productions directed by faculty or distinguished
visiting artists each quarter, productions directed or choregraphed
by students, and faculty-directed workshops. Undergraduate
students are also given the opportunity to see their own writing,
choreography, or intermediate concepts put into production
in annual festivals of student work. Although majors are given
preference in studio courses, most courses and productions
welcome nonmajors as well. Opportunities to study and perform
non-Western as well as Euro-American traditions are also a
significant part of the program.
The stage and studio spaces available to students of theater
arts allow for this breadth of training and performance opportunities.
The Theater Arts Center contains a 500-seat thrust stage,
a state-of-the-art experiemental theater, and a 200-seat proscenium
theater; acting, directing, and dance studios; costume, scene,
and properties shops; a sound recording room; a computer lab;
and a metal shop. Elsewhere on campus are additional dance
studios, the open-air Quarry Theater seating 3,000, the Shakespeare
Santa Cruz Festival Glen, and the 150-seat Barn Theater. Library
holdings in theater literature and history are extensive,
including a large slide collection; journals in current theater,
dance and design; and recordings, films, videotapes, and CD-ROMs.
A unique resource for UCSC students is Shakespeare Santa
Cruz. Acknowledged to be one of the leading Shakespeare festivals
in the country, SSC was founded in 1982 to foster links between
modern scholarship and contemporary professional theater practice.
SSC's annual summer festival presents the works of Shakespeare
in thematic context with other great plays of the world stage,
performed, designed, and directed by professionals from all
over the country. SSC offers undergraduates various opportunities
to work in conjunction with theater professionals through
its summer intern program, its winter holiday production (in
fall quarter), and Shakespeare-to-Go, a 45-minute Shakespeare
outreach production students perform and tour in (during spring
quarter) for audiences throughout Santa Cruz county and beyond.
Majors who wish to intensify their study of one particular
theater arts area before seeking admission to graduate school
or work with professional companies are encouraged to apply
to the department's Fifth-Year Certificate Program.
Courses in drama at UCSC emphasize the interrelationship
between drama and other arts, not only the Theater Arts fields
of design, dance, and film/video but literature, music, studio
art, and art history. We believe that a broad intellectual
and artistic base will enable students both to work in the
theater at various levels and to continue their studies. Productions
and courses are coordinated, so that they complement one another. All Theater Arts majors are required to take Thea 61, Issues and Methods, offered twice a year. This course introduces students to issues and methods in analyzing historical and contemporary performance practices from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Readings will contextualize theatrical objects as well as offer theoretical tools for analyzing, interpreting, and making performances out of them. Studios in acting, directing, and playwriting focus
on specific techniques to allow students to improve their
skills, but also provide an intellectual understanding of
these areas of drama.
The dance program at UCSC focuses on the undergraduate student's
individual growth within the spectrum of related theater arts
and a general humanities education. The technical training
in the subject is intensive, but not at the expense of wide,
maturing experience in the university environment. Our program
does not aim to mold students into any of the systems of dance
which survive from strong individual artists and their second-
or third-generation followers. Instead it aims to provide
students with the means to recognize the formation and effect
of a variety of performance styles, to understand the uses
of dance and movement outside the area of performance, and
to develop their own choices in forming a personal style,
liberating them to choose the paths they wish to follow. The
core of the dance curriculum is 1) foundation work in physiologically
correct movement principles and mechanics; 2) conscious use
of the craft of movement for the realization of personal intentions
in performance and choreography; and 3) understanding of a
wide variety of styles in dance performance, history, and
ethnology.
The program involves several steps. All Theater Arts majors
are required to take TA50, a multiple-term two-unit course
in which basic training is offered and work on a particular
production required. Lower-division courses offer introductions
to stage management, costume, and lighting; these are prerequisite
to more advanced courses in these areas. Finally, especially
accomplished students may be selected as designers for faculty-
or student-directed productions.
