Arts Intensive Courses and Faculty 2012

Course Descriptions

Acting Intensive: Musical Theater

Prerequisite:  None

Have you ever seen a great musical and wondered, “How do the actors do it?”   In this workshop we will explore the mechanics of acting in musicals as we practice solos and scene work from contemporary and classic musicals.

Material will range from the “golden age” of musicals of the 1930’s to new releases.  Possible choices are:  Gypsy, Company, My Fair Lady, Sweeney Todd, Oklahoma!, Guys and Dolls, Cabaret, West Side Story, A Chorus Line, Ragtime, Urinetown, Dreamgirls, Hair, Avenue Q, South Pacific, Damn Yankees, Anything Goes, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Caroline, or Change, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Next to Normal, Hairspray, and many others.  Students are encouraged to suggest their own material in their application for the program. Isn’t there a role you’ve always wanted to play?

The class will be accessible to both beginners and experienced actors/singers and will include in-depth work on vocal technique, utilization of action, specificity of language, personalization, emotional truth, character, and given circumstance.

Students will develop an awareness of the demands of the performance experience in a safe and supportive environment. They will be encouraged to work to expand their range and will study and perform a solo and a  scene from a musical. These assignments will require a minimum of 2 two-hour sessions with a scene partner during a scene rehearsal week. Commitment and responsibility to scene partners is a crucial component to successful work in the theater.  In addition to required readings, students will be expected to conduct some research on the world of the playwright, librettist, and composer.  We will end our workshop with a final performance of the work in a showcase afternoon for an invited audience. 

All levels welcome!

Instructor: Kay Kostopoulos, Lecturer, Department of Drama

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An Operatic Play: Mozart’s 7 Deadly Sins

This course is centered on the operatic repertoire of W.A. Mozart (1756-1791). Students of singing and acting will learn scenes from some of the world’s most loved operas. Simultaneously they will develop their own play to be performed at the end of the course. This play will be linked to the Mozart operatic scenes studied, and the finished product will be a continuous narrative. Similarly, the instrumentalists will prepare an “overture” by Mozart appropriate to the enrolled ensemble (i.e. duo/trio/quartet etc.). They will then put their arrangement skills to the test as they adapt the music of the opera scenes to their particular ensemble.

Instructors: Marie-Louise Catsalis and Nova Jimenez

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Design Thinking and the Art of Innovation 

Prerequisite:  None

Design Thinking and the Art of Innovation is a hands-on seminar that introduces students to the multi-disciplinary practice of product, service, and experience design through the lenses of both art and engineering. A project-based, studio-driven class promises a deep dive into Design Thinking, Stanford's unique approach to problem finding and problem solving. Along with a survey of tools such as need finding and ethnography, structured brainstorming, rapid prototyping, visual communication, and story-telling, the class will include thought provoking and inspirational field trips to San Francisco's MOMA and other Bay Area museums, The San Francisco Ferry Building, and IDEO, the internationally renowned design and innovation firm headquartered in Palo Alto.

This course is designed to introduce students to cutting edge techniques and processes used in the field of design. Through emphasis on design problems where aesthetics, technology, human behavior, and business needs overlap, students will both increase visual literacy and develop creative competence. The course provides an overview of contemporary professional design practice and exposes students to the world of design and the "wicked problems" that are the grist for the mill of design work.

 Instructors: Bill Burnett and Jonathan Edelman

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Fiction Writing

Prerequisite:  None

“Of the many definitions of a story, the simplest may be this:  it is a piece of writing that makes the reader want to find out what happens next.  Good writers, it is often said, have the ability to make you keep on reading them whether you want to or not—the milk boils over, the subway stop is missed.”

                                    —Bill Buford, former fiction editor of The New Yorker

This course will introduce students to an assortment of short stories by past and contemporary masters, from Ernest Hemingway to ZZ Packer.  We will explore the basic elements of fiction writing, including story structure, point of view, dialogue, and exposition, always keeping in mind the overarching goal of trying to get the reader to turn the page in anticipation.  Some summer reading and participation in an online blog will prepare us for discussions we’ll have together when the class begins. The course will indeed be “intensive,” as we will write a complete draft of a short story in the first week and then distribute these stories for feedback sessions in the second week.  Along the way, we’ll write additional short exercises to stimulate our imaginations and to practice elements of craft.  Field trips will include visits to some of the vibrant literary hotspots in San Francisco as well as a conversation with Stephen Elliott, editor of The Rumpus and a writer and member of the Writer’s Grotto collective.

Instructors: Shimon Tanaka

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Intro to Visual Writing

 

Prerequisites: None

Intro to Visual Writing is a screenwriting workshop that takes students from basic visual literacy to scene writing and longer sequences, culminating in a completed short screenplay or beginning of a feature film.  Students will engage in exercises in basic visual literacy (composition, shot selection, camera movement) and more advanced visual thinking (storyboarding); learn the fundamentals of writing in screenplay form (both format and content); and complete a number of scene writing exercises which build toward longer sequential storytelling.  Throughout the course students will learn to give and take constructive criticism in a writing workshop, a crucial skill for the collaborative world of film.

Instructor: Adam Tobin

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Modern Dance: Traditions of Creation

Interested in putting your hands in the clay? In this hands-on course, dancers will investigate and re-choreograph some of Robert Moses’ signature works. Robert and long-term dancers in his company, Robert Moses Kin, will collaboratively guide students in intensive studio sessions as they revisit the significant issues, techniques, and directions in such seminal works as Word of Mouth, The Soft Sweet Smell of Firm Warm Things and Biography of Baldwin. Elements used to create the works will be re-investigated and re-framed through the lens of the students’ experience and perspective.  Students will coordinate a showcase of excerpts of their remolded choreography.
 
This class will utilize the language of Robert Moses’ repertory to train dancers in the basics of Moses’ movement vocabulary. Students will improve and reinforce technical proficiency, artistic range, and performance skills. In addition, students will expand their movement range and vocabulary in a manner that demonstrates an increase in strength, agility, flexibility, and endurance through classical ballet and contemporary modern dance techniques.

Instructor: Robert Moses and Robert Moses' Kin Dance Company

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Photography

Prerequisite:  None

This hands-on course in photography will emphasize the techniques, aesthetics, and conceptual considerations of traditional black and white photography.  Students will also explore photography’s history and applications as an expressive tool, with the power to communicate ideas and move the viewer.

Throughout the course, students will master the use of their own manual 35mm camera and process the film themselves in our lab.  They will also learn the techniques needed to make quality black and white prints in the darkroom.  Students will coordinate an exhibition and present their finest work in a professional manner. 

Field trips include:

  • Local supply gathering
  • Photographing locally
  • Cantor Center for the Arts
  • San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
  • Art Galleries

Instructor:  Naomi Vanderkindren

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The Art of Product Branding

Prerequisite:  None

This onsite course will present a comprehensive approach to Corporate Product Branding. Students will experience firsthand the development of a product brand from naming and developing positioning to the creation of a logo, website, and collateral.  As a final project, students will present their overall brands to corporate executives.  This project will include field trips to the client site and workshops with naming, positioning, and design professionals each day. 

Instructors: Peggy Burke

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