Academic Resources

Course Descriptions and Faculty Bios

Greek Mythology with Barbara Clayton

Biography: Barbara Clayton received her BA from Oberlin, her MA from Princeton (French) and her PhD from Stanford (Classics). Her main academic interests are: ancient Greek literature (in particular the Homeric epics), ancient comedy, gender, and the classical tradition. She has written a book on the Odyssey, A Penelopean Poetics: Reweaving the Feminine in Homer's Odyssey. Her primary teaching job is the freshman humanities course known as "Structured Liberal Education." She also from time to time teaches a course for Classics here at Stanford--par example, she will be teaching Greek Prose Composition in the winter and spring. She also often teaches for Continuing Studies on a regular basis.

Course Description: This course will introduce you to some of the most important myths of the ancient Greeks. Throughout the quarter will be asking ourselves the following questions: What is a myth? What are the various ways of reading myths? What is the relationship between myth and religion, or myth and ritual practice? What is the relationship between myth and history? What can Greek mythology tell us about the Greeks themselves? How do myths differ depending on the lens through which we read them (archaic poetry, 5th century tragedy, or the Roman poet Ovid, to name a few, but not all, of the lenses we will be using)? By the end of the course, not only will you have met some interesting characters and read some fascinating stories, you will also have a deeper appreciation and understanding of the wonderfully complex and multi-faceted place that is the world of Greek mythology.

Class Info:

  • Meets in Cubberly room 128, Thursdays from 7:00-8:50pm.

Introduction to Directing with Kris Salata

Biography: Kris Salata is a theater director and scholar focusing on phenomenology of performance. He was born and raised in Poland, where he was an author and performer from 1977 until the declaration of Martial Law in 1981. He left Poland in 1983 to settle in California. He holds Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University of Warsaw, Poland, and an MA in Theatre Arts from San Diego State University, California. He completed his PhD in Drama and Humanities from Stanford University, with a dissertation focused on the legacy of Jerzy Grotowski. He has translated from Polish a number of texts authored by Grotowski, several of which are forthcoming in such publications as TDR: The Journal of Performance Studies and Doorways: Performing as a Vehicle at the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards, where they will appear alongside Salata's original essays.

Course Description: The aim of this course is awakening, expanding, and mobilizing your creative work in the performing art - live art - to which many notions of theatre belong. This formulation should give you a necessary freedom to question, examine, define, and redefine the work of performing art and the phenomenon of theatre. We will constantly ask: What is theatre? What do you want from it? What is a director? What are the directing tools? What can be a creative process? How to work? How to see? How to think within the art and craft of the medium? And above all, why and how does it matter? We will give these questions both personal and collective answers, considering the fact that they may be completely original or merely old and forgotten ones. The word "theatre" comes to us from ancient Greek, theatron, a place of seeing, a place where the spectators, theatai, saw, theastai. Saw what? What is there that theatre can show? And what can one see through it? What does it mean, to see? Seeing in the most pragmatic definition is observing the difference and the similarity. So then, seeing is discerning - dividing. Seeing is noting the presence of this and that, the one and the other. Seeing is seeing duality, relationship, conflict. In the context of our investigation, we will see the conflict of man vs. Power(s), man vs. man, and above all, man vs. him/herself. Thus we might find, or rather rediscover, the ultimate ability of theatre to do philosophy. We will work with this concept towards multiple articulations of live art. Topics of interest include the creative process of the production, and the issues of building a character for the play.

Class Info:

  • Meets in Prosser Studio, MemAud 205 @ 3:15 to 5:05 on Tuesday.

Documenting Tragedy with Kristi Wilson

Biography: Kristi M. Wilson is the Assistant Director of the Hume Writing Center and a Lecturer in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at Stanford University. Wilson received her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego in 1999 in Comparative Literature and has since then authored many publications among them "Italian Neorealism and Global Cinema" (co-edited by Laura E. Ruberto, Wayne State University Press, 2007), an Introduction to "The Satyricon of Petronius" (Barnes and Nobles, 2006), and several articles and reviews for academic journals such as "Screen," the "Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature," "Literature/Film Quarterly," and others. She came to Stanford as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities in the Introduction to the Humanities Program in 2000 and went on to join the Program in Writing and Rhetoric in 2005. Wilson also holds an M.A. in Classics and a B.A. in Theater Arts. Her teaching and research interests in rhetoric include classics (Greek tragedy, comedy, oratory, satire, epic poetry), gender studies, philosophy, literature, theater and film studies.

Course Description: How can classical rhetoric help us understand such modern documentary films as Errol Morris's Fog of War (2003) or Stanley Nelson's Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (2006)? In this class we will explore such questions, using ancient Greek texts such as Euripides' The Bacchae and selections from Aristotle's Poetics together with contemporary theoretical texts and documentary films. We will consider the various ways in which tragedy (on both epic and individual scales) sometimes functions as a means to collective katharsis and/or an expression of social anger for audiences of mass media.

Class Info:

  • Meets in Wallenberg (Bldg 160), room 125 @ 11:00 AM - 12:50 PM Tue/Thu

Playwriting with Kevin DiPirro

Biography: Kevin DiPirro is a playwright and teaches writing for the Program in Writing and Rhetoric and the Sophomore Playwriting Seminar for the English Department. He has written and performed the monologue, Through Shite to Shannon nationally (New York, Minneapolis, and San Francisco) as well as a number of other plays. Mobl'd Queens's Good was put up alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company's traveling production of The Comedy of Errors in 1997. An Ache in the Engine has been a finalist for The New Playwrights Competition. Big Fun was selected for the Edward Albee Theatre Conference and produced at the Eureka Theatre in San Francisco in 2005. It is published in the anthology, Bay Area One-Acts 4. Another one-act, Come Home, Kunbunchens was read at The Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Alaska and was a finalist at the Comparative Drama Conference in Los Angeles in 2007. His most recent work, Renaissance Play(ge), has been a two-time finalist for an Alfred P. Sloan Grant from the Magic Theatre and was stage read at Stanford University in 2007 as part of the First Works series in the Drama Department. Kevin recently directed the site-specific Stanford production of Suzan-Lori Parks' 365 Days/365Plays in Margaret Jacks lobby. He looks forward to the Public Theatre's upcoming Fall 2007 residency with JoAnne Akalaitis doing Euripides' The Bacchae. Born in Westhampton Beach, New York, Kevin graduated Phi Beta Kappa with High Honors from Swarthmore College. He spent a semester studying the short story with Eavann Boland and acting with Joe Dowling at The School of Irish Studies in Dublin, Ireland. After living and teaching in Dublin, again, and in Florence, Italy, he came to the Bay Area to do his graduate work at U.C. Berkeley. He taught for nine years at the University of San Francisco in the Writing Program and The Masters of Arts in Writing before coming to Stanford.

Course Description: This seminar will allow students a workshop forum in which to experiment with the fundamentals of writing stage plays. We will consider the basic elements of stagecraftÑdialogue, character, and plotÑfrom traditional as well as nontraditional perspectives. We will examine professional models including The Bacchae, How I Learned to Drive, and The Glass Menagerie, along with ten-minute plays. We will be making a trip to see a professional production, and we'll have a special opportunity to interact with the Public Theatre's residency. The course's primary focus however, will be the active reading-and-feedback sessions of student writing from week to week. Satisfactory work will be determined by extent of workshop participation, by the timely completion of writing assignments, and by the ongoing development of a dramatic idea into a more polished version of a 10-minute play that demonstrates a writer's understanding and effective use of stagecraft. The final project will culminate in a public reading of all plays.

Class Info:

  • Meets in 20-22k @ 2:15-5:05 on Mon

Madness and Family with Kevin DiPirro

Course Description: Madness and family are two common themes used by playwrights in their dramatic works to explore larger issues of what is considered sane, acceptable, or even healthy for individuals not only in society, but within family as well. In this course, we will look at how five different plays use cultural notions of madness and family to examine each other. In The Glass Menagerie, where does individuality cross the line of the family or social good? In Death of A Salesman, should the greater good sacrifice individuality? To what extent is the rational limited in providing solutions in The Bacchae? To what extent can one family member really help another in Proof? In How I Learned to Drive, does the metaphor of madness effectively map the family dynamics of incest and/or boundary diffusion?

Class Info:

  • Meets in Wallenberg, room 322 @ 11:00 AM - 12:50 PM Tue/Thu

Directing and Dramaturgy with Carl Weber

Biography: Carl Weber, the Professor of Directing and Dramaturgy at Stanford, began his career as an actor with the Heidelberg City Theater while completing a B.A. in Philosophy, German and English Literature at Heidelberg University. In 1949, he was one of the founders of the Heidelberg Zimmertheater and directed the company's opening production. He moved to Berlin in 1950, joining the company of Theater der Freundschaft, and was invited, in 1952, to join the Berliner Ensemble as an actor, dramaturg, and assistant director to Bertolt Brecht, with whom he worked on the productions of Katzgraben, Caucasian Chalk Circle, and Galileo. After Brecht's death in 1956, Weber became one of the directors with the company. He co-wrote and directed, with Peter Palitzsch, the play the Day of the Great Scholar Wu, staged a revival of Brecht's production of Mother Courage, and was one of the directors of Brecht's Fear and Misery of the Third Reich. He also wrote and edited program brochures and acted in eight of the Ensemble's productions. 1955-61, Weber directed as well for other theaters, such as Berlin's Deutsches Theater, and for television (Deutscher Fernsehfunk). In 1961, he staged the West German premiere of Brecht's Trumpets and Drums at Lübeck City theater, and was invited to direct Brecht's Puntila and his Man Matti at Carnegie-Mellon University of Pittsburgh, in 1962.

Course Description: This class explores all aspects of dramaturgy and all other pertinent aspects of preparing and conducting a production such as directorial methods and visual concepts in the production of plays from the Elizabethan tradition to postmodernist texts. Work on the text is tested in the staging of scenes.

Class Info:

  • Meets in Memorial Hall 205 @ 4:15 PM - 7:05 PM on Wed

Dramatic Tensions: Theater and the Marketplace with Amy Freed

Biography: Amy Freed is the author of Restoration Comedy, The Beard of Avon, Safe in Hell, Freedomland, The Psychic Life of Savages, and other plays. Her work has been produced at New York Theatre Workshop, Playwright's Horizons, South Coast Rep, Seattle Repertory Theater, California Shakespeare Festival, American Conservatory Theater, the Goodman Theatre, Yale Rep, Woolly Mammoth, and many other theaters around the country. Her recent play, Restoration Comedy, will receive its third major production at San Diego's Old Globe in March of 2007, where she will be also be Playwright-in-Residence. It debuted at Seattle Repertory in December 2005, and in 2006 received its Bay Area premiere at the California Shakespeare Festival. Freed has been the recipient of the Joseph Kesselring Award, the Charles MacArthur Award, is a several times winner of the LA Drama Critics Circle Award, and was a Pulitzer finalist for Freedomland.

Course Description: This class explores the tension between artistic and commercial forces in modern theater; the conflicted state of the art form. Sources include major and emerging contemporary figures in commercial, fringe, and nonprofit theater in the U.S. and UK.

Class Info:

  • Meets in Roble Gym 15 @ 1:15 PM - 3:05 PM Tue/Thu

Introduction to Acting with Kay Kostopoulos

Biography: Kay Kostopoulos teaches undergraduate acting, acting pedagogy for graduate students, and directs at Stanford. She is an MFA graduate of ACT, where she taught acting and directed student projects as a core faculty member of ACT's Advanced Training Program for six years. She has acted at ACT, the Magic Theatre, and at the San Francisco, New Jersey, and California Shakespeare Festivals. She also served as Education Director at the California Shakespeare Festival. Roles performed include Euridyke in Antigone, the Countess in All's Well That Ends Well, the title roles in Shaw's Major Barbara and Racine's Andromache, Kleopatra in Gorky's Enemies, Queen Elizabeth in Richard III, Mistress Page in Merry Wives of Windsor, and Goneril in King Lear.

Course Description: This class introduces theater games, vocal and physical exercises, stage terminology, characterization, and rehearsal techniques. The goals for the class are to develop an acting vocabulary and technique appropriate for any role, and a vocal and physical warm-up for relaxation and range.

Class Info:

  • Meets in Roble Gym 17 @ 1:15 PM - 3:05 PM Mon/Wed

Structured Liberal Education (SLE) with Suzanne Greenberg and Greg Watkins

Biography: Greg is a lecturer in Structured Liberal Education Program (SLE). He holds a PhD in Religious Studies and Humanities, and an MFA in Film Production. His wife, Susan, works for the Graduate School of Business, and they have two daughters.

Course Description: SLE demands approximately 60 percent of the average academic workload during freshman year. Autumn Quarter focus is on the mythological and cultural foundations of ancient Greece and Israel. Winter Quarter focus is on the religious, ideological, and aesthetic transformations that occurred in Europe, Asia, and the New World as a result of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Scientific Revolution, and Enlightenment. Spring Quarter focus is on the social, political, and artistic forces that shape the modern world.

Class Info:

  • Meets in FloMo/Main lounge (double doors)

Advanced Modern Dance with Diane Frank

Biography: Diane taught dance technique at the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio from 1979-87. She was the leading dancer with Douglas Dunn and Dancers, 1976-87, and assisted Mr. Dunn in the staging of works in the US and abroad. She currently teaches advanced modern technique and mentors choreography projects at Stanford University. Received her MA in Dance (University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, 1971), BFA in Theater (Ohio University, 1969). Diane has been a guest teacher at numerous universities and studios, in the US and abroad, and joined the Dance Division at Stanford in l988. In addition to her Divisional duties, she is on the Steering Committee for Stanford's Institute for Diversity in the Arts.

Course Description: This class practices intermediate/advanced technique with complex movement combinations emphasizing performance demands.

Class Info:

  • Meets in Roble Gym 38 @ 4:15 PM - 5:45 PM Tue/Thu/Fri

Choreography with Tony Kramer

Biography: Director of the Dance Division beginning in September 2002, Tony Kramer joined the Stanford faculty in 1986 as a teacher of modern dance, jazz dance, composition, and improvisation. As the technical director of the Stanford Dance Division's productions, he is involved in every aspect of production from the creation of dances to their final mounting on stage. A composer as well as a dancer, he has created many original musical scores for his own and others' dances. He is a former company member of Wimmer, Wimmer, and Dancers, and the Oregon Dance Theatre.

Course Description: Skills and criteria for the choreographic process. Invention, staging, and reconstruction. The creative process and practical considerations in making a dance work.

Class Info:

  • Meets Mon. in Roble Gym 52 @ 7:00 PM Ð 9:00 PM

Lighting Design with Michael Ramsaur

Biography: Michael Ramsaur is a professor at Stanford University serving as Director of Production. In addition to teaching regularly at the Bavarian Theater Academy Munich, he is a guest professor at the University of Arts Belgrade in the Interdisciplinary MA Program in Theater, and an honorary professor at the Central Academy of Drama Beijing. He serves as President of OISTAT (the International Association of Scenographers, Theater Architects, and Technicians), and is a long-time active member of USITT, as well as a member of the United Scenic Artist Association (Lighting Design USAA Local #829), the International Alliance Theatrical Stage Employees (Stage Hands IATSE Local #16), the Illumination Engineering Society of North America (IESNA), and the International Association Lighting Designers (IALD). Ramsaur has had a forty-year career in theater including serving as a lighting designer for many theater companies internationally and locally, including Broadway by the Bay, where he is Resident Lighting Designer.

Course Description: Concepts of lighting and sound in addressing storytelling in performative projects.

Class Info:

  • Meets in Memorial Hall 126 Tue/Thu 1:15 PM - 3:05 PM

"How We Write" Panel

"How I Write" is a series of conversations with faculty and other advanced writers to explore the nuts and bolts, pleasures and pains, of all types of writing. While content is always an issue, the conversation will primarily focus on work styles, such as where, when, and how a writer composes, allowing us to examine habits, idiosyncrasies, techniques, trade secrets, hidden anxieties, and delights. We will discuss how a writer generates ideas, sustains large-scale projects, combines research with composition, overcomes various impediments and blocks, and cultivates stylistic innovations.

Institute for Diversity in the Arts Lecture: Meet the Artists

The mission of The Institute for Diversity in the Arts is to engage artists, students, and the Stanford community to create performance and visual art that examines the complex intersections between race, diversity, and social action. These critical explorations are carried out through programming that includes artist residencies, classes, workshops, public performances, and a Meet the Artist Lecture/Demonstration series.

Meet the Artists is a year-long series of conversations by artists of international renown. Come to one or all of these rare opportunities to experience significant artists and learn about their work.