Current Student Topics Courses

27840

Allen, Corey

MW 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM

This course explores the creative and practical processes of developing performance for the screen, from initial concept to filmed scene. Students will investigate the relationship between acting and filmmaking through script development, character exploration, scene analysis, and hands-on production experience. Emphasis is placed on adapting performance for the camera and developing an understanding of the roles and working conditions of a professional film set. 

Through rehearsal, filming, and evaluation of original and scripted scenes, students will gain practical experience both in front of and behind the camera.

27844

Hahn, Rob

TTH 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM

27850

Douglas, Lucien

MW 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM

For acting majors who have completed T D 313D Acting II or greater. Advanced techniques in acting applied to auditioning for stage, film, and television. Practice in self-taping and live auditions. Preparation for making the transition from college to a professional acting career. 

27990
Lesley, Lana

TTH 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM

Students will be guided through an exploration of the art, craft, and ethics of producing live performance, including making collaborative real-time decisions that affect artists, audiences, finances, and operations.

Working in stable producing teams, students will build a set of practical skills to be carried into professional or academic work in the performing arts by: analyzing performance through a producing lens; building and adjusting production budgets in collaborative simulations; designing audience and engagement strategies for live events; creating an artist care plan; developing a producer identity that reflects their values; responding collaboratively to a simulated live production crisis; keeping a producing journal tracking the evolution of their thinking and their progress as leaders and collaborative facilitators of live performance.

27455

Arnold, Quilan

TTH 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM

27460

Cook, Mira

TTH 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM

27465

Valentín-Martínez, Joel

TTH 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

This introductory course will explore Salsa dance, the historical and social context in which it is performed, and will identify these dances by their steps, rhythm, and musical style. Students will be able to perform Salsa and become aware of dance etiquette, dance terminology, background, steps, style, and patterns. While we will be learning some choreography throughout the quarter, the focus of this course is on technique. Students will be introduced to the technical language and practice necessary for learning Salsa repertoire and pursue more advanced training.

Complimentary material such as videos and articles, as well as invited guest-artists, will be used to enhance the experience in class. 

27470

Riley, Magdalena

TTH 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM

A study of the elements of classical ballet through exploration of movement principles as defined by traditional ballet technique.

28035

Mason, Gesel

F 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM

This graduate course examines embodied performance as a research methodology that centers the body as sociocultural, political, physiological, psychological, and virtual entity in performance and performative contexts past and present. A recurring theme is the body as archive as well as both the politics and pragmatics of documentation. One case study will include No Boundaries: Dancing the Visions of Contemporary Black Choreographers, an evolving performance and archive that features the work of prominent African American choreographers. The course is relevant to students and scholars of history, sociology, theatre and dance, and social and cultural studies. 

The class uses dance studies as a way to consider the role of the body and performance in our research and its dissemination. We will think critically about "what is being stored, retrieved, or transmitted, and what or who shapes the body in restoring or recovering its knowledge." (Sentient Archive, pg xv)

27880

Acosta, Nanette

TTH 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

Expanding on the basic building blocks learned in Costume Design Skills I, this course examines world building through costume design, focusing on the conceptualization and communication of ideas. We delve deeper into research, character building and the iteration of ideas.

Students will create projects exploring and interpreting different methods of storytelling: including classics, new scripts, movement and unscripted pieces. They will develop and create costume concepts that visually express their ideas clearly and communicate with collaborators.

Emphasis is placed on imagination, visualization, organization, problem solving, and growth in both rendering and presentation of work.

Students finish the class with three portfolio ready designs.

27885 (undergrad) + 28170 (grad)

Arevalo, David

M 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM; W 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Apply advanced fabric draping and patternmaking techniques to the development of custom-fitted garments for live performance. Explore garment construction through foundation layers, multiple fashion fabrics, fine hand and machine finishing techniques, and fitting on the body. Develop professional practices in project planning, sourcing, pattern development, garment organization, and collaborative fitting process.

27890 (undergrad) + 28115 (grad)

Habeck, Michelle

W 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Lighting Studio, Previz will explore pre-visualization for lighting design using Eos Augment3d, Capture, and Vectorworks Vision software. The class will prepare learners to create lighting and pre-visualized cue sequences for live performative events that include staged plays, musicals, and concert type events.

27895

Boone, David;

TTH 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM

Lighting Technology will expose the students to several lighting components utilized by the Lighting Technician (Entertainment Electrician). The class will discuss the basics of electricity and the hanging and focusing of various lighting fixtures. Students will also discuss the use of consoles, dimmers, and networks. Students will be given hands-on opportunities throughout the semester.

27900

Williams, Stephanie

MW 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM

Makeup for the Performer is an entry level course to Makeup Design. No prior experience necessary. This class gives students the opportunity to explore and expand their artistic and visual expression while gaining practical hands-on experience. This course provides training in both makeup design and application. It is a chance to explore makeup techniques and products available so as a performer you are equipped for future opportunities. We also learn to use makeup as a tool in character development. This course will also cover the importance of a cohesive concept, discussing styling of performers' hair, wig prep, application of facial hair, and the basics of the makeup design creation process. The skills learned in the course will prepare performers to use makeup as one of their many tools, as well as groundwork for those interested in diving deeper into the possibilities of careers as a performer or specifically in the Makeup industry.

27905 (undergrad) + 28120 (grad)

TBD

M 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM

27910

Serrano, Adriana

TTH 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM

Explore the role of design and how the creation and selection of sets, locations, and environments contribute to the visual language of film. Analyze fundamental elements of story, production, critical analysis, and the collaborative process of film making from the design perspective.

27915

Cloyes, Rusty

MW 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

Investigating the different types of live performance production management, including producing and presenting theater and dance, music performance, festivals and events, examining the various unions and contracts of the live performance industry, and developing professional opportunities.

27920 (undergrad) + 28160 (grad)

Maness, Karen

TTH 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM

UT students enrolled in Environmental Rendering and Scenic Art will practice painting architecture, natural environments, and finishing techniques for the entertainment industry. Students will enter this course at varying levels of skill development. Each student is expected to grow from their entry-point skill level. The analog skills learned in this course will support work in both physically constructed and digitally created narrative environments. 

Applicable careers for this training include scenic art, scenic design, art direction, production design, game design, themed attraction, concept art, and mural painting.

28995

Smith, Matthew; Evans, Kyle

TTH 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM

This course is a lecture/lab course designed to introduce students to the basic concepts, methods, and systems utilized in the fields of live entertainment and immersive artistic practices. The primary focus is to explore core technologies and illuminate how each area of work within projection, lighting, sound and interactivity relates and is connected to others. Topics include: lighting, projection, digital audio systems, recording techniques, previsualization and content creation.

29000 

Owen, Phillip

TTH 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

The goal of this skill-development course is to develop your ability to understand and execute the creative and generative sound needs of a theatrical production. This includes but is not limited to: an understanding of digital audio workstations, script analysis, designer/director collaboration, composition, sound generation, cueing and playback, corporeal awareness and psychoacoustics. This course will rotate topics, so that it may be taken more than once and the student will receive a different experience each time, but will still receive a complete class. Sound Design, an umbrella term for all things related to sound, has come into its own as a design discipline like scenic, costume, and lighting in the past two decades. It requires unique knowledge and skillsets, as well as study and practice, while drawing from a myriad of backgrounds and experiences the student may already possess. This course will provide the student with an in-depth look in the specific areas of sound creation and collaboration in a theatrical context, along with how they relate to other aspects of the production.

27923

Reynoso Calvillo, Josafath

WF 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM

Scenery Design Skills: Designing for Opera examines the demands that opera and large-scale performance place on the scenic designer, where scale, duration, and the primacy of music reshape the terms of design. 

The course begins with the operatic score as a structural document. Students develop methods for reading libretto and music together, identifying how tempo, orchestration, and vocal architecture govern the pacing of a production and the transformations a stage must accomplish, alongside the spatial requirements of singers, chorus, and orchestra.

From there the course extends into site-specific work and large-format scenery. Students investigate how found architecture, non-traditional venues, and monumental scale alter the relationship between audience and image, and how design must respond to conditions it cannot fully control.

Opera is treated throughout as a collaborative art in which the designer works alongside conductors, directors, choreographers, and the technical leadership across extended production timelines. Coursework proceeds through research, model building, and sustained critique.

27924 (undergrad) + 28124 (grad)

Reynoso Calvillo, Josafath

W 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Scenic Design Studio II advances the graduate scenic design sequence from foundational principles toward two of the discipline's most demanding problems: design in response to music, and design for narratives that inhabit many places at once. 

The first half of the course addresses musicals and dance concerts, where structure is carried by score and choreography rather than by text alone. Students develop methods for reading rhythm, tempo, and phrasing as design information, and for constructing environments that sustain sustained movement, shifting sightlines, and the spatial requirements of performing bodies.

The second half examines multiple-location scenery. Through transformation, scale, and shifting strategies, students resolve scripts whose worlds change continuously, testing how a single stage can travel between locations while preserving narrative continuity and visual coherence. 

Coursework proceeds through research, iterative model building, and sustained critique. Emphasis falls on justifying design decisions and refining them in response to collaborators and the practical conditions of production.

27935

Williams, Stephanie

F 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Unleash your creativity and take your wig artistry to the next level with our Fantasy Wig Styling course! This hands-on learning experience is designed for emerging wig artists, hairstylists, performers, creatives, and anyone looking to master the art of creating bold, imaginative, and show-stopping fantasy wigs. No pre-requisites are required. All are welcome and encouraged to create, develop, and push the boundaries of their imaginations!

Examining wigs as an art form we create and develop fantasy characters, learn how to transform a basic wig into a unique work of art using styling, shaping, construction, coloring, embellishment, and creative design techniques. From dramatic silhouettes and exaggerated shapes to intricate details and statement finishes, we explore the creative process behind building a fantasy wig from concept to completion. 

Whether you're building your portfolio, expanding your professional services, or simply want to explore your artistic side, this is a space and time where you are given the freedom to produce art and gain confidence in your skills to create one-of-a-kind fantasy wigs that make a statement. Come ready to create, experiment, and have fun!

29010

Smith, Matthew

TTH 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM

27945 (undergrad) + 28110 (grad)

Arevalo, David

TTH 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM

Explore foundational fabric dyeing and painting techniques for theatrical costume applications. Identify fiber and dye types, develop and evaluate color recipes, and apply methods for color matching, swatching, and scaling dye processes from samples to fabric yardage. Practice techniques including vat dyeing, ombré, resist dyeing, fabric painting, and heat or steam setting on natural and synthetic fibers.

27950 (undergrad) + 28165 (grad)

Buchanan, Jason

F 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Improve your skills of visual expression and communication through the act of Drawing. Develop and refine your working process from concept to completion. Experiment with various drawing media and examine the Principles and Elements of Design through conceptual and observational drawing.

28105

Barreto, Raquel

W 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Study topics in dress history through theoretical and hands-on design assignments, focusing on gender expression and socio-political trends that include culture, race, fashion and art. Explore different ways to approach period research for costume design by using three ubiquitous categories in modern Western dress: corsets, suits, and uniforms. Focus on the costume designer's role as storyteller and interpreter of period styles by offering tools to approach any script through an inquisitive, responsible, and personal lens.

27970 (undergrad) + 28045 (grad)

Candelario, Rosemary

TTH 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM

Butoh is an avant-garde movement practice first developed in Japan in the late 1950s and 1960s, that has since become global and multiply-local. This course is an introduction to butoh practices which inherently include theories and histories. Students will be introduced to butoh as a dance form and as an approach to movement experimentation through movement in the studio as well as film viewings, readings, writing, and discussion. No dance experience required, although a willingness to experiment with your body, challenge your embodied habits, and explore your body beyond and below the skin are a must. 

27980

Williams, Luke

TTH 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

This interdisciplinary undergraduate course bridges the contemporary experiences of artists and entrepreneurs, two actors who have more in common than they may think. Drawing upon historical and contemporary examples at the intersection of art and finance, this course illuminates the social significance of economic terms such as risk, return, and liquidity while applying creative methods of improvisation, iteration, and value to professional practice. The course takes an interdisciplinary approcach, investigating multiple pathways for emerging artists, investment strategies across visual, performing, and digital arts, and the nuanced intersections of nonprofit and for-profit creative sectors. Students will engage with a wide range of texts, artwork conceived broadly, and critical perspectives to analyze the ways these broad groups of economic actors solve problems and support their communities to inform how they, in turn, design their pathways forward.

27985

Beltran, Mary

MWF 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM | M 5:00 PM - 7:30 PM

28050

Chavoya, Ondine

T 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM

28054

Vasquez Toral, Enzo

T 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Examines central concepts at intersection of Indigeneity and performance, broadly defined, as loci of culture, knowledge, resistance, and artistic praxis. Discusses recent scholarly works in the fields of performance, music, literary, and theatre studies, among others, that have centered Indigeneity. Develops skills in theoretical and performance analysis through intersectional and decolonializing approaches to knowledge production and Indigenous ways of knowing.

28055

Ostrower, Francine

T 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Explore various advanced public management topics related to the development and implementation of policy within an organizational environment in the public and nonprofit sectors including the role of political and institutional actors, organization and management concepts, and human resource information issues.

28070

Vasquez Toral, Enzo

T 9:00 AM -12:00 PM

Explores the interdisciplinary method of performance ethnography as a way to study social behavior and performance and as an approach to create staged work from ethnographic material. Discusses key theories of performance ethnography using critical frames drawing from fields such as theatre, dance communication, and performance studies as well as analyzes recent ethnographic works by scholars. Develops skills in observation, jotting, field note-taking, interviewing, and ethnographic writing.

27804 (undergrad) + 28100 (grad)

Shaw, Patrick

F 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Playwriting for Youth is a practical course. First and foremost, we will be writing plays! While there are no prerequisites, participants should bring a basic understanding of structure, dialogue, plot, and spectacle. This class will blend playwriting with an attention to childhood development and play. During the semester, students will write a new full-length play intended to be experienced by youth and family audiences.

27843

Grise, Virginia

TTH 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM

This course explores how artists use live performance as a powerful tool for public intervention, civic dialogue, and social change. Through a blend of critical theory and creative practice, students will analyze historical and contemporary movements to understand how the staging of dissent can challenge and reshape cultural narratives.

28020

Sanchez, KJ

M 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Methods and Practices: Staging is an advanced practicum course for theatre directors. This course will examine techniques of staging in order to heighten dramatic action and best illustrate essential needs of the play's narrative structure.

28080

Sanchez, KJ

W 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Documentary Theatre is both a survey of contemporary documentary theatre plays and a practicum in which students learn research, interview and writing techniques so that they can write their own documentary play.

28084

Grise, Virginia

W 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM

This course explores the radical reimagining of theatrical form, memory, and the human psyche through the lens of dream-like structures, centering on the pioneering work of Adrienne Kennedy. Moving away from traditional, linear narratives, Kennedy's plays operate by the logic of nightmares, fragments, and surrealist collages to confront the intersections of race, gender, violence, and identity. In this workshop class, students will analyze how her signature stylistic hallmarks - including fractured personas, recurring historical ghosts, symbolic landscapes, and non-linear timelines - mirror the architecture of the subconscious mind. Students will engage in creative and artistic experiments, exploring how to read, write, and stage the boundless terrain of the dream. Open to artists of all disciplines - writers, directors, designers, musicians, dancers.

28025

Dawson, Kathryn

W 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM

28204

Alrutz, Megan

W 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM